Overwhelmed. Seeking advice an moral support! :-/

[Saluki313]

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Up until two weeks ago, I thought I was going to be a social worker. I am about to step into my junior year working towards my BSW at SUNY Stony Brook (a well-known University in the Medical and research field). I have almost no math science classes however, because they were not largely required for the BSW degree. I only have Mathematical Reasoning, Oceanography, and Biology: Survey of the Human Body.
I've worked with animals my entire life, and I'm deeply in rapture, and fascinated with dogs...always have been. I always shied away from vet-med because I thought I was utterly incapable. My parents told us work was important, not school (yeah, I know..wow.) But I digress...
Where the hell do I start?! For those of you who are much further into this journey than I am, what should I do from here? I am completely lost and I want to do this right. What pre-reqs should I do, what schools take a lot of OOS? Should I do the prereqs at my community college or at SBU? Does it matter? Shadowing? What, where huh? Can someone shine a light through this fog? Thanks.. :-(

 

[OneDay81]

Saluki-

Based on your questions, I assume you don't know much about veterinary school and what it takes to get in, so I think the first thing you should look at is the aavmc website. There are a lot of links on there about the career and its required education. It also lists all of the vet schools so you can start looking at their websites and their prerequisites. You have a long journey ahead of you, but don't be discouraged. Over the next few years you can build up a great GPA, get plenty of diverse animal and vet experience hours, and become a competitive vet school applicant. Before you change your major, or delay your graduation, or anything drastic, get some time shadowing vets so you can make sure this is what you really want to do. Just loving animals isn't enough; you have to be willing (and hopefully excited) to undertake the good and the bad, including 4+ years of vet school, which I've heard isn't a walk in the park 🙂 and the frustrations that come from being a veterinarian.

 

[KittenRescue]

Hey cheer up girl! You are young I'm sure so be happy that you realize your dream now!!!
Stonybrook has a great pre-med program which are almost all the same pre-reqs for vet school. I would start with trying to get some volunteer work at an animal hospital to make sure that this is your passion and that this is what you want to do. Then I would change my major and have an advisor help you. If you have all your gen eds you can prob do all the pre-reqs in 2 years if you take a few summer classes.
Do some research yourself into the schools you would be interested in and see what pre reqs they require, most are the same but some schools are a little different. Sit down and try to write up a plan with goals and reasons why you are doing what you are doing and check things off as you go and you will get to your major goal eventually. Just outline a 2 year plan and go step by step. Thats what I did over a year ago and I can't believe how much progress I have made from where I started.. Good luck!😎

 

[Saluki313]

Thank you for the replies.
I have been to the AAVMC website many many times and am pouring over the different schools and their requirements, but they all seem different, and put weight on different facets of the applicant. So I feel overwhelmed as to where to even start with taking my prereqs...different schools require different prereqs.
I have worked with animals for many years, and have worked in vet hospitals, but I was a kennel girl, and never saw much action. Unfortunately I am not so young at 27. And I feel very very anxious at the prospect of wasting more time. Ohh should, coulda, woulda!
Having weighed it carefully, I feel that social work is a back-up career I would be happy with so I am reluctant to pull out of my school. It was hard to get into, and classes start in a week and a half. Is this not a good idea, should I quit my major?

 

[KittenRescue]

Could you keep your major and just start adding like a bio and a chem class every sememster? You can get a degree in anything and still apply as long as you have your pre-reqs. It may take you a little longer but like you said at least you have a back up.
I am 30 so I understand feeling pressed for time...

 

[Saluki313]

Ahhh, yes, 30! Thank you for understanding. I have already wasted sooooo much time chasing stupid goals and selling myself short, I'm afraid to continue the trend. These last few years it's been a struggle to make good life decisions, and I'm horrified by my truckload of regret. I don't want to add to the pile, ya know? So I am not comfortable quitting social work school. I would like to take some prereqs while I finish my BSW, and do summer and winter session as well.

 

[KittenRescue]

I totally understand.. About 2 years ago I got my degree in interior design. I thought I would love it.. ugh hated it.. I have always come back to working with animals and like you I thought I could never be a vet.. But one day I woke up and It was so clear to me.. I have no idea what clicked but that was it..I was going to go back to school and eventualy vet school. Dont get me wrong I still have doubts but I never doubt that this is my passion and If I dont follow it I will always wonder what if..
Since you are already on track for a degree I would def continue and just take the Bio and Chem that all schools require you to have then you can decide what school you would like to apply to and focus in on their pre-reqs.
I also live on long Island.. I am in Nassau County though.

 

[FutureDVM2016]

I will be 27 in a couple months and I have had a twisty-turny road to where I'm at now. I started pre-vet school right out of high school away from home, became extremely sick, moved back to my hometown, changed my major 5 times (hated all of them), got a full time career in a completely different field, got married to a U.S. Marine, moved across the country, moved back across the country after he was discharged, got divorced, and have finally gotten back on track and gung-ho on my passion and dream since I was 3 years old in the past year and a half. ***dont mind the massive run-on sentence haha***

You are still young, so dont worry... I know people who are going back to school to start this career in their 40s, and in this day and age, I dont even consider THAT old haha. We are living longer, and many people are completing two careers in their lifetime.

Just as the others have said make sure you are positive that vet work is the job for you before you bail on your social work opportunities. Adding a few vet pre-reqs into your current schedule might be the way to go 🙂 Good luck! Just stay focused! That was my largest down fall while I was "growing up" over the past 10 years. You can do anything you want if you set your mind to it! Don't forget, you can ALWAYS go back and do whatever you want if it doesnt work out!

 

[Saluki313]

I'm so glad I'm not alone! Ok, so I will start with bio and chem then. Thank you. Pheww, that was the smidgeon of direction I needed!

 

[sumstorm]

I am in my 30's and in vet school. There are advantages to being older (at least for me) because I have a different perspective on school and grades and learning.

You are getting sound advice: take a two pronged approach. Pick the first pre-req you need to take (generally bio or chem) and take it, along with your normal courses (use it as an elective if possible.) In the mean time, start getting experience with a vet. Your best approach will be shadowing at the moment. There are a couple of factors to getting into vet school; you need to understand what vet med is and if it fits you, but you also have to be able to hack it academicly. There isn't a good reason to figure out both at once.

And you aren't alone on the 'school is a waste of time, work is important' culture, but as an adult, you get to decide what is and isn't important. The best way to avoid regrets is to embrace your decisions as being the ones that bring you to this point of discovery and to explore before you commit to your next major life decision.

 

[Armymutt25A]

I am not so young at 27.

I'm turning 35 on Sunday. If I get accepted this year, I'll be 40 at graduation and will be junior in rank to myself right now. At 27, you're only a couple years older than most of the people you'll encounter in vet school. There is still plenty of time to accomplish a lot of things. One thing you have going for you is maturity. Vets are more likely to let you get more involved when shadowing. Look on the bright side, when you show up at a farm, no one will ask when the vet is arriving. You won't look like a little kid - instant credibility!🙂

 

[Packen]

Here's some added support from another native LIer (Nassau County too), and I just turned 30.

I think that you have gotten great advice so far on how to tackle your classes. Also, I don't think it would be a big deal if you took some of the low level courses (Gen Bio and Gen Chem) at a community college - but I am not sure if that would interfere with getting the necessary credits you need for your BSW.

Deep breaths!!

 

[sabriel777]

Don't worry about feeling old. In the pre-vet society at my school, there is a man who is 42 and just finished his applications for the fall 2011 cycle. Good luck to you!

 

[flyinggoat]

I totally get the feeling of "oh if only I'd.... blah blah blah... instead!"

I'm 28 and starting my sciences this fall. I've got to do the whole gamut of bio, chem, organic chem, physics, etc. I haven't taken what I would consider a "real" science class since high school!

It can be frustrating, I think. Sometimes I feel like the last ten years of my life have been wasted... 🙁 But at the same time, I know that I would have been completely burnt out and frustrated if I'd done this right out of hs. My brain is different now than it was then.

I had a meeting with an admissions counselor at Tufts last week- she said their average student age is close to 30. So, from that, and from other posts in this thread, lots of us have taken the not-so-direct path! 🙂

 

[sumstorm]

Oh, and the other thing to remember: it takes X years to become a vet; in X years what will you be doing if you don't pursue vet med? Really imagine it....you wake up and do X, then Y, then Z.... are you happy? The years will pass either way....life is not a test you are taking to prepare for the real thing; live it now.

 

[nyanko]

Oh, and the other thing to remember: it takes X years to become a vet; in X years what will you be doing if you don't pursue vet med? Really imagine it....you wake up and do X, then Y, then Z.... are you happy? The years will pass either way....life is not a test you are taking to prepare for the real thing; live it now.

This is always one of my favorite answers to the sentiment of feeling "too old" to change careers. 🙂

 

[Maddiegirl]

I am so happy I found this thread! I'm 34 and have wanted to be a vet since I was a little girl, but gave myself 101 excuses why I couldn't/shouldn't do it.... I got laid off last fall from a very lucrative position as a legal secretary (which I hated) and decided at that moment that I was done doing something just to pay the bills and basically selling my soul.

I am now working on my prereqs and already feel better! I can't wait to get into vet school and start living my dream!

It makes me feel so much better see so many aspiring vet students my age or older.

 

[squibby]

I am now working on my prereqs and already feel better! I can't wait to get into vet school and start living my dream!

Awesome! Isn't it great when you know you are headed in the right direction because none of it feels like a chore like being in the wrong place does?

I just turned 30. I set a goal for myself five years ago that I would be in vet school by the time I was 30. Now I realize there's no rush. If we retire in our 60's, that's still at least 20 years in the profession.