Research Experience

[ckd816]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello all! So after months and months of pursuit, I have finally found an opportunity to work in a research lab. I was approached by a PhD student who is running projects under a recent professor of mine (who I had originally asked about research opportunities). Technically the student is the one heading the project, but it is in the lab of my old professor that has his PhD already. Is this vet experience or not since my immediate supervisor would not have a PhD yet?

Thanks in advance! 🙂

 

[Minnerbelle]

Hello all! So after months and months of pursuit, I have finally found an opportunity to work in a research lab. I was approached by a PhD student who is running projects under a recent professor of mine (who I had originally asked about research opportunities). Technically the student is the one heading the project, but it is in the lab of my old professor that has his PhD already. Is this vet experience or not since my immediate supervisor would not have a PhD yet?

Thanks in advance! 🙂

Have the professor write your rec letter, and it can totally be! After all, you are working in the PI's lab... not the grad student's. It really depends on your job description, but it could either work or be kinda sketchy.

I understand that you're working primarily with the PhD student, but unless you are absolutely sure that your LOR from the student will be super stellar, I would steer away from having him/her write it. Chances are... adcoms will if they see a LOR from a PhD student, especially if you want to count it as a LOR attesting to your abilities and potentials as a scientist or a health professional.

If the grad student is doing you a favor and allowing you to follow him/her around in the lab and running little errands for him/her, then I wouldn't. After all, even a current vet student isn't considered a "health professional" yet right?Also, if the pI doesn't really know that you exist other than that you're the grad student's little pet project, then no. However, if you are actually making a contribution to the lab (and hence the pI, a "health professional") then I think you can safely say that you are in a broad sense supervised by the pI.

There's also been a debate on this forum in the past about whether research experience is considered vet/animal experience if the job description itself was far removed from animal/vet work.

 

[katryn]

Depending on what type of research you're doing it may or may not be "vet/animal experience" but even if it does not provide you with an eLOR it is still definitely worth doing and mentioning. I worked two semesters in an ecology lab working with soil samples, bugs and trolling databases(databasi? databi?), but it taught me research techniques and the importance of asking logical questions.

 

[California1]

From what I understand, animal research is "supervised" by a vet. While you may never even meet the facility vet, you and your work is under the supervision of a DVM...therefore animal research=vet experience 🙂

 

[ckd816]

Thanks for the replies. The research involves carotenoid pigments and their role in avian color vision based on foraging performance and also preening behavior. From the email I received from the guy running the project, I would either be running foraging trials with captive birds or reviewing videos and running lab based chemical analyses later in the semester. Again, it would be a project under a PhD student in the lab of someone with a PhD, but no one will have a DVM. I want to work in this lab either way but I was just curious what everyone's thoughts were as to how I should classify it (vet vs. animal experience). I think I could get a recommendation from the PhD who is in charge of the entire lab because I also took a class from him and he definitely knows who I am. He is the one who gave my information to the person who approached me about this position and I have been offered positions by the PhD in the past.

 

[Pandacinny]

Just so we're all clear, here are the actual instructions from VMCAS.

Veterinary Experience

Veterinary experiences should relate to any veterinary clinical, agribusiness, health science, or research experiences that you have had with veterinarians, other health scientists, or other professionals.

Include all relevant experiences, whether they are voluntary, paid, or academic experiences, beginning with the most recent. If you are unsure of the dates or number of hours worked, please estimate and provide details in the description. If your experience was over broken periods of time (for example, summer break), enter the average number of weekly hours and note the periods worked in your description of duties.

Animal Experience:

The experiences you report in this item should be different from those entered for Veterinary and Employment experience. They should include farm and ranch experiences, 4-H membership, animal training, or other similar activities, and should not have occurred under the supervision of a health professional.

Based on those descriptions and your own, I would think yours qualifies as veterinary experience. As an example, I know that my research involving the selection pressure placed on fruit flies by parasitoid wasps counted as veterinary experience because it was under a PhD. My time changing mouse cages in a lab was supervised by an animal caretaker and it counted as animal experience.