Help! advice needed

[u/Candid_Bonus_7213]

Hi!!

This is gonna sound really dumb but pls advise

So I submitted my applications and have all my secondaries in, and I just got an offer for an unpaid dolphin training internship (4 months)…. So I guess my question is, would it be stupid to take it? Obviously there is the I will be making no money issue if I take it, but I am also worried that if I get interviews (or don’t and then have to reapply) they will be like why tf were you training dolphins for 4 months….

I am mostly concerned bc I have 6months of experience at a vet hospital bc I was contemplating that as a career path, but ultimately decided on this… I have lots of human clinical experience (6months as a pct and now over a year as an MA), but I don’t want them to think that because I take this I am more interested in animal medicine…. Also with this experience there will be opportunities to contribute to/ learn about marine research (which in a sense helps human health if you think about the interconnectedness of everything)….

I feel like my application is solid with 519/3.9, well over 1000 clinical hours (probably over 2000 at this point) and 4 years of volunteer with underserved kids every weekend during undergrad… My week spot is definitely my research, but beyond working on a lot review I wasn’t really making strides on that anyway….

If I’m being honest I only want to do this because I think it would be really cool and fun, but I don’t want it to hurt my application or make me look like I actually want to be a vet… thoughts??

[u/biggiebag]

If you’ve already applied wouldn’t they only know if you choose to update them or talk about it in interviews? When you’re at the point of interviewing they aren’t questioning whether your interested anymore

[u/thisclosetolosingit]

Desperately looking for the 💩post flair…

If this is real, I’m 50/50. On one hand dolphin training is so incredibly unique I imagine every single school will want to know more about this in your interviews. You can send updates to schools with things not mentioned on your primary app but I would possibly wait until the end of the internship so your update includes what you learned and why it benefitted you as a candidate.

On the other hand, dolphin training might be too out there for some adcoms who will wonder why you chose that over continuing to work with patients in a healthcare setting. Maybe some ADCOMs can weigh in??

[u/Agitated_Depth_6881]

I would 100% do it

Adcoms would think it's cool asf I think. It's not like you're gonna take up a career in dolphin training. You're gonna have the best gap year activities out of everyone. You're already gonna get in with ur stats I think that update letter would push it over the edge

(Unless you need money)

[u/apparently_whatever]

That sounds really cool! Not sure about stretching the idea of interconnectedness to human medicine, but maybe I'm not thinking about it correctly. Either way, it makes you look like an interesting human being with passions outside of medicine. As I'm sure you know, working with animals in vet med can be as if not more difficult than with humans, because we lack the ability to genuinely communicate with them. I think working with animals requires a certain level of empathy and respect for the creatures we share the earth with. As long as you have a good answer of "Why not vet med" or "Why did you decide human medicine over vet medicine?" I think you'll have decent interviews with something interesting to talk about.