First Interview Recap!

I had my interview with ISU on the 4th at 11:15am. I flew out to Des Moines on Friday with my mom, we spent some time shopping around and relaxing Saturday before heading to Ames that evening.

We had to be at ISU by 7:15am to get registered. It is not fun getting up at 6am to get dressed up!

I got there and the first year vet student there that I know from my graduating class at high school was actually working the interviews and was the one to lead me to the waiting area! It was nice to see a familiar face! At 7:30 there was a presentation (usually done by the Dean who was out of town) about the history and facilities of the college. Then since my interview wasn't until later I was to go on the 8am student-led tour.

I went with a nice young gentleman from Buffalo, NY & his mom on the tour. The facilities were much larger than I had expected! The LA hospital was newly remodeled and the SA hospital was newly expanded and was presently under remodeling which will be done by Fall '12. The clinic was new remodeled, there was a great variety of artwork which was really nice and they had a a little something for everybody.

I attended the Student Panel at 9am which was Q&A time with 4 of the students, a 1st yr, 2 2nd yrs, and a 3rd yr. This wasn't super helpful but it was not to hear some candid remarks on things from their point of view and they did their best to answer questions.

I had a little down time in the waiting area from 10-11am. My mom went to the Financial Aid lecture at 11am and the interviewers got me a few minutes after 11 (about 15 mins early). The Student Doctor Network website had past interview questions available so I was able to prepare answers to those and felt prepared going in.

The interview was closed-file and there were 3 people who took turns asking questions. First I told them a little about myself and then the actual interview began. Nearly every question they asked was on SDN, a couple were specific follow-ups to things I had said in my answers and so I think only 1 or 2 were new to me but they were easy questions. They were all behaviorally-based questions. I think it went as well as it could have, one can't really judge what they will think of my responses but I was relaxed, spoke clearly, presented myself well, was personable, made them all laugh loudly several times-- what more can you really ask for? How they view the responses is entirely in their hands...

The interview lasted about 40minutes (a little quicker than what it usually is, but I was prepared to answer the questions too). I spent a few minutes at the Organization Fair area and then we left.

I was most impressed by the fact that organizations and studying abroad lets you have the opportunity to get as much extra surgical/hands-on practice & diversity of experiences as you want. The fact that you can get more if you want more was a HUGE bonus to me. I heard a lot of the present students say they 1 major reason they chose ISU over their IS schools or over others is that there were so many opportunities for surgical experience. The other major reason was how friendly and welcoming the midwest school was. Now, I'm from the midwest and am used to that level of friendliness, but according to these people, a lot of the other schools have a "consider yourself lucky to even be here" snooty attitude, whereas ISU is more "welcome! Now WHEN you start here..." gracious attitude.

Overall very impressed by ISU and it is still one of my top picks! I will find out Feb 15th whether I'm in or not. They had 1200+ applicants this year (YIKES!) of which 900 some are already out of the running. So I am 1 of 300+ students getting interviewed. The odds are still not in my favor but better than they used to be! *fingers crossed*

Side note--> Should be hearing from my next vet school by the end of the month! : ) Hoping for more good news! And I also got my letter of acceptance from UND for my CLS back-up program- no word yet on where my clinical site will be if I end up doing that.

BUSY!!!!

Hello my few followers!

I've been meaning to post but I haven't really done anything worthy of posting! Don't get me wrong, I've been super super... busy- but that's the problem. I haven't had any time to hang out at the vet clinic or to do anything else interesting for that matter. I haven't even had time to start in on my online Animal Nutrition course I signed up for in October-- BAD!!!

I did go to the RenFest in MN at the end of September with a friend. And I've taken over as the leader of the belly dance troupe! We did our first performance at the Homecoming Street Fair on campus the middle of October and I did my first improvised solo! (for a surprisingly large crowd)- this was only my 2nd solo ever. It was a little nerve-wracking...

I had a hellish-nightmare of a time getting ETS PPI evaluations filled out for my app to CSU. So.... many technical difficulties! If you ever need to fill one of these out- send requests to your evaluators as SOON AS POSSIBLE and be prepared to contact the customer service line. We managed to get them in less than a day before their deadline (yikes!).

All other vet apps were submitted by Oct 3rd and my back-up Clinical Laboratory Science apps were sent in by Nov 1st. I got my first vet reply on Nov 10th from Iowa State!!! They offered me an interview--- I have my interview on December 4th (Sunday)!!!!! Exciting!!!! According to the sites I should start hearing from my other schools mid-late December. *fingers crossed* the waiting is the WORST!

Here is a map I made up of all the places I applied for Vet & CLS

I am tentatively on the intent to graduate list for this spring- depending on whether I get into a vet school or not. I picked up my cap & gown this week- also scary!

I will be sure to update on how the interview went and as I get further replies from vet schools. Thanks for keeping tabs on me! I will try to be more attentive to my blog in the future!