suggestions for high school senior?

[fishee]

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Hi! I'm currently a high school senior who will be enrolling at the University of Southern California next year🙂 I will be majoring in biology as I plan to be pre veterinary. I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions about what I could do during my first year of college because I would like to go to vet school. Are extra curriculars super important? How many hours of animal experience would I need for vet school? As of now, I have approximately 600 hours of volunteering at a vet clinic throughout high school. Overall what's the best way to start preparing for vet school in undergrad freshman year? Thanks!

 

[athenaparthenos]

Extracurriculars will help you stand out from the crowd. While it's great you already have a good amount of vet experience, by the time you apply to vet school, so will everyone else. Extracurriculars are one way to show off your unique personality -- for instance, Washington State was extremely interested in my 3 years of firespinning. :-D They can also show leadership quality if you are an officer in any clubs.

Other stuff you could work on -- finding an interesting job in the bio department might be something to do, if it gets you research time or other work with animals. Or finding a vet/shelter/other animal related place to volunteer at a few days a month while you're in school.

I had about 3300 total hours when I applied -- 2000 working in a small animal clinic, 1000 working at the zoo/local museum with exotics, and the rest various research projects (some with interesting animals, such as hissing cockroaches) throughout college.

 

[carrbear21]

One thing I was fortunate enough to do was research during undergrad. The research was required for part of a Zoology course I took and it was a great experience. It was a semester-long and it gave me insights into what research is truly about AND I received a named credit on the published article.

Try to keep your GPA up but don't freak if you're struggling. I had a 3.3/3.4 and though it wasn't competitive at top schools like Colorado or Upenn, I got a few interviews and waitlisted high at other schools. Bottom line is that when you get in to a school and graduate you have your DVM, not necessarily where it's from! 🙂

Good luck!

 

[fishee]

Thanks for the suggestions. So do you recommend that I immeadiately start accumulating hours in freshman year? Also the only vet school I've considered so far is UC Davis, but that's only because I'm from California (and I would also like to stay in CA if possible.) Also, is it better to have experience with all types of veterinary practices (large animal, exotic, small animal), or is it better to have a huge chunk of hours focusing only on one type of practice.

 

[CanadianGolden]

Thanks for the suggestions. So do you recommend that I immeadiately start accumulating hours in freshman year? Also the only vet school I've considered so far is UC Davis, but that's only because I'm from California (and I would also like to stay in CA if possible.) Also, is it better to have experience with all types of veterinary practices (large animal, exotic, small animal), or is it better to have a huge chunk of hours focusing only on one type of practice.

As I understand it's better to have variety. I worked at a small animal/exotic clinic part time for 4 months, rode and showed horses for 13 years, trained and showed dogs for 7 years, and did a lot of research on HIV.

 

[designerVet]

I'm a city girl who got a job milking cows!! a few of the interviewers were interested in that. Look for jobs like being an orientation leader at your university. that is a great job to show that you can deal with people. don't forget that being a vet is about being able to work with PEOPLE too. good luck!!! oh and keep those grades HIGH!! even if it means you take 4.5 or 5 years to get your bachelors!!

 

[PrimalMU]

As a freshman, the best thing you can do is concentrate on having a good first year at college. As I understand it, the average GPA for college freshman is about 2.8. And its really no surprise -- college is one heck of a culture shock, especially if you live on campus. My freshman GPA was a 3.13 after graduating HS with a 3.8 GPA. My freshman year was my worst, by far. Since most students do worse their freshman year, a good freshman GPA will really help your cumulative GPA.

 

[fetch]

...Washington State was extremely interested in my 3 years of firespinning. :-D

They just had visions of you setting McCoy on fire...

😉

Poi and staff? Juggler? Other?

 

[carrbear21]

Last year when I spoke with MN I was told it was better to have experience in the area you are interested in rather than randoms all over the board. Just varies by school I guess. But you don't know what you want to do unless you try a lot!

 

[PlantersPunch]

I think it's important to get varied experience. That being said, if you have a particular interest, focus on that one but also make sure to check out some other areas. I applied through an early acceptance program and was rejected. When I did the file review interview, the admissions people said the only reason I wasn't accepted was because all of my experience was with horses.

 

[fishee]

Thanks for the advice. I'm just more worried about finding large animal experience since I'm in Los Angeles.

 

[veggirl]

I think you should make an appointment with the admissions counselor at the school(s) you wish to apply to (sounds like UC Davis in your case). Have them give you advice on what they want to see....and then follow it. Your interests will lead you to the best experience available to you, but make sure to keep your grades a priority as well. Although grades are definitely not the only thing that matters, they certainly can help!

 

[wi girl]

I must admit, once I decided I was pre-vet (sumer before soph year of college) I went in to wisconsin's (my IS) admissions every summer to check in with them, see what else would help me be competitive, help with what other upper level bio might be nice to see on transcripts, what additional experience, should i take this internship or a research position, etc. it worked, however, because i got in!

 

[cwazy cat lady]

High school senior?

Oh, you are in a good spot!!! 😀


So, as the others have said:

1. Make a point of being involved, even if just a few hours a week--do volunteer work, get some shadowing experience in fields that interest you, make contacts that will later be helpful. Unless you really dislike what you start out trying (in which case you should find others), try to maintain some consistency in those--ie; maintain that involvement throughout those undergrad years. It shows stability/dedication/follow-through.

2. Do well in school and don't let anything get in the way of that. The bottom line is, no matter what you want to do, good grades are always looked well upon. Some types of fields and endeavors allow for being more forgiving of a not-so-stellar GPA, but don't have doors close because you are flaking out on your academics. If you find it hard to stay motivated that first quarter or two, drop/withdraw and take a break before you go back to college. Don't waste that time, money or your transcript!!! Instead, go get some working/volunteer or abroad experience---whatever you can do to keep learning and growing and figuring out what you like, who you are, etc.. Go back to college when you are ready.

3. Keep your options open--if something is really interesting, go explore. If you get an offer to try something you really are curious about, go do it.... You can always get back on the pre-vet track later, if that is a prevailing interest/goal. As you can see, plenty of us on here took some detours (for the better, I assume) and came back to this idea for a career...

4. Don't set lofty goals, but think more shorter-term... Get yourself through the quarter or semester, from test to test. Don't put too much stress on yourself... you just need to take it one assignment, one test at a time... and you'll see, that time FREAKING flies. And before you know it, you'll be weighing all those options...

Good luck and happy journey!!! (It is a journey, and a great one!)

 

[kate_g]

I'm just more worried about finding large animal experience since I'm in Los Angeles.

Actually there are quite a lot of rich people with horses in the LA area, so while I haven't got specific suggestions, it shouldn't be impossible to find a large animal vet to ride along with once in a while. Also, UC Davis has a field station at Tulare which mostly does dairy (and beef?) production. I'm not a great judge of SoCal geography, but they're way closer to you than the main Davis campus, anyway. 🙂 They've apparently got really impressive facilities there. I'm sure they've got some kind of summer experience program you could get involved in over one of your summers during college. In fact, Davis does something called the "Early Bovine Experience Program" or some such, for college students and vet students, which I've heard is really great. You don't have to be hard-core bovine interest to do it, they're happy to have people who just want to broaden their experience.

I also second (or third) the advice on concentrating on your studies freshman year. Could be you won't have any trouble adjusting, and can start adding in extracurriculars right away. But you really want to avoid a GPA-repair situation if at all possible, so take it easy at least until you survive your first semester.

Do something other than animal- and vet-related stuff. Vet school adcomms seem to look really favorably on well-rounded people with some worldly experience. In fact, you might consider minoring in English or Linguistics or History, or at least take extra humanities courses as electives. There's a very practical reason for this: The vet student applicant pool has, in general, pretty poor verbal GRE scores, and having a great score is a ridiculously easy way to stand out. You can't get great vocabulary and verbal reasoning skills by cramming with flashcards the month before your GRE date. But if you're well-read and have classes that emphasize writing skills, the whole application and interview process will be much smoother.

Oh, and speaking of the application process... You'll probably want to apply more places than just Davis. Repeating the application process if you get rejected would suck worse than shelling out some extra cash the first time. Before the start of your junior year, start looking into other schools and their application requirements. There are a few wacky ones out there, like public speaking or economics classes, that you might not get in your regular biology curriculum. If you look early, then you won't get stuck trying to take courses over the summer to fill reqs for schools you end up interested in.

Good luck!