Recording Hours

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I am nearing college where I plan on double majoring in Equine Science and Biotech/Biomed and getting my pre-vet reqs in. (Maybe a bit ambitious, I guess I'll see when I get there.)

I realize vet schools like to know your hours of animal experience and I have a few questions about that.

Firstly, observation of vets counts, correct me if I'm wrong. If I've observed some over the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, will vet schools consider this?

I currently have a spread sheet with the date, facility, location, vet/overseer, hours, and species. Should I include anything else?

I ride horses, can I include riding lessons or is that a bit far fetched?

Basically I just would like to know what counts and what does not.

Volunteering at a humane society?
Volunteering at a therapeutic riding center?
Working as a kennel cleaner at a vet office?

Anything else I need to keep records of?

Thank you much 😀

 

[ViaBea]

Firstly, observation of vets counts, correct me if I'm wrong. If I've observed some over the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, will vet schools consider this?

I believe so. I personally included the hours that I had from high school, and I believe that other people do too.

I currently have a spread sheet with the date, facility, location, vet/overseer, hours, and species. Should I include anything else?

I think that you have the basics. If I remember correctly, on VMCAS, it asks for the dates (month and year) you started and ended an experience, the description of what you did, the types of animals you worked with, and who supervised you. I wasn't nearly as detailed in cataloging my experience, but I wish that I would have kept better notes on some of the cooler cases that came in to talk about in my personal statement and such.

I ride horses, can I include riding lessons or is that a bit far fetched?

I think that you can include them. I wasn't sure about including my hours that I had showing and breeding goats, but I emailed my IS (Penn) a few years ago about it and they said yes. So, I would assume that the horses would count too because its more involved then just basic care of your own animals.

Volunteering at a humane society?
Volunteering at a therapeutic riding center?
Working as a kennel cleaner at a vet office?

I think that the first two would definitely count as animal experience, and the third may count as vet experience, but I'm not sure. If you want some ideas of what other people counted, then you can look up some of the successful applicant threads from previous years.

Anything else I need to keep records of?

VMCAS also asks for outside activities and awards. I personally wish that I would have kept better track of the awards that I have received (mainly from high school) because it was a bit hard remembering the names of different awards and when they were received.

Good luck

 

[TrueFaith]

I wish I had been as organized as you seem to be lol

 

[skipsbarryimage]

I am at a family party and not sure what else to do so I made an excel sheet. I think I'm going to be making three different pages or tabs, for vet experience, animal experience, and awards/other activities.

Thank you for the input! I will definitely check out successful apps.

More replies are always welcome 🙂

 

[prevetdreamer]

I counted my riding hours as animal experience. I also counted experience I gained in high school. If you are under the supervision of a vet, you can count it as veterinary experience. I was told that even if you are just cleaning and walking dogs (such as a kennel tech) if a vet is there and/or told you what to do, it can count as vet. If you are working with animals at all or participating in their care, it can count as animal exp. Animal ownership is a bit sketchy so you'll need to contact each school individually and see if they want it on the app when the time comes. I didn't include anything with my family dogs because it was mostly my parents, but I did include everything for my horse since that was all me. But some schools want it, others don't.

You'll be grateful you started keeping records. I didn't (never even thought about it) and It was a pain in the butt to try and estimate! I also think I sold myself a bit short on my hours because I didn't want to estimate too high.

Good luck on gaining experience!

 

[Trilt]

I am at a family party and not sure what else to do so I made an excel sheet. I think I'm going to be making three different pages or tabs, for vet experience, animal experience, and awards/other activities.

Thank you for the input! I will definitely check out successful apps.

More replies are always welcome 🙂

It's not complete, but I've covered a good amount of the questions you've asked here so far on my blog - maybe take a peek there and see if it helps you out?

Beyond that, just one big suggestion: BACK UP YOUR EXCEL SHEET. I personally just made mine on Google docs, but if you don't want to do that, just make sure you're periodically backing it up somewhere else besides your computer. It is not fun to lose all of your recorded hours from a freak hard drive blow up or something.

 

[LetItSnow]

The basic rule of thumb: if it is overseen by a veterinarian it counts as vet hours. If not, it counts as animal hours.

So "volunteering at a humane society" may or may not be; see the basic rule of thumb.

As far as your spreadsheet, it sounds great. The only thing I'd add would be a column to track what you actually did/saw. When it comes time to put your experiences into VMCAS I think you get more bang-for-buck if you can say specifically what you gained from the experience.

Way to be proactive and organized - sounds like a great start!

 

[LetItSnow]

I think that you can include [riding hours].

I would *definitely* include them. When in (reasonable) doubt, lean toward including something rather than excluding. A school can always chuckle and discount it if they think you're stretching - it won't work against you, I think, unless you are really obviously trying to pad. But if it's a legitimate gray area, they aren't going to look poorly on you for inclusion.

If you have trouble knowing whether you're in the gray area or the "that's unreasonable" zone ... then get a third opinion. But it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. 🙂

 

[Bismarck]

Addendum to this discussion: be ready to defend hours/experiences you claim on VMCAS as they make good fodder for probing interview questions. As stated, an excel sheet is a good way to tabulate hours and make notes in the margins if you did something unique/new.

 

[skipsbarryimage]

Addendum to this discussion: be ready to defend hours/experiences you claim on VMCAS as they make good fodder for probing interview questions. As stated, an excel sheet is a good way to tabulate hours and make notes in the margins if you did something unique/new.

This summer I shadowed a vet who did a lot of chiropractic work but didn't have many appointments that day so I got to observe and help in the ICU.. so I should write notes to myself such as, "three chiro adjustments, removal of tumor from sheath, helped clear severe, repeat choke in mini, restrained ICU horse for IV set-up"?

 

[Lightinthedark]

This summer I shadowed a vet who did a lot of chiropractic work but didn't have many appointments that day so I got to observe and help in the ICU.. so I should write notes to myself such as, "three chiro adjustments, removal of tumor from sheath, helped clear severe, repeat choke in mini, restrained ICU horse for IV set-up"?

I did an Excel spreadsheet of all of my hours. I had all of the dates that I shadowed/worked at the clinic, what I observed/assisted with that day, the veterinarians' names, the name of the clinic/hospital, and the total number of hours that I spent at that location. It is super easy to do and will be incredibly helpful during VMCAS season. Also, do the same thing with animal experience hours and tabulate the total number of hours from each experience.

Even after your VMCAS has been submitted, keep shadowing/working to gain additional hours of animal/vet experience for veterinary schools. Keep track of these hours too! If you are invited to any of your prospective schools, these additional experiences will help you out tremendously for ethical questions that you might be faced with during the interview.

Plus, double check with each prospective university on how many hours of animal/vet experience they require. Always strive to get diverse experiences. The more, the merrier! 🙂

 

[kakurubird]

Even after your VMCAS has been submitted, keep shadowing/working to gain additional hours of animal/vet experience for veterinary schools. Keep track of these hours too! If you are invited to any of your prospective schools, these additional experiences will help you out tremendously for ethical questions that you might be faced with during the interview.

👍

Some schools ask for updates at some point (either in interview or supplemental later like University of Wisconsin) so good to be able to back that up.

Plus, you never want to jinx yourself about needing to apply the year after!

 

[LetItSnow]

This summer I shadowed a vet who did a lot of chiropractic work but didn't have many appointments that day so I got to observe and help in the ICU.. so I should write notes to myself such as, "three chiro adjustments, removal of tumor from sheath, helped clear severe, repeat choke in mini, restrained ICU horse for IV set-up"?

I would. In the end, you won't use all those details, but you'll definitely use some of them. Having it written down will make it a lot easier.

 

[Bismarck]

I would. In the end, you won't use all those details, but you'll definitely use some of them. Having it written down will make it a lot easier.

I made note of when I went from volunteering to a paid position and when I got new job responsibilities but it's pretty easy to write just about anything down this way.

 

[bunnity]

I don't think that level of detail is necessary. No one's going to ask "How many back adjustments did you see on 3/6/11?" They will want to know, if anything, a broad picture of what you did/saw at that practice. For your personal statement you may want to include memorable experiences that taught you something, but hopefully you'd remember that without having the write it down.

Keeping track of the actual hours is nice though so you're not trying to estimate later.

 

[LetItSnow]

I don't think that level of detail is necessary. No one's going to ask "How many back adjustments did you see on 3/6/11?" They will want to know, if anything, a broad picture of what you did/saw at that practice. For your personal statement you may want to include memorable experiences that taught you something, but hopefully you'd remember that without having the write it down.

Keeping track of the actual hours is nice though so you're not trying to estimate later.

I'm not going to outright disagree with bunnity, but when I got rejected the first time, one of the things the director of admissions said about my application was that for the experiences they wanted to see much more specificity about what I had seen/done. Take it for what it's worth - just one director's opinion at one school.

 

[cowgirla]

I'm not going to outright disagree with bunnity, but when I got rejected the first time, one of the things the director of admissions said about my application was that for the experiences they wanted to see much more specificity about what I had seen/done. Take it for what it's worth - just one director's opinion at one school.

But I think saying that "during this time period I saw 9803098 chiro appts, 98322 spays, 10934983493 neuters, 18793 C-sections, 189 TPLOs, (etc)" would be a bit overkill.

I kept a basic record of hours and "new things" Made a note of some very unusual cases, and marked down the days when I happened to see something new - a rostral mandibulectomy here, a fractured skull repair there, a cat C-section this day, a TPLO that day,, but once it was on the list once, I didn't bother counting even for more routine things.

 

[LetItSnow]

But I think saying that "during this time period I saw 9803098 chiro appts, 98322 spays, 10934983493 neuters, 18793 C-sections, 189 TPLOs, (etc)" would be a bit overkill.

I kept a basic record of hours and "new things" Made a note of some very unusual cases, and marked down the days when I happened to see something new - a rostral mandibulectomy here, a fractured skull repair there, a cat C-section this day, a TPLO that day,, but once it was on the list once, I didn't bother counting even for more routine things.

Oh god yes. Totally agree. And I'm impressed that you've seen 11B neuters. 🙂

 

[cowgirla]

Oh god yes. Totally agree. And I'm impressed that you've seen 11B neuters. 🙂

The more things neutered, the better 😛

 

[LetItSnow]

The more things neutered, the better 😛

Speaking as a 'fixed' individual, I agree. 😉

 

[Minnerbelle]

I'm not going to outright disagree with bunnity, but when I got rejected the first time, one of the things the director of admissions said about my application was that for the experiences they wanted to see much more specificity about what I had seen/done. Take it for what it's worth - just one director's opinion at one school.

How nonspecific were you in your first application? And what details did they want exactly?

 

[LetItSnow]

How nonspecific were you in your first application? And what details did they want exactly?

I don't remember precisely, but I had some one-off types of experiences that I was fairly non-specific about. Like a few days I spent with an orthopedic surgeon; I wrote it up as shadowing an orthopedic surgeon. Fairly broad strokes. They wanted to know precisely what types of procedures I had been present for, so on my second go around I was more specific and listed them. It was the difference between vague "shadowing" and "what did you see".

 

[StartingoverVet]

I'm not going to outright disagree with bunnity, but when I got rejected the first time, one of the things the director of admissions said about my application was that for the experiences they wanted to see much more specificity about what I had seen/done. Take it for what it's worth - just one director's opinion at one school.

As usual, I guess it varies by school. I was vague and it was not an issue anywhere I applied.

 

[LetItSnow]

As usual, I guess it varies by school. I was vague and it was not an issue anywhere I applied.

Probably varies by evaluator even within the schools. 😛

That said, I'm not sure what risk you run by being more specific rather than less, whereas it seems to me you do run a risk by being vague. Within reason, anyway.