University of Missouri

Tonight at Pre-Vet club we had the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri coordinator of student recruitment speak. He started off his talk making us laugh so hard, but then jumped right into the serious stuff that made us think of our career choice. 

"I am not a veterinarian. I do NOT stick my arm up a cow's butt. That is where I draw the line.

You guys stand there and eat a sandwich with the other hand. Always talking about how warm it is too. 

If my arm gets any darker than this then it will be from being outside too long."

Then he started talking about the different veterinary schools.

"Ohio state is just down the road.....very flat road. You guys seriously have to get some hills out here."

Diversity and a unique life experience is part of what veterinary schools look at when considering your application. Mr. Tindall then went on to give us an example.

Apparently, every July Mr. Tindall, the speaker, has a week long camp at The University of Missouri. This past summer there was a girl named Alexandra who constantly talked about her horse, competing on her horse, racing, jumping and a lot more. One of the presenters was running late so they stopped in a classroom. Alexandra came up to Mr. Tindall and held up her IPhone that was on youtube.

Alexandra: "watch this." it was a video of a motorcross race.

"there's going to be a big crash coming up."

"now that guy is going to get air."

Mr. Tindall: "were you at this race?"

Alexandra: "Yeah that's me...the one getting air."

Mr. Tindall: "how long have you been racing?"

Alexandra: "since I was twelve."

Mr. Tindall: "does your family race?"

Alexandra: "yeah my brothers did. I beat all my brothers; they quit."

Alexandra had won over 50 trophies and 10 first place trophies while competing in motorcross. She had even gotten a national sponsor and competed in Portland, Oregon. How many students or applicants get that opportunity or have that experience? Not many or hardly any at all.

Mr. Tindall was getting ready to give a tour to a FFA group of all guys. It was 1:00pm and they had just gotten off the bus and were talking to each other and paid no attention to Mr. Tindall. To get there attention Mr. Tindall started asking them a few questions.

"How many of you love animals?" No hands were raised.

"How many of you want to be veterinarians?" No hands were raised.

"How many of you want to thank a veterinarian?" All the guys stopped talking and gave a puzzled and confused look to Mr. Tindall. His thought and reasoning to this question was that they had just done something at 12:00pm; ate lunch. All the food that they had just ate had to be examined by a veterinarian and get their approval to keep people safe, healthy and alive. If it wasn't for veterinarians then we would be dead.

I was glad I had stayed for our club meeting and paid attention to his presentation. He gave a lot of helpful tips to what Veterinary Colleges are looking for in an applicant or prospective student.