Post bac before vet school?

[Heather L]

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Hi everyone,

I just saw my veterinary admissions advisor at UCSD and I wanted to see what everyone thinks about the advice I was given.

So far, my gpa is VERY low, about a 3.0. My advisor basically told me that I don't have any chance of getting admitted to a US vet school with that gpa, and that I should consider doing a "pre vet post bac" at the vet school that I'm interested in in order to improve my grades.

I'm a little confused about what a post bac is. Is it something between a bachelors degree and a masters degree? If I wanted to, could I go on to complete my masters degree? And, would it be a post bac in biology, or veterinary medicine?

Any help would be greatly appreciated; I'm so lost! Thanks so much!

 

[BlacKAT33]

i think your options are really big with a post bac, since i dont know much except what I have done i'll just talk about my experience.
i did a post-bac at the National Institutes of Health, it was a research fellowship and you had a choice to do it for 1 or 2 years. no masters, but i did get a paper written (will send out for review soon) and a lot of surgery experience from the tech i worked with, i also got a lot of lab animal experience

 

[VeganSoprano]

A post-bac is usually a certificate program. You take mainly undergrad classes, though you may have the option to take some grad level classes. A benefit is that you are eligible for federal student loans. A formal postbac pre-health program is basically just one more option alongside a second bachelor's, a master's, and taking classes as a nondegree student. It may not be the best option if you already have all your prereqs completed since they're mainly geared toward folks who have degrees in other fields and are returning to school to complete prereqs for med/vet/dental/phar/etc. school.

 

[Wolphcats]

A post-bac is usually a certificate program. You take mainly undergrad classes, though you may have the option to take some grad level classes.

I disagree. I took a post-bac certificate program and all of the classes were graduate level classes. I would bet this changes based on the school offering the program.

A formal postbac pre-health program is basically just one more option alongside a second bachelor's, a master's, and taking classes as a nondegree student. It may not be the best option if you already have all your prereqs completed since they're mainly geared toward folks who have degrees in other fields and are returning to school to complete prereqs for med/vet/dental/phar/etc. school.

I suggest if you are really interested in attending a post-bac program, look for one where it expands your education. For example, my post-bac program was in Zoo and Aquarium Sciences, which focused on animal husbandry and learning how to research with captive animals. It was a good fit for me, but might not be a good fit for you. Look around.

 

[su_grad2007]

I suggest if you are really interested in attending a post-bac program, look for one where it expands your education. For example, my post-bac program was in Zoo and Aquarium Sciences, which focused on animal husbandry and learning how to research with captive animals. It was a good fit for me, but might not be a good fit for you. Look around.

What post-pac program did you do. That sounds interesting 🙂

 

[Wolphcats]

I took the post-bac at Western Illinois University (http://www.wiu.edu/grad/catalog/zooaquastudies.php). It is really nice because you can either stay on the campus in Chicago (no real campus, the classes are taught at Shedd Aquarium) or you can stay in the Quad Cities area. You take courses at the Niabi Zoo and the Quad Cities campus of WIU. Courses only taught on the QC campus are transmitted via a teleconferencing system to a teaching room at Shedd Aquarium.

The animal training course is only offered at the Shedd Aquarium, and it is taught by Ken Rameriz, the head trainer at Shedd(his book is the text book: http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Training-Successful-Management-Reinforcement/dp/0961107499 ). He is an amazing guy, and any major trainer in the zoo field usually knows him (he served as the president of International Marine Animal Trainer's Association[IMATA] for some years). Zoo trainers and keepers pay like $5000 to be taught by him for 1 week (8hr/day), but as a WIU student, you get him for a lot less for 1 semester. Most of the other courses are taught by Dr. Thomas, one of the major marine bioaccustic/ecology researchers out there. The management course is taught by management personnel at Shedd and Brookfield Zoo. You really get a hands on learning in this program, especially if you consider you must gain 180 hours for a class in a zoo or aquarium. Dr. Thomas will take you on tours of the Niabi Zoo, Brookfield Zoo, Shedd Aquarium. You meet many of the major players in the field. In addition, there is a graduate student organization on the quad cities campus (Aquaria, Biology, and Zoology Society) that takes trips to regional zoos and aquariums to meet with professionals.

So if there are those out there interested in zoo and aquarium science, or maybe even zoo medicine, this might be the program for you if you need a year between undergrad and vet school... or just want to expand your horizons.