New Pre Vet Student

[studmuffin]

Hi Guys,

I'm a senior in college, have been pre med all this time. I have recently been looking at vet school as another option. I have a 3.84 science GPA and 3.77 cumulative. The problem is I have no experience working with animals. I've been doing various community service throughout college, but never with animals. Another issue is my GPA for the last 45 credits. I'm coming off off my worst semester ever, a 2.9. This semester it's looking like a 3.4. The other semester that would factor in to that would be a 4.0. I calculated it out, and it looks like my "last 45 credits" number will be about 3.3-3.4. I'm kinda bummed about this, because it signals a downward trend. I have all the pre req courses for the most part. FWIW I got a 31 on the MCAT. Where shouls I start? Is it a black mark on my application if my GPA was low at the tail end of college? Thanks.

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[cowgirla]

If you have no experience with animals, how can you be sure that you want to go to vet school?
Most (all?) schools require veterinary experience and many require a letter of recommendation from a veterinarian.


There is an explanation section on the application if you have a good reason why that one semester was so much lower than the others. Some schools will weigh the last 45 GPA more heavily than other schools will so it may or may not affect you. You will need to take the GRE, most schools wont even look at your MCAT scores. And did I mention that you need veterinary experience? I'd recommend starting there.

 

[Lissarae06]

If you have no experience with animals, how can you be sure that you want to go to vet school?
Most (all?) schools require veterinary experience and many require a letter of recommendation from a veterinarian.


There is an explanation section on the application if you have a good reason why that one semester was so much lower than the others. Some schools will weigh the last 45 GPA more heavily than other schools will so it may or may not affect you. You will need to take the GRE, most schools wont even look at your MCAT scores. And did I mention that you need veterinary experience? I'd recommend starting there.

Yep, definitely start by getting veterinary experience. You have plenty of time before the next application cycle to get some good experience. That should tell you if this is really what you want or not. Your cum GPA is pretty good and you last 45 really isn't all that bad. Focus on the experience side, take the GRE and if you still want to go to vet school, you should be in good shape.

 

[wildcatj]

Hi Guys,

I'm a senior in college, have been pre med all this time. I have recently been looking at vet school as another option. I have a 3.84 science GPA and 3.77 cumulative. The problem is I have no experience working with animals. I've been doing various community service throughout college, but never with animals. Another issue is my GPA for the last 45 credits. I'm coming off off my worst semester ever, a 2.9. This semester it's looking like a 3.4. The other semester that would factor in to that would be a 4.0. I calculated it out, and it looks like my "last 45 credits" number will be about 3.3-3.4. I'm kinda bummed about this, because it signals a downward trend. I have all the pre req courses for the most part. FWIW I got a 31 on the MCAT. Where shouls I start? Is it a black mark on my application if my GPA was low at the tail end of college? Thanks.

The significance of your last 45 will depend greatly on if you have a legitimate reason for your bad semesters. There is a whole explanation section of the VMCAS for any circumstances you'd like to explain further, so if you have a good reason, there is plenty of space to explain it.

First and foremost though, there's a few things you need to do:
-Start getting experience in a veterinary hospital now. Make sure this is what you want to do. Once you start one place and think you could actually go into vet med, try a few more places and get varied experience to make sure.
-Read up on here, other articles on the interwebs, talk to any vets/vet students you might know and get a good look at the profession as it stands. Debt to salary ratio is abysmal in comparison to human med. I've said this before and I'll say it again to you here: If you think you could be perfectly happy in human med, stick with it and don't look back. Yes, there's always the argument of "What if?" but you'd probably be saying that anyway when you're $200+k in debt and a veterinarian maybe making 60k. I don't think I'm alone in saying if I had any interest in human med I'd take that over vet med.
-In regards to debt, take a look at this superb spreadsheet put together by an SDNer (justavet): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AuDAmocjP-XddEZFZ096NkxsMkdKVmJsUHZ3MmRqUFE&output=html
It can also be found in the Estimated Costs of Vet School sticky.
-Ask any questions you may have on here, but don't forget to use the search function first!

 

[studmuffin]

If you have no experience with animals, how can you be sure that you want to go to vet school?


I'm not sure I want to go to vet school, nor did my post say so. As I am a senior in college, I need to decide on something. I was planning on med school, but I'm reconsidering.I just wanted to get acquainted with the profession. I want to get experience in vet med, and get started gaining experience. I know this is necessary to get in, you didn't need to tell me as this was part of my post (i.e. my lack of experience).

Thanks for the part about the section on the application to explain a bad semester.

 

[Lissarae06]

If you have no experience with animals, how can you be sure that you want to go to vet school?


I'm not sure I want to go to vet school, nor did my post say so. As I am a senior in college, I need to decide on something. I was planning on med school, but I'm reconsidering.I just wanted to get acquainted with the profession. I want to get experience in vet med, and get started gaining experience. I know this is necessary to get in, you didn't need to tell me as this was part of my post (i.e. my lack of experience).

Thanks for the part about the section on the application to explain a bad semester.

Um, you asked where you should start and cowgirla told you that the best place to start would be to get experience. I think everyone here would agree that getting vet experience is where you should start. You don't have to be ungrateful for the advice she gave (especially considering it was good advice).

 

[sunshinevet]

Why are you reconsidering med school? Why are you considering vet school?

FYI, applicants to vet school generally have far, far greater hours shadowing/volunteering within the profession than med students tend to - I see pre-med students on here saying 50-100hrs shadowing is fine, whereas that would not cut the mustard for vet - most people on here would say that 300-500 hours would be the minimum. So gaining veterinary experience is a much bigger thing and part of the app to vet school than it seems to be for med school, and much more time consuming and harder to tack on at the end.

 

[vethopeful2011]

When you think of veterinary medicine being interesting for you, fous on what aspects really appeal to you and then try to gain experience that incorperates those aspects. I.E; if you love the idea of zoo med try to volunteer at a zoo, if you want to help homeless animals and influence local policy et, maybe try a shelter. If you are interested in the legal aspects, try an internship with a regulatory agency. It's usually fairly easy to volunteer/intern at these kinds of places, although private clinics can be more of a challenge. There are a lot of realms outside of general practice to look at and decide if this is for you. Also, it's true, a lot of vets make around 60000 a year and have a lot of debt, but it really depends what field you go into. I work in emergency medicine and because it involves long/irratic hours and critical cases, the pay scale is much higher, even for newish vets. No one should go into veterinary medicine for the money, but its also important to realise that veterinary medicine vs human medicine is not drudgery and poverty vs honor wealth and glory. I'm sure your familiar with the pros and cons of human medicine too, and there are some real issues to weigh. At this point, you should go where you're interests lie.

What I would warn against is thinking of vet school as a back up for med school. Generally it's harder to be accepted at vet school vs med bc there are only 28 in the country, and much less demand for veterinary vs human doctors. You didn't say this was what you were doing, so most likely it isn't but just wanted to throw it out there!

 

[sunshinevet]

Also, it's true, a lot of vets make around 60000 a year and have a lot of debt, but it really depends what field you go into. I work in emergency medicine and because it involves long/irratic hours and critical cases, the pay scale is much higher, even for newish vets. No one should go into veterinary medicine for the money, but its also important to realise that veterinary medicine vs human medicine is not drudgery and poverty vs honor wealth and glory.

I also work in EMCC and yes, it pays better than general practice (and australia pays more than the US!) but it is still 1/3 or less of the pay that I would make if I were a human EMCC doc. It is certainly middle-class-at-best vs wealth, when it comes to the pay difference, and once you factor in that the debt levels are the same, well, its a little laughable...

 

[studmuffin]

Thanks for all the helpful advice guys. I think the consensus is to get experience with animals. Did you guys just sumbit a resume and cover letter to the local vet clinics? Or would it be better to go in and introduce myself in person. I live across town from the nearest vet clinic, so mailing my resume and cover letter in would be the best option. Again, thank you, and I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for the advice, sorry cowgirla.

 

[texguyincali]

you can mail your resume and cover letter but I am a huge believer in its always better to get face to face when applying whenever you can. I didnt have any experience when I applied to vet hospitals a few years ago. I applied to 3 by sending in my resume, didnt hear anything back. The 4th one I went to in person, and got hired the next day. Its an amazing hopsital with great doctors and I have gotten incredible experience there while completing all my pre-reqs. My vote is to go in person.

 

[LetItSnow]

Thanks for all the helpful advice guys. I think the consensus is to get experience with animals. Did you guys just sumbit a resume and cover letter to the local vet clinics? Or would it be better to go in and introduce myself in person. I live across town from the nearest vet clinic, so mailing my resume and cover letter in would be the best option. Again, thank you, and I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for the advice, sorry cowgirla.

You could mail it, but look at it this way. If that's your best option for nearest vet clinic, then you ought to give it your best effort so that you reduce the chance of having to go even further for experience.

So a drive over there would be your best bet. Dress nice, take a resume, go in, and tell them you're a pre-vet and you wondered if you could spend a day or two in the clinic seeing how things work behind the scene. Your ultimate goal is to spend a lot more time there, but don't throw that at them when they don't even know you. Build the relationship. If you're personable and professional, they probably won't mind you coming back. Next thing you know, people will be asking you when you'll be back again.

 

[vethopeful2011]

Thanks for all the helpful advice guys. I think the consensus is to get experience with animals. Did you guys just sumbit a resume and cover letter to the local vet clinics? Or would it be better to go in and introduce myself in person. I live across town from the nearest vet clinic, so mailing my resume and cover letter in would be the best option. Again, thank you, and I didn't mean to sound ungrateful for the advice, sorry cowgirla.

I run the internship program at my hospital and usually people just call up, introduce themselves and ask about it. I wouldn't recommend showing up in person without calling first bc it's likely everyone would be busy. I would be a little annoyed if someone showed up unannounced at the ICU.

 

[sunshinevet]

I run the internship program at my hospital and usually people just call up, introduce themselves and ask about it. I wouldn't recommend showing up in person without calling first bc it's likely everyone would be busy. I would be a little annoyed if someone showed up unannounced at the ICU.

LIS meant go in to hand in your resume etc, not go in and expect to start that day. It allows you to make a good impression and put a face with a name - sending resumes in can make them get "put aside" iykwim.

 

[LetItSnow]

I run the internship program at my hospital and usually people just call up, introduce themselves and ask about it. I wouldn't recommend showing up in person without calling first bc it's likely everyone would be busy. I would be a little annoyed if someone showed up unannounced at the ICU.

A few points.

1) Nobody said anything about "showing up unannounced at the ICU."

2) He's looking to get in the door and spend some time behind the front office shadowing. That's a far cry from trying to get in an internship program at a hospital large enough to have a dedicated ICU.

I stand by my recommendation. If your options are 'mail it in' and 'stop by and drop it off', I'll choose the latter every single time it's feasible.

 

[TheHumongous]

LIS meant go in to hand in your resume etc, not go in and expect to start that day. It allows you to make a good impression and put a face with a name - sending resumes in can make them get "put aside" iykwim.

A few points.

1) Nobody said anything about "showing up unannounced at the ICU."

2) He's looking to get in the door and spend some time behind the front office shadowing. That's a far cry from trying to get in an internship program at a hospital large enough to have a dedicated ICU.

I stand by my recommendation. If your options are 'mail it in' and 'stop by and drop it off', I'll choose the latter every single time it's feasible.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling the hospital and introducing yourself. Vethopeful made a pretty good recommendation. No reason to argue.

 

[sunshinevet]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling the hospital and introducing yourself. Vethopeful made a pretty good recommendation. No reason to argue.

Absolutely there isnt, it was more the idea that you shouldnt go into the clinic to introduce yourself because you would be annoying the busy people that we were disagreeing with. Also, as people on this forum have found time and time again, it is SO much more effective to go in in person and seek shadowing - and the OP probably wants to maximize his chances, so we try to give him the best recommendations.

Basically, going in in person>>>>> calling.

 

[LetItSnow]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling the hospital and introducing yourself. Vethopeful made a pretty good recommendation. No reason to argue.

Not really arguing. Vethopeful mischaracterized my suggestion by taking "show up and give them your information in person" and (somehow) translating that into "showing up in the ICU". Unless, of course, his hospital's ICU is also the front desk.

I was just clarifying. I agree with Vethopeful that someone shouldn't show up in scrubs unannounced hoping to jump in. But that's not what I suggested.

And no, there isn't anything "wrong" with calling instead of showing up, depending on what you mean by "wrong". I don't really think "wrong" is a good choice of words for the spectrum of mediocre effort to best effort. It's perfectly appropriate to give a mediocre effort to something if that's your level of interest.

I've been in business a bunch of years (eek... 23 years) and been on the hiring side of the table many, many times at multiple companies. I absolutely promise you that the people going the extra little bit (showing up in person when they could take the easy way out and mail or phone it in) are the ones that will get the most attention. Doesn't mean you "can't" get lucky by taking the easy way, but it's all about how much you want to maximize your chances. It's just common sense: Of the three (shows up in person, mails, phones), which of those is communicating a serious level of interest?

The OPs point was that there is one vet clinic in his area and it's across town. So it really behooves him to give it his BEST effort. That's all.