Vet School Interview, Part Deux
Describe a situation in which you had to break a serious commitment.
Whenever I make a commitment, either to myself or to someone else, I do not take it lightly. Although I have not been able to keep every commitment I've made, I can't think of a "serious" commitment that I've broken. If I commit to something important, I usually find a way to make it work. I guess a time that I've broken a commitment was this summer when I was looking for a job, the first place I stopped at interviewed me and hired me on the spot. I showed up for work at 7:30 the next morning and started working. The office manager didn't get in until 9:30, but the other techs showed me around and showed me what to do. When the office manager arrived, however, he called me into his office, and said he had been looking over my application and had just noticed that I had written technician in the position requested field. He told me that in that hospital, everyone starts in the kennel and works their way up to technician. Even though I had committed to working there, the conditions of that agreement had now changed, so I asked for a few days to look for a tech job, and when I found one, I told the original hospital that I would not be working there.
Have you ever had a moment where you suddenly gained a lot of insight?
When I was a freshman in high school, my brother was deciding where to go to college. He had his heart set on going to the University of Virginia, and was accepted. When it came time to make a decision, however, my parents refused to cosign student loans, making it virtually impossible for him to go to Virginia. He instead ended up at UF. In hindsight he is glad he went here, but at the time he reacted by telling my parents they had crushed his hopes and dreams like a flower on a sad sad day (direct quote), and punching a hole in the wall. I was angry with my parents as well, not only for him, but because I saw myself there three years later. I wanted to go to Penn, and knew that I wouldn't get any more of a break than he did. They explained to me, though, that they knew how hard it was to have student loans, and especially in our situation, where I was definitely looking at significant grad school debt, and he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, we were not in a situation to pass up a free ride to UF. I think at that time I really started to turn from the whole teenage angsty "my parents only do things to make my life miserable" mentality, to seeing that they really were trying to make our adult lives as easy as possible.
Tell me about a problem you solved and the insight you used in solving it?
When the APVMA Symposium was held at UF last year, I was the transportation coordinator, and was in charge of arranging bus transportation for several hundred attendees to and from the airport, hotels, classes, labs, and dinners. On the second day of the conference, when all the classes and labs took place, busses were supposed to pick students up from the hotels at 6 AM and drive them to the communicore for breakfast and classes. By 6:05 when no busses had shown up and the lobby was starting to fill, I called the head bus driver to see where he was. The problem was that Daylight Savings Time changed that night, and he had forgotten about it, and so was an hour behind. He said he would be there soon, and I was left with about a hundred groggy and hungry students. Luckily most of them had known me from the previous day, since I was very visible helping out with everything, and so I had a rapport with them and they understood when I explained the situation to them. I was upfront with them and told them what I would want to hear in that situation. In the end the busses were about a half hour late, but everyone made it to breakfast and their classes and the rest of the schedule went pretty much as planned.
How do you feel about convenience euthanasia?
In general, I am against convenience euthanasia. I know that it does happen, but in an ideal world, people would realize that taking in a pet is a lifelong commitment, and that you can't just kill an animal if you grow tired of it or can no longer take care of it. It is the owner's responsibility to care for an animal or to make sure it is placed in a good home. However, if I am presented with a client that refuses all other options (rescue group, placing the pet in another home, surrendering the pet to me/my office, etc.) and I think that the owner is going to hurt the animal or kill it themselves inhumanely, I will either refer them to another veterinarian if I don't feel comfortable with the situation, or will euthanize the dog if I think it is the best option.
Name a class or two that you really enjoyed or struggled with.
The best class I have taken at UF is, hands down, animal behavior. I found every topic in the class very interesting, and loved the professor. I have actually taken a class with her three times throughout undergrad. The class was challenging, but I didn't mind doing the work because I found it so fascinating. She encouraged us to look at behavior from a research standpoint, and the lab enabled us to conduct our own research project and present a poster on our findings. I did mine on the effects of male-male competition on the courtship behavior of guppies. It was great experience and really made me more interested in research.
How have you used your creative thinking to help yourself in a difficult situation (w/o the help of anyone else)?
During breaks from college, when I wasn't working at vet clinics, I would substitute teach at a local elementary/middle school. One day when I was teaching third grade, the Spanish teacher was also out, and the kids were supposed to have a 30 minute Spanish lesson, for which I had no lesson plan. I asked the class what topics they were covering, hoping it wasn't anything beyond my 8th grade Spanish education. I took French in high school. The kids told me they were learning numbers, and I figured I knew enough letters and numbers to get by. So I had the class play "Hang Hombre" spelling out the numbers, and then saying the Spanish letters and words and what numbers they were in English. It went over well with the class, and was at least moderately educational, since they were reciting Spanish letters and numbers.
What is a weakness of yours and how are you working on bettering it?
At this point I would say that my biggest weakness is not being able to let go of mistakes I've made. I tend to be way too hard on myself when I say or do something I shouldn't, and it takes me a very long time to get over it. It is something I'm working on, because ideally I'd like to learn from my mistakes and get over them quickly. However, I don't want to go too far the other way, because I don't think this is totally a weakness. If I make a medical mistake, which I'm sure I will, I don't want to get over it too quickly. Obviously I don't want it to eat away at me, but I want it to stick with me so that I will make sure not to repeat the mistake.
If you don't get into veterinary school, what are your plans?
Fortunately, that's no longer an issue for me, because I have heard good news from the other schools I've applied to, but I did have a back-up plan before I applied. If I had been rejected, I would have scheduled file reviews with each school and asked what prevented me getting accepted, and would try to address those issues. If it was my GPA, I would apply to one year master's programs, such as the MSM program here at UF. If my GPA was not an issue, I would probably work for a year, either in the small animal clinic where I've been, or try to find something in areas that I'm not as experienced in, such as food animal or exotics. If it was clear, though, that I wasn't going to be accepted after several application cycles, I would either get a PHD and do research and teach at a university level, or I would teach high school. Some form of teaching, anyway.
How would you feel about euthanizing racing greyhounds for financial reasons? (Meaning for the benefit of the owner's finances)
I'm not too familiar with the greyhound racing scene, but I do know that there are a few organizations that rescue retired racing greyhounds, and I am all for them. All the former racers that I have known, either clients' pets or friends who have adopted them, have been awesome pets and have adjusted really well. I can't imagine that giving the dog to a rescue organization is any more expensive than euthanizing it.
Name a time when you had to stand up for something you believed in.
The hardest battle I've ever had to fight in my life was a struggle with my parents for 14 years about whether or not I could have a dog. I spent countless hours researching breeds, dog care, rescue groups, reading classified ads for pets, etc. When I was in first grade they tried to appease me by getting my brother and I a cat for Christmas, and while I loved the cat, I still needed a dog. I begged and whined and fought and reasoned, but for years they refused. Finally when I was in 8th grade I got a "maybe," and within a few weeks we were at the humane society "just to look." The compromise was that we had to get a full grown, housetrained dog, which was fine with me. A dog is a dog. They showed me Sasha, a hyper 1 year-old brown pit bull mix and I knew that I had to have her. The only problem was that she had severe hip dysplasia and had already had 1 FHO, with another one certainly in her future. My parents told me there was no way we were adopting a dog knowing she needed another huge surgery, but I refused to leave without talking to the humane society staff about our options. As it turned out, Sasha had been at the shelter for months, and was kind of a staff favorite. They were so eager to see her adopted that they were willing to help us out and arrange to get the surgery at humane society prices. My parents agreed that we could foster her for a week before making a decision, and 5 days later she stopped using her back leg (the one that she'd already had surgery on) and we had to adopt her in order to get the free vet visit. It took years to convince my parents to let me get a dog in general, and then I had to battle them over which dog to get, but I'm glad I did. 8 years later Sasha is still the best dog I could ask for, and saw me through high school, came with me to college, and will stay with me next year as I enter vet school.
[side note: it was hard to write that answer, only because for half of it Sasha has had her head in my lap...where my laptop goes.]
Calling it a night. I have early class tomorrow, and at some point I hope to get answers for those pesky questions on the bottom of the page.
Describe a time when you had to work with someone that you didn't get along with.
Describe a time when you made a decision that not everyone agreed with and how you reacted.
Tell me an experience you had to bring a group of disagreeing people together and make a decision as a team.
Whenever I make a commitment, either to myself or to someone else, I do not take it lightly. Although I have not been able to keep every commitment I've made, I can't think of a "serious" commitment that I've broken. If I commit to something important, I usually find a way to make it work. I guess a time that I've broken a commitment was this summer when I was looking for a job, the first place I stopped at interviewed me and hired me on the spot. I showed up for work at 7:30 the next morning and started working. The office manager didn't get in until 9:30, but the other techs showed me around and showed me what to do. When the office manager arrived, however, he called me into his office, and said he had been looking over my application and had just noticed that I had written technician in the position requested field. He told me that in that hospital, everyone starts in the kennel and works their way up to technician. Even though I had committed to working there, the conditions of that agreement had now changed, so I asked for a few days to look for a tech job, and when I found one, I told the original hospital that I would not be working there.
Have you ever had a moment where you suddenly gained a lot of insight?
When I was a freshman in high school, my brother was deciding where to go to college. He had his heart set on going to the University of Virginia, and was accepted. When it came time to make a decision, however, my parents refused to cosign student loans, making it virtually impossible for him to go to Virginia. He instead ended up at UF. In hindsight he is glad he went here, but at the time he reacted by telling my parents they had crushed his hopes and dreams like a flower on a sad sad day (direct quote), and punching a hole in the wall. I was angry with my parents as well, not only for him, but because I saw myself there three years later. I wanted to go to Penn, and knew that I wouldn't get any more of a break than he did. They explained to me, though, that they knew how hard it was to have student loans, and especially in our situation, where I was definitely looking at significant grad school debt, and he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, we were not in a situation to pass up a free ride to UF. I think at that time I really started to turn from the whole teenage angsty "my parents only do things to make my life miserable" mentality, to seeing that they really were trying to make our adult lives as easy as possible.
Tell me about a problem you solved and the insight you used in solving it?
When the APVMA Symposium was held at UF last year, I was the transportation coordinator, and was in charge of arranging bus transportation for several hundred attendees to and from the airport, hotels, classes, labs, and dinners. On the second day of the conference, when all the classes and labs took place, busses were supposed to pick students up from the hotels at 6 AM and drive them to the communicore for breakfast and classes. By 6:05 when no busses had shown up and the lobby was starting to fill, I called the head bus driver to see where he was. The problem was that Daylight Savings Time changed that night, and he had forgotten about it, and so was an hour behind. He said he would be there soon, and I was left with about a hundred groggy and hungry students. Luckily most of them had known me from the previous day, since I was very visible helping out with everything, and so I had a rapport with them and they understood when I explained the situation to them. I was upfront with them and told them what I would want to hear in that situation. In the end the busses were about a half hour late, but everyone made it to breakfast and their classes and the rest of the schedule went pretty much as planned.
How do you feel about convenience euthanasia?
In general, I am against convenience euthanasia. I know that it does happen, but in an ideal world, people would realize that taking in a pet is a lifelong commitment, and that you can't just kill an animal if you grow tired of it or can no longer take care of it. It is the owner's responsibility to care for an animal or to make sure it is placed in a good home. However, if I am presented with a client that refuses all other options (rescue group, placing the pet in another home, surrendering the pet to me/my office, etc.) and I think that the owner is going to hurt the animal or kill it themselves inhumanely, I will either refer them to another veterinarian if I don't feel comfortable with the situation, or will euthanize the dog if I think it is the best option.
Name a class or two that you really enjoyed or struggled with.
The best class I have taken at UF is, hands down, animal behavior. I found every topic in the class very interesting, and loved the professor. I have actually taken a class with her three times throughout undergrad. The class was challenging, but I didn't mind doing the work because I found it so fascinating. She encouraged us to look at behavior from a research standpoint, and the lab enabled us to conduct our own research project and present a poster on our findings. I did mine on the effects of male-male competition on the courtship behavior of guppies. It was great experience and really made me more interested in research.
How have you used your creative thinking to help yourself in a difficult situation (w/o the help of anyone else)?
During breaks from college, when I wasn't working at vet clinics, I would substitute teach at a local elementary/middle school. One day when I was teaching third grade, the Spanish teacher was also out, and the kids were supposed to have a 30 minute Spanish lesson, for which I had no lesson plan. I asked the class what topics they were covering, hoping it wasn't anything beyond my 8th grade Spanish education. I took French in high school. The kids told me they were learning numbers, and I figured I knew enough letters and numbers to get by. So I had the class play "Hang Hombre" spelling out the numbers, and then saying the Spanish letters and words and what numbers they were in English. It went over well with the class, and was at least moderately educational, since they were reciting Spanish letters and numbers.
What is a weakness of yours and how are you working on bettering it?
At this point I would say that my biggest weakness is not being able to let go of mistakes I've made. I tend to be way too hard on myself when I say or do something I shouldn't, and it takes me a very long time to get over it. It is something I'm working on, because ideally I'd like to learn from my mistakes and get over them quickly. However, I don't want to go too far the other way, because I don't think this is totally a weakness. If I make a medical mistake, which I'm sure I will, I don't want to get over it too quickly. Obviously I don't want it to eat away at me, but I want it to stick with me so that I will make sure not to repeat the mistake.
If you don't get into veterinary school, what are your plans?
Fortunately, that's no longer an issue for me, because I have heard good news from the other schools I've applied to, but I did have a back-up plan before I applied. If I had been rejected, I would have scheduled file reviews with each school and asked what prevented me getting accepted, and would try to address those issues. If it was my GPA, I would apply to one year master's programs, such as the MSM program here at UF. If my GPA was not an issue, I would probably work for a year, either in the small animal clinic where I've been, or try to find something in areas that I'm not as experienced in, such as food animal or exotics. If it was clear, though, that I wasn't going to be accepted after several application cycles, I would either get a PHD and do research and teach at a university level, or I would teach high school. Some form of teaching, anyway.
How would you feel about euthanizing racing greyhounds for financial reasons? (Meaning for the benefit of the owner's finances)
I'm not too familiar with the greyhound racing scene, but I do know that there are a few organizations that rescue retired racing greyhounds, and I am all for them. All the former racers that I have known, either clients' pets or friends who have adopted them, have been awesome pets and have adjusted really well. I can't imagine that giving the dog to a rescue organization is any more expensive than euthanizing it.
Name a time when you had to stand up for something you believed in.
The hardest battle I've ever had to fight in my life was a struggle with my parents for 14 years about whether or not I could have a dog. I spent countless hours researching breeds, dog care, rescue groups, reading classified ads for pets, etc. When I was in first grade they tried to appease me by getting my brother and I a cat for Christmas, and while I loved the cat, I still needed a dog. I begged and whined and fought and reasoned, but for years they refused. Finally when I was in 8th grade I got a "maybe," and within a few weeks we were at the humane society "just to look." The compromise was that we had to get a full grown, housetrained dog, which was fine with me. A dog is a dog. They showed me Sasha, a hyper 1 year-old brown pit bull mix and I knew that I had to have her. The only problem was that she had severe hip dysplasia and had already had 1 FHO, with another one certainly in her future. My parents told me there was no way we were adopting a dog knowing she needed another huge surgery, but I refused to leave without talking to the humane society staff about our options. As it turned out, Sasha had been at the shelter for months, and was kind of a staff favorite. They were so eager to see her adopted that they were willing to help us out and arrange to get the surgery at humane society prices. My parents agreed that we could foster her for a week before making a decision, and 5 days later she stopped using her back leg (the one that she'd already had surgery on) and we had to adopt her in order to get the free vet visit. It took years to convince my parents to let me get a dog in general, and then I had to battle them over which dog to get, but I'm glad I did. 8 years later Sasha is still the best dog I could ask for, and saw me through high school, came with me to college, and will stay with me next year as I enter vet school.
[side note: it was hard to write that answer, only because for half of it Sasha has had her head in my lap...where my laptop goes.]
Calling it a night. I have early class tomorrow, and at some point I hope to get answers for those pesky questions on the bottom of the page.
Describe a time when you had to work with someone that you didn't get along with.
Describe a time when you made a decision that not everyone agreed with and how you reacted.
Tell me an experience you had to bring a group of disagreeing people together and make a decision as a team.