Need Advice/Opinions

[ferretlover027]

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I am going to be a junior this fall and do not plan to apply to vet school until next fall, but I am finding myself in a tough spot as I register for fall classes.

Which should I choose:

1. Take bioinformatics class (and receive my biotech. certificate), but miss out on gaining vet shadow hours, I would miss approximately 150 hours of vet experience because the class is during my normal volunteer hours at the vet clinic
2. Don't take the bioinformatics class, but still graduate with a biology major and chemistry minor (but no biotech. certificate 🙁), and gain more veterinary experience hours

Basically, would the biotech. certificate be valuable at all when applying to vet school? Thank you! 😀

 

[libster06]

I am not familiar with a biotech certificate (I was an animal science major). What is the purpose of a biotech certificate? What do you gain by getting certified? Has you advisor, or any vet you may have talked to given you any advice or direction that a biotech certificate would be a good thing to have when applying?

IMO, I don't think that a biotech certificate would be all that valuable to a vet school admissions program. Since I have never heard of a biotech certification being a "selling point" of anyone's application applying to a vet school, and I know that vet hours are a *huge* part of the application deciding factors, I would have to lean in favor of getting hours over the certification. I'm not saying that a biotech certification has never been highlighted by someone on an application or that it doesn't happen, but in my experience in vet school and on SDN, I haven't seen anyone highlighting their biotech certification. If you're pitting it against getting vet experience hours, I would definitely go with the hours.

Exception: If you are applying to vet school, but also have plans of falling back on a biochem, chem or biology career that requires you to have this certification and you already have a good amount of vet school hours OR are going to be able to accumulate a good amount of hours before your app is due, I would say go ahead and go for it. But, if you are set on going to vet school, I would go for the vet experience hours.

 

[Dsmoody23]

Be hardcore.

shift your shadowing hours, or (switch to another clinic that fits your schedule) and do both.

Problem solved.

Attack!

 

[ferretlover027]

My fallback is biochemistry/biology research if vet school doesn't work out, so I want the certificate thinking it will look good on a resume? 🙄 Also my current research is highly based in both bioinformatics and biotechnology. I am sure that I would do fine in research without the class, it would just be more of a struggle (and many more hours spent in my research advisors office). But, I have very few vet experience hours, and need more. I am leaning more towards the hours at this point, unless I can find a way to do both, which would be awesome!

 

[StartingoverVet]

I would take the class just in case vet school doesn't pan out the first year applying. It's nice to have some marketable skill when looking for work.

You still have the whole summer to get hours in. work/volunteer 20-40 hours a week for 3 months instead. That should bring up your hours.

Also, look to volunteer somewhere else instead. Diversity is usually a good thing anyway.

I don't think the class will make a difference in your app, so if applying is all that matters to you now, then that is another story.

 

[Minnerbelle]

My fallback is biochemistry/biology research if vet school doesn't work out, so I want the certificate thinking it will look good on a resume? 🙄 Also my current research is highly based in both bioinformatics and biotechnology. I am sure that I would do fine in research without the class, it would just be more of a struggle (and many more hours spent in my research advisors office). But, I have very few vet experience hours, and need more. I am leaning more towards the hours at this point, unless I can find a way to do both, which would be awesome!

I'm really not all that familiar with the biotech certificate either. Is it a certificate handed out by a national or state organization, or is it an internal distinction given by your school? I'm guessing it's the latter, because I've never heard of anything bigger (outside of lab animal certifications, which actually are a big deal in the lab animal field). My advice is to figure out how valuable that certificate actually is in terms of starting the career *that you personally want to pursue* first. Think about exactly what type of job you want, and see if it would actually help in that job. In terms of vet school though, I don't think it would matter all that much at all.

Biochem/bio research is really vague, so it sounds like you'd be pretty happy with any entry level research job (unless I'm reading that wrong). If that's the case, you probably don't need it unless these certificates are a must in a specific geographical location that you absolutely need to stay in. I would personally work on your plan A goal which is vet school, and look for more experience. I know a bunch of people who went on to become research techs/associates in biochem and bio labs without any kind of biotech certificate. I applied to over a 100 research jobs, and none of them required any kind of certificate. When our lab was hiring for a new tech, we totally ignored school specific certifications on resumes, because that really didn't mean much at all in terms of the person's knowledge or abilities. Unless I'm not understanding what this certificate is, it isn't going to catapult you to be able to apply to non-entry level jobs, which really require higher degrees or years of full time experience. In terms of competition for entry-level jobs, labs generally care much more about your personality, your coursework, and lab experience, than a nebulous certificate (or honors designation, or whatever UG schools like to give their students). If anything, I think your bioinformatics experience now will give you a much greater leg up than a certificate.

The way I would look at it is how much do I want my plan A? If lab research is your plan B, and if you're a capable individual who is willing to relocate if need be, I don't think not having that certificate will be all that disadvantageous (again, unless I'm totally missing something) to finding a job. I would personally try and increase my odds of my plan A as much as I could.