Couple Questions?

[eleventyone]

First of all, congrats to everyone who was accepted this year! For those of you who weren't I hope that you apply again next year!
I'm going into 1st year undergrad at Guelph.. Molecular Bio and Genetics program... and plan on applying to OVC in my third year.
I just have a few questions about admissions in general. (Sorry if these questions have already been asked)

1) Assuming all my semesters are full time and I apply in 3rd year, will the semester averages OVC uses to calculate % be from 4th and 5th semester, or 3rd and 4th? Because I'd apply by January of 3rd year... would semester 5 count yet?

2) How many vet hours would be a good idea to get? I know the more the better, and the more diverse the better, and I see people posting about 4000 + 2000 hours.... Right now I have about 220 animal hours and Maybe 160-200 vet hours. Should I make a goal of 1000 hours for myself?

3) Are there other vet schools (in Canada, USA, or Europe) that you can apply after 2 years of undergrad, like OVC? So if I were to applying in 3rd year and not get in, at the same time I could apply to other schools?

4) How many people have pets in vet school? I've seen many posts (mainly on Tumblr and reddit) about how almost every student has a pet... which is understandable for aspiring veterinarians Is it similar at the OVC?

Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you can answer all or some or one of my questions that would be appreciated! I know I have a long way to go yet, but I'm still getting ready!

[biommmm]

Hi!

First of all, congratulations for getting into UoG and I really hope you enjoy your undergrad experience here!

To answer your questions:

1) If you're applying in third year they WILL take your 5th semester (fall semester of third year). For the fall semester, grades are typically released before Christmas so they meet the January 1st deadline.

2) There is no official requirement for animal/veterinary experience hours. You do need to have enough to get 2-3 good LORs from veterinarians though. Try not to worry about this requirement as much, you can gain all the experience you need during the summers and breaks. During the school year it would probably be best to focus on your grades as they're worth the most on your application and the admission average seems to be going up every year. Still understand that this part of your application is important even if it is not part of the admissions formula. It allows you to gain insight into the many different career paths you can take with your DVM and it allows you to come into the program with realistic expectations about your chosen profession.

That being said 1000 hours seems like a reasonable number of hours to aim for and I don't think you'll find it difficult to reach. Do try to include some non-vet/animal activities in your life as well. It's good to show that you can be more then just a student/pre-vet.

3) There are tonnes of schools all over the world that you can apply to at various points during your education. Some you can even apply to right out of high school (they have 6 year veterinary programs).

For Canadian schools you have to be a resident of the province (or area) the school serves or you can't apply/are considered an international student (I'm not overly familiar with their processes), I believe you can apply to most of them during your third year though. Same with American schools (I believe).

You can find more reliable information by going on each schools website:

www.avma.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Education/Accreditation/Colleges/Documents/colleges_accredited.pdf

4) Yes it is very common for vet students to have pets. A very large portion of my classmates have one or more pets and I imagine more of them will get pets throughout our time at OVC.

I hope this helped!



There used to be someone on here who signed off with cute pictures of giraffe's and I feel like this forum could really use that again.

[eleventyone]

Thanks so much for your quick reply! And your answer was very detailed, I appreciate it! I wish I knew about some places being able to apply right out of highschool... dang... but I'm still excited to go to Guelph!