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- Jun 16, 2011
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Hi there, I'm new here 
So glad to have stumbled upon this forum, have been lurking for awhile actually (think... a year, maybe two...) on and off, finally decided to create an account. I'm entering my junior year of college, so two years left.
After reading all the experience threads, and research threads (ok, I use reading loosely... I rarely read everything, mostly just skim), it got me thinking...
I am the teaching assistant for my university's Zoology course (freshman level course), I've got one semester of this under my belt and I surprised myself by actually kind of enjoying it, with the exception of grading the quizzes and practicals. I mostly did it as a way to get WAAAAAY out of my comfort zone (I'm not a people person. And I'll fully admit - at the end of the semester, I still only knew two of my students names. I don't know why this is; I work at a kennel and I can remember almost every dog's name that we have boarding that day
). I prep for (getting out specimens, etc, creating quizzes and practicals), teach, and grade, everything for my labs.
So I guess my question is: Will experience like this look good, or even matter, when I apply? Am I just wasting my time? I mean, it's a whole lot of time and not a whole lot of pay, and I don't exactly have a lot of veterinary experience hours under my belt (shadowing counts as experience hours, right? You don't have to actually work for the vet?). I also just emailed my Microbiology professor about a TA job she just advertised for, since I enjoyed Microbiology a lot, but that will cut into the time I would have to shadow even more. Her assistant job is just wanting someone to do prep for the labs, not actually teach them, thankfully. That gives me a little more flexibility.
I guess it does give me a few good letters of recommendation, being close to these professors (the zoology prof I TA for is also the head of the Biology department). But that's not really worth anything if I never jump in and start getting some veterinary experience (I know, I KNOW, I'm way way way behind the game on this. I'm going to have to figure it out and spend every spare minute trying to get this experience from now until the time I apply). Animal experience I feel fairly secure on - I've worked at three different equestrian summer camps, volunteered at a therapeutic riding center for so long they finally started introducing me as "This is _______, she's been here forever," and worked at a kennel (30-40+ hours a week) seasonally (this job is near my home, every break my boss calls me up and asks if I want to work, it's great) for a year now and I'll continue working as many summers/winters/spring breaks/thanksgiving breaks as she wants me to, since it's so nice to have a sure job when I come home. I'll have to figure out how many hours all this really adds up to, but I feel pretty good about it.
So glad to have stumbled upon this forum, have been lurking for awhile actually (think... a year, maybe two...) on and off, finally decided to create an account. I'm entering my junior year of college, so two years left.
After reading all the experience threads, and research threads (ok, I use reading loosely... I rarely read everything, mostly just skim), it got me thinking...
I am the teaching assistant for my university's Zoology course (freshman level course), I've got one semester of this under my belt and I surprised myself by actually kind of enjoying it, with the exception of grading the quizzes and practicals. I mostly did it as a way to get WAAAAAY out of my comfort zone (I'm not a people person. And I'll fully admit - at the end of the semester, I still only knew two of my students names. I don't know why this is; I work at a kennel and I can remember almost every dog's name that we have boarding that day
). I prep for (getting out specimens, etc, creating quizzes and practicals), teach, and grade, everything for my labs.So I guess my question is: Will experience like this look good, or even matter, when I apply? Am I just wasting my time? I mean, it's a whole lot of time and not a whole lot of pay, and I don't exactly have a lot of veterinary experience hours under my belt (shadowing counts as experience hours, right? You don't have to actually work for the vet?). I also just emailed my Microbiology professor about a TA job she just advertised for, since I enjoyed Microbiology a lot, but that will cut into the time I would have to shadow even more. Her assistant job is just wanting someone to do prep for the labs, not actually teach them, thankfully. That gives me a little more flexibility.
I guess it does give me a few good letters of recommendation, being close to these professors (the zoology prof I TA for is also the head of the Biology department). But that's not really worth anything if I never jump in and start getting some veterinary experience (I know, I KNOW, I'm way way way behind the game on this. I'm going to have to figure it out and spend every spare minute trying to get this experience from now until the time I apply). Animal experience I feel fairly secure on - I've worked at three different equestrian summer camps, volunteered at a therapeutic riding center for so long they finally started introducing me as "This is _______, she's been here forever," and worked at a kennel (30-40+ hours a week) seasonally (this job is near my home, every break my boss calls me up and asks if I want to work, it's great) for a year now and I'll continue working as many summers/winters/spring breaks/thanksgiving breaks as she wants me to, since it's so nice to have a sure job when I come home. I'll have to figure out how many hours all this really adds up to, but I feel pretty good about it.
