Vet internships at the school you graduated from

[vetsahoyVMCVM]

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I heard through the grapevine that doing a rotating internship at the school you graduated from is a no no and can be referred to as "inbreeding" (lol). Is this something that is true or false? Can anyone speak to this? Thank you!

 

[Lupin21]

Most do not take their own unless it is a true match, which is rare. Lots come back for residency, but not internship right after graduating.

 

[battie]

There is a current intern at my school that graduated in 2020. She did apply to multiple sites, but the field she wants to go into has a very strong presence in our program. It wont hinder her from that perspective for residencies.

Likewise, we have a first year resident that was in our class of 2019.

 

[WardenN7]

My bestie in school is doing an internship at LSU now; last year they had a 2019 grad as an intern too. They will take one of their own if it's a really strong candidate; the only catch there is that they would absolutely not take someone for school, internship, AND residency so it kind of closes that door. However, they take their own grads who did internships elsewhere back as residents all the time.

I can't speak personally to the experience, but based on what I've gotten from the two of them, I think there's pros and cons. I know they settled in a lot faster and the adjustment period was a lot shorter - they knew how to do all the paperwork, use the records system, how things generally ran on each service, etc. On the other hand, I think they've both struggled a bit with shaking the "student" image with clinicians since they never left.

I did leave and I'm at a private practice now, and I can't emphasize enough how beneficial it's been to be exposed to other perspectives, other ways of doing things, and so on. I was just accepted back to a residency at LSU for next year, but I think having gone away will benefit me immeasurably as a doctor. But then, I think you get that if you do school + internship at one school and then go elsewhere for residency, too.

 

[MOOSEygoosey]

Cornell will take their own students as interns but it's predominantly (almost exclusively) to people who have SUPER strong ties to the community (like a spouse that works at Cornell or is a resident or something). A lot of Cornell grads come back for residencies though!

 

[scb44f]

I graduated from Mizzou in 2015, stayed for a food animal internship, and was offered a LAIM residency, all in succession. I ended up declining the residency offer for personal reasons.

It is definitely more common to leave and come back for specialty internship or residency.

My best friend and another friend both did equine internships away from Mizzou after graduating. My best friend came back for another equine internship at Mizzou after that, and stayed for a surgery residency. The other friend came back to Mizzou after her internship for a LAIM residency.

I would not expect a similar experience for SA, but I do have a couple of other friends who left Mizzou for SA rotating internships and came back for SA surgery residency and cardio internship & residency, respectively.