Trouble with extra curriculars

[knr1527]

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I'm in my second semester of first year, and I'm not sure exactly what I want to do still. I like everything so far, so choosing will be difficult. I've ruled out food animal however. I would like to further my education with an internship after vet school both for the higher paycheck in the future and because I think general practice would get too monotonous for me. My question is, how do I make myself a competitive internship applicant (besides grades)? What extra stuff should I be doing?

I've joined one club, but none of the clubs seem very active.
I've tried shadowing a bit in the small animal hospital, but mostly I feel like I'm in the way or a nuisance to people trying to get work done. I haven't been able to develop a relationship with any of the doctors and I'm not sure how to go about doing this.

Any ideas for things I should be doing? Does shadowing even look good on an internship application....it doesn't demonstrate much about my abilities or personality.

Advice would be appreciated! Thank you 🙂

 

[aretoo]

I would like to further my education with an internship after vet school both for the higher paycheck in the future

I don't know much about small animal internships, though I'm sure others will be able to help you.

However, the prof that taught our business classes mentioned that internships do not currently "pay off" in terms of higher salaries vs comparable colleagues that did not complete internships. That might not matter for your purposes, but just FYI.

 

[Mr Vega]

I'm in my second semester of first year, and I'm not sure exactly what I want to do still. I like everything so far, so choosing will be difficult. I've ruled out food animal however. I would like to further my education with an internship after vet school both for the higher paycheck in the future and because I think general practice would get too monotonous for me. My question is, how do I make myself a competitive internship applicant (besides grades)? What extra stuff should I be doing?

I've joined one club, but none of the clubs seem very active.
I've tried shadowing a bit in the small animal hospital, but mostly I feel like I'm in the way or a nuisance to people trying to get work done. I haven't been able to develop a relationship with any of the doctors and I'm not sure how to go about doing this.

Any ideas for things I should be doing? Does shadowing even look good on an internship application....it doesn't demonstrate much about my abilities or personality.

Advice would be appreciated! Thank you 🙂

Outside of grades and some good experience in the summer breaks there's not a ton you can do while in school. You can try to get into a research assisting job with one of the clinicians - dont' focus on all of them. Pick 1 or 2 that are in the specialty you like and pursue them. LORs can make all the difference for internship applicants - busting your butt in senior rotations is where this comes into play. You want your clinicians from senior rotations to be able to write you a letter that isn't just good, but glowing. They need to be impressed with your abilities/knowledge base/work ethic/etc... Using your externship time to visit your favorite internship locations is an obvious way to get your foot in the door as well.