VIRMP 2026

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I want to apply to ECC residency. It is what I always felt excited about. But I'm fearful of everything at this point. How ready do I feel? Not sure. Sure, more than 1/2 the internship is still left to learn, but I'm in a constant state of fear, even when I do enjoy working. That feeling is making me wonder...
 
Vet593 said:
I want to apply to ECC residency. It is what I always felt excited about. But I'm fearful of everything at this point. How ready do I feel? Not sure. Sure, more than 1/2 the internship is still left to learn, but I'm in a constant state of fear, even when I do enjoy working. That feeling is making me wonder...
Click to expand...
Have you talked to your mentors about how you're feeling?
Do you feel you've grown as a doctor in the last few months?

I think it's somewhat normal to have a degree of anxiety about what you're doing, but a constant state of fear is not sustainable nor good for your mental health.
 
I'm in my last year of veterinary school, and will be going through match with the intent of specializing in Internal Medicine. I very much enjoy teaching and like the thought of staying in academia after achieving my board certification. I realize this is far in the future and am open to changes in my journey, but for now that is my long term goal. This also fits into my financial goals regarding loan repayments.

1. Is there an added benefit to completing a specialty internship after a rotating?
2. I do realize the idea of a work-life balance during internship/residency years is laughable. But it is important to me to go somewhere with a program schedule and environment that will allow me to still have time for doing things that I enjoy outside of veterinary medicine, and not become compassion fatigued or burn out before I even get the opportunity to start residency. I see so many house officers at my current school that barely have time to eat, much less devote any time to themselves, and it's sad to me. They deserve better treatment. I don't want that to be me.
3. If there are any programs you highly recommend checking out, or running the other way from, I appreciate any insider info. I'm going to rank my academic preferences higher than any specialty programs I apply to. There are 3 academic programs I will for sure be applying to and 2 specialty hospitals I'm considering- Wheat Ridge and VCA Alameda.
----Adding onto that, are there any programs that are well known for retaining their interns for residency and/or faculty? Moving is expensive, and if there's a chance I could match somewhere where I would do both internship and residency, that would save a ton of time and money.
4. How should I go about asking for LORs? I might be more nervous about this than any other part of the match process.
 
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freedom1414 said:
1. Is there an added benefit to completing a specialty internship after a rotating?
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There's not an added benefit, but depending on the specialty, it may be basically required. The more competitive specialties often have people doing 1 or more specialty internships before they get a residency. I don't know where medicine falls on this scale.

freedom1414 said:
2. I do realize the idea of a work-life balance during internship/residency years is laughable. But it is important to me to go somewhere with a program schedule and environment that will allow me to still have time for doing things that I enjoy outside of veterinary medicine, and not become compassion fatigued or burn out before I even get the opportunity to start residency. I see so many house officers at my current school that barely have time to eat, much less devote any time to themselves, and it's sad to me. They deserve better treatment. I don't want that to be me.
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Most of this is going to be dependent on YOU moreso than on the program. I did my rotating at an institution with a reputation for having a very intense rotating internship, and I still made time for hobbies, but it took a lot of active work on my part to do so, and I had to decide what I was willing to sacrifice to make that happen. Most of my internmates did not aggressively shoehorn their hobbies into their week the way I did. (worth noting that I think I was happier than most of my internmates) But it meant that I had to get efficient at doing records quickly, figure out exactly how much sleep I needed to survive, etc.

freedom1414 said:
3. If there are any programs you highly recommend checking out, or running the other way from, I appreciate any insider info. I'm going to rank my academic preferences higher than any specialty programs I apply to. There are 3 academic programs I will for sure be applying to and 2 specialty hospitals I'm considering- Wheat Ridge and VCA Alameda.
----Adding onto that, are there any programs that are well known for retaining their interns for residency and/or faculty? Moving is expensive, and if there's a chance I could match somewhere where I would do both internship and residency, that would save a ton of time and money.
Click to expand...
Talk to your faculty mentors about this. I also strongly recommend talking to current/recent interns at any places that you are interested in. The conversations I had with people affected some of my rankings (or decisions not to rank places) quite significantly.

freedom1414 said:
4. How should I go about asking for LORs? I might be more nervous about this than any other part of the match process.
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Just ask, lol. Faculty are expecting it.
I've never been one of those people who believes you should ask at the start of a rotation - I think people get a more genuine picture of you and your effort if you don't set the expectation at the beginning of "I'm being outstanding because I'm expecting a letter" vs being outstanding and then asking for a letter, but opinions will vary on that front.
 
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1. Agree with shorty. No one *really* wants to do a specialty internship, it’s just something that one does when your plan A of getting a residency right after internship doesn’t pan out. But people do them to stay in that field and get more experience while they try for residency again or to snag something specific. Nothing wrong with having to/choosing to do them and in some fields like surgery is essentially the norm. But if you don’t have to do one, don’t…it would just delay your earning potential as a specialist for a year and you’ll be in the same place after residency with or without one, imo.

2. Also agree with shorty, being efficient at paperwork helps a lot. The place I did my internship at guaranteed us two days off a week. And we didn’t have to come in on our days off, which was huge. Some places make you still come in for hospitalized patients and stuff, but we rounded them off to others and had two entire days off. Day 1 was for catching up on sleep and maybe running life errands like groceries, and that still left a day to do whatever. But still, work life balance and internship are not really things that go together, unfortunately. Though it is better now than it was back in years past, sad as that is.

3. Agree with shorty.

4. Agree, just ask. They’re used to it if they’re in academia.
 
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Ok, I'm the outlier. I chose to do a specialty internship outside the match. For me it made sense. At the same time I secured my residency for next year at the same (my desired) location outside the match. I couldn't be happier and it is going well. Good luck to all!
 
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supershorty said:
There's not an added benefit, but depending on the specialty, it may be basically required. The more competitive specialties often have people doing 1 or more specialty internships before they get a residency. I don't know where medicine falls on this scale.


Most of this is going to be dependent on YOU moreso than on the program. I did my rotating at an institution with a reputation for having a very intense rotating internship, and I still made time for hobbies, but it took a lot of active work on my part to do so, and I had to decide what I was willing to sacrifice to make that happen. Most of my internmates did not aggressively shoehorn their hobbies into their week the way I did. (worth noting that I think I was happier than most of my internmates) But it meant that I had to get efficient at doing records quickly, figure out exactly how much sleep I needed to survive, etc.


Talk to your faculty mentors about this. I also strongly recommend talking to current/recent interns at any places that you are interested in. The conversations I had with people affected some of my rankings (or decisions not to rank places) quite significantly.


Just ask, lol. Faculty are expecting it.
I've never been one of those people who believes you should ask at the start of a rotation - I think people get a more genuine picture of you and your effort if you don't set the expectation at the beginning of "I'm being outstanding because I'm expecting a letter" vs being outstanding and then asking for a letter, but opinions will vary on that front.
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Is it generally more appropriate to ask for letters of reference in person or by email, or does it not make much of a difference?
 
JaynaAli said:
1. Agree with shorty. No one *really* wants to do a specialty internship, it’s just something that one does when your plan A of getting a residency right after internship doesn’t pan out. But people do them to stay in that field and get more experience while they try for residency again or to snag something specific. Nothing wrong with having to/choosing to do them and in some fields like surgery is essentially the norm. But if you don’t have to do one, don’t…it would just delay your earning potential as a specialist for a year and you’ll be in the same place after residency with or without one, imo.

2. Also agree with shorty, being efficient at paperwork helps a lot. The place I did my internship at guaranteed us two days off a week. And we didn’t have to come in on our days off, which was huge. Some places make you still come in for hospitalized patients and stuff, but we rounded them off to others and had two entire days off. Day 1 was for catching up on sleep and maybe running life errands like groceries, and that still left a day to do whatever. But still, work life balance and internship are not really things that go together, unfortunately. Though it is better now than it was back in years past, sad as that is.

3. Agree with shorty.

4. Agree, just ask. They’re used to it if they’re in academia.
Click to expand...
Is it generally more appropriate to ask for letters of reference in person or by email, or does it not make much of a difference?
 
freedom1414 said:
Is it generally more appropriate to ask for letters of reference in person or by email, or does it not make much of a difference?
Click to expand...
I always recommend asking in person.
 
supershorty said:
Have you talked to your mentors about how you're feeling?
Do you feel you've grown as a doctor in the last few months?

I think it's somewhat normal to have a degree of anxiety about what you're doing, but a constant state of fear is not sustainable nor good for your mental health.
Click to expand...
I definitely have grown as a doctor from the start on my internship. *But I think that part of my fear comes from the fact that my actual license took way longer -due to international documents- and although I enjoy working, I have not had the opportunity to have a lot of primary case responsibility. So I guess I am just anxious that I do not feel super ready. I just recently talked to a couple criticalists and their input helped a lot. So I am feeling better but I guess still a little nervous still.
 
For those in or applying to residency…
I’m currently in a SA rotating and this week finally had my “see the light” moment where I figured out what I really want to do the rest of my life — radiology.

Now I’m freaking out. I know DI is a competitive speciality and I feel incredibly far behind only just now figuring out it’s what I want to do. I have a rotation with the diagnostic imaging department before match, but is it even possible to make myself a competitive applicant in so little time? I understand that it will likely require a specialty internship first, but I feel ill-qualified for even that at this point.

Any advice?
 
hopefulfuturedawgdr said:
For those in or applying to residency…
I’m currently in a SA rotating and this week finally had my “see the light” moment where I figured out what I really want to do the rest of my life — radiology.

Now I’m freaking out. I know DI is a competitive speciality and I feel incredibly far behind only just now figuring out it’s what I want to do. I have a rotation with the diagnostic imaging department before match, but is it even possible to make myself a competitive applicant in so little time? I understand that it will likely require a specialty internship first, but I feel ill-qualified for even that at this point.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
You haven't had any imaging rotations already? How did you arrive at this conclusion then?
 
hopefulfuturedawgdr said:
For those in or applying to residency…
I’m currently in a SA rotating and this week finally had my “see the light” moment where I figured out what I really want to do the rest of my life — radiology.

Now I’m freaking out. I know DI is a competitive speciality and I feel incredibly far behind only just now figuring out it’s what I want to do. I have a rotation with the diagnostic imaging department before match, but is it even possible to make myself a competitive applicant in so little time? I understand that it will likely require a specialty internship first, but I feel ill-qualified for even that at this point.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
Paging @allygator13, but the few radiologists I know had to seek out a lot of opportunities to get more experience/LORs before they finally matched. One in particular did her rotating, and stayed at that specialty hospital for ER while hanging out on the radiology service on her weekends for a year or two until she matched. Personally not very familiar with DI but I imagine you'll have to ace that rotation and get glowing LORs from your radiologist(s).
 
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hopefulfuturedawgdr said:
For those in or applying to residency…
I’m currently in a SA rotating and this week finally had my “see the light” moment where I figured out what I really want to do the rest of my life — radiology.

Now I’m freaking out. I know DI is a competitive speciality and I feel incredibly far behind only just now figuring out it’s what I want to do. I have a rotation with the diagnostic imaging department before match, but is it even possible to make myself a competitive applicant in so little time? I understand that it will likely require a specialty internship first, but I feel ill-qualified for even that at this point.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
Go talk to the head of radiology now, don't wait for your rotation. Tell them your desire and ask for their advice. A lot of radiology residencies happen by making contacts. There is a convention for radiologists in October each year so you missed this one. If you don't match it is a great place to make contacts. I went during my rotating internship and learned a lot. The key is to get an outstanding letter of recommendation from a radiologist prior to January.
I'll be honest that it will be hard to match with no real experience. I did an externship with a radiologist, did papers and reseatch, and did a lot with the radiolgy department my 4th year. As far as the match I manged to work a deal outside the match with my desired location that included a one year internship and 3 year residency so I didn't have to deal with the match. That was ideal for me. I also had another offer for residency outside the match but not in my ideal location. So if you don't match look into opportunities for short term externships with places that have residencies and search for places that may offer residencies outside the match. That way if you make contacts they may want to keep you. Good luck
 
Hello, looking for some advice regarding academic small animal rotating internships.
I’m a current 4th year veterinary student that will be entering the match for a small animal rotating internship this year. I am interested in pursuing Neurology and would like to stay in academia (past internship and residency as well) but who knows what will happen.

I would love to chat with anyone who has experience in the following academic small animal rotating internship program or Neurology residency.
Cornell
NC State
Ohio State
Colorado State
University of Georgia
University of Illinois
University of Minnesota
U Penn
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Texas A&M
Tufts

I am planning on contacting programs directly to be connected to current/past interns as well but thought I would reach out on here if anyone would be willing to provide advice.
 
iyoun said:
I am planning on contacting programs directly to be connected to current/past interns as well but thought I would reach out on here if anyone would be willing to provide advice.
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I did my rotating at one of the places on your list and would be happy to chat.

It makes it much easier to help if you have specific questions, rather than something general like "tell me about your experience," when you reach out to current and former interns!
 
supershorty said:
I did my rotating at one of the places on your list and would be happy to chat.

It makes it much easier to help if you have specific questions, rather than something general like "tell me about your experience," when you reach out to current and former interns!
Click to expand...
Thank you! Just messaged you.
 
hopefulfuturedawgdr said:
For those in or applying to residency…
I’m currently in a SA rotating and this week finally had my “see the light” moment where I figured out what I really want to do the rest of my life — radiology.

Now I’m freaking out. I know DI is a competitive speciality and I feel incredibly far behind only just now figuring out it’s what I want to do. I have a rotation with the diagnostic imaging department before match, but is it even possible to make myself a competitive applicant in so little time? I understand that it will likely require a specialty internship first, but I feel ill-qualified for even that at this point.

Any advice?
Click to expand...
Hello! Agree with other commenters that it may be hard at this point to match into a residency this cycle, but you only need one LOR from a radiologist so if you can make a great impression on your rotation with at least one of them you will at least have a shot. Also like others said, it's all about who you know so again if you make a great impression on the radiologists where you are, they can tell their other radiology friends and it will be in your favor. They also may know about opportunities outside match, including specialty internships (that's how I got my specialty internship after I didn't match the first time). Even if you don't have anything published yet, if you can try to talk to a radiologist where you are now about starting a relatively easy project (like a case report), you can still talk about it in your applications and interviews.
 
iyoun said:
Hello, looking for some advice regarding academic small animal rotating internships.
I’m a current 4th year veterinary student that will be entering the match for a small animal rotating internship this year. I am interested in pursuing Neurology and would like to stay in academia (past internship and residency as well) but who knows what will happen.

I would love to chat with anyone who has experience in the following academic small animal rotating internship program or Neurology residency.
Cornell
NC State
Ohio State
Colorado State
University of Georgia
University of Illinois
University of Minnesota
U Penn
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Texas A&M
Tufts

I am planning on contacting programs directly to be connected to current/past interns as well but thought I would reach out on here if anyone would be willing to provide advice.
Click to expand...
Feel free to reach out to me! I am a current rotating at one of the institutions on your list.
 
Does anyone have insight on who to ask for letters of recommendation for a small animal rotating internship? I'm a 4th year gearing up for the match trying to figure out who to ask. Are doctors that I worked with on rotations better or would professors who know me really well be acceptable? I did an externship at one of the places I'm looking to do an internship at and had a good relationship with one of the surgeons there, would it be okay to ask him for a letter or is it not considered appropriate because he works at the clinic I'm applying to?
 
reyofsunshine said:
Does anyone have insight on who to ask for letters of recommendation for a small animal rotating internship? I'm a 4th year gearing up for the match trying to figure out who to ask. Are doctors that I worked with on rotations better or would professors who know me really well be acceptable? I did an externship at one of the places I'm looking to do an internship at and had a good relationship with one of the surgeons there, would it be okay to ask him for a letter or is it not considered appropriate because he works at the clinic I'm applying to?
Click to expand...
I’d strongly recommend at least one clinician you worked with on rotations. Internships want to know you have at least some clinical skills to build upon. Using another professor who knows you will is also good because you want glowing letters, but I think you need at least one clinician. It’s fine to ask someone at a place you’re applying, but know that they may decline if they’re an intern coordinator or in a supervisory position. My residency coordinator wouldn’t write letters for people applying to her program, but the other faculty members in our department would write them.
 
reyofsunshine said:
Does anyone have insight on who to ask for letters of recommendation for a small animal rotating internship? I'm a 4th year gearing up for the match trying to figure out who to ask. Are doctors that I worked with on rotations better or would professors who know me really well be acceptable? I did an externship at one of the places I'm looking to do an internship at and had a good relationship with one of the surgeons there, would it be okay to ask him for a letter or is it not considered appropriate because he works at the clinic I'm applying to?
Click to expand...
I'd strongly recommend that the majority, if not all, of your letters be from clinicians who worked with you on clinics. Internships want to see that people established in the field think that you will be a good doctor - you're not doing an internship to sit in the classroom.

When I was a student, it was recommended to me that I try to have a letter from each of the major services that you'd spend a lot of time in during a rotating internship, meaning internal medicine, surgery, and ECC. I didn't have an ECC rotation before match, so that was out for me, but I had a letter from surgery, medicine, and one of my interest areas (oncology). I had a 4th letter that was from a surgeon who never worked with me on clinics, but served on my thesis committee and knew me very, very well as a result of that. I think you should plan to have 3 letters from clinicians who saw you on clinics.

and ditto what Jayna said about asking someone at a place you're applying.
 
reyofsunshine said:
Does anyone have insight on who to ask for letters of recommendation for a small animal rotating internship?
Click to expand...
An add-on to the feedback you've gotten: I get asked a lot about getting LORs from people from your prevet days for the match....so if that applies to anyone here, avoid at all costs. It's not that they would write you a bad letter, but you are an entirely different person from your prevet self and you really need someone who can speak to how you are as a baby doctor now. If you externed at your prevet clinic(s) during 4th year, that's a little different.

+1 for getting all of your letters from different services (or externships) and their respective clinicians. You don't need to be laser-focused on getting LORs from specific specialists until you apply for specialty internships/residencies imo.

I feel similarly about using clinicians from your school to write you an LOR for a speciality internship/residency. It's a grey area if you've continued to work with them in some capacity post-graduation (ie writing a paper), but you need to have receipts from your rotating/relevant specialists for sure.
 
Hi everyone!
I apologize if this has already been discussed, but I was wondering if anyone has advice regarding how to set up and organize a CV when applying for internships. I have heard some people say that it should be 1 page maximum and others have said that it can be 2 full pages. Also, is it recommended to omit experiences from undergrad or is it okay to include some highlighted veterinary/animal experiences prior to veterinary school? I also have not done any research or have any publications from vet school, but I was a neuroanatomy TA and a student ambassador for the vet school (involved a lot of outreach for prospective students and community events) -- would it be okay for me to include these on my CV to show involvement in the vet school outside of clinical rotations? I just wasn't sure if the CV should only include things from vet school or if it was okay to go back to undergrad, or what the best method for layout/formatting is to ensure that my CV is detailed enough but also concise.
Thank you all in advance! 🙂
 
I don’t think it’s bad to include older experiences, but more recent things should be your priority and make sure that everything you do list is applicable to an intern’s duties or otherwise very important. This isn’t the time to include that summer you spent babysitting and things like that. The VIRMP stuff is a bit of an outlier in regards to CV…normally a CV is a “list everything” type of document and length for an CV isn’t really a concern; that’s why academia uses CVs rather than shorter resumes is so that all that info can be included. But for the match, programs have so many apps to get through it’s more important to have that first (and potentially only) page really be the attention grabbing important stuff. People often won’t flip multiple pages of “fluff”. Format doesn’t really matter in my opinion as long as it’s readable, consistent throughout, and free from errors.

Edit: I will say that in my own personal opinion, I don’t think you need to do a lot of explaining of experiences unless you did something out of the ordinary or extraordinary. We know what externs and students on rotations learn/do. We know what’s typically involved in being a club officer. I just listed those experiences…I don’t see a point in wasting valuable characters explaining to something I can deduce myself.
 
JaynaAli said:
I don’t think it’s bad to include older experiences, but more recent things should be your priority and make sure that everything you do list is applicable to an intern’s duties or otherwise very important. This isn’t the time to include that summer you spent babysitting and things like that. The VIRMP stuff is a bit of an outlier in regards to CV…normally a CV is a “list everything” type of document and length for an CV isn’t really a concern; that’s why academia uses CVs rather than shorter resumes is so that all that info can be included. But for the match, programs have so many apps to get through it’s more important to have that first (and potentially only) page really be the attention grabbing important stuff. People often won’t flip multiple pages of “fluff”. Format doesn’t really matter in my opinion as long as it’s readable, consistent throughout, and free from errors.
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This is so helpful, thank you so much! I have also heard that some people include a section for "Externships and Mentorships" and list relevant externships during clinical year. I am interested in IM and/or cardio and many of my externships have been specialty focused. Would you recommend including this on a CV to show that I have pursued externships in my specialty areas of interest, or do you feel that this is unnecessary to include?
Thanks again for your help!
 
lynne8832 said:
This is so helpful, thank you so much! I have also heard that some people include a section for "Externships and Mentorships" and list relevant externships during clinical year. I am interested in IM and/or cardio and many of my externships have been specialty focused. Would you recommend including this on a CV to show that I have pursued externships in my specialty areas of interest, or do you feel that this is unnecessary to include?
Thanks again for your help!
Click to expand...
Looks like I was in the process of editing my original post when you asked this, so go back and read that too, but my advice would be to call out anything slightly unique, but don’t spend a ton of space explaining details unless it’s something beyond the norm. Knowing you sought out an extra cardio externship is useful but I don’t think you need to explain exactly what you did there…I know what cardio externs do. If you did something unique there I wouldn’t expect then maybe call that out, otherwise briefly listing is fine.
 
Has anybody reached out to current specialty interns and residents of programs that you are applying to? What questions do you usually ask? Do you typically only ask the first year residents or all 3 of their emails are available?
 
mashedpotatoes5459 said:
What questions do you usually ask
Click to expand...
As someone who receives a lot of questions, PLEASE ask specific questions when you contact current people, not vague things like "how has your experience been" or "can you tell me more about the program" - it's much easier to help if there are specific things you want to know about, and people are busy, so writing a novel of an answer for a vague question in hopes you cover what people are actually wanting to know about is not very practical!
 
How important or recommended is it to get letters of reference from boarded specialists at the school that you attend? I have 2 LOR from my school that I worked with on clinics (cardiology and IM), but was wondering if it is acceptable or advisable to have the 3rd letter from a clinician that I worked with on an externship? I only have one more rotation (ECC) in house before the VIRMP is due on 1/6, so I was planning to ask one of our boarded ECC faculty for the 3rd letter but was wondering how others have gone about this. Thanks in advance!
 
How early should I be notifying my letter writers (I already asked them) about the match opening to give them plenty of time to complete the letter? I had wanted to have my letter of intent and CV done first in case they wanted to look at them, but I have barely started my letter of intent and idk when it will be done.
 
zenarcade said:
How early should I be notifying my letter writers (I already asked them) about the match opening to give them plenty of time to complete the letter? I had wanted to have my letter of intent and CV done first in case they wanted to look at them, but I have barely started my letter of intent and idk when it will be done.
Click to expand...
I think it’s fine to send a brief email and say the thing has opened and you’re working on your materials and will send them asap for them to reference, if needed. If you think you can finish a rough draft soon waiting a few more days and sending everything at once is also likely fine. Honestly, most are probably going to wait until close to the deadline to do it anyway. And if these are your vet school professors they will probably know it’s time anyway as well.
 
Does anyone have insight on what to include in the section for "Publications, research, or other pertinent experience"? What counts as pertinent experience? I guess I'm struggling to decide what to put in here that's not on my CV already
 
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