Sorry for the delay in posting- I was on a family vacation to Disney World the first week of January. We go there every Christmas break for the last 6 years or so, and this was probably the worst trip to date- most of were sick for part or most of the trip.
I got two more letters of rejection while I was on vacay- an email from Minnesota and a letter from Washington :( That leaves just 2 more replies! I have yet to hear anything from Oregon and I won't hear back from Iowa about my interview until mid-Feb. I sent off my Fall transcripts to each of them on Monday. *fingers crossed*
I have begun the second and possibly final semester of my undergrad career. I say possibly because I have no idea what I'm doing... Not just not knowing if I'm going to get into veterinary school this cycle but I am also completely second-guessing my Plan B. I am unsure whether I should continue with my Clinical Laboratory Science degree next year if I don't get accepted this time around to vet school. I am already accepted into the CLS program and will get my clinical site assignment mid-Feb as well. I'm just not sure that's what I want to do anymore. If I go that route I don't graduate yet, I do a summer session at an affiliate university in ND then I do a 9-month clinical training/internship session and then finally graduate from undergrad next spring and would then take my licensing exam.
Originally I figured it would allow me to boost my GPA, show I could do well in a medical/professional program, give me the opportunity to get a decent paying job that would allow me to work just about anywhere, it would max my income for the few hours I will have available to work in vet school and there are shifts available day or night so it would be flexible- and not to mention just give me something to do haha
But now I'm thinking it really won't have that great of an effect on my GPA other than maybe the last 45 calculation, it is difficult to find a job opening for this right now because labs are cutting back to the bare number of staff needed and most of the people in the field are not old enough to be retiring yet so there is not a fast turn-over rate, I would be trained in to work at the clinical site but I wouldn't be staying there so I'd have to get retrained wherever I went, it's not what I want to do- as much as i LOVE the information and the lab work!, and it wouldn't leave me much time to increase my vet experience hours - which is a very weak point of mine that I CAN do something about.
I am beginning to think I might be better off graduating this Spring with just my Art major and spending next year trying to do some internships to expand on the variety of my animal experience and to increase my veterinary experience hours- I think maybe actively trying to improve my credentials it probably the better use of my time in the long run.
I just don't know-- I'm torn. I just wish I knew from Iowa and Oregon already so I knew if I needed to revamp my Plan B or not for sure!! Does anyone have any helpful suggestions/advice?
I always turn to the good old pros/cons list, which is kind of what you already did in this post. If vet school is 100% what you want to do, it seems to me that the extra CLS stuff isn't worth the effort and time. Oregon JUST started sending out acceptances for OOS so it seems like you'll know within a month (maybe two) if you're getting in to vet school this cycle.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could give more helpful advice but I can say if it were me, I would graduate this spring and (if you don't make it this time) use the coming year to gain more experiences. I don't know if you rely on loans as much as I do for undergrad but I wouldn't want to keep piling on the loans for a program that I'm not interested in doing in the long-run.
Good luck with your decision and with Oregon and Iowa!!