When should I apply?

[5vdre]

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Can you please advise me as to the best way to become a veterinarian? Here's my situation:

In high school, I worked for 2 years as a kennel worker and towards the end I had more experience helping the veterinarians and vet techs. That was back in 2002-2004 and I don't think I can ask the vets there for a letter of recommendation. I earned a BS at UC Davis in Ecology and then earned a MS in Environmental Systems at UC Merced. Now, I am again picking up my lifelong dream to become a veterinarian but my question is, should I become a vet tech (another two years of school?) or just work at a veterinary hospital (as a receptionist or as an assistant) to get more recent experience and some good letters of recommendation? There is also the option of doing a correspondence course to get an AS degree in veterinary technology through Penn Foster but I'm not sure how widely accepted this degree is. What is the shortest way to make my application as strong as possible? I'm going to be 27 this year. I would like to apply to the UC Davis Veterinary school and I know that they are very selective.

Thanks! I'm so glad I found this website, I've been wondering about this for a long time.

 

[variegata]

Can you please advise me as to the best way to become a veterinarian? Here's my situation:

In high school, I worked for 2 years as a kennel worker and towards the end I had more experience helping the veterinarians and vet techs. That was back in 2002-2004 and I don't think I can ask the vets there for a letter of recommendation. I earned a BS at UC Davis in Ecology and then earned a MS in Environmental Systems at UC Merced. Now, I am again picking up my lifelong dream to become a veterinarian but my question is, should I become a vet tech (another two years of school?) or just work at a veterinary hospital (as a receptionist or as an assistant) to get more recent experience and some good letters of recommendation? There is also the option of doing a correspondence course to get an AS degree in veterinary technology through Penn Foster but I'm not sure how widely accepted this degree is. What is the shortest way to make my application as strong as possible? I'm going to be 27 this year. I would like to apply to the UC Davis Veterinary school and I know that they are very selective.

Thanks! I'm so glad I found this website, I've been wondering about this for a long time.

Things to consider: Where do you stand on prerequisites? Do you have them all covered from your previous degrees or are you missing some? How recent is your university coursework (some schools require prereqs to be taken within 6 years of applying). If not, you'll have to go take all those prerequisite courses that you're missing, ideally at a 4-year college. There's also the GRE to think about, since I think most schools want you to have taken the new GRE (they switched tests after I think the 2009 or 2010 cycle).

Definitely get more vet experience to get excellent LORs, but no need to go to tech school for that. You don't even need to WORK at a clinic necessarily as long as you have enough hours aside from your day job to commit to at least shadowing. I wouldn't ask your HS vet to write a letter unless you go back there and spend more time - better to have more recent letters/letters that reflect your current abilities - and I'm sure you've learned and matured a lot since high school! You could still put down that experience in the appropriate section though.

 

[hygebeorht]

Also how was your GPA? Does it need help? Give us some numbers to work with and maybe we can make more suggestions.

 

[5vdre]

I have all the prereqs except Physiology/Anatomy. I wish plant physiology would count. :-D I took that recently. I was hoping they might make an exception and let me take it the first year? Does this happen? Good god, I hope prereqs don't expire!

I will have to take the GRE again but my scores were not too far off from the averages of 2012 UC Davis vet students.

My cumulative undergrad GPA was 3.45 (I wish I hadn't slacked off in college!) and cumulative grad GPA was 3.64. Do the applications look at the graduate school GPA or only the undergrad?

 

[5vdre]

I have another question, does being a veterinary receptionist give valuable experience that can be counted towards the veterinary experience requirement? Or should I aim for more direct experience?

 

[cowgirla]

I have another question, does being a veterinary receptionist give valuable experience that can be counted towards the veterinary experience requirement? Or should I aim for more direct experience?

Having worked at just about every position within a hospital prior to vet school, reception work is BY FAR the most difficult. You have to deal with the clients, the money, the paperwork, the nasty phone calls, the screaming and yelling, getting signed euth forms, etc etc. It was a point I brought up in most of my interviews, comparing what I learned as a tech vs as a receptionist vs kennel help vs sorta manager person in charge of ordering and technology and crap like that.. I say if you can get a reception job, go for it. If you can find a job that cross trains, even better (Because then you get the best of both worlds)

 

[Falina]

I'm sure you've looked at this already, but this is UC Davis' pre reqs page:
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/students/dvm_program/admissions/required_prevet_courses.cfm

A little ways in it says "There is no time limit on acceptance of required courses", which to me means that you don't have to have taken your pre-reqs within a certain time frame. If I'm reading this wrong, someone please correct me!

I got accepted to Davis this year with a 3.5 overall gpa (3.7 last 45 credits, about 3.5 science). So you can definitely get in with your gpa. You just need lots of experience! (I had thousands of hours to help offset the lower gpa).
Best of luck 🙂

 

[Museum Nerd]

there are some schools that will only look at undergrad but i believe the majority will look at all education

 

[Emiloo4]

I have all the prereqs except Physiology/Anatomy. I wish plant physiology would count. :-D I took that recently. I was hoping they might make an exception and let me take it the first year? Does this happen?

Absolutely not. 👎

 

[deli]

I got into Davis this year with a GPA lower than yours, but I had above average GRE scores and lots and lots of experience. I would not recommend going to tech school just to get your foot in the door - it's just not worth the time and money. Personally, I got a job in a shelter and volunteered in the hospital after my shifts. They eventually transferred me down there full time.

Also take a look at the Davis admissions process :http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/students/dvm_program/admissions/index.cfm

They don't even look at your cumulative GPA. Your science GPA, GRE math score, and most recent GPA is important. This change helped me tons, I think. So you can totally tailor your application to help with school specific admissions criteria (here I would recommend studying mainly for the math section of the GRE, and taking classes to increase your most recent GPA).

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[Goknights55]

Definitely dont go to tech school and you absolutely cannot take a required course after your in vet school all must be completed before the summer you matriculate ( and your acceptance is based on you doing this all acceptances are "conditional" until you have completed it all). From my experience, shadowing a vet to get experience is just as good as working for one and you can find a place to do this much easier than finding a job! This is my first year applying and I had zero work experience all my experiences were shadowing and I got an interview everywhere I applied and gotten into one so far so if your struggling finding a job take a shadow position to start getting hours!