schools that accept students with less vet experience

[turtlturtlturtl]

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Hi everyone,

I'm a first time applicant, and I've been trying to choose which schools to apply to. I think my GRE and grades are fairly competitive, but I don't have the thousands of hours of experience that the whole world (by that I mean everyone on this forum) seems to have. I'm currently working full-time at an animal hospital and will probably have only a little more than 800 hours of small animal by the time apps are due. I do plan to get some more varied experience, but time is limited...so I was wondering: are there any schools that tend to be difficult/impossible to get into with less experience?

So, I'm applying to Davis for sure (CA resident) and have been considering CSU, Penn, Tufts, Washington...Any advice would be appreciated! 😍

 

[philomycus]

i don't think 800 is bad at all. i had WAAAAY less last year and i got an interview.

 

[birdvet2006]

The British schools may accept you with less experience. I felt like I had a lot of experience going in, but thought that some of my American classmates did not. The price of a British education is expensive though, with the US dollar being pretty low value right now.

 

[Max Power]

try your contract schools/state school if possible....it's all relative with those who apply. I had 200 and was 1st alternate for UGA from WV...had one person declined i would have got in...now another year I could have had stiffer competition and just got rejected or with less competition i could have got in....that's the benefit of the instate/contract. Like at my state sometimes it's 50 people going after 13 contract seats and sometimes it's 20....those spots are guarenteed so sometimes someone with less than steller stats (in comparison to other schools). But 800 is good!! Plus I think they look also at the way it's broken up. 800 w/ 3 vets or 2 vets and a zoo, etc is great. 800 with one vet could mean you spent a lot of time doing repetitive things (like I did, 80 hours was sufficient to learn all there was to learn in his slow paced office).

If anything, you've got till the Oct 2 deadline (yes I sent mine in 2 hours before the deadline with no problem!) to get some more hours in there....plus maybe 20 or so days till school starts....go to the animal shelter, pick up a dog training class if available (you can gain lots of experience that don't count as hours but still make you look awesome), if anything it'll make you less nervous about it.

 

[JIKJen124]

I was successful with a total of about 800 hours (500 SA, 300 LA). That said, I had years of shelter work and grew up with competative show horses for 15 years. If you can get a splash of some varied experience that's bound to help.

 

[PdxYOSHI]

Varied experience is good and don't limit yourself to just the typical clinical experience. I got accepted to Oregon State and only had 300 hrs of experience in a vet clinic shadowing a veterinarian. That being said, I did, however, have a master's degree in fish and wildlife in addition to loads of animal research experience and an internship on a wildlife refuge but none of this was under the supervision of an actual veterinarian. Just do as much as you can and then apply. You never know whats going to happen.