New to Pre-Vet life! Any advice will help!

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PenguinPal506

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Hey guys!

I am a recent Pre-Vet student (switched from pre med) and am a little lost on how to start building my application for vet school. i would love any recommendations on what vet schools look out for the most, what type of volunteer i should do, shadowing, etc. and approximately how many hours of each.

Basically any tips/advice will help because I am completely lost!



Thanks so much! animals rule!!

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Start contacting vet clinics in your area to ask if you can shadow. Dress nicely and go in person to ask if possible, and ask about shadowing rather than volunteering, some clinics don't allow hands-on volunteers for liability reasons. I would definitely get some shadowing experience before doing anything official like changing your major or enrolling in classes that aren't also pre-med prerequisites, you can't really know if vet med is for you until you've spent some time behind the scenes in a vet clinic. If your first day of shadowing goes well, then you can ask about coming back regularly.

As far as what schools are looking for, that's going to vary depending on the school. I highly recommend spending a lot of time browsing vet school websites and reading their requirements, statistics for previous classes, etc. In general, you'll want good grades especially in the prerequisite classes and any other upper-level science classes, a good amount and variety of veterinary experience (I'd say at least 500 hours is competitive, if you can get experience with things like large animal, zoo, exotics, etc. as well as small animal that's a plus. This can be shadowing, volunteering or paid work), strong letters of recommendation (at least one of which will need to be from a vet), good GRE scores (if the schools you apply to require the GRE, some no longer do), and a good variety of other extracurriculars. Also thinking ahead for potential interviews, be prepared to explain why you switched from pre-med.

Good luck! If you search the forum for things like "new pre-vet" there are plenty of other threads from people who've been in your shoes.
 
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Start contacting vet clinics in your area to ask if you can shadow. Dress nicely and go in person to ask if possible, and ask about shadowing rather than volunteering, some clinics don't allow hands-on volunteers for liability reasons. I would definitely get some shadowing experience before doing anything official like changing your major or enrolling in classes that aren't also pre-med prerequisites, you can't really know if vet med is for you until you've spent some time behind the scenes in a vet clinic. If your first day of shadowing goes well, then you can ask about coming back regularly.
I know you basically said it, but I’m going to flat out say it so it can’t possibly be missed.
Op, When asking for shadowing, ask if you can come for A DAY. And then like Lyra said, ask if you can come back more if that first day goes well. Don’t ask for a long term commitment (like the whole summer or something) to start out with because both you and the clinic don’t want to be stuck in something if the first day doesn’t work out for some reason. A clinic is going to be more inclined to accept one day to start vs asking to shadow for a long period of time.
 
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Like everyone else has said, get some experience in a clinic first by shadowing/volunteering. You need to be sure this is the field you want to be in. If you go through with it and end up applying, they may wonder why you switched from premed to prevet. Don't just say it's because you love animals. Really get an understanding of what the role of a veterinarian plays before you go through the process.
 
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If you can be happy in human med, stay. Seriously.

Get some vet experience 90% of my job is working with people, not animals.
 
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