Veterinary schools have a competitive admission process, so entry can be tough.
Good grades will get applicants an interview but the interview will get admission to the program.
Here is my two cents worth on the process of getting into veterinary school, based on my experiences as an applicant, interviewer at two of Canada’s veterinary schools and as a practising vet.
As a major part of the admission process, the interview is the time to shine. Interviewers will assess such attributes as communication skills, personality, ability to function under pressure and think on your feet.
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Veterinary and animal experiences will be considered during the interview. I recommend getting a wide-angle view of the profession and animal industries to set you apart from other applicants.
Applicants need to spend time with vets to make an educated decision about whether this profession is right for them. The road to vet school and beyond isn’t easy, so applicants need to be truly committed.
Seeing the ups and downs of veterinary practice will either help solidify your conviction or direct you down another path.
Time spent with vets will help with this decision, provide experiences to enhance your application and hopefully result in the necessary references. It will also help you speak intelligently about the profession during the interview.
Many vets have fulfilling careers in private practice, serving clients and their animals in the model we traditionally associate with veterinarians.
Treating dogs and cats might be the first thing people think vets do, but it is by no means the only role. I think it is key to demonstrate to interviewers that you know more about the profession than the traditional model.
The easiest way to do this is to cultivate “T-shaped experiences.” What I mean is get deep experience in an area that interests you, such as large animal practice. This is the vertical part.
Bank those volunteer or employment hours so you really understand this aspect of the profession. Then seek other opportunities to broaden your experience.
While you may not invest the same amount of time into these “top of the T” experiences, they are just as important. For most, a couple of hours or days would suffice.
You can also read books about veterinarians. There are many autobiographies to explore beyond James Herriot. Examples of non-traditional veterinary careers include:
- Epidemiologists — veterinarians (and other health professionals) who study health and disease at the population level.
- Pathologists — vets like me, who diagnose disease in individual animals through autopsies, biopsies and other clinical tests.
- Public health — many vets have a role in the public health system with particular expertise in zoonotic diseases, those transferred from animals to people.
- Non-traditional species — there are vets who specialize in wildlife, zoo animals, exotic pets, laboratory animals, fish and birds, to name a few.
A substantial portion of veterinary medicine deals with diseases and their treatment. But knowledge of how those diseases fit into the livestock management system is invaluable for admissions and a career as a veterinarian.
In terms of animal experience, the sky is the limit, since veterinarians deal with all creatures great and small. If I had to do it all over again, this is what I would do:
- At minimum, I would get to know the basic domestic animal species and their respective production industries and associated welfare concerns: horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats.
- Milk cows at a dairy farm.
- Volunteer at a swine farrow-to-finish operation.
- Collect eggs at a commercial layer farm.
- Sheer and process sheep.
- Ride with a pen checker at a feedlot.
- Muck stalls and turn out horses at a high-end stable.
- Harvest honey and check bees with an apiarist.
- Volunteer at a cat or dog show.
Expect to compete with hundreds of applicants, so unusual experiences should help you stand out from the crowd.
There may be no easier time to start acquiring this broad veterinary and animal experience than in high school but if you are already into a university program, it isn’t too late to diversify.
