Friday, October 9, 2009

To be a pre-vet student

On Monday, I will give a special tour of the VTH to a group of pre-vet students at the university. It will be basically the usual tour, plus some added info about admissions, curriculum, vet student life, etc.

After the tour, we'll spend another hour and a half in the junior lecture hall having a question and answer session about vet school.

I'm pretty interested to talk to these students. It was only a year ago that I had just frantically finished the VMCAS application and supplemental applications (I think it's an October 1st deadline) and everything was out of my hands.

The kids hoping to get acceptance letters in the spring are still probably close enough to the application deadline that they are still thinking:
  • Should I have re-taken the GRE?
  • Should I have taken another anatomy class instead of an elective?
  • Did I ask the right people to write my recommendation letters?
  • Have I worked for a vet long enough?
  • Should I have applied to more schools?
  • Is my veterinary experience varied enough?
  • Did I make any grammar errors or typos in my personal statement?
  • Am I going to stick out enough to get the attention of the admissions committee?
  • Can I really afford to attend that out-of-state school I applied to?
  • What am I going to do when I get a bunch of rejection letters?
  • How am I supposed to prepare for my interview?
  • Was that essay I wrote dumb?
  • etc. times about infinity

I don't remember much about that feeling and wondering, despite it being only a couple years ago. I know that I didn't honestly have a lot of doubt that I wouldn't get into vet school. I never really considered a back-up plan or a Plan B in case of non-admission. It's interesting to think what I might have been doing for the last 12 months, had I not been lucky enough to be admitted on my first try.

Mostly, I'm just glad that now I'm in vet school and I don't have to worry about the application details any more. It's nice to know you have a "place" to be for a certain period of time. I guess I'll get to start worrying again in a couple years when I have to think about actually finding a job... (well, first I guess I have to pass the NAVLE....).

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