Early Entry Vet school

DadTwoGirls
Thu, 06 Jul 2023 06:34:29 +0000

When my daughter was applying to undergraduate programs I think that she was already interested in veterinary medicine, but had not completely decided to become a DVM. She therefore did not do direct entry. She did attend a university that has a good pre-vet program, and participate in their CREAM program (which was very helpful). Just as importantly she stuck to the budget so she did not need to take on any debt at all for her bachelor’s degree.

Since she did not apply to DVM programs until a couple of years after graduating with a bachelor’s degree (to start 3 years after her bachelor’s), the amount of experience that she had with animals was understandably much, much greater. However, she had a LOT of experience. This included working at a summer camp where kids get to interact with animals, working on several farms (mostly with large animals), doggy day care, working with veterinarians, assisting on animal surgeries, helping out in a roadside veterinary emergency, and more. This ran into thousands of hours. She and I both think that her experience and associated references was a huge part of what got her accepted to several very good DVM programs (of course we do not really know for sure).

However, as a current high school student you just have not had the time to put in as many hours. It sounds as if what you have done is very good given how young you are. It also sounds like you probably have more veterinary-related experience than my daughter had at the same time in her life.

“Top 3%” of your class is in fact higher than my daughter was. To me this is likely to be fine.

Based on what I have seen watching a DVM student from some distance but with a lot of interest, to me you will need to be academically strong. However, the two things that to me seem really important are being very sure that you want to go into veterinary medicine, and having the determination to stick with it. You will be bitten. You will be pooped on and peed on. You will see animals die, including some very beautiful and deeply loved animals. There will be some days where the work is long, goes into the evening or even night time. [In one case for my daughter an emergency went to 3 am – they saved a horse. Many other cases did not work out this well.] Quite a few of the classes will be very demanding, and you will be studying a LOT. This is all part of becoming a DVM. So is getting a series of rabies vaccinations before you even start the DVM program (or at least this was required for my daughter).

I think that the more experience that you have the better. Then you apply and see what happens. You also should of course apply to normal bachelor’s programs, preferably at universities that are affordable and that have good pre-vet programs (which in terms of classes will overlap a great deal with premed classes).

My daughter’s experience is somewhat different than @momocarly’s son, but I think that there are some similarities also. My daughter’s ranking in high school was about the same. She also had a lot of experience with horses. Both people and animal experience helped a lot. She also had plenty of large animal experience. She also finds it to be a lot of work and very rewarding.