Pre-Vet Undergrad questions

[alieden]

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Hi I have so many questions. I'm in my sophomore year at a small county university. I'm trying to switch to University of Miami though because no pre-vet students from my school have ever been accepted into vet school and well it makes me think it might be the school. Currently I have a 4.0 and I'm taking courses as challenging as this school offers (i.e. the honors calc I with analytical geo was cancelled as I was the only one to enroll).

I've been having a prob finding a vet willing to let me shadow them. I actually know a vet really well who told me that shadowing is a problem because of insurance. And I don't have the hours available to me to work part-time in a vet's office or the experience to. I'm in school full time of course and I work full time for a psychiatrist's clinical research office doing clinical phase 3 and 4 studies with humans. I've been with them for the past 5 years. Leaving this job to go work for a vet if I could find one to hire me without vet tech experience would be very hard on me financially. I have the weekends completely free to me and have been looking for some volunteer experience with a vet but can't find any for the aforementioned reasons.

How do I get around this problem? I have volunteer experience already with rescuing animals and fostering and finding homes, etc. But as far as actual vet experience I'm stumped and something tells me I need to start working on it as soon as possible. I'm about halfway through my sophomore year.

Does anyone have any tips or ideas of where to go to find experience other than animal rescue experience?

I can't find any vets willing to even hire me for just working on the weekends as most of them are closed on sundays.

I was hoping once I switched to UoM and could actually join a pre-vet program/club (as my current school doesn't have one) that I would find more opp's through the program/club.
Thanks
Alis

 

[youthman]

Just an idea - try contacting some emergency vet clinics since they may be more likely to need help during odd hours and weekends.

 

[kate_g]

I was hoping once I switched to UoM and could actually join a pre-vet program/club (as my current school doesn't have one) that I would find more opp's through the program/club.

Don't wait... Call the UoM pre-vet office or club or whatever, don't tell them you're not a student there yet, and ask if there are any vets in the area that they know have been supportive of shadowing students in the past. (Actually even if you told them you were hoping to transfer into their program but weren't there yet, they probably wouldn't refuse to help you...)

 

[ginkogirl]

I've been having a prob finding a vet willing to let me shadow them. I actually know a vet really well who told me that shadowing is a problem because of insurance. And I don't have the hours available to me to work part-time in a vet's office or the experience to. I'm in school full time of course and I work full time for a psychiatrist's clinical research office doing clinical phase 3 and 4 studies with humans. I've been with them for the past 5 years. Leaving this job to go work for a vet if I could find one to hire me without vet tech experience would be very hard on me financially. I have the weekends completely free to me and have been looking for some volunteer experience with a vet but can't find any for the aforementioned reasons.

How do I get around this problem? I have volunteer experience already with rescuing animals and fostering and finding homes, etc. But as far as actual vet experience I'm stumped and something tells me I need to start working on it as soon as possible. I'm about halfway through my sophomore year.

Hi There,

Well, for starters you have the right idea in being concerned that animal expeirence alone isn't going to cut it. As you know, hours working with animals in a veterinary setting are of very high importance to vet school admissions (although your start in the fostering setting won't hurt either 🙂 ) How soon are you planning on transferring to the new school? Being that you did not state that you "are transferring" I would assume that you will be spending another year at your current school. In that time (along with finding shadowing opportunities at your new school as mentioned by another poster) you may want to consider doing some volunteering at a local vet clinic. It will "get your feet wet" for the vet tech responcibilites, and will likely make other clinics more likely to want you to volunteer or work for them. I would call the clinics and upfront let them know that you are looking at volunteering for a few hours a week (many clinics have sat. hours so you may be able to fill your weekend availability) Calling emergency clinics also may be a good idea (as mentioned above.) While many clinics would be hesitant to hire a paid vet tech with no expierence, they would be less likely to turn down free help from a compentant volunteer. Some clinics do not allow volunteers, however, so don't get discouraged if you have some difficulty finding a volunteer position.

On another note, have you considered that your research may also help out on your vet school application? I'm not sure what clinical phase 3-4 studies are, however if you are actively participating in some sort of research (i.e. more than organizing files) in a biomedical setting (once again I'm not sure the nature of your research) it does not have to directly deal with vet med (or even animals) to be beneficial to a vet school application. Part of that "diversifying your expierences" thing, I guess 😉 ) I know that Tufts lists "biomedical research" on the same page in the application with "veterinary expierences."

Best of luck with transferring and finding veterinary expierence opportunites.

~Lisa