Lori MildrewRecommendation Report

Audience: Penn States College of Agricultural Sciences Dean and Board Members

Problem: The inadequacy of Penn States animal bioscience/pre-veterinary program

IntroductionAcademic BackgroundExperience

Penn States Animal Bioscience/Pre-Vet ProgramDescriptionMissionPrerequisites

Examples of Veterinary School Admission RequirementsVirginia Tech University Tufts University University of Pennsylvania

Cornell UniversityCornells DVM Admissions Formula:30% Overall GPA30% GRE Scores5% Quality of Academic Program20% Animal Experience (with Letters of Evaluation)10% All Other Achievements and Letters of Evaluation5% Personal Essay

A Part of the ProblemInadequate encouragement from advisorsLack of meetings with advisors

The Heart of the ProblemThe Animal Bioscience Program itselfRecommendation: Because many of the industries serving animal agriculture desire practical experience in employees, students planning on seeking positions with such employers are strongly advised to gain such experience during summer employment or through an internship.

Students ObligationsIndividual responsibilityRisks involved

Proposed SolutionBetter orientation programsInternships, co-op, research opportunities integrated into undergraduate requirements Posted job listings through the pre-vet club or CAS web page

Referenceshttp://www.auburn.edu/prevet/http://www.tufts.edu/vet/admissions/criteria.htmlhttp://www.vet.upenn.edu/Admissions/FAQ.cfmhttp://www.cas.psu.edu/Undergrad/careers/AB.htmhttp://www.cas.psu.edu/bulletins/ltest/major/anbio.htmhttp://www.cas.psu.edu/docs/CASOVER/acadprog/agbio.htmlhttp://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/docs/prevet/jobs.html

ClosingThank you for your time and consideration.

My name is Lori Mildrew, and this is my recommendation report to the audience of Penn States College of Agricultural Sciences Dean and Board Members regarding the inadequacy of Penn States animal bioscience or pre-veterinary program.I am a junior in the College of Agricultural Sciences majoring in animal bioscience with a minor in animal science, and Im hoping to attend veterinary school after graduation. I have gained valuable knowledge and hands-on experience through my classes and corresponding labs at Penn State as well as my involvement with Penn States Pre-Vet club.In order to prepare myself for veterinary school, I have worked during a summer and winter break with a small animal veterinarian close to my hometown. This opportunity gave me direct experience with animals and gave me reassurance in my future plans of attending veterinary school. I obtained this job since I had a good relationship with the veterinarian from shadowing him and his employees while I was in high school. I obtained this valuable experience on my own with no assistance from anyone or any program at Penn State.The Animal Bioscience Program, as stated by the description on the web page of Agricultural majors, provides a strong background in the biological and physical sciences underlying contemporary animal agriculture and establishes a sound foundation for graduate level study in animal and related sciences.The mission of the animal bioscience program is to prepare students for admission to veterinary school and/or graduate programs in discipline areas related to animal science and biology.Penn States animal bioscience program requires a minimum of 130 credits in courses that meet the prerequisites of most veterinary schools, such as organic chemistry, physics, calculus, and higher level genetics and pathology courses. Penn States majors handbook explicitly states that the Animal Bioscience Major provides the prerequisites for application to Veterinary School. Applicants to veterinary schools, such as Virginia Tech University, Tufts University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University, while not only required to have competitive cumulative grades and GRE scores, must also have a wide variety of animal experience.Virginia Tech requires both large and small animal experience, previous work with a veterinarian for 400-600 hours, and research, laboratory, or commercial and industrial experience related to veterinary medicine.Tufts University requires veterinary, animal, and/or health science experience for admission. This may include the care, knowledge, and experience gained working in a veterinary, agricultural, research, human health, and/or biomedical setting. Such experience should be of appropriate breadth and depth and should entail more than having provided routine care and feeding of companion animals or family pets.The University of Pennsylvania requires exposure to practice, research, or other areas of veterinary medicine that is documented, and one letter of recommendation from a veterinarian is necessary for admission.Cornells School of Veterinary Medicine has an admission formula as stated here. As you can see, animal experience with appropriate letters of recommendation take up 20% of the admission requirements.

In my 2 and a half years at Penn State, I have met with my advisor at least 2 times per semester regarding my current classes and future plans. My advisor has made sure that I was on the right track with my course selections, but he has never once suggested or asked about the experience Ive obtained and was planning on obtaining before graduation on my way to veterinary school. I once asked about research opportunities, and he simply said that I should randomly email professors and ask if they need any student help.I have taken the initiative to speak with my advisor, but some students rarely, if at all, meet with their advisors. So, the process of getting experience is solely left to the student through these circumstances.A students inability to gain experience cannot be blamed on the individual advisors, but the animal bioscience program itself for not including or requiring any type of work with animals besides the labs for classes.The only recommendation that can be found for students is on the majors handbook web page, where it states: Because many of the industries serving animal agriculture desire practical experience in employees, students planning on seeking positions with such employers are strongly advised to gain such experience during summer employment or through an internship.It is the duty of each student to know that experience is required for admission into veterinary school, and they must do their own research to find appropriate opportunities.Students without this luck could find themselves delayed in their attempts to attend veterinary school, since they must find experience later in their college careers.In order to prepare incoming animal bioscience students or those hoping to pursue any type of professional or graduate degree after graduation, Penn State should inform students of the requirements needed for future schooling when they first enter the Penn State community. This could be done at FTCAP and then encouraged further through meetings with advisors.Penn State should also offer a direct way for students to gain opportunities through internships, co-ops, and research opportunities with local veterinarians and faculty. Vet Sci 395 is an internship option for pre-veterinary students, but this is only available to those starting their 5th semester. If this internship was made available earlier and required for graduation, experience would be sufficient and able to be expanded upon before applying for veterinary school. Since some universities, like Cornell, rate the quality of the academic program as 5% of the admission requirements, adding a required internship or co-op opportunity would increase ones chances of being accepted.The Pre-Vet club here at Penn State offers many informational speakers and activities that open students to many options available to them after graduation. A new addition to the club to help those to gain experience would be a job offering listing, such as the one found on Auburn Universitys and Ohio States Pre-Veterinary clubs web sites. The site offers various types of job listings working with veterinarians and various research positions. Penn State could offer this on their College of Agricultural Sciences Homepage as well the Pre-Vet Club homepage as an easy way for animal bioscience students to gain access to the opportunities available to them.If you would like to learn more information about the subjects I touched upon, visit these corresponding webpages.Thank you for listening to my recommendation to improve Penn States animal bioscience/pre-veterinary program. I hope you will take some consideration into putting these changes into effect since it will improve the futures of many Penn State students.