WAMC? First time applicant wanting to go into Aquatic Vet

[Jeungvet]

Hi everyone! I am looking for some guidance as I will be applying to veterinary school this upcoming spring-summer and wanted some advice on what I should do moving forward as well as my chances. I'm a current 3rd year studying at UC Davis majoring in Animal Science specializing in aquatic animals and taking a minor in Public Health. My ultimate goal is to specialize and become an aquatic animal veterinarian or go into small animal medicine. Please let me know what my chances are and if there's any advice/other schools I should consider moving forward. None of my family is in the vet field so anything would be really helpful! Please be as honest as you need to be, no hard feelings.

Background: 20M Asian, Texas and Missouri resident (parents live and pay taxes separately so I am a resident of either)

Schools I am applying to: Mizzou, TAMU, Texas Tech, UF, Cornell, Upenn, UC Davis, WSU, Ohio State, UIUC, Wisconsin, Tufts, OVC

Preference: Upenn, UF, Cornell, UIUC, WSU, TAMU. I would want to do AQUAVET or MARVET hopefully, and would also value having classes/possible rotations that have aquatics in them.

Cumulative GPA: 3.81
Science GPA: 3.74
Last 45: 3.94

GRE: Not gotten score back, but got 320s in my practices(might not submit if my gpa is ok)
CASPEr: haven't taken yet

Veterinary Experience:
- 1300 hours in General practice animal hospital working as a VA, approximately 70% SA, 20%-25% Exotic, 5%-10% farm/equine
- 60 hours Student Assistant in Knights landing clinic at UC Davis
- 60 hours Medical oncology intern at Davis teaching hospital

Animal Experience:
-150 hours Fish lab caretaker maintaining aquariums, medicating and quarantaining fish for research
-100 hours Aquatic toxicology lab assistant maintaining invertebrate cultures, delta smelt larvae and adults
- 100 hours shadowing at small GP vet clinic

Research Experience:
- 800 hours researching cortisol levels in hatchery delta smelt(personal project hoping to publish by the end of this year) and working on toxicology reports for the SF bay and sacramento/san joaquin river delta for the aquatic health program at Davis
- 160 hours researching morphological fin evolution and saltwater swimming behaviors of fish as a consequence of ecological changes
- 40 hours doing computational nutritional enzyme development research
- 40 hours primate social behavior intern

Awards/Scholarships:
- Deans list winter twice and fall
- Recipient of Gail E. & Ruth M. Oliver scholarship for the college of Agriculture
- I won a couple collegiate/open badminton tournaments for certain flights but idk if those count as awards

Extracurriculars/Leadership/Certifications:
- Student TA/LA/Peer Tutor for upper division genetics and cellular replication(bis101) 2 quarters
- Compete in international aquascaping competition(4 years)
- CPR/First Aid certified for 2 years
- Active Member of Delta Epsilon Mu Professional Pre-Health Fraternity(4 quarters)
- Finance Chair for Delta Epsilon Mu(3 quarters/1 year)
- Safety officer and travel coordinator for the UC Davis badminton club(3 quarters/1 year)
- member of vet aide club(1 year)
- member of korean american student association(2 quarters)
- member of Knights landing one health clinic(1 year)

Employment:
- 600 hours as a chipotle worker(high school)

ELORs: two from the GP vets at the hospital I work at(one is from the exotics specialist and the other is an SA vet) as they've known me for three years and I get along with them well+work with them the most, 1 from the professor I TA with for genetics, 1 from the professor of the aquatic health program lab. I will have done work for all of these people for at least a year so I feel confident they will be good recommenders. I do have a single concern though, as the professor I am going to TA for did not teach me BIS101, but I am being a TA for credits so it will be a course on my transcipt. I know some vet schools require a rec letter from a professor that has taught you and I'm unsure if this would count, despite the credits being for a pass/no pass grade.

My main concern is that recommendor issue and that I don't have much experience in the large/farm animal and equine fields of medicine. I have some from the GP and classes, but not much outside that. I am fairly certain that I'm not interested in those paths, but I am unsure if I should spend my time doing those areas or focusing on what I am more certain I want to do. Also, I want some advice, if at all possible, on vet schools to consider or things to think about if I want to go into aquatic medicine as I know it is more new+niche. Any advice on experiences I should have would be great too!

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[Cowsrcool]

Hey! I don’t have much to offer but I know schools love to see vet hours pertaining to the field you are interested in. So if you write your essays about wanting to go into aquatics you should try to obtain some hours with an aquatic veterinarian. I see you have aquatic animal experience which is great but they might take pause with you having no vet hours with an aquatic vet if you say that’s what field you want to work in 🙂 otherwise your GPAs are very competitive and you have decent vet hours. I say just keep diversifying those hours like you mentioned not having large animal hours and those would definitely be helpful to your application even if it isn’t your field of choice 🙂 goodluck

 

[pp9]

Overall you seem reasonably competitive, although I would suggest comparing your stats against the published admitted class stats for each school (on the school's websites) to get a better idea. As for aquatics experience, do your fish labs have a vet they work with? Can you get connected with that vet for shadowing? What are the aquaculture industries like in your states - can you get in contact with industry vets? You also mention not having a lot of farm/equine experience, but the 5-10% of hours you do have is probably more than many applicants have. If you can, by all means increase the hours though.

Aquatics is not that new or niche...a lot of people are interested in it. Aquatic med for fish/aquaculture is a more unique interest which could prove beneficial to mention in your essays, aquatic med for dolphins/aquariums/etc...not so much. Not that I think you should hide your interest if it's the latter, but personally I would have two totally different personal statements between the two interests. If you fall into the latter, I think it would be important to point out that you are well rounded besides having an interest in 'charismatic' aquatic species. It is good that you are still interested in small animal medicine as that is statistically where you will end up.

I do have a single concern though, as the professor I am going to TA for did not teach me BIS101, but I am being a TA for credits so it will be a course on my transcipt. I know some vet schools require a rec letter from a professor that has taught you and I'm unsure if this would count, despite the credits being for a pass/no pass grade.

I would reach out to the schools and see what their thoughts are on this. It would be better to figure it out before you apply/pay fees for a school you may not qualify for based on a technicality (and you still have time to find someone who could write the qualifying letter if this situation doesn't fulfill that requirement).

Also food for thought: I did Marvet - a great trip and we did do quite a lot, but imo Aquavet is more competitive and is a bit more serious/nitty gritty. It's geared towards making you more proficient as an aquatics vet (also why there are multiple courses you are intended to take over time, as opposed to one trip). The application process for both reflects that as well. When I did Marvet, we actually had at least two pre-vet students in our group. Not sure if they still take pre-vets, but could be worth looking into if you don't get in this cycle. That and the UF aquatics certificate. Both cost $$$ of course. Happy to talk more about all of the above in a DM to avoid derailing your thread.