Specificity of VMCAS experience descriptions

[Lab Vet]

Greetings, SDNers:

Got a question for y'all re: the description of your veterinary/animal experience listed on the VMCAS app. How specific do the descriptions need to be? For example, if one 'administered drugs' via 'various routes,' must one list the specific compounds as well as the routes themselves? What if you remember the routes but can't necessarily remember the name of the drugs (some of my experience is 10 yrs old, but the majority is more recent). Let's say that one performed surgeries [on animals in a research setting]. Is it necessary to detail the fact that one also completed all of the surgical prep (induction, fur removal, surgical scrub, intubation, monitoring, etc.) in a separate, bulleted entry? Isn't that assumed by the conduct of the surgical procedure itself? I tend to be a to the point kind of person (just the facts ma'am), so such short descriptions would be fine in my book. I don't, however, know what the adcoms think about this issue. Any thoughts? Thanks for the help!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[PocoCalypsoQH]

I don't think you need to be too specific, just so that someone reading about it could get an idea of what kinds of stuff you did. I had pretty vague descriptions, and at my file review last year they said what I had was fine. What I had for one of the clinics I did a lot of stuff at, I just put 'gave shots, assisted with animal restraint, performed castration, dehorning, etc.' type thing. If they want to know more, they will ask you in an interview I suppose.

 

[petdrhpful2015]

I agree. They know you're an aspiring veterinarian so you're not going to be doing anything too specific, unless you're a technician, but that would be specified somewhere else in your application I would assume. I just did general points about what I did in each place and it was fine.

 

[JumpHigherLivie]

I believe that there is a character limit on these as well (it's been a few years...) and that made it challenging to be descriptive yet informative as possible.
I would recommend (personally) instead of administered drugs via various routes saying something like "performed IP, IV, IM, SubQ, (or whatever you did) injections." There's a difference between being able to give an IV injection and a subq injection. I also listed things like "was responsible for asceptic surgical prep and post surgical monitoring"

I realize that there are people that can talk up their experiences to more than they were but if I personally read "I gave injections" I would be surprised that the person didn't say what kind, and it would make me question the value of the experience... if they weren't able to be specific about it.

 

[Bismarck]

I believe that there is a character limit on these as well (it's been a few years...) and that made it challenging to be descriptive yet informative as possible.
I would recommend (personally) instead of administered drugs via various routes saying something like "performed IP, IV, IM, SubQ, (or whatever you did) injections." There's a difference between being able to give an IV injection and a subq injection. I also listed things like "was responsible for asceptic surgical prep and post surgical monitoring"

I realize that there are people that can talk up their experiences to more than they were but if I personally read "I gave injections" I would be surprised that the person didn't say what kind, and it would make me question the value of the experience... if they weren't able to be specific about it.

I agree with this advice completely. I figure anything you list there is fair game for schools that interview, so you might as well be forthright with what you know how to do. Being exceptionally vague could hurt you as JumpHigherLivie noted. I would add that using abbreviations intelligently (IP, IV, etc) to save characters is fine so long as they're common jargon.

On a side note, I listed my experiences bullet style as it made them easy to read and pull out details (though the descriptions themselves are 50-60 characters).

 

[Lab Vet]

Thanks for all of your thoughts and input, gang. These were very helpful. I agree that details regarding injection route are relevant, but the particular agents administered less so. How do you guys feel about 'performed animal husbandry' (as opposed to feeding/watering, mucking out stalls)? I think husbandry as a term is pretty all encompassing, but I'd be curious what y'all think. Thanks for the help!

 

[JumpHigherLivie]

I think that given the space constraints of the application using "animal husbandry" is fine, but I would specify which species you have experience with (mice, rats, pigs, dogs, cats etc.) in a research setting or otherwise. And, you may wish to specify if it is animal husbandry in terms of a research setting or something else.

 

[Minnerbelle]

How do you guys feel about 'performed animal husbandry' (as opposed to feeding/watering, mucking out stalls)? I think husbandry as a term is pretty all encompassing, but I'd be curious what y'all think. Thanks for the help!

That's exactly what I did (I called it general husbandry I think, to mean everyday care). Anything special like sheep shearing got mentioned. And at the bottom of the descriptions field for each experience, I listed the spp involved.

 

[Lab Vet]

Thanks for all of your excellent responses everyone!