<p>Just something I'm curious about. I worked at a vet office for a while, and it seemed mostly dominated by females, somewhat like how engineering is dominated by males. :P</p>
<p>Could it be that females are better at non-verbal cues, which is important when you don’t speak the same language as your patient?!</p>
<p>I wonder if this is the new trend. I know years ago it seemed like all the vets were male. Now at our vet’s office it is predominantly female. . .</p>
<p>It depends on the type of vet practice. If you are dealing with a large animal practice, then you might find more males due to the strength requirements for the job. Also, it depends on the hours required. For example, our vet, who is female, used to administer to the medical needs of horses in the race industry. That required many 4:00 a.m. wake up calls, and those hours were detrimental to her family life and raising her children. Therefore, she went into a more traditional vet practice. That could be why you are seeing more females when you take a trip to the vet office.</p>
<p>No doubt that more females are entering this field. My D reports that her first year class contains 2/3rds females and 1/3 males. Most of the students are older, have been out of school quite a while, and are married and/or raising families. She is the youngest one in her class. She is 22.</p>
<p>Wow, how interesting that older students make up most of your D’s 1st year class. I guess I assumed that most first years were coming straight from the traditional college track and were your D’s age.<br>
May I ask where she is in school? My d is a college freshman, and she is already stressing about admission down the road. She has decided that she must take a minimum of 18 hours per semester now because of the admission point system which is tied to credit hours? This is all new to me - I’d love to hear anything you want to share about your D’s experience.
Oh, and I do remember that when we visited Auburn we were told that the graduating class that year was at least 2/3 female.</p>
<p>Timeflew,</p>
<p>I have sent you a PM.</p>
<p>Laf if you’d be willing to share, I am also curious about admissions and credit hours. I don’t know who to look to for advice!</p>
<p>individualized, I’ll ask my D where she is getting her info about admissions policies, etc and will relay this. I know in her case she finds that everything at her school is geared toward pre-MED, not pre-vet. She is contemplating starting a pre-vet club in order to invite speakers and share knowledge. . .</p>
<p>Individualized - The advice that I am about to give you is based upon my D’s application experience last year, and certainly, other experiences may differ. </p>
<p>With only 28 fully accredited vet schools in the U.S., competition is certainly very keen. All schools look at your UG GPA, your GRE test scores, prior vet or animal care experience, recommendations, and a final evaluative interview as the primary criteria for admission. For GPA purposes, what is important is not only your score, but what courses you took to achieve that score. My recommendation is to major in Biological Sciences and to take the most difficult courses that your school offers. I recommend Biology because it offers the most flexibility, is offered in most UG schools, and you take courses such as anatomy, bio-chem, physics, chemistry, and organic chemistry. If you look at most vet school websites, these are the courses listed as required for admission. Therefore, it not how many credits you accumulate, but what courses you took to accumulate those credits. Most schools require a minimum 3.65 GPA for serious consideration.</p>
<p>Keep an open mind, and be prepared to travel. Just because you are lucky enough to have an in state vet school does not mean that you will get in. In state schools do give preference to in state students, but if there are many students who are qualified, then you may need to look at other options. My D applied to 9 schools. She was accepted to 2 schools, waitlisted at one school, and rejected at all others including our in state school. Keep your options open. In my D’s class of 100 students, 8 (including her) are from out of state. You will get an inkling as to how you are faring if you get called for an evaluative interview. These interviews are held in mid to late February. If you do not get an interview, then you will probably get a thin envelope. They establish the interview time. You can not request one. It is the final step in the admission process, and usually they will pose a vet problem in the interview, and evaluate how you handle that problem. Decisions are released in mid March.</p>
<p>I hope that you find this post helpful, and I wish you the best of luck in your future plans.</p>
<p>Great post, Laf1980!</p>
<p>Thanks so much, Laf! </p>
<p>Now, when you said “and usually they will pose a vet problem in the interview, and evaluate how you handle that problem.”, would you be able to give an example??</p>
<p>Individualized - She was posed a problem about a dog in cardiac arrest. Luckily, she had experienced this problem where she worked as a vet tech. Two days before Christmas last year, a family brought in a three year old Golden Retriever in cardiac arrest. The staff there did their very best, but unfortunately, the dog was D.O.A. My D described the procedures used in attempting to revive the goldie, and in her office, it was the duty of the vet tech to console the distraught family during a very difficult time. She described her attempts at consolation, and the incident’s affect on the other patients and families in the waiting room. She recommended that grief counseling be taught in vet school.</p>
<p>This incident was particularly traumatic for my D since we have an 10 year old goldie at home that is very similar to the one that died that day. They are particularly close. Later that day she called home in tears to make sure that our dog was O.K.</p>
<p>Sounds like hands on experience really is a huge benefit once you reach the interview phase. I’ll bet they were very impressed with your daughter’s knowledgeable and sympathetic response.</p>
<p>The vet where i go everyone who works there is a chick. They are also all hot and i bet they make alot of money.</p>
<p>kollegekid - The average salary of a vet is approximately 64K per year depending upon the type of vet practice. However, the average cost of a private vet school is approximately 52K per year. Therefore, many young vets just out of school have hefty school loans to pay back. And by the way, my D, who is a first year vet student, is, to my greatly prejudiced point of view, very beautiful. But even more importantly, she is very smart, and that ultimately, will get her much farther in life.</p>
<p>Just got a book with all the vet school stats and was talking to my vet. Seems to be that about 80% of student are female.</p>
<p>Well my cat got his teeth cleaned and that and his shots costed $500. And thats more then the dentist charges to clean people teeth so i bet vets make alot. And the one i go to has animals there all the time so they have alot of customers.</p>
<p>wtcgshep, it doesn’t surprise me. Think about it. Girls, ever since they’re little, love furry, stuffed animals. They also love unicorns and ponies:) Ever notice how cats and puppies are sooooo cute to them. Guess what? When girls grow up, many of them want to help the animals that they loved as little kids (and still love). It’s natural.</p>