none traditional student, tough decision

[Psychstudent!721]

Hi everyone. I am a non-traditional student who graduated with a B.S in psychology. I was admitted to a MSW program but realized it was not for me, and although I like psychology the field is getting smaller and not what it used to be. I am back at school for biology for pre reqs for med school or vet school. You roughly need the same courses (chems, basic bio, etc). I graduated with a 3.1 GPA 3.2 in my major. During this time, I went through a few family deaths, illnesses, and other issues that strongly affected me. I have always had a special place in my heart for animals, for some reason I’ve had more sympathy for them than most people (I know that sounds bad). While I’m still undecided between the two fields, I was wondering if anyone who has perhaps been in my shoes of going back to school and looking a vet school with a mediocre GPA. I have a lot of volunteer experience, internship experience in psych hospitals and wellness clinics, but I’m starting to look for opportunities to build my experience with animals aside from caring for them and rescuing them. If I want to go the medical route I’ll have to build on clinical experience in hospitals and shadow doctors, if I want vet I would need to start volunteering with animals, and get more animal experience. I don’t reasonably see how I can build on both and then make the choice when it’s time to apply. Is there anyone else out there who had to make this choice, or overcome a meh GPA?

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[supershorty]

You're likely to get more answers if you post this in the pre-vet forum.

Have you actually shadowed any vets?

 

[redfoxsocks]

When are you planning to apply? It sounds like you should really have a more solid idea of where you want to wind up before jumping into an application process. Neither of these routes are cheap and both are extremely difficult. I don't see a point in applying for anything before having enough experience in both worlds to know which would be more appropriate for you. Shadowing at vet hospitals, specialty hospitals, ERs, etc should give you an idea of whether or not you might like to look into finding an entry-level job in the field while you finish up your pre-reqs. Figure out what you don't like about human medicine that would divert you elsewhere.

I was in your shoes at one point - unrelated liberal arts degree, crappy GPA, and found that most schools look more at the pre-req GPA than the overall. If you do well in your science and math courses, you won't have a problem getting in somewhere. It's completely doable!! The trick is to knowing what program you'd like to pursue.