The Backstory

I first jumped on the "I want to be a veterinarian" ship in the 4th grade.  We had to do a presentation on what we wanted to do with our lives (a bit early, in retrospect) and I chose being a vet because I loved animals.  I clearly remember talking about how I wanted to go to Iowa State University because they had a vet school and that's where my dad went to college (true story - he played football there).

Fast forward to high school and I was still convinced that vet school was where I was headed with my life.  I was going to become the first doctor in our family (of my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) and spend my life fixing broken puppies and kittens. I took all the honors classes my school had to offer, participated in volunteer groups like NHS, went to State for my science fair project in AP Biology, and earned the "Distinction in Science" award from my school. I even did an honors mentorship course - which was basically a semester class where, after school a few days a week, I would go to the vet clinic down the road and shadow the veterinarians there.

In hindsight, that's probably where the trouble started.  I got along with the techs very well, but the vets were more aloof, not terribly open and friendly to a shy high school student. I finally managed to have an in depth chat with one of them who straight up told me he regretted his decision to attend vet school (and why).  Basically, he was in ridiculous amounts of debt from vet school and starting salary for vets wasn't nearly what it should be.  This was back in 2004.  As frightening as that information was, it didn't actually deter me from my goal (yet).

When it was time to look at colleges, I only bothered applying to schools that had a "pre-vet program."  This was pretty silly, because there is no such thing as a "pre-vet major."  Basically any school that offers the required courses would do, but I was in high school and had no idea.  I ended up applying to two schools, Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN and Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA.  They both gave me hefty scholarships (not enough as I discovered later) and I ended up becoming a Gustie. 

My first year in college was an eye opener.  No longer could I skate through my classes without working at them - and for the first time I received less than stellar grades.  Honors Calculus II (not necessary for anything, but I used to like math) beat me into the dirt with a C+ (three tests, aced the first, nearly failed the last 2).  I figured it out after the first semester, and started pulling my grades back up, but I had to put so much effort into Organic Chemistry I that I started questioning my decision to attend vet school.

I got off track.  I decided to wait a year before attempting Organic Chemistry II, although the rest of my classes were in order.  This was a huge mistake, but c'est la vie.  When I attempted Org II (after a year with no chemistry classes) I couldn't handle it.  The professor taught in monotone, it was an early morning class, and I just could not grasp the material.  After getting a D in the first two exams I decided to drop the class, for my sanity if nothing else.  That was the breaking point, when I finally realized that maybe, if vet school required these classes (and physics! I hadn't even attempted physics yet but I was terrified of the prospect) maybe vet school wasn't for me.

I decided to go with the flow, and take classes that I was interested in learning about instead of classes I was "supposed" to take for vet school.  This led me to Neurobiology, Animal Behavior, Evolution, and Conservation Biology during a study abroad in Australia.  I loved my classes, and subsequently graduated magna cum laude (at my school that meant a cumulative GPA of 3.7 and up) in 2009. 

Unfortunately, now I had no idea what I was going to do with my life.  During my first two summers I had worked in an animal clinic/boarding facility to get some vet experience.  The last summer I worked in a research lab at Mayo Clinic.  While I enjoyed the lab work, I felt that field research was really where my passion lay.  However, since I didn't have any field experience, no one was hiring.  The summer after graduation I went on a volunteer research trip with my Evolution professor (summer groundfish surveys for NOAA) but it wasn't enough to tip the tide and get me a field research position.

Luckily, after a grueling summer living with my parents in Rochester and working full time at Culver's, I managed to get a job in an animal behavior research lab in Minneapolis.  I still had no idea what my future was, or what career I would pursue, but it paid the bills and was in the field I loved. 

Back then, in the fall of 2009, that was enough for me.

Introduction

There are many many blogs out on the internet these days.  While this one is probably no different from dozens of others out there, I've decided to record my past experiences of getting into vet school and hopefully keep up to date with my journey in vet school.  Finding blogs like this one helped me decide to pursue my dream and also helped me achieve the first step: getting in. 

I have no idea how well this idea will pan out, or if it will help anyone, but here it is anyway!  Enjoy