It is unfortunate that grades, as well as GRE scores, are weighed so heavily on admittance into vet school. People that have good GPAs but not 4.0s are not getting into schools solely based on a numbers game. So to help your chances good you need to keep your grades up. I had a 3.5 GPA, 1100 GRE, 2,500 hours of vet experience and didnt even get an interview for any US vet school. Dont get depressed by reading these numbers. There is always an exception to the rule. People get in with other things that could weigh heavily on their application. Such things could be your age, obstacles overcome, or personal disabilities. I will say that being only 22 upon applying probably had hurt me. People going back to school with more life experience are more likely to get accepted, in my opinion, than others straight out of undergrad.
So here are some admissions statistics from a select few vet schools: UC Davis
Average GPA’s: Accumulative (3.48), Required Science (3.33), Last 45 semester units (3.61)
Average GRE scores: Verbal (79% - 583 scaled score), Quantitative (76% - 721), Analytical Writing (65% - 4.72)
Average Age:24 (age range 20-40)
University of Georgia
Average GPA’s: Accumulative (3.57), Required Science (3.47), Last 45 semester units (3.63)
Average GRE scores: V + Q (1170), Analytical Writing (4.3)
University of Florida
Average GPA’s: Accumulative (3.51), Required Science (3.56), Last 45 semester units (3.60)
Average GRE scores: Verbal (524), Quantitative (679) 1203
So not every school's statistics are easy to find. These are just three that came first to me. But as you can tell there is a similar trend. The averages of these scores is something like this:
Overall GPA: 3.51
Science GPA: 3.47
Last 45 GPA: 3.61
Overall GRE: 1225
So in order to increase your chances at getting in grades are the most important part of the application. Its sad that it comes down to numbers, its partly due to people going back to school because of the economy. Some advice would be to do the absolute best you can your last 45units because it seems schools rely a lot on those scores as you can see they are higher than the rest.
As for the GRE? I have a hate, hate relationship with it. I honestly dont know what a test about vocabulary words has to do with veterinary medicine and why it matters how well you score on this particular test. But it is something that you can never change and must accept it. So I recommend getting a book probably a year in advance and study all the time. In addition to taking prep class. It may seem like a lot but if you score really well on the GRE you will probably get into school with an average GPA.
Here are the links to the webpages of the US and International vet schools. Some link to the admissions pages so play around and search for statistics and any advice on their FAQs.
Please choose the appropriate link to go to that school's website:
Veterinary experience is one of the most important parts of your application to vet school. You will notice that vet schools require a small amount of experience as part of the admissions requirements. This is kind of a joke. UC Davis has a minimum of 180hrs needed to apply. Now the actual average is around 2,000 hours. If you start volunteering/working in high school you can easily surpass this average which makes your application that much stronger.
I have mentioned before how important experience is and what you should do to get it. I'm going to go more in depth in the areas where you can find animal related experience. While reading these suggestions know that I have done pretty much all of them and I would say that almost ALL veterinarians had to start with these same sometimes not-so-glamorous jobs.
Animal Shelter This is where a lot of people get their first volunteering experience with animals. Most towns have a local animal shelter and if yours doesn't you might have to drive a little ways to find one. There are sometimes two options for working at an animal shelter. A) Paid or B) volunteer. Obviously getting paid is better for you since your time is money when in college but volunteering is a great experience. Donating your time helps the homeless animals find a family. The things you will be doing will be cleaning cages, feeding, walking, and playing with the animals. You might also work the front desk and do some paperwork. You may occasionally have a vet come in and do some spays and neuters you might get to help with if your lucky.
Ranch Hand Working on a farm with large animals is some of the best experience you can get, even if its not what you are into. Vet schools want to admit people with large animal experience because the US government needs vets to work with dairies and poultry farms. If you have lots of large animal experience you have a 1up. To find this kind of job you kind of need to be in the right area. Find a local ranch or dairy farm and ask to owner if you can have a job. It might not be the most glamourous work but experience is experience. If he is not willing to pay you, ask if you can just help out a few days a week. Another thing you can do is contact a local large animal veterinarian and see if you can help him out. Lots of times they know the community really well and will have some contacts they can refer you to.
Veterinary Technician
This is by far my biggest recommendation. I learned more from working at my animal hospital than any classes I took in college. You obtain first hand experience working side by side Veterinarians and other technicians. For me it was like having a Mentor show me the ropes. What you will be doing is talking to clients, administering vaccines, restraining animals, setting catheters, assisting euthanasias, trim nails, and expressing anal glands! Thats the fun stuff, otherwise you have to clean a lot and maintain the hospital. The only place I really know how to find a job is through craigslist. Just search jobs and animal or veterinary. It took me a few months to find a job and in the meantime I volunteered at Project wildlife. I recommend once you find a job to still try and find ways to volunteer. A great thing about being a technician is that its paid. Generally pre-medical students can only volunteer and cant get paid for their experience hours but not so for pre-vets. :)
Heres a video showing some of the joys of being a Vet Tech.
*Note from my experience anal gland expression on a cat is pretty rare I worked at a clinic for 3 years and did maybe 2. Dogs though are really common. If a dog is scooting his butt its most likely cause the glands need expressing.
Internships
These are helpful in gaining experience in different areas to do with animals. Im not sure there are exactly veterinary internships for pre-vets. I know Natural History Museums have good internships for students studying biology. I worked with reptiles at the Museum in San Diego for 6 months. Most of the work you do is with preserved specimens but still gets you acquainted with anatomy and taxonomy. Another place to look is at your college campus. There are internships in certain labs that can double as units and experience. The only other place I know of is at your closest zoo. I volunteered with elephants for a few years at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I got to watch for the pregnant cow's labor signs. Didn't actually get to see her give birth but the whole internship is something I will never forget. It is such a crazy feeling being one of the only people in a zoo in the middle of the night.
Leadership
Like more professional programs leadership is looked for in applicants. Most schools have pre-vet clubs or classes that students can take. I recommend getting involved in your freshmen year with the programs in order to increase your exposure to the field. Become to the president of the pre-vet club and plan trips for the students to go volunteer at different organizations. Your pre-professional health advisor is your best resource make sure you use him/her to your advantage. I was able to teach a class as on the different aspects of veterinary medicine. I organized different speakers to come in to the class each week and speak about their specialties. This helped me learn to lead a class and make connections with veterinarians in my area. Definitely my most valuable leadership experience.
Shadowing I got to shadow those speakers that came in to speak to my class. This is a good chance to see different aspects of veterinary medicine if you work at a small animal hospital. I got to shadow vets in the following fields: large animal, exotics, public health, military, and oncology. The more you shadow, the more you will be enlightened by the vastness of the profession. Vet schools want well rounded students so if you have experience in multiple fields you will look pretty good on paper.
Zoo Jobs
This is a vague section. From my understanding people that work for zoos need to start in food service or something like that. I know that at the SD Zoo you can start as a tour guide. That is a good place to start. From there you might be able to move up since most zoos hire from within. Being a zoo keeper would be great experience but probably pretty hard to do as a student. You might have luck at smaller community zoos. You may not start off working hands on with animals but hopefully you will move up and get to.
I hope this has been helpful in ideas to get veterinary experience. If you have any questions for me I would be glad to help answer them for you. Just post your question in the comments or send me an email.
