VMCAS veterinary exp vs employment exp

[GAgirl85]

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Hi, I'm new here so I hope this isn't a silly question. When filling out the VMCAS application what is the difference between Veterinary experience and Employment experience? About how many hours of each do successful applicants have? Thanks for any insight you can give!

 

[EllieGirl89]

Always classify your experiences in the "highest" category possible. So if you had a paying job somewhere under the supervision of a veterinarian, that is veterinary experience. If you had a paying job that was with animals (barn help, kennel attendant, etc.) but not under the supervision of a vet, that's animal experience. If you had a job that had absolutely nothing to do with animals (waitress, etc.) then that's employment experience.

Basically, anything that you did under the supervision of a veterinarian is veterinary experience, whether it's paid or not. Anything that you did with animals NOT under the supervision of a vet, paid or not, is animal experience. Anything that doesn't have to do with animals that you got paid for is employment experience, and anything that doesn't have to do with animals and isn't paid is community activity.

 

[Coquette22]

Experience hours will vary by applicant, depending on their other stats and what schools they're applying to, so it's hard to give you a number. Check out the Successful Applicants thread to see what some accepted SDNers had for hours.

C/O 2015
C/O 2014

 

[twelvetigers]

The big rule is that nothing can go in two places at once. So if you got paid but it was not a: veterinary experience, i.e. at a clinic, or b: relevant research under a DVM/PhD/MD/DO (which also counts as veterinary experience), then it goes under work experience. So all those hours at Chuck E. Cheese... that's where to put them. 🙂

 

[that redhead]

Always classify your experiences in the "highest" category possible.

Absolutely 👍

OP, when the VMCAS actually opens up, you can go to the experience section and they give you a handy little flow chart/box thing where you can determine what goes where. TT is right that you can't "double dip" (put something in two categories), there may be times where you can do so but will have to split the hours. For example, if you worked at a wildlife rehab center for 100 hours and shadowed their vet for 25 of those hours, you could classify the 25 under vet and the remaining 75 under animal. Make sense?

 

[EllieGirl89]

Absolutely 👍

OP, when the VMCAS actually opens up, you can go to the experience section and they give you a handy little flow chart/box thing where you can determine what goes where. TT is right that you can't "double dip" (put something in two categories), there may be times where you can do so but will have to split the hours. For example, if you worked at a wildlife rehab center for 100 hours and shadowed their vet for 25 of those hours, you could classify the 25 under vet and the remaining 75 under animal. Make sense?

Yep! I did this too. I worked at a dog kennel where I did about 900 hours doing dog and cat care, running daycares, cleaning, maintenance, etc. I classified all that under animal experience. But I also did about 90 hours of assisting the staff veterinarians with exams (mostly restraint and general shadowing) and I put those hours under veterinary experience.

 

[lareinesoleil]

I did it slightly differently, because when I was first starting out I worked at a veterinary clinic that had both, and there was absolutely no way I could remember what percentage of my time was spent in the kennel and what percentage of time was spent assisting. It was a grey area too, because the kennel staff would give the meds, we also took care of the sx animals...
So I listed it all under veterinary experience, but then wrote that part of it was kennel work. Technically, it was under the supervision of a veterinarian, but I made it clear that it wasn't all "vet" work (and the journey from kennel help to hopeful vet student was featured strongly in my PS, so it's not like I was trying to hide anything).