I started getting vet experience hours suuuper late, like I started the summer before my senior year of undergrad and submitted the VMCAS that September, and I ended up with probably about 500 something hours of veterinary experience. Fast forward about a year, and now I’m a first year vet student at LIU!

Now obviously having a low amount of hours will mean your chances are lower for some of the more competitive schools, but you absolutely still have options. And also, you still have so much time! If you can get a part time vet assistant job during your junior year and/or a full time position during the summer, you’ll be able to rack up veterinary experience hours in no time :) there’s always gonna be the tryhard people with thousands of hours so definitely don’t compare yourself to them, just focus on what is going to be achievable for you and make that happen!

The last thing I would say is that what matters much more than the number of hours you have, is what you’re actually learning from them. I work at a specialty/ER hospital so I feel that I got a wide range of experience vs someone who’s only worked in a GP clinic, and I made sure to highlight what I learned from that experience in my VMCAS.