Interview- tours? shoes?

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BlacKAT33

UPenn c/o 2014!! :)
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I was wondering which schools give tours of the facility when you go for an interview. Do all of them? I know a lot of info. about the interview itself (hot vs. cold) but I'm really curious about how the whole day is planned out besides the interview.

Also, I was wondering what type of shoes girls are planning on wearing. I'm not interested in the top fashion, but about comfortable shoes with low or no heel. I plan to spend a decent amount of money on them ~80-100$ because I want something extremely comfortable that will last a long time. Then I realized it will probably be super cold since interviews are in Jan-Feb, and some states may have a lot of snow :confused:. What type of shoe are you guys planning on wearing and is a formal boot (not Uggs or knee high, but a sophisticated boot ankle high) inappropriate?

Thanks! :D

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Vet Med definitely is a woman's world - here we are talking about shoes! :laugh:

I don't know a lot about how other schools do things, but OSU makes a whole day of it with tour, lunch and info session before the interviews. I think last year I just brought two pairs, one for walking and one for lookin' good!
 
i know this may sound ridiculous, but i'm a LA person sooo lol the most comfortable shoes i own are a pair of Justin boots. (they don't look like cowboy boots) i have a pair that i wear on farm calls and a pair that i wear for nice occassions...they look like dress shoes and are super comfy. so if this thread turns into a "what kind of shoes can i wear on LA farm calls that are comfy and cute" i covered that base as well. that's my recommendation. :D
 
You know, this is like, my 4th application cycle being around here (3rd really paying a lot of attention), and I am pretty sure that each time there have been multiple threads about shoes. :laugh:
 
Western, Tufts, Iowa and Ohio do tours at their interviews if you stick around...

Definitely don't get heels unless you're comfortable walking around outside in them for long periods of time (or possibly in the snow!).
 
thanks for your help everyone!! i know shoes seems like a silly topic but for some reason i found myself worrying about this lol especially with the cold weather!

My IS school is VMRCVM, if anyone knows about tours there let me know, thanks!!
 
i feel like the type of boots you were mentioning would be fine. I mean under a suit pant you would just think it was a regular heel anyway. Plus, those boots have a lot more support and comfort

Purdue does a campus tour, but i think it's by bus. The facility tour isn't horribly long or a lot of walking so you would be fine for that in any shoe. Western did a tour as well but it's a small campus so no worries on getting blisters or anything
 
I own four pairs of shoes, so I guess I'll be doing shopping before my interviews too... I've got Crocs (yes, and I love them!), sneakers, paddock boots, and a pair of sheepskin mocassin type things for the winter. Five pairs if you count my tall boots.

If there's snow, I'll definitely be going for safety over fashion--I've had reconstructive knee surgery and can't afford to fall on the ice just because I decided to "look pretty."
Either way, I'll be in flats over heels-- no reason for me to make a fool out of myself even if there is no snow!
 
Last year I did interviews in two very cold places (Illinois and Tufts) and I brought a pair of flat, comfy boots that I wore on the tours. I tucked the bottom of my suit pants into them. For Tufts, the walk up to the school from the train station was quite treacherous so I added little traction pads to the bottom of the boots, I came close to falling on the ice a couple times but managed not to! For the actual interview I bought a pair of nice, low, black heels. They were about $80 and they were actually pretty comfortable. I am not a heel-wearing kind of person usually so I practiced walking in them before my interview and managed to accomplish my goal of not falling into the interview room!
 
Both places I interviewed (WSU--which was very cold-- and Oregon State) had tours of the vet school, but not campus tours. I wore low to mid heels with my suit, and at WSU had time to change between the various events of the day (tour, interview, pizza mixer), so I wore comfortable flats for the tour/mixer.
 
Been here for three years and every year we have this same discussion. Serves to remind me of how few guys there are here. No "what tie should I wear?" threads, but then, I don't think we care enough about what tie we wear nor have to worry about how comfortable it is vs how 'cute' it is :D

It's good to be male. :cool:
 
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I own four pairs of shoes, so I guess I'll be doing shopping before my interviews too...

me too!!! I have a pair of flip flops that are getting very flimsy (can't wear those much longer up here in Boston), a pair of sneakers that are getting a tad bit stinky from getting wet over and over, a pair of holey sneakers that are like 3 years old..., and what used to be a nice pair of cole haan pumps that i wear at work that's also getting holey...

i rock...
 
I would have more shoes, but my two pairs of Danskos have spoiled me and I'm holding out for another pair of those, no matter how ugly they are. :D

My interview suit is black, and my shoes are brown... looks like I'll need new shoes. But I won't be needing a tour (lol) so I can wear uncomfortable shoes from Payless.

Speaking of ... clothes... I have a suit to fit a very small person. It's from Ann Taylor and it's very nice, but I have... expanded... so it does not fit. The coat is a 00 petite and it still fits fine, so if you have something up top but not too much, that's good. The pants are... either 2 or 4 petite, but they fit me lengthwise and I'm 5'7" or so. If anyone here is interested, I really don't know what to do with it... PM me and I can send pics, more details... maybe if you tried on an Ann Taylor suit in a similar size?

Jeez, that got long. Oh, and it's tan. :)
 
I would have more shoes, but my two pairs of Danskos have spoiled me and I'm holding out for another pair of those, no matter how ugly they are. :D

How DARE YOU!!!:eek: Danskos are not ugly, they are just fashionably disinclined....My danskos are now rebelling and marching themselves right out the door.:(

They are quite slippery, so I will probably buy something else but I'm not sure. I'm not too worried about cold because here in the good ol' Alaskan wilderness I wear sandals outside in winter and am good to go.

I want to wear a skirt suit (long past the knees of course) instead of a pant suit, so danskos would look terrible with a skirt. I like weird shoes so whoever I interview with will just have to keep an open mind.
 
When danskos first came out and I was one of the first people I knew with them, I almost broke my ankles like 20 times before I shoved them in a closet, never to be seen again.

I'm obsessed with shoes and an interview would be the perfect excuse for me to buy a cute pair of pointy toed boots! I dread buying a suit though.
 
I agree that gravel and inclines can be tough, but walking around on tile floors has never presented a problem... *shrug* if they're a size 38, I'll take them. :D
 
thanks for your help everyone!! i know shoes seems like a silly topic but for some reason i found myself worrying about this lol especially with the cold weather!

My IS school is VMRCVM, if anyone knows about tours there let me know, thanks!!

At VMRCVM when I interviewed (in winter 2008) the tour was just of the inside of their main building. It was about an hour of walking and standing and I noticed LOADS of girls wearing very hard to walk in tall tall stiletto high heels. Seemed silly to me, and they kinda looked like their feet were hurting. But there wasn't any reason not to wear those shoes if you're comfortable walking and standing in them for a good bit of time.

I personally wore ankle boots with a moderate (2-3") square heel. Even then after a full day of walking (at some schools, not VMRCVM, though) my feet were tired. But I never felt in danger of biting it and falling on my butt and my feet lasted through all the walking and standing.
 
I wore patent ballet flats (Sort of like these in the bottom left corner, but cuter! http://www.sharplily.com/wp-content/021707_flats.jpg ) -- you don't have to wear heels if you don't want to. At Minnesota, we didn't do much walking around outside--they drove us up to the equine center, and on the day of the interview, we walked through a bit of snow between buildings. I wore a pants suit.

I interviewed at Penn on Equine day, and they specifically told us to wear more casual clothing. There were folks there in Danskos, paddock boots, etc. I wore my ballet flats b/c they're comfy and there wasn't snow on the ground. We did a lot of walking outdoors on that day because we were out at New Bolton. I wore a cotton sweater over a button down, with my suit pants.

I wore the same shoes w/ a skirt suit at Miss St. I thought I should be a wee bit more conservative down there (and wear a skirt) because a. it's the south and b. they have a dress code. :) There were definitely folks in pants suits though, so I don't think it makes a difference.
 
At VMRCVM when I interviewed (in winter 2008) the tour was just of the inside of their main building. It was about an hour of walking and standing and I noticed LOADS of girls wearing very hard to walk in tall tall stiletto high heels. Seemed silly to me, and they kinda looked like their feet were hurting. But there wasn't any reason not to wear those shoes if you're comfortable walking and standing in them for a good bit of time.

I personally wore ankle boots with a moderate (2-3") square heel. Even then after a full day of walking (at some schools, not VMRCVM, though) my feet were tired. But I never felt in danger of biting it and falling on my butt and my feet lasted through all the walking and standing.


Thanks for the info!! I was also thinking ankle boots might be good because I have a skirt suit and it just seemed silly to wear a skirt AND little ballerina type shoes if it is super cold. Maybe something like this http://www.neimanmarcus.com/products/mt/NMX0C49_mt.jpg with a wider heel to keep me balanced since im uncoordinated lol
 
Been here for three years and every year we have this same discussion. Serves to remind me of how few guys there are here. No "what tie should I wear?" threads, but then, I don't think we care enough about what tie we wear nor have to worry about how comfortable it is vs how 'cute' it is :D

It's good to be male. :cool:


Our pre-med/vet advisor tells all of the guys to let their girlfriend or mom pick their suit/shirt/tie out haha. It sounds hilarious but I know my bf DEF needs help in that department and I would pick an amazing combination out for him :D
 
*cough*

Uh, my ex-gf may or may not have picked out my suit and my sister picked out my tie.

I did have a say in the shirt though! And the tie clasp...
 
Thanks for the info!! I was also thinking ankle boots might be good because I have a skirt suit and it just seemed silly to wear a skirt AND little ballerina type shoes if it is super cold. Maybe something like this http://www.neimanmarcus.com/products/mt/NMX0C49_mt.jpg with a wider heel to keep me balanced since im uncoordinated lol

I think those boots would be more appropriate to wear with a pants suit. I think with a skirt you should probably rock a more "traditional" type of shoes, but that's JMHO. They make heels with a little kitten heel that looks a bit more traditional than flats AND is more comfortable than super tall heels. You can always bring an extra pair of shoes for the tour, anyway. :)
 
My IS school is VMRCVM, if anyone knows about tours there let me know, thanks!!

I know they are doing it differently this year because of the new multiple mini-interview system so the interviews are being held at the Virginia Tech Career Services building instead of at the vet school. I think everyone will still meet up at the vet school then get vanned over to career services for interviews and come back to the vet school for a reception or something afterwards... So I don't know if they're having a tour or not. They do have tours at the open house in the spring.

On another note, the career building is very close to my dorm. If I have to see all the potential vet students walking in for interviews and I didn't get one--I'll probably start crying!
 
On another note, the career building is very close to my dorm. If I have to see all the potential vet students walking in for interviews and I didn't get one--I'll probably start crying!


You mean you'll see another student crying through the window as they watch you walking in for an interview!! :D
 
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