Okay, this is my first time posting (note the conspicuous absence of an avatar 😉. Mine is a strange story. I started college three days after my fifteenth birthday, in 2009. My parents are both physicians for people, and although I grew up on a farm and have been addicted to animals for my entire life, I never considered a career in veterinary medicine until now, in my first year of medical school in Haifa, Israel. I realize that my passion for medicine is no stronger than my love for animals and my interest in helping animal owners. Okay, now it gets REALLY crazy. On weekends, I take the train for one hour to Tel Aviv, where I walk for 2 more miles to reach the SPCA, where I work for 6 more hours under an Israeli summer sun walking and training dogs, guiding visitors through the kennels, and grooming the cats. It is exhausting, especially since right now I am in the middle of med school midterms (aahhhh!!!!), but I wouldn't give it up for anything. I have pretty limited veterinary clinic experience, but I really really want to apply this cycle. My stats are below:
GPA: 3.9
Science GPA: 3.9
Honors/Awards:
· Earned a 4-year Presidential Academic Honor Scholarship
· Earned Dean’s List every semester enrolled
· Member of Phi Eta Sigma Freshmen Academic Honor Society
· Member of Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society
· Member of Phi Beta Kappa Academic Honor Society
· Member of Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society
· Oustanding Molecular Biology Senior at Stetson University 2013
· Winner of Stetson University’s Dorothy Fuller Molecular Biology Award 2013
· Honorable Mention for Outstanding Research Poster Presentation at Undergraduate Research Symposium 2013
Animal experience:
11,500 hrs farm work, training horses, dogs, syringe feeding baby parrot, managing egg business (I grew up on a farm 🙂
110 hrs SPCA volunteer work
Other:
· Interned for ~150 hours at Florida Hospital in Deland
· Shadowed ~20 hours in breast oncology department at Florida Hospital in Tampa
· Volunteered for ~30 hours in Florida Hospital’s Obstetrics Unit
· Attended the Senior Citizens’ Pesach Seder and Chanukah parties for three years to entertain and visit with elderly nursing home residents
· Volunteered at the Jewish Federation for ~200 hours—packed and sorted boxes to be distributed to underprivileged families in central Florida
· Established a free, all-day babysitting service for Orlando Jewish Community mothers—available every Saturday, 2011-2013
· Tutored 300 hours in college-level chemistry, physics, mathematics
· Worked 14 hours in Stetson University Theatre Costume Department
· 450 hours neurobehavioral research with lab animals (did surgical electrode implantation, stimulation, immunohistochemical staining and cell count)
· Volunteered 112 hours at SPCA in Tel Aviv
So, my question is this: do I have a shot? My first choice vet school is UF, as my instate school. If anyone has any suggestions for how I can improve, that would be greatly appreciated! Thank you guys.
Hi Quirky! Welcome to vet med!
So I have two answers to your question...do I think you have a shot in a cycle or two? Yes! Do I think you have a chance this coming cycle (class of 2019)? Probably not.
Sorry to be more pessimistic than some of the other posters, but I just don think it would be realistic for this cycle (despite the fact that you have good grades) for several reasons...
1) The GRE. Even if you have MCAT scores already, most vet schools don't accept those. I don't know about Israel specifically, but I tried to take the GRE abroad (France) and there were only a few dates a year for testing and only in three cities, so It might be difficult for you to take the GRE abroad, and will probably take longer to get your scores back and almost impossible to retake it on time for this cycle If you need to retake it.
2) Veterinary hours. As people have said above, you NEED a significant number of veterinary experience hours (a lot of schools have a 500 hour minimum, but most accepted applicants have 1000+). While your farm experience will look great, it does not negate the need for veterinary hours. Without spending time around vets in several different settings, schools will think you cannot possibly know if you want to become a vet. Not to mention you are required to have at least one recommendation from a vet, and they should know you pretty well!
It sounds like you are in the middle of your med school year? If so, it will be almost impossible to get in the hours you need before application time. If it's really hard to get in the 6 hours a week at the shelter, then it'll probably be just as difficult to get in time at a vet clinic. If I am misunderstanding and you are about to start your summer vacation, then getting in hours will be easier but still not easy, especially because a lot of pre-veterinary internships/jobs have already been filled for the summer.
3) State residency. Not sure about UF specifically, but I was planning to work abroad for part of my gap year after undergrad and my IS school said that, since I have graduated from undergrad and am therefore now considered "independent", if I was living out of my state for longer than a month (either abroad or in another state), I would no longer be considered a resident, even though my parents still lived in my home state and I had been a resident my entire life. So if you are hoping to apply to Florida in state, I would contact admissions and see what there policy is about retaining residency when you are out of the country.
4) Pre-requisites. Have you looked through the pre-reqs for an schools you are looking to apply to? Vet school often has different required courses than medical school...you might need to take nutrition, animal science, statistics or even public speaking. Unfortunately most vet schools do not consider courses taken at med schools as fulfilling these requirements.
5) Dedication/Seriousness. No matter how good your grades are, veterinary schools are definitely going to question how serious you are about becoming a vet because you left medical school part way through, you only decided to pursue vet medicine very recently, and because you are so young (19 was my calculation, right?). Whether it's fair or not, adcoms would probably look at your app for this cycle and see you as someone in the I'm-not-sure-what-I-want-to-do-with-my-life stage. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially at 19, vet schools want to give their seats to students that they feel have an excellent chance of finishing their DVM/VMD program. You are going to need a lot of hours with vets, some excellent letters of recommendation from people in the field and some really solid, experience-based personal statements to show schools that you are dedicated to veterinary medicine.
I know that this seems really overwhelming-- I switched from pre-med to pre-vet halfway through my junior year, and applied the fall of my senior year. I had managed about 1000 veterinary hours by that point but ended up getting wait listed with the feedback that although my stats were fine, the adcoms just weren't sure that I was completely dedicated to the profession. But the good news is I think that your excellent grades and extensive farm experience are a solid foundation for pursuing vet medicine, and your unique story will DEFINITELY make you stand out! You just need some more time to get what you need done, and you might need to leave medical school, head back to the US and get work in a veterinary setting. I think that in another cycle or two, you will be a very competitive applicant
🙂
P.S. I'm really jealous that you are living in Haifa...I've always wanted to visit! Maybe while you're there you could catch that mermaid...the million-dollar bounty would definitely help pay for vet school
😉
