Lurkers, don't be shy!

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Hi, everyone! I've been lurking for quite awhile now, but I was being a little shy and am just making my first ever post! To introduce myself, I'm 23, and I graduated last year with a bachelor's in bio. I'm doing my apps this year for the first time, and the forum really helped me in the process, especially since almost no one I know is pursuing vet med! I'm working on my supplementals now after submitting VMCAS, and I'm just glad I'm not the only "lurker" coming out of the dark at this point in the process! I'm happy to meet you all, and hope everyone's apps are going well! 🙂
 
Hello,

I have been "lurking" at the pre-vet posts for a while but I have never posted till now.😳

I am a 30 yr old female, 1st time applicant to vet school. I have applied to 4 vet schools through WICHE.

Currently biting my nails during the waiting process. :scared:
 
Hey everyone!
I've been lurking every now and then for a few months, but I've finally decided to join and post! It's definitely nice to find a place where people have the same interests as me.
I am a sophomore in college and I'm a Biology major, so I'll be applying for entry in fall 2013. I don't have that much experience yet, but I'm working on it! I volunteered this past summer at a spay-neuter clinic, and I'm currently shadowing a vet near my school who does equine as well as small animals. I am now definitely considering equine medicine as an option after working with him!
I realized my freshman year that I want to be a vet. My parents aren't exactly thrilled with the idea of me being a vet, as they've always wanted me to do human medicine, but I feel like I need to enjoy what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life 100% so veterinary medicine is the way to go for me! 🙂
 
I'm not a "long time lurker" but I've never posted here.

so, sup peeps.
 
Hey all!

Another lurker here. Discovered this site a few days before VMCAS was due and have found it an invaluable and addicting resource ever since. I'm a first time applicant, and have had to limit the amount of lurking I've been doing recently to keep my mind off all the waiting we've had to endure right now. But since things seem to be heating up, I just wanted to say a quick hey and thanks for all the great info so far! Coming from a small liberal arts college, it's been a lonely road at times, so I've really appreciated learning from all of you what to expect in the coming months : )
 
Crawling on out of my lurker shell to say hello and share in the agonizing wait with the rest of you all. Best of luck to everyone!
 
Hello, I've been lurking here for some time. I am finishing up a Masters in Forensic Science and am applying this year for c/o 2015. My ultimate goal is to go into Forensic Veterinary Medicine and work with abused animals. All of my volunteer experience centered on shelter medicine and forensic veterinary medicine. In essence the care of animals brought to the shelter/hospital by law enforcement officials. Our responsibility was both to treat the animals as well as documenting the abuse and preparing the necessary information for any potential court hearings.

Currently, I'm conducting research for my masters in animal starvation. I work with horses that have been intentionally and inhumanely starved to develop a method to determine a time-course profile of the starvation event such that it can be used in court against the perpetrator(s) through stable Carbon (13C) and Nitrogen (15N) isotope analysis in horse tail-hair. Currently, we’re able to diagnose starvation, however, it’s impossible to determine how long the animals were starved for, a question which always comes up in court.

Sadly, I forgot to mention this research in my VMCAS application, though I did mention it in my supplementals.

This forum has been a terrific source of information, though I have to admit, reading it often gives me anxiety attacks. But it's comforting to see that many others are in the same boat. This waiting period is torture.
 
Hi after months of lurking I finally joined and made my first few posts today!!

I'm a little bit of an untraditional student. I alredy have a Masters in Public Health and I'm working currently as an infectious disease Epidemiologist at the state level. I just applied in the c/o 2015 cycle and hope someday *soon* to be a Veterinary Epidemiologist. 🙂

Just wanted to say hi and good luck to all the current applicants out there! 🙂
 
Hello everyone!

I'm somewhat of a non-trad student, I'm 26 at the moment. My degree was officially in French although I got all the pre-reqs for Vet School as well (that took forever!)

I'm currently doing a teaching assistant job in France, as it seemed like the most logical time in my life to take care of the dream of living abroad without interfering with the Veterinary School dream...😀

I applied to WSU and CSU. Hopefully this forum will help make the wait easier! :laugh:
 
sirbuckie said:
Well, I suppose I should formally introduce myself to all you SDN folks! I graduated from university last March and discovered I wanted to be a vet a month after graduation.
Click to expand...

Hello I should introduce myself as well. I Became a member a few days ago 🙂

I am 20 year old female
majoring in animal science


I also did not fully decided I wanted to be a vet until the end of last year ( my 2nd year of university). I was wondering if this is a disadvantage when applying if they look at your transcripts and wonder why you switched your major and so forth. I am currently in the process of gaining more vet experience. Does owning livestock count as animal experience??


Thanks 🙂
 
I am a recent UC Davis graduate, applying for my second round. Have quite few schools in the queue, including Davis, Western, Glasgow, Washington, Kansas. I am applying under lab animal/research. Glad to have this forum for advice and updates! This whole process can be daunting (but exciting!)
 
I've only been lurking a little while, but I guess I should introduce myself as well! I'm a senior, home is in SC, but I'm in GA for my undergrad. Submitted applications this year to UGA, Miss St, Colorado St, and Oklahoma St.
 
Well, I've only been lurking for a little under a week, but this place is pretty addicting so I guess I might as well introduce my self.

I'm in my Junior year of Undergrad at UGA, getting my bachelors in biological science (originally was pre-med but eventually switched to vet).

Unfortunately due to my indecisiveness I now have little to no vet experience, but this site has been a godsend to me. Most of my friends are science majors wanting to go into "people" medicine, so it feels great to be surrounded by so many animal lovers.

I'm interested in Wildlife/Conservation Medicine, so I think next year I will be applying to Tufts, LSU, and of course UGA.

Either this place is awesome and I hope to be posting more in the future. 🙂
 
hey!

I'm an underage lurker I guess.. aha. I'm a high school senior who's absolutely positive about wanting to be a veterinarian 🙂 (as well as wanting to double major in classics) I'm waiting on my college admissions letters to start rolling in, in the next few months, and I discovered this website through some kind of magic.

It's hugely addicting. And definitely helpful to find out what I can expect for an undergraduate experience leading up to applying to vet school.

I'd appreciate absolutlely any advice, and you can definitely expect to see me on the other forums soon 🙂

Good luck to everyone!
 
I've been lurking for a couple years...mostly creeping on the accepted statistics topics...🙂

I'm a 20 year old Junior who's applying during the next cycle, and I'm starting to freak out because its crunch time! Ahhh!! Of course, its not as intense as everybody who's waiting to hear back from schools right now (best of luck to you all).

I can't wait to reply to more topics and start this application adventure. I just want to finally know if I'm going to be accepted or not. It seems like you guys are a great wealth of knowledge and a fantastic support system.

I look forward to speaking up a little more in the future. 🙂
 
Hello and thank you to the SDN community for making this site such a wonderful center of information and support. I've been reading these forums since last April regarding this year's application cycle and I have to say it was time well spent! Now that the cycle fully underway, I hope I can start contributing to the forums as well.

I've graduated from college in 2009 and have since been hurriedly experiencing veterinary experiences due to the fact that I decided on applying only shortly before the end of my college career.

Here's to us! 👍
 
I've posted a bit, but why not.

I'm a 22 year old from NC. I've read these forums on and off for a year or two, and finally decided to make an account so that I can get to know my (hopeful) future classmates. I applied to NCSU, Auburn, and UTK this cycle, and I'm hoping to get into any of them.
 
I've posted quite a bit recently but I was a lurker for awhile (heard about this website this past summer).

I'm 22 and a senior going to graduate in May. I'm from PA and I applied this cycle to Tufts, UPenn, UFL, and Oregon State.

I love the forums - they have helped me out a ton in easing my anxiety as I try not to stress out too much in my 1st application cycle 😀
 
Hey everyone!

I have been lurking for a little bit (mainly to keep me distracted from constantly refreshing my email...). I graduated in 2007 and have been working in an infectious disease lab for the past 2.5 years. I live in DC so I dont have a state school (grumble :annoyed:) ...I applied to UPenn and Tufts. Fingers crossed!!!!

It is great to finally post and meet everyone!!!

Good luck to all of you 😀
 
As a lurker of a few months (with a few posts), I decided to read a bit of this thread, get to know a few people, and finally 😳 introduce myself.

One of the first things I saw of course, was BlacKAT333's April post saying "don't make your first post the one where you got accepted!" Oops! I think that's what I did. (Just so excited!) Sorry, you're totally right BlacKAT333! This intro is waaaaaay overdue.

I'm a 29 year old non-traditional applicant, currently working in research at Children's Hospital Boston as a Flow Cytometry Core Manager. I've had my sights set on veterinary medicine for more than 2 decades but suffered from "life" during the first half of my undergraduate degree, which took me 5.5 years to complete. Not sure that I wanted to immediately plunge back in to academia, I stumbled into flow cytometry straight out of college which led me to my current job.

I find it amazing both how far I've managed to travel from my original dream, and how strongly that distance has reinforced my desire to follow that dream. I love my job, I love my coworkers, and I love the greater good that I'm working for. There's nothing like knowing your knowledge and achievements directly contribute to the health of (mostly underprivileged) children around the world.

And I love my flow cytometer, and the freedom and responsibility that come with my job, but the fact remains that I'm stuck in a cold, dry lab all day with a machine to keep me company and ever increasingly dry skin 🙄 I looked at my options a couple of years ago, and knew I had two career choices: The one that I was already involved in, that I moderately enjoyed and that could make me financially comfortable, or the one that I was passionate about, and that would probably change my life. Guess which one I chose 😀

So I went back to school a couple of years ago, taking one class at a time while working and returning to volunteering, trying desperately to raise my GPA to something resembling a competitive number. This cycle, I applied to 12 schools, determined to make an all or nothing shot of it - My husband and i do want to have children, and we'd at least like me to have my degree and hopefully a year or 2 of internship/residency before that becomes impossible. And now that I've been accepted to Massey, we almost have more questions than answers. I'm still waiting to hear from 6 schools (I have an interview at Tufts coming up too, whee!), but the fact remains that we have a 9 year old Great Dane mix and that Massey is . . . very distant and a very expensive and stressful option for him. Le sigh.

So that's me in a garrulous little nutshell, and I want to thank all the regular posters who've been so tolerant of us lurkers so far. You're postings and advice have been invaluable, and I'm eternally grateful for all the siphoned off help that I've received so far. You all rock! :bow:
 
GatorMPH said:
Hi after months of lurking I finally joined and made my first few posts today!!

I'm a little bit of an untraditional student. I alredy have a Masters in Public Health and I'm working currently as an infectious disease Epidemiologist at the state level. I just applied in the c/o 2015 cycle and hope someday *soon* to be a Veterinary Epidemiologist. 🙂

Just wanted to say hi and good luck to all the current applicants out there! 🙂
Click to expand...

YAH! Another MPHer!

I'm 22 years old and am from the great state of Texas. I got my undergrad in BIMS from A&M and will graduate with my MPH in May. This is my third application cycle (I joined SDN then and kind of forgot about it until recently).

I only applied A&M this cycle because I'm also applying to some PHD programs in Epidemiology. I'm mainly interested in Vet Epi.

Nice meeting all of y'all!
 
Hi guys! Just joined SDN and wanted to post somewhere to say hi..good thing i found this thread! i'm currently a first year student at western university for their masters in health sciences. I also applied to a couple of vet schools this year. Still waiting to hear from some of them!

glad i can get the chance to know a little bit more about you...i mean us sdn members :claps:i like the smilies
 
I've posted some threads, but never really came around to introducing myself. I am 19 years old (I feel like the baby of the SDN pre-veterinary forum lol) and I am a sophomore in college. Lived in NY my whole life. 😛 I hope to apply to vet school in the future. A lot of people seem to apply during there senior year but I might apply after I graduate in my biology major because I want to pick up my GPA. I feel as if I can spend my senior year making up courses and not worrying about applying to vet school. I have been volunteering at a animal hospital since October and hope to start volunteering at a local shelter. I am also applying for a pre-vet summer program in a Manhattan hospital (hopefully I get in). Its kinda hard to get much experience in the big city because everyone prefers experience so all I can do is volunteer, which I don't mind because I get to spend time working with animals but it would nice to get a job working with animals and getting some cash so I can help pay for college. I was so happy to find this site because I don't know anyone who would like to pursue a career in veterinary. It's nice to know that this forum brings aspiring veterinarians togther to share information and experiences.😀
 
Here goes my first post! I've been creeping on here for a few weeks now, and I'm really sad I didn't stumble upon this sooner! I am 23 and I live in Colorado. I'll be attending CSU's vet school this fall (yay class of 2015!!!). I came across this website while trying to find info about school/wasting time waiting to start school in the fall. This was my second time applying (only applied to CSU since it is my IS). I went to CSU for my undergrad and have been working at an IAQ lab during the week and a small animal hospital on the weekend.

I'm so unbelievably excited to move back up to Fort Collins and start school this fall! Any current vet students (esp. current CSU students) out there have any advice, tips, stories, warnings, etc., I want to hear EVERYTHING! Thanks!!!
 
I am new on this site and just wanted to say hello to everyone out there. It is nice to have someone understand the vet process and hear feedback of their experiences. I am a senior and getting ready to start the application process for vet school. If anyone has any advice for me... that would be great. My GPA isn't the greatest 3.3 and my GRE score is not great, 1000. I plan to retake the test in July. Wish me luck! I do have 800 vol hours.
 
I'll bite, even though I won't be active in this forum until next year.

I'm a rising high school senior in Alabama; I'll be attending Auburn for undergrad next year, more than likely. I've been working with a vet this summer, though my initial shadowing was 2.5 years ago. I'm pretty excited to get more exposure to the field!

See you guys around! :hello:
 
Hi! I've been reading this forum for a couple weeks now. I'm currently in my 3rd year of a molecular biology and biochemistry degree and applying to WCVM this fall. I have to say though, reading this forum has made me a lot more nervous in some ways! You guys all seem to have such great experiences... although I haven't seen too too many posts from people applying to WCVM....
 
I am an almost 36 year old who is starting pre-vet this fall. I have been reading here for years.

I have a bernese mountain dog and a lab and a foster dog, who is an english setter and had puppies a week ago. I also have a husband and a son and we live on my aunt's horse farm with her six dogs, six cats, and six horses (plus boarders). So animals everywhere 🙂

I love this forum. So much great information and it's nice to read all of the different opinions. I know so much about you guys, so I guess it's time you met me 🙂
 
I'm a lurker from NB, Canada. I've posted a few times but usually only if I have questions. I did my first year in sciences/business and am now switching into Pre-vet at NSAC. So hopefully I'll get accepted at AVC or U of Montréal! I'm currently working at a local animal shelter for the summer and am really enjoying the experience and learning a lot. I also volunteer during my free time in tourism and community activities 🙂
 
Welcome, everybody! 🙂
 
Howdy!
Graduated the end of last year and am hoping to enter vet school next fall! I'm very excited and it will be my first attempt but I'm starting to enter the over-analytical-constantly-debate-your-past-decisions stage of the application process.

I have tried to get as much varied experience as I can and I have a bit in nonprofit, LA, SA, and research specifically. However, experience is probably still my biggest weakness especially compared to the amount that many of you seem to have. All I can say is there are many fantastic people to learn from here!

This is such a wonderful forum. I've been lurking here for years but I hardly ever post.
 
Allow me to introduce myself. I am entering my senior year at Arizona State University and studying Health Sciences. For a while I was studying Exercise and Wellness but Health Sciences is more compatible for pre-reqs. My dad is a small animal vet but it was not until about 3 years ago that I became dead set on pursuing veterinary medicine. I'm in the process of applying to the WICHE schools (CSU, OSU, & WSU) and a few other schools that have relatively inexpensive out-of-state tuition. I'm leaning towards small animal medicine but I'm open to other options.
 
Hi
smile.gif


First off, SarBean-- you and I are two peas in a pod!

I'm 23 (24 in Sept), going on to my 6th year Super-Super Senior as an undergrad. So far behind due to a rocky start the first 2 years, a major change from Bio to CLS junior year, and the addition of an Art major last year. YIKES! At this point I'm still 2 years away from vet school (must finish year 6 and then spend a year on clinicals to finish the CLS major then technically graduate).

I've worked at the doggy daycare in town for 4.5 years and have had many other misc. part-time jobs around that-still do!

I've been in full-panic mode this summer trying to ensure I meet as many vet school requirements as I can to the best of my abilities since my GPA is not the greatest... I recently stumbled on this site and wanted to introduce myself!

Also, I am starting to blog about these last 2 years leading up to vet school- God willing it is only 2 years-and the years that follow. I hope some of you will in turn lurk on my blog and maybe introduce yourself one day as well :laugh:
http://prevetbellydancer.blogspot.com/
 
I have been nervous to post until now, but after lurking for a while I realize I am among friends! It seems like a wonderful support system.

About me: 25, almost 26 and have applied during one cycle. Accepted to Edinburgh 5-yr program this year while taking 4 pre-req courses and hoping having the grades from them now will take me further the next time around. Declined because of my misgivings on taking on more debt after an expensive undergrad and through the advice of a LA mentor that explained I would never make enough to justify the expense (that might be going a bit far . . but it was a good reality check ). Also redid my GRE's this summer and increased my score by 150 so I am crossing my fingers for this cycle.

I always wanted to be a vet like most of you but became a huge jock and varsity sports took over my life and once I realized I was never going to "make it" as a professional I had to soul-search and figure out what my next path would be. So here I am. Along the way I have picked up some awesome experience and after a master's that failed to fulfill my desires I am more convinced than ever that this is right for me. However, through my experience I have also picked up a love for research and am hoping to begin a DVM/PhD program with a focus in aquatics.

Anyway, that's about it! Can't wait to see how everyone does this cycle 🙂
 
Now that I've started posting a little but instead of just lurking, I suppose I should introduce myself...

I'm a few months shy of 24. Grew up in rural NJ (no, not all of NJ is NYC's dumping ground) with horses, dogs, cats, assorted farm birds and assorted pocket pets. Dad is a vet -- was LA, now owns a SA hospital. I've wanted to be a vet basically since I could say "vet." Undergrad at Cornell University (go big red!) as an Animal Science major. Graduated May 2009. Moved to Long Island, NY for residence purposes and enrolled in Hofstra University for grad school (finishing my thesis ASAP). Been through 2 application cycles with increasingly positive results -- cycle 1: applied to 9 schools, no interviews; cycle 2: applied to 15 schools, 3 interviews, resulted in 1 spot on a waitlist. Interviewed with Ross 2+ weeks ago, originally for a spot in the Sept. class but now for a spot in the Jan. class (Sept. class is full). After a long conversation with the parents, I've decided to go through a 3rd application cycle, deferring Ross til May if I get accepted.

I've been lurking around here since the winter and I'm so glad I found SDN. The amount of knowledge and support in these forums is amazing. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm for me!
 
I would consider myself a lurker with a post every now and then. 😀

I am a non-trad student who graduated from undergrad in 2003 with an ok GPA and a BA in photography/graphic design from the University of Michigan. My original intent was to go pre-vet, but I started in the School of Natural Resources studying tree leaves and hated it, so transferred to the School of Art. And that is how the story goes... After undergrad I did some random jobs for awhile realizing I really wasn't happy and wanted to go back to school for veterinary med, but thought it was too late at that point. I considered nursing for a short while and even took some science pre-reqs for it, but in the end decided working on humans was not my cup of tea.

After completing an Ironman triathlon in 2009 I realized that nothing was impossible with hardwork and dedication and decided to pursue vet med fully. My parents thought I was crazy as I was too old to have a career change and with so many pre-reqs to take I could spend all the money taking them and never get in. They told me I had missed my chance, but I did not listen.

I switched jobs back into the vet field as a vet tech in a critical care hospital, so I could work full time 4 days a week and take classes. Thankfully I had a lot of animal/vet experience over the years having worked in various vet clinics, humane societies, animal rescues, and volunteered in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. So I did not need to catch up on too much of that.

This post is longer than expected :laugh: anyhow, I am 29 turning 30 in August- yikes! and I am headed to UCD in Ireland this Fall!!!! I wanted to become a vet when I grew up back in grade school and I lost my way at some point, but I am glad I am finally back on the right path towards my goal!
 
I've posted a couple times, but am still quite lurky. I'm applying this cycle for the first time. I'll be a fourth-year Animal Science major at Cal Poly, grew up in central California, and hope to go into large animal/food animal medicine. I've always kind of known I wanted to be a vet, but it was only a few years ago I realized I wanted to do large animals. College and my experiences here have definitely cemented those feelings and I look forward to hearing everyone else's experiences!
 
Hey everyone, I've been lurking for a little while and decided to finally post! I'm about to start my freshman year of undergrad at the University of Minnesota-TC. I haven't always known that I wanted to be a vet, but after shadowing around five or six vets in the last year I realized that it was for me. I'm nervous about not having tons of experience like a lot of the people on here who have thousands of hours already 😱 when I have yet to reach 100 hours. Anyways, I'm looking forward to chatting with everyone, you all seem really nice!
 
Hi everyone, I've probably been lurking around SDN for the last year or so. I love how helpful everyone is. So I've decided to introduce myself.

I'm 22, originally from West Texas, just graduated with a BS in Animal Science in May. As of right now, I'm interested in small animal mixed medicine. Including: cats, dogs, avian, reptiles, small mammals, etc. I also have an interest in large animal medicine. But I'm leaving my options open since I'll probably change my mind 20495 times during Vet School. This is my first time applying, so i'm really anxious, nervous, and excited at the same time. Hoping for the best and hoping everyone hears good news when interview and acceptance time rolls around.

Good luck everyone!
 
Hey all!
I've posted a few tidbits here and there, but no official intro yet. After "testing the waters" to see how much I tune into the site, I've found myself knee deep in all of the great advice and support here! I'm a non-trad, 26 almost 27, living in North Carolina. I'm married to a Marine, so our life together has certainly made my path to vet school a little longer than some, but I've finally made it here...always knew I would one way or another. He will be re-stationed in Virginia come January, so I will become in-state at VM which will certainly help the budget!

I love reading everyone's different stories about how we arrive at the same realization, that vet school is pretty much our one and only choice. I've been asked so many times, "What's your backup plan?" (I applied 2 cycles) and truthfully, there was no backup plan!!! I could never see myself doing anything else, as I know most everyone here agrees!

Everyone seems so positive and I love to see it! I think we are a unique bunch that really sticks together. So, with all of that randomness said, hi!
 
Hello Everyone,

My name is Stephanie from Oakland TN. I joined a few days ago. After many years of doubt I finally have to get over my fear of failure and go for it. Life is too short.
I'm currently a 37 year old Junior at the University of Memphis. After being in the corporate world for over 15+ years I've decided to get out of the madness and pursue my life long passion to become a vet. I have a long road ahead of me, but it will be worth it in the end.
Good luck to everyone and thank you for being an inspiration to me🙂
 
GirlGeek said:
I am an almost 36 year old who is starting pre-vet this fall. I have been reading here for years.
Click to expand...

Welcome! Nice to meet other non-traditional pre-vet students. I started my prerequisite classes last fall, and I'm hoping to apply for vet school next fall!

Good luck to you! Everyone here is very helpful and supportive! 🙂
 
hottchoclat said:
I've decided to get out of the madness and pursue my life long passion to become a vet. I have a long road ahead of me, but it will be worth it in the end.
Click to expand...


Kudos to you! I'm in the same boat! 🙂

Nothing worth having is ever easy and I'm finally ready for the fight!
 
Greetings, SDN pre-veterinary crowd:

I've been a lurker on this forum for several months now. Figured it was about time for me to introduce myself and author my first post.

Although I originally had aspirations to attend veterinary school from the time I was little, I changed direction and instead opted for a career in basic research following graduation from my undergraduate studies. I've been involved professionally with animal research (I'm a comparative physiologist) for 12 years, and am more determined than ever to apply to veterinary school- not this cycle, but in 2012 for 2013 matriculation. I'm currently employed as a research associate in academia working on rodent models of cardiac hypertrophy. In the past, I've worked with species as diverse as horses, fish, reptiles, sheep, goats, deer, and many others. Laboratory animal medicine is indeed the ultimate mixed animal practice. I'm dead set on wanting to specialize in laboratory animal medicine, as I've seen first hand what a difference these kind and compassionate souls make in the lives of laboratory species (all creatures, great and small), throughout the world. They are truly dedicated professionals that care as much for the animals under their charge as the private practitioner to whom you bring your family pet. My mentors in this field have inspired me, and it's this direction that I now hope to take my career.

For all of you 'non-trads' in your 20s who think you're old....I just laugh 🙂 I'm currently 32, and will be 33 the year I apply. That will make me 34 when I matriculate, 38 when I graduate, and 41 by the time I complete my residency. Although I've followed a long and winding road to arrive at the vet school admissions process, I don't regret one decision I've made in my past with respect to my career. All have been learning experiences (some of them, very hard won), and have shaped me into the person I am today. When I was in my 20s, I don't think that I could have answered the question 'why do you want to be a vet?' convincingly- now I can answer that question with conviction.

I wish all of you success with your applications this year, and look forward to cheering you on as the VMCAS submission deadline draws closer. Best of success, class of 2016. I'll be rooting for you!
 
Lab Vet said:
Laboratory animal medicine is indeed the ultimate mixed animal practice. I'm dead set on wanting to specialize in laboratory animal medicine, as I've seen first hand what a difference these kind and compassionate souls make in the lives of laboratory species (all creatures, great and small), throughout the world. They are truly dedicated professionals that care as much for the animals under their charge as the private practitioner to whom you bring your family pet. My mentors in this field have inspired me, and it's this direction that I now hope to take my career.
Click to expand...

It's always nice to see fellow lab animal people here, since there are so few of us! I'm also planning on specializing in lab animal medicine and am currently doing an internship at UCLA. I want to second everything you've said, working closely with the techs and vets this summer has made it even more clear to me that the people who work with these animals love them and take amazing care of them. Welcome!!
 
Thanks for your warm welcome, jjohnston!

I'm glad that you're enjoying your internship at UCLA! With which species are you currently working? I'm sure that UCLA has a gigantic animal care and use program, given the scope of the research that occurs at the institution. I'm very familiar with the UC system- completed my graduate work at UC Irvine 🙂 I definitely spent some quality time up in LA during my California years.

How has your experience been at Davis? I hear that it's a fantastic school. Davis is one of the four veterinary schools to which I intend to apply next year. My chances of acceptance are slim to nill given my out of state residency (I'm currently a resident of Utah), but I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring all the same. Never hurts to try. And....SOMEBODY has to get one of those single digit out of state slots 😉

Speaking of Davis, what are the opportunities to get involved with lab animal medicine during your vet school years? As you mentioned, this isn't a traditional path for folks to enter, so I'm curious as to any experience in this realm open to veterinary students during their training years.

Great to make contact with you! Hope to see you here on SDN in the future.
 
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Soon to be first time applicant
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applepie002233
A
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