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Liaison

Experiences

In this section, you can enter your professional experiences in several categories, or types. Review the type definitions below, consider the duties you performed during the experience, and use your best judgment to determine which category your experience falls into. If you have any questions about your experiences fulfilling an individual program's requirements, inquire with that program directly.

Although you can enter any experiences within the last 10 years that you believe are relevant to your application, we recommend highlighting your experiences starting in high school, through college, and thereafter and checking your desired program's requirements regarding documentation. Enter only completed and in-progress experiences. Do not include experiences that are planned (i.e., have not yet started) or experiences that were completed in elementary or middle school.

Review the Experiences chart below for more guidance on categorizing experiences.

Experience Types

Animal Experience (no Veterinarian involved)

Animal Experiences include farm and ranch experience, 4-H membership, animal training, or similar activities that were not under the supervision of a veterinarian. Experiences listed as Animal Experience should be different from those entered for Veterinary and Employment experiences.

Employment (not animal-related)

Employment includes paid work done outside of the animal or veterinary field - for example, a retail or restaurant job. Do not include any experiences listed as Veterinary, Animal, or Research.

Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular activities include experiences you were involved with from high school until the present, including sports/intramurals, clubs, honor societies, committees, community activities, social activities, fraternities/sororities, certifications, and hobbies. List the most recent first.

Research

Research experience includes any animal and veterinary research, as well as other field and/or laboratory-based research. Include specific details about your work/involvement, including whether the research experience provided an opportunity to present or publish.

Veterinary Experience (with a Veterinarian)

Veterinary Experience includes any veterinary clinical, agribusiness, or health science experiences that took place under the supervision of a veterinarian. Experiences listed as Veterinary Experience should be different from those entered for Animal and Employment experiences. Do not list any veterinary research experience.

Volunteer (not animal-related)

Volunteer work includes experiences outside of the animal care field - for example, Habitat for Humanity, tutoring students, participating in or working for a fundraiser walk or blood drive, etc.

Experiences Chart

VMCAS Experiences.png

Enter Your Experience

  1. Click Add an Experience.
  2. Select the appropriate experience type from the drop-down.
  3. Enter information about the organization where the experience took place.
  4. Enter information about your supervisor at the organization. This is a person that programs can contact to verify that this experience occurred. If the experience was a student-organized group and there was no advisor, list a member who can verify your experience.
  5. Enter the date or date range in which the experience took place. Note that your experiences will not display on your application in any specific order, regardless of the dates entered.
  6. Enter additional details about the experience, including the title of the experience and the time commitments. Enter the average weekly number of hours that you completed for this experience during the date range that you indicated.
  7. Select Yes or No to indicate a release authorization to allow your selected programs to contact the organization.
  8. Click Save & Continue.

Note that you cannot repeat hours between experience types. So, if position duties encompass more than one section, enter the position in both sections and divide the hours and duties accordingly.

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