Misc. Application Questions

[LightReaver]

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Hey guys. I have some questions that might sound a bit stupid, but I need your input.

I noticed a lot of the applicants that were accepted the last go-around had thousands and thousands of hours of vet and animal experience. I understand that they don't represent everyone admitted to vet school, but it got me worried. It was only during my sophomore year that I realized I wanted to do vet med, so I have ~2400 hours at a small animal clinic, 170 hours volunteering at a zoo hospital, and about 22 hours shadowing various equine and other small animal vets.

This brings me to the animal experience. As far as I know, I don't have nearly the amount of animal exp. as some people I've seen on these forums post. Where I work, I am usually (nowadays) not technically supervised by the vet with everything I do because I am a technician now (was a kennel/technician's assistant). Although what I'm doing is medical in nature, should this still be included with the vet exp., or since I don't have a vet over my shoulder for everything, is it animal exp.? Also, should I forgo putting thousands of hours of animal exp. bc I'm a pet owner? :/ Sounds a bit desperate (for lack of a better word) imo. I don't know...

Another thing concerns the research with which I help grad students and professors. I volunteer at the Herp museum we have on campus, but it usually involves deceased amphibians and reptiles., which I help catalogue, tag, and take tissue samples of (I know, preposition at the end of a sentence ). They have never really had me help with live animals. I am under the assumption that animal exp. is LIVE animals. lol.

Lastly, as far as listing awards and achievements, do they expect you to list things from high school as well? I have a good list of things from high school, but, again, am not sure if that seems desperate...or if it's perfectly fine.

THANKS!

 

[Pomona2006]

I think vet experience is more imperative than animal experience overall. Don't try to inflate your hours by putting in ownership unless it is unique in some way. I included ownership because I've only owned exotics since I was young and as a non-trad I wanted to demonstrate that this decision didn't come out of left field.

It doesn't sound like you are lacking in any way on the vet experience front. Not everyone has thousands of hours. (I for one only had 600 hours of vet experience at application.) As for determining whether your work as a kennel ass't or tech should be animal or vet...I know some people on here have split it up if they felt uncomfortable counting it all as "vet" experience. If you were to split it, I would suggest that you classify your tech work as vet experience and your kennel work as animal experience.

As for whether working with "dead" animals qualifies as animal experience...I'm afraid I don't know what to say. I might so go for it, but make sure you write in the description that you were dealing with dead animals.

And yes - include stuff from high school - as long as it is mildly important / indicative of who you are and/or your involvement in the school / community.

 

[DreamDVM]

Well, from my perspective, ~2600 hours total counts as 1000's of hours 🙂 I'll be lucky if I break 1000 before I apply. I'd definitely include the work you've done with the dead animals, but maybe not under animal experience per se.

I'm not sure about pets. I've had them my whole life, and I'm not counting them. Might be a good thing to tuck into your personal statement though.

Also, I definitely think being a tech counts as vet hours. I don't think its necessary to have a vet in your presence at every moment. The point is that you are familiar with veterinary medicine and how it is practiced -- as a tech, of course, this is a given -- and that you have a veterinarian who serves as a mentor. I've cleaned a lot of poop and I'm going to count every minute... and I promise you no vet was watching me do it 😉

LeAnne

dreamdvm.blogspot.com

 

[twelvetigers]

The dead animal question sounds like a good one to contact VMCAS or the schools your applying to directly about! Half of me says yes, and the other half says no.

I'll have ~1400 hours vet experience. I think you're doing just fine. 🙂

 

[Trilt]

I would classify doing a necropsy with a vet as veterinary experience, so I would say working with newly dead animals would definitely be animal experience. They don't stop being animals because they don't have a heartbeat, imho.

 

[Angelo84]

As far as splitting the experience within a vet clinic into animal and vet I think it depends on the experience. Where I worked we were all cross trained so in a given day I was working in the kennel, answering phones, assisting in exam rooms, and monitoring in surgery. It would have been impossible to seperate it out so I counted it all as vet experience. If when you were a kennel kid your responsibities were no different they they would have been if you were working at a boarding kennel I would list it as animal expereince. But I would think that you likely were doing additional things such as setting up fecals, restraining in exams rooms during this time in which case I would count it all as vet experience.

For the research stuff I would look at who you were doing it under if a phd or vet it goes in "vet experience" otherwise I would put it in animal.

Hope that helps!

 

[twelvetigers]

I would classify doing a necropsy with a vet as veterinary experience, so I would say working with newly dead animals would definitely be animal experience. They don't stop being animals because they don't have a heartbeat, imho.

I agree, but classifying dead lizards in jars is a bit different from necropsies. So, I think it's best to ask - just to be sure.

 

[shelterURIgirl]

I assisted with animal necropsies, and hell yeah those count. Was the necropsy under the supervision of a vet? If not, then I don't think it counts as vet experience but heck yeah, it definitely counts as animal experience!

And for example, I owned/rode horses for many years of my life, but I didn't count those years as "animal experience". I did, however, spend time working with a professional animal trainer on two abused horses, so I did count that. Also, I worked on a horse/daycamp ranch during a summer so I counted that "animal experience" as well. However, my boss was not a vet so it wasn't "vet experience".

For the kennel job, was this at a vet hospital? Did you work for a vet? If yes, then it doesn't matter if you cleaned poo all day. Its vet experience. However, if you worked for a boarding kennel that had a vet on call for emergencies only, then I wouldn't count that as vet experience over animal experience.

Regardless, anything over 1000 hours kicks ass. And the necropsy/lizard thing is cool, definitely include that! Good luck!!

 

[spikey]

When I applied, I'm pretty sure I included my pet ownership in experience (but lower down on the list), since my experiences with them did help me gain insight in the profession. I delt with a guinea pig with an injured spine, for example. And I also included my horseback riding/camps, as those many years I put in where a lot of my large animal experience.

What I think really makes or breaks these hours and experience listings is the description that you give them. If you can list something that you did (briefly) and what you learned from it (which is the major point of listing some of these things), then I think its worthwhile to go ahead and put them down. Show that you can see the bigger picture in what you are doing and how it helped shape who you are and who you can be as a veterinarian.

Good luck! 🙂

 

[sumstorm]

I only included pets in animal experience if it was outside the realm or normal pet care.

I included taxidermy for my college's natural history collection as animal. I know quite a bit about skinning animals, preparing bones, etc thanks to that. Remember, first year in many vet schools involve a LOT of work on cadavers. Our anat instructor said that they do have a few students each year that are really upset by that.

Don't put anything in that wasn't valuable for you. If it wasn't worth it to you, it will seem like padding hours. Sounds like you have plenty of experience anyways! Also, you do not have to be under DIRECT supervision to count as vet experience. Just under the general supervision, which can include indirect supervision.

 

[LightReaver]

Thanks for all of yall's input! I'm going to include that work with animal experience and just explain how it has helped me learn about different types of animals (anatomy, etc.) and research institutions centered on them. I guess I will include high school stuff, too. How are yall's apps coming along?

Also, what is the average number of vet schools to which most people apply? I recently decided to apply to 5 instead of 4. I ask because I was talking to a recent grad from vet school, and she seemed completely shocked that I would only apply to 4 schools. 😕

 

[twelvetigers]

I'm only applying to one...

Really, the magic number is different for everyone. Apply wherever you...

A: ...can afford (to apply, AND to attend school... some places are pretty pricey)
B: ...know there is a program that you would be interested in (one that includes your areas of interest to some degree)
C: ...can honestly see yourself living and enjoying for four years
D: ...would attend without question if it were the ONLY place you were accepted

If there are 10 places that fit within all this criteria, go ahead and apply to 10. Just be prepared to reason with interviewers about why you chose to apply to so many, and why THEIR school is the best and therefore your #1 choice. 😉

Personally, I think 4-5 is very reasonable, and probably would be around the 'average' number of schools applied to by persons on this forum.

 

[InanOven]

I absolutely did include pet ownership as animal experience. I didn't include all my parents pets since i was a todler or anything but the animals i owned and had sole responsibility to care for were included. i certainly wouldn't want ad com to think i had never owned an animal if i couldn't work it into my personal statement . . . i think it's very relevant too, there are things ownership teaches you that no amount of vet experience can.

Also, re: herp cataloging, i included small mammal taxodermy as animal experience. I also took tissue samples for phylogenetic analysis. did you have to id them to catalog them? If so i think that counts- if it was more like just filing bio specimens thats grey - but the tissue samples count for sure. at least include those hours.