Pre-Vet newbie

[Canuka]

I'm currently completing my 2nd year of undergrad and I've just changed to pre-vet from pre-med. I want to know what experience I should have for my application/resume. Do I need to work at a Vet's Office? Is volunteering at the shelter good? etc.

I have research experience and I just recently shadowed a veterinarian but other than that I was working at a children's hospital which won't really help. Any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated!

Also, does anyone know of a good website for this kind of information? (Other than sdn. ) I've been looking online but haven't really found many places with a lot of information.

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[twelvetigers]

Definitely do more shadowing, and perhaps even seek employment at a clinic if that's possible. The more, the better!

Also, look for some variety in your experiences. Small animal and large animal are both the "big ones," but also keep an eye out for exotic/wildlife, shelter, and research opportunities that may be available.

Volunteering at the local humane society is great, but you must work directly with a vet to gain vet experience. Shelter work is more likely to be animal experience, which is also important... but vet experience is the big thing. Also, you'll need at least one letter of recommendation from a vet, so you might as well get to know one as soon as possible.

 

[eventualeventer]

Besides getting experience (the more, the better!), make sure that you are hitting all of the prerequisites for schools you are considering. I don't know much about med school applications, but vet schools are each, um, unique in their exact prerequisites and their way of choosing students.

I would suggest you go here for starters:
http://www.aavmc.org/vmcas/vmcas_downloads.htm
There is a chart of what prerequisites each school has, as well as fact sheets on each school, and elsewhere on the site is a list of links to the vet school websites.

Out of curiosity, what did you think of human med, and what made you decide to switch?

 

[bunnity]

On the VMCAS (the application for most US vet schools) you have sections where you put in experience, and there are sections for "vet experience" and "animal experience." Vet experience is working directly under a vet (like working as a vet tech, or shadowing a vet) and animal experience would be more like walking dogs at a shelter, horseback riding lessons, or working on a farm. Schools like to see some of each, and it is good to have variety like some small animal, some large animal, some exotic, and so on. Also compared to med school where you might want to get 50-100 hours of experience, vet schools are looking for hundreds to thousands of hours. I had about 500 hours vet experience and that is pretty low compared to many people on here.
Good luck!

 

[InfiniVet]

First off, Welcome!

Children's hospital will certainly help!

There are those in this profession that draw an analogy between veterinary work and pediatrics. Also, medicine is medicine. Any experience helps.

One of our most respected feline practitioners at A&M - Dr. John August - started off wanting to be a pediatrician, got accepted to medical school, then withdrew and went on to veterinary school.