WAMC for Post Bacc? Non-Traditional

[DidiMaymaysMom]

I'm in a bit of a special situation here. A compound of many things

Went to college for Economics, GPA 3.4. Figured out I want to become a vet a couple months before graduation. Applied to Tufts' post bacc program and got rejected. Now 26, working in corporate America, and rethinking my career.

Took 1 semester of chemistry and 1 semester of physics while working. No science class from college. Now considering pursuing school full time to get my pre reqs faster.

Experience:
200 hrs volunteer at an animal shelter

Complication: Foreign citizen, have to keep my current full-time job in order to stay here

I'm considering the program at CSU Fullerton and Scripps College. Due to my immigration status, I can only consider full time structured programs. Is there any other pre-vet post bacc or Masters programs in SoCal? CSULA just discontinued theirs.

I'm really concerned about experience. Are post bacc programs looking for vet experiences? Here're a couple things I'm considering if I should do
1. Get an in with the animal shelter clinic and see if I can volunteer there. They only run weekday mornings so it would conflict with my work. Not sure how work is going to take it
2. Try to see if I can volunteer at an animal hospital on the weekends under a vet, but probably a long shot since I only have shelter experience.

I'm mostly concerned about getting into a post bacc/masters programs that has good research/internship support since I can't work outside of school (due to immigration). Second concern is experience. Not too concerned about GPA. Has anyone successfully made a career change as a non-US-resident? It's a lot to give up my job and start fresh so I want to make sure it's not a one in a million situation.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[JaynaAli]

I have no experience with post-baccs, but before you completely change your career and go back to school, I’d try to get some volunteer or shadowing experience at a vet clinic on your days off from your regular job. How do you know you want to pursue vet med if your only experience is a shelter volunteer? Reality of vet med is often different than what we imagine it’ll be like. I’d slow down on figuring out school and spend some time making sure vet med is what you want to pursue first. Then once you have some vet experience, if you still want to upheave your life to pursue vet med, you can revisit these questions and go from there.

 

[DidiMaymaysMom]

I have no experience with post-baccs, but before you completely change your career and go back to school, I’d try to get some volunteer or shadowing experience at a vet clinic on your days off from your regular job. How do you know you want to pursue vet med if your only experience is a shelter volunteer? Reality of vet med is often different than what we imagine it’ll be like. I’d slow down on figuring out school and spend some time making sure vet med is what you want to pursue first. Then once you have some vet experience, if you still want to upheave your life to pursue vet med, you can revisit these questions and go from there.

Thanks for the advice! I've talked to a few vets about their experiences and have shadowed the RVT at the shelter but I'll look into shadowing a vet at a clinic. I've messaged a college alum that's a vet but haven't heard anything back yet. I'll also ask the clinic that I take my animals, but do you have any suggestions on how to ask vets if I can shadow them?

 

[AppyDust]

As far as Pre-Veterinary programs in SoCal, the ones I know of are: Pre-Veterinary AS at Los Angeles Pierce College & the Animal Science BS (Pre-Vet track) at Cal Poly Pomona.
Pierce College is a community college but the founder of the program specifically designed it to meet the prerequisites of UC Davis and over 300 students from the program have been accepted into veterinary schools. There are a couple of schools that won't accepted some classes from a 2-year college but a large portion do, it would be a less expensive way to complete your pre-reqs and (unless something has drastically changed recently) the program is great.
Cal Poly Pomona has a great program too, you won't have to worry about schools not liking pre-reqs from a 2-year school although of course the price tag is much higher.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo also has a Pre-Vet program which I imagine is similar to Pomona's but I don't know any specifics about it.