Veterinary School Interviews

1
Veterinary School Interviews
All of your hard work has paid off and youve
been granted an interview, but now what do you do?

• Prepared by Ashley Case, President of the
  Pre-Veterinary Club at the University of
  Pittsburgh, 2007-2008

2
Background Information
The information contained in these slides are
based on my personal experiences from my
interviews at Kansas State University, University
of Pennsylvania, Tufts University, and Purdue
University as well as the research I did before
my interviews to find information about the type
of questions I could be asked. (There is a fair
amount of information out there, so that is
another resource to help prepare for
interviews.) These are merely my thoughts and
suggestions, they may or may not appeal to you,
but I found it helpful to ask people questions
about their vet school interviews, so I thought
it might help some people to hear about my
experiences
3
Background Information

• All of my interviews were similar in two basic
  ways
• First, I always had two interviewers (at least
  one was a faculty member in the school, and
  sometimes the other was a vet elsewhere in the
  community). Also at Penn, one interview knew all
  of my information and the other didnt know
  anything about me, I think this is the only
  school that I interviewed that did it that way,
  but there are probably more schools that also do
  this.
• Second, they were all structured similarly. The
  interviewers asked me questions and then I had
  the opportunity to ask them questions about the
  school and the program, etc. All of my
  interviews were between 30 and 45 minutes long.

4
Interview Preparation

• Know the questions you might be asked and have
  an idea of what you might say. You dont
  necessarily need to memorize answers, but be
  aware of typical questions
• You might want to prepare a portfolio
  highlighting your experiences, activities, etc.
  When you are asked to describe yourself you can
  get out your portfolio and not only tell them
  about yourself but show them too
• (Mar Kamal, the president for the 2006-2007 year
  suggested this, it worked well for her as she is
  attending Penn now, I made one but did not really
  use it, but making it was a useful endeavor to
  review my experiences so I could discuss them
  when asked)
• Research the school at which you will be
  interviewing. It is a good idea to know about
  the school in case you are asked why this school?
  Also you will have the opportunity to ask the
  interviewers questions to find out if the school
  is right for you, so you should know something
  about the program, etc. to ask these questions
• Check out Career Services for advice on
  interviewing and mock interviews
  www.careers.pitt.edu

5
Sample Questions

• The next couple of slides are sample questions
  that you might be asked on your interview
• I was actually asked some of these questions (in
  which case I indicated that I had been and at
  what school)
• Others are example questions that I found on the
  internet
• These are certainly not all of the questions I
  was asked or all the possible questions that an
  interviewer could ask you, but I believe they are
  a representative sample

6
Personal Questions

• Tell us about yourself(I got this question at
  multiple schools)
• Why do you want to be a veterinarian? (I got
  this question at multiple schools)
• What is the last book you read?
• In the veterinary profession you sometimes have
  to deal with difficult people, describe a
  situation in which you had to deal with a
  difficult person and how did you deal with it?
  (an actual question I got at Purdue)
• Vet school is stressful, how do you deal with
  stress?/Describe a stressful situation and how
  you dealt with it(I got this question at Purdue)

7
Veterinary/Animal/Research Experience Questions

• Describe (insert your experience) (I had this
  question at multiple schools)
• What was the most interesting case you observed
  and why? (I got this question at Penn)
• What was the most difficult veterinary situation
  you experienced and how did you deal with it?
• What is the scientific process you go through to
  set up your research experiments (I got a variant
  of this question at KSU, I got a lot of questions
  about my research because it is something I have
  done for a long time)

8
Ethical Questions

• How do you feel about using animals in vet
  school/research, etc? (I got this question at
  multiple schools)
• Various questions involving euthanasia,
  especially questions involving clients asking you
  to euthanize a healthy animal, and the scenario
  extends from there (I got one of these at Penn)
• What do you do if you think the animal you are
  treating is being abused?
• What is difference between/how do you fell about
  animal rights and animal welfare? (I got one of
  these at Purdue)

9
Reality Check Questions

• How will you pay for this?
• How much do veterinarians make? (you can find
  stats on this topic from the US Dept. of Labor
  as of May 2006, they cited the mean wage for vets
  as 81,490 with a range of 43,350 - 133,150)
• What will you do if you do not get into vet
  school?/ Will you reapply?
• What kind of jobs can a veterinarian get?

10
Random Questions

• What would the bumper sticker of your life say?
  (Someone actually got this question as KSU
  these types of questions reveal how you think on
  your feet/how creative you are in my opinion)
• If you were a dog, what kind would you be?
• What type of animal would your friends say you
  are most like and why?
• What do you feel is your best/worst quality?

11
Final Thoughts

• Interviewing can be really stressful and you
  will probably be nervous but it is really not
  that bad, and in some ways it can be fun, you get
  to talk about yourself and your experiences, etc
• Be humble, but dont be afraid to toot your own
  horn
• Most importantly be yourself, your interview is
  a chance for the interviewers to get to know you
  and for you to get a feel for the school so that
  both you and they can determine if you will be a
  good fit at that school
• Getting an interview is an awesome
  accomplishment, be proud of yourself!!!