<p>I know admission to veterinary schools is very competitive. Are there any preferred undergrad majors? What do students do if they are not admitted to vet school - apply again? Move on? If they must move on, what the heck do they end up doing?</p>
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Not usually. As long as you can get the required courses out of the way, you can major in pretty much anything. Of course, the list of required courses can be extensive (e.g. [NC</a> State’s](<a href=“http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/studentservices/admissions.html#Prerequisite]NC”>http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/studentservices/admissions.html#Prerequisite)). There are a few feeder programs, though, like Cornell CALS.</p>
<p>One of the most important parts of the application is animal experience. Regardless of major, you’ll need several hundred hours.</p>
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Different things. I know some people who worked as vet techs for a while and then successfully applied to vet school again. Some people applied three times! Others chose to pursue related work like zoology or wildlife rehabilitation. Apparently [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4759380]some[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=4759380]some[/url</a>] even choose to go to med school.</p>
<p>Where does a college kid get several hundred hours of animal experience? Would working or volunteering at a veterinary office or zoo over summers qualify? Is this an actual application requirement or just something that is really beneficial to have in a competitive field? Thanks!</p>
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Yes. Tokyorevelation9 could give you information about working at a zoo, if that interests you.</p>
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Yep.</p>
<p>An understanding of the veterinary medical profession and of proper animal care are important considerations. This experience can be gained by working in a veterinary practice, research setting or by breeding, rearing, feeding, and showing various kinds of animals, including companion animals, livestock, laboratory animals, zoo animals, or wildlife. The quality and quantity of this experience is evaluated on the basis of the applicant’s description and by letters of evaluation from supervisors. All experiences listed on one’s application should be supported with a letter of evaluation.
<a href=“http://www.vet.cornell.edu/admissions/prep.htm#experience[/url]”>http://www.vet.cornell.edu/admissions/prep.htm#experience</a></p>
<p>Veterinary, animal, and/or health science experience
This experience may include veterinary, agricultural, research, human health, and/or biomedical setting. Such experience should be of appropriate breadth and depth and should entail more than having provided routine care and feeding of companion animals or family pets.
<a href=“Homepage | Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine”>Homepage | Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine;
<p>Exposure to practice, research, or other areas of veterinary medicine is essential and should be described on the VMCAS application.
<a href=“http://www.vet.upenn.edu/admissions/requirements.html[/url]”>http://www.vet.upenn.edu/admissions/requirements.html</a></p>
<p>*Veterinary Experience A minimum of 400 hours of clinical, medical, agribusiness, health science or research experience is required. However, supervised experiences in three or more different areas are highly recommended for a competitive application. Experience in three (3) different areas (small animal, large animal, research, food animal production, exotic, aquatic, wildlife, zoological medicine, etc.) of the veterinary medical profession is preferred. The work can be either paid or voluntary and must be completed under the supervision of a veterinarian (or PhD scientist if scientific research). Applicants will be evaluated on duration, level of duties, and diversity of the experiences.</p>
<p>Animal Experience
All other animal related experiences will also be evaluated, such as working with livestock, breeding/ showing dogs or similar, working at a zoo, aquarium or pet shop, equestrian activities, volunteer time at an animal shelter/rescue, etc., and these should be included in the “Animal Experience” section of the VMCAS application. Like veterinary experience, animal experience will be evaluated on duration with at least 100 hours or more contact time highly recommended; multiple activities of long duration are preferred. This category doesn’t include pet ownership.*
<a href=“http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/studentservices/admissions.html[/url]”>http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/studentservices/admissions.html</a></p>
<p>…etc.</p>
<p>Like offshore medical schools there are also offshore vet schools in the caribbean that would be an option if you applied several times and were not accepted.</p>
<p>Wow, I had no idea that it was difficult to qualify to apply! Those activities are quite varied and extensive! It shows who is really interested though. My hs daughter has had veterinary medicine in mind for awhile now, so I suggested that she ask if she could volunteer at our vet’s office. She also voiced interest in our local zoo, so I guess we will just have to see if she can get some animal exposure somewhere (besides family pets and horses!). She is not 100% set on this path, but it is one of two or three that she has been fixated on for a few years now. I guess we should check it out!</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input. Any more anyone has would be appreciated too! :)</p>
<p>My daughter was recently admitted to the Veterinary Scholars Early Admission Program at Kansas State University. It’s a conditional admissions program for exceptionally talented high school seniors that guarantees the program members a seat in the DVM program upon the successful completion of the undergraduate prerequisites with a minimum gpa. The catch is that the applicant must attend Kansas State for undergraduate. The program is uber-competitive (there are similar programs at Tufts, Purdue, the University of Missouri and Mississippi State University), but if your daughter can get in, it will give her a significant advantage over the traditional “front door” applicant to veterinary school – for which the admission statistics are brutal (it is true that it is harder to get into vet school than medical school). If you have any questions about K-State’s program or about vet school admissions in general, feel free to pm me and I’ll be happy to help you. As for what becomes of veterinary school applicants who never get in, the joke at my daughter’s school is that they become doctors (M.D.'s). :-)</p>
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:eek:</p>
<p>Thanks gbesq (are you a lawyer? just wondering if the esq is for esquire!) I will check into the conditional admissions places. It is a great deal, I’m sure. Pharmacy has a similar thing and kids compete fiercely to get those conditional admission spots. I appreciate your knowledge on the subject since I personally know next to nothing about veterinary schools. So THANKS! :)</p>
<p>My DDs have been volunteering since the 6th grade with the same companion animal adoption non-profit. Your local animal shelter can certainly hook you up with an animal rescue which may give you the opportunity to feed orphaned puppies and kittens, immunize, worm and basically offer care for homeless pets. You will get the experience and you will be performing an important community service that also looks good on your applications.</p>
<p>Last year 1600 people applied to Colorado State’s School of Vet Med and about 130 were admitted…its a rough process. Got to have a great GPA, good GRE score, animal experience, vet experience, good recommedations, and good extracurricular activities (leadership). Plus all the required classes like ochem and biochem. </p>
<p>I have an interview with Kansas Vet School in a couple weeks, I’m excited but anxious!</p>
<p>^If you happen to be a non-resident, the admissions statistics are even worse. Of the 138 students admitted to the 2007 entering class at CSU’s vet school, 75 were from Colorado. Only 19 of the 1608 applicants were admitted from “at large” states (i.e., not from Colorado or WICHE states). It’s the same story at the other 27 vet schools in the U.S. Those are pretty long odds . . .</p>
<p>This is all really discouraging. And it seems that there is no surplus of vets either, as far as I can see. Is the need for vets not generally there? It there an intended limiting of the number of vets graduating? What is the salary range of a general neighborhood vet?</p>
<p>^ Actually, the demand for vets exceeds the supply in some areas of practice. This is particularly so for large animal/food animal medicine, and several vet schools are actively recruiting qualified students who want to specialize in this area. Remember, though, that the emphasis is on QUALIFIED. In other words, you aren’t going to get into vet school simply by saying that you want to be a large animal/food animal vet if you don’t have the academic/animal experience qualifications to back it up. There are also some serious negatives to this sort of practice (e.g., do you really want to be delivering calves in the middle of the night on a ranch in the middle of nowhere?). The number of new vets who are graduated each year is limited by the fact that there are only 28 vet schools in the U.S. and classes are generally small (usually between 75-125 students). Building a new vet school also represents a huge capital investment for a university and the cost doesn’t stop there – vet schools are also very expensive to run. In short, they’re not cash cows (no pun intended) for the schools that have them, so there isn’t a significant incentive to build new vet schools. As I recall, the mean annual salary for vets in private practice is in the 80k range – you don’t go into veterinary medicine for the money. Of course, some vets make less (e.g., vets that work for the government) and some make much more (e.g., equine surgeons). If becoming a vet is what your child really wants, I wouldn’t be discouraged – it does take a lot of very hard work and preparation, but approximately 3,000 students are admitted to vet school every year.</p>