New Member-- Need Advice for After Pre-Vet B.S.

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cassarassasass

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Long post alert*****

Hello everyone,

I'm a Junior here at my university, pursuing my B.S. in pre-vet and, of course, hoping to go on into vet school. Due to very very rough life circumstances and a school transfer, I have kicked myself back a few notches. Currently I'm definitely planning to retake at least 2 classes -> both where I received a D, and one being a gen-ed, as well as possibly trying to fix a C in another gen-ed, but I'm not sure if that's allowed. Plus Ochem is surely kicking my butt and I'm very certain I'll end up retaking that too. On top of that, I'm behind in some of my courses, due to how weirdly my credits had transferred, and unfortunately I had no choice BUT to transfer.

School and working as a commuter student has had its hand around my neck for a while, so I no longer had time to gain extra experience in animal science, however I do have around 600 hours of shadowing at a local veterinary clinic as well as 100-ish hours volunteering at a wild life rehab center/education center all the way back from high school. I do plan on stacking on some experience these upcoming summers.

So, my downfalls and fears are that I am behind on classes and I don't think I can do all the Vet school requirements before I graduate without layering them on each other which will inevitably overwhelm me and set me up for failure. Along with this I don't have nearly as much time working with animals that I should. Obviously I won't get in on my first try, and probably not even on my second or third, but I'm still determined to pursue this no matter what life had thrown at me previously.

I love what I'm learning and I love the moments where I do get to do the hands on work, it's just now I'm so dedicated to working to pay for my commute and studying in a cubicle for hours, I lose sight and I feel I'm behind no matter what I do, if that makes sense.

I guess after this little backstory, my biggest question is what can I do once I graduate with my B.S.? I know I won't get into vet school but I want to continue to be up to my neck in what I love and improve myself and eventually move on to actually being in vet school. How can I allow some time "off" but still improve and move forward?

Thank you for reading

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You can look into getting a job at an animal hospital or as a tech for a research company depending on where you live. That way you can get experience while making some money to retake classes and start saving some money for the application process. After I graduated with my bs I worked as a vet tech in a small animal hospital for a while and then got a job working in research which led to some cool experiences with primates. And having the extra money saved up and available for applications/the gre etc has been really helpful.
 
Long post alert*****

Hello everyone,

I'm a Junior here at my university, pursuing my B.S. in pre-vet and, of course, hoping to go on into vet school. Due to very very rough life circumstances and a school transfer, I have kicked myself back a few notches. Currently I'm definitely planning to retake at least 2 classes -> both where I received a D, and one being a gen-ed, as well as possibly trying to fix a C in another gen-ed, but I'm not sure if that's allowed. Plus Ochem is surely kicking my butt and I'm very certain I'll end up retaking that too. On top of that, I'm behind in some of my courses, due to how weirdly my credits had transferred, and unfortunately I had no choice BUT to transfer.

School and working as a commuter student has had its hand around my neck for a while, so I no longer had time to gain extra experience in animal science, however I do have around 600 hours of shadowing at a local veterinary clinic as well as 100-ish hours volunteering at a wild life rehab center/education center all the way back from high school. I do plan on stacking on some experience these upcoming summers.

So, my downfalls and fears are that I am behind on classes and I don't think I can do all the Vet school requirements before I graduate without layering them on each other which will inevitably overwhelm me and set me up for failure. Along with this I don't have nearly as much time working with animals that I should. Obviously I won't get in on my first try, and probably not even on my second or third, but I'm still determined to pursue this no matter what life had thrown at me previously.

I love what I'm learning and I love the moments where I do get to do the hands on work, it's just now I'm so dedicated to working to pay for my commute and studying in a cubicle for hours, I lose sight and I feel I'm behind no matter what I do, if that makes sense.

I guess after this little backstory, my biggest question is what can I do once I graduate with my B.S.? I know I won't get into vet school but I want to continue to be up to my neck in what I love and improve myself and eventually move on to actually being in vet school. How can I allow some time "off" but still improve and move forward?

Thank you for reading

You say that you're behind in courses - compared to what? There's no race (unless you need to graduate by a certain date for financial reasons). If you're getting through your degree at a different pace than your peers, that's totally fine. I did a ridiculously incompatible double major and was in school for 5 years, plus some summers. I was taking my pre-req classes a little more slowly than the kids that were finishing in 4 years, but so what? That had nothing to do with me. If you don't finish the pre-reqs before you graduate, can you take them at a community college afterwards? Or is it possible to stay in school an extra year? Do whatever will be best financially. If you decide to take classes at a community college, look at what's available, and make sure you take the things that you can't do at CC while you're still in university.

Were either of your D's in a pre-req course? Retake them, do as well as you can, and try not to worry about the black mark of a D. [Here's my n=1: I had two D's (both in O Chem), and the problem wasn't that I got D's originally, it was that when I retook them I only made C's. That's one of the reasons the admissions committee put me on the wait list instead of the acceptance list. If I had retaken those D's and made B's or A's, I might have been accepted this year. If you're able to come back from a bad class and show that you can master the subject and earn a high grade, that's a really valuable thing. Getting a D and then an A isn't as ideal as just getting an A in the first place, but it's not a terrible thing either.]

You're right, you do need to work on getting more hours. All of your vet experience is from HS? You'll need a DVM to write you a letter of rec in order to apply, so you should try to shadow and build connections and relationships if you can. You can see if there's anyone you can shadow on Saturdays and/or during the upcoming school holidays.

Best of luck to you!
 
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