what "experience" would you count this as

[nessie5876]

Im confused as to whether to count my experience as veterinary or research experience. I followed their flow chart and read the information on the bottom of the page:

http://help.unicas.com:8888/vmcasHe...supporting-information/experiences/index.html.

It was employed work for a veterinarian and professor at my undergraduate university, though he is affiliated with the vet school. At first I did actively work on a research project and I did lab work for the project so I tracked those hours separately. Then I started to do lab work but for cases that came in (both from the associated vet hospital and cases that were mailed in from elsewhere). So it was lab work but not for research, but for clinical cases to aid in diagnosis. I also did things like process results on the computer and write up case-reports, sent out case reports, help with intake of new cases, etc. Following the flow chart it is veterinary experience but it is a lab so does that count as a "research setting" where they say all experiences in a research setting should count as research. So which one should it be?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Bottle of Bear]

In my mind research means the end goal is publishing papers or something along those lines, so I'd label the non-project part as veterinary.

 

[mmmdreamerz]

Definitely veterinary.

 

[nessie5876]

thank you both for your help, I agree that's what I was leaning towards. I think what they mean by research setting was that if you were to take blood samples from live animals for research purposes it would be research not veterinary even though you were handling animals.

 

[nessie5876]

hmm well i just asked my peer pre-vet advisor and she said it was research so ughh now i have no idea

 

[KCgophervet]

Lab work for clinical cases under a vet? Vet experience. And by the way, don't stress this stuff that much, if schools want to reclassify it they will. So long as you're not maliciously mislabeling things you'll be fine. And pre-vet advisers don't always know everything

 

[nessie5876]

haha well if I cant classify it as vet experience then I don't have enough hours as the other stuff i did was animal experience and only like 60 hours of a different veterinary experience. I figured I would need more hours anyways in maybe more of an actual clinical setting, but thought I'd apply this year anyways just to try. However, I dont want to spend all that money for naught if they reclassify it haha. She's currently at the vet school so she is better than those advisers for regular undergrad. He's also a researcher and professor (at the vet school, but has a DVM so he's not strictly a vet either). This would really suck since this is already after my senior year so I would have to take two years off

 

[hbr1704]

can you split up the time so part of the experience counts as research and part is vet experience?? The vet schools I applied to love research and research experience can definitely boost your application.

 

[nessie5876]

Yeah I tracked the hours separately for when I actively worked on a research project versus when I did lab work for cases, but I just want to make sure the lab work for cases is veterinary because I shouldn't bother applying if it's not

 

[hbr1704]

You could also email your top choice vet school and ask them how to classify the experience.

 

[KCgophervet]

You could also email your top choice vet school and ask them how to classify the experience.

This is really the golden response. Listen to this one.

 

[nessie5876]

Hey guys,

I emailed my top choice and they said its not veterinary experience, but I emailed another school Im interested in and they said it is veterinary. What would you personally do if you were in my shoes, sit this cycle out or just try for it anyways? How soon do you think I would find out if schools had an issue with the experience classification?

I'm considering travelling abroad, but I definitely can't do that if I'm waiting on interviews that may or may not even be offered because of this issue.

I know that I likely need more experiences anyways as I stayed very loyal to the one experience and didn't do much else.

Here are my hours if that helps:

400+ horse-handler at therapeutic riding center (animal experience)
200+ hours dog agility training (animal experience)
thousands of hours as horse owner/on the dressage team as well (animal experience)
160 hours animal care intern at rescue foundation/dog intern only (animal experience)
200 hours volunteer at animal shelter/assisting with spay/neuters (animal experience)
55 hours pre-vet intern/horse fertility work (vet experience)
200+ hours research experience (actively engaged in research projects)
thousand of hours (have yet to calculate it) on the lab work for clinical cases (???? experience)

 

[hbr1704]

Hey guys,

I emailed my top choice and they said its not veterinary experience, but I emailed another school Im interested in and they said it is veterinary. What would you personally do if you were in my shoes, sit this cycle out or just try for it anyways? How soon do you think I would find out if schools had an issue with the experience classification?

I'm considering travelling abroad, but I definitely can't do that if I'm waiting on interviews that may or may not even be offered because of this issue.

I know that I likely need more experiences anyways as I stayed very loyal to the one experience and didn't do much else.

Here are my hours if that helps:

400+ horse-handler at therapeutic riding center (animal experience)
200+ hours dog agility training (animal experience)
thousands of hours as horse owner/on the dressage team as well (animal experience)
160 hours animal care intern at rescue foundation/dog intern only (animal experience)
200 hours volunteer at animal shelter/assisting with spay/neuters (animal experience)
55 hours pre-vet intern/horse fertility work (vet experience)
200+ hours research experience (actively engaged in research projects)
thousand of hours (have yet to calculate it) on the lab work for clinical cases (???? experience)

1. Honestly just divide up the experience into what was vet and what was animal experience (or that's what I would do).

2. Also wouldn't this experience be a vet experience --> 200 hours volunteer at animal shelter/assisting with spay/neuters (animal experience). You are assisting with a veterinary procedure probably with vets??

3. You could try applying to the schools. I mean it depends where you are applying. I know the year I applied to the U of MN, there was a girl on the thread that had a ridiculously low number of vet hours and got in (she had really good grades). Some schools will take grades over experience.

 

[nessie5876]

Thank you for the response! I think I am going to try for it, if they have an issue with it then I guess I'll be in the same boat of trying again next year anyways. Just hate to spend the money, but since there is such a difference of opinion I hope they won't mind and will consider me. I do plan on dividing it into research and vet experience. I don't think the shelter is a vet experience since it was under a vet tech and I think I only did spay/neuter days like 5 times since they are only sundays and not all that often. I wouldn't feel right labelling it as vet experience when the majority of the hours are just caring for the dogs. (and if i split it, it still won't be enough anyways)

 

[hbr1704]

Thank you for the response! I think I am going to try for it, if they have an issue with it then I guess I'll be in the same boat of trying again next year anyways. Just hate to spend the money, but since there is such a difference of opinion I hope they won't mind and will consider me. I do plan on dividing it into research and vet experience. I don't think the shelter is a vet experience since it was under a vet tech and I think I only did spay/neuter days like 5 times since they are only sundays and not all that often. I wouldn't feel right labelling it as vet experience when the majority of the hours are just caring for the dogs. (and if i split it, it still won't be enough anyways)

That makes sense about the shelter experience.

The people that actually read your applications and give you a score/rank are not necessarily the people that respond to the admission question emails so the advice can('t) be helpful. I am pretty confident that getting into vet school involves a raffle or something because you have 100's of qualified people applying for a finite number of spots. They just take all the qualified candidates and put their names in a hat and draw for automatic offers and waitlist offers.

 

[M&D]

I don't know where else to ask this question so here we are.

I started shadowing a mixed animal veterinarian who is currently working with white tail deer. Would you guys classify this experience as large animal or exotic animal?

Thanks!

 

[JaynaAli]

I don't know where else to ask this question so here we are.

I started shadowing a mixed animal veterinarian who is currently working with white tail deer. Would you guys classify this experience as large animal or exotic animal?

Thanks!

I think you could make a case for either, but in the sense of farmed deer for hunting or meat like some mixed animal vets I have worked with saw, I'd lean large animal though I'd probably add a sentence about how that experience included deer. The vet I worked for during vet school focused on herd health and stuff just like they were a cattle or goat herd. Also the classes I had that dealt with farmed deer were large/food animal classes, not exotics classes.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Trilt]

I think you could make a case for either, but in the sense of farmed deer for hunting or meat like some mixed animal vets I have worked with saw, I'd lean large animal though I'd probably add a sentence about how that experience included deer. The vet I worked for during vet school focused on herd health and stuff just like they were a cattle or goat herd. Also the classes I had that dealt with farmed deer were large/food animal classes, not exotics classes.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Agree with this. I don't know what VMCAS currently looks like, but you used to be able to check multiple boxes (including "other") to describe experiences... if you can still do that, doing so and adding a blurb about it being managed deer would prob be worthwhile.