Vet School Interview Tips- How to Get Into Vet School Part 13
Sweaty palms. Stumbling over your own name. Heart rate so fast you think it might just fly out of your chest. Smiling faces. A feeling of intense longing during hospital tours. Now what do all of these things have in common? That’s right, vet school interviews! Now interviews are different at each and every school (some are “behavioral-based,” some are “traditional,” some are “MMIs,” and some schools don’t have interviews at all). I’m not going to go into the specifics of each type of interview, but I do have a complied list of general tips to hopefully make your vet school interview as painless as possible.
Prepare yourself for battle- I mean interviews. There are some people in this wide world that can talk themselves out of a paper bag and some excel at any time of interview without any preparation what-so-ever. I was (and am) not one of those people, so to build up confidence for my interview, I did two things, and maybe these will help you too! 1) Find mock interviews. Most universities have some type of mock interview (mine was at the career center), and I highly recommend participating in one of these, because not only do you get a feel for how you respond to certain questions, but you also get an idea on how you can improve and even realize things you don’t normally notice doing! (For instance I had no idea how many times I said “Um” or touched my hair until a mock interview). 2) Look over old questions. If you haven’t visited the website “Student Doctor Network” (aka SDN), then I would highly suggest going here: (http://schools.studentdoctor.net/schools/8/veterinary-interview-feedback/1). This website has interview feedback from just about every school, and even has tons of questions from interviews past that you can work on!
It’s OKAY to be nervous! I think there is a general rumor going around that you need to be 100% composed and perfect in your interview and you can’t stumble or blank on words without it be crippling to your application. From someone who talked to several admission committee members and who herself visibly shook in every single interview she went to…. it’s OKAY to be nervous! In fact they are expecting you to be a little nervous! So don’t freak out if you turn bright red or you can’t speak for a few seconds or if your hands shake. It’s a natural response to stress and no committee member that I’ve heard of would mark you down for being nervous. So take a deep breath, even with your shaking hands I promise it’s going to be okay. : )
Make eye contact. This seems like a no-brainer, but when you get inside that stressful tiny room surrounded by 2-3 intimidating people trying to squeeze everything out about you in 30 minutes, sometimes eye contact falls by the wayside. If you have more than one person, every time you answer a question, make sure you are looking at both of them, do NOT fall into the trap at only focusing on one of your interviewers! This is something that can be practiced so if you are worried about it grab a few family members or friends and have a conversation with them while making sure to make eye contact with each person.
Make connections back to vet med. This is probably one of my more important tips. If there is a question in which you can relate it back to vet med, DO SO! For instance, if there’s a question about a time when you had a dysfunctional team member, then relay your story and then maybe say why everyone being a team player is important for vet med. Or if they ask you how you destress, then maybe think about how you would plan on implementing these plans during vet school/your career and why it’s important to destress in this profession. The more you can connect your answers to how this is vital to vet med, or how you would solve this question during vet school/your career, the better.
Ask questions! This one is left to you to decide, but when I was interviewing, I was always told to ask the interviews questions at the end of the interview. It can as simple as “What do you personally like about this school?” or you can expand on something that interested you such as “Are there any international opportunities for someone that would like pursue exotics,” or “What kind of research do you have here?” I personally found that questions let me connect with the interviewers more, and it also let me spend the last few minutes of the interview relaxed instead of completely wound-up nervous.
Let (your interview) Go. Everyone has a tendency to over-analyze their interviews. Don’t be this person. Please. There is nothing you can change after the fact, so it’s better to just wait for decisions and not beat yourself up over a bad interview. After all, it’s OKAY to say a few dumb things, or to say “I don’t know.” It’s OKAY. It’s important to keep in mind that even if you think you completely bombed your interview… at most schools it is only a portion of your application! A bad interview DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY EQUAL REJECTION. So please don’t let a poor interview ruin your day or week, because you never know, it could end up much better than you think : )
Good luck with interviews everyone, and I hope to see all of you lovely pre-vetties matriculating in the fall : )
