This blog post examines specific strategies and examples of how veterinary medicine applicants can connect actual experimental experience, animal volunteer work, and major-related reading to create a competitive academic plan.
Writing about academic experiences and reflections
“Completed an advanced biology course in the gifted class”
During high school, I studied in a gifted class, taking advanced courses in biology and chemistry. Among these two subjects, I developed a stronger interest in biology. The reason was that most of the biology gifted classes were conducted through hands-on experiments. While chemistry classes also frequently utilized the lab, biology particularly sparked my curiosity because it involved practical experiments like dissecting pigs or frogs. In regular classes, it was nearly impossible to obtain actual animals for dissection or experimentation.
Therefore, given my strong interest in animals and plants, I carefully planned my experiments to ensure they were properly executed. The advantage of the gifted class was the ability to plan experiments in diverse ways and directly design their direction and process. While regular classes required following textbook experiments, the gifted class’s greatest advantage was designing autonomous experiments and implementing them individually. Thus, my experimental topics included hormone research for animal diagnosis, cell observation and documentation using microscopes, and selecting my own plant and animal subjects for experiments like pig heart dissection and osmotic pressure experiments.
I documented the entire experimental process for analysis. This documentation was especially crucial for group experiments conducted in teams, not just individual ones. Among the team experiments at the time was a microbiology research project. After completing this experiment, we planned an activity to address water pollution using the results. To improve water quality, we identified a nearby stream and conducted an ecological environmental volunteer activity there. Beyond ecological volunteering, external activities included visiting KAIST during its Open Campus event. There, I participated in a Vision Sharing Mentor event with alumni I met. These gifted class activities significantly expanded my biological knowledge.
Major School Activities and Reflections
“Veterinary Research and Animal Care Activities”
I developed an interest in veterinary medicine starting in my first year of high school. Initially, I considered attending medical school, and my parents supported my career plans. However, I gradually became more interested in veterinary medicine than human medicine. While I was aware that majoring in veterinary medicine is currently very popular and highly competitive, I believed it was highly relevant to my career path because I have always loved animals and have experience raising them myself. After deciding to apply for veterinary medicine, I began actively participating in related extracurricular activities.
One event I attended was the ‘High School Veterinary Medicine Academy’. This event was hosted by Seoul National University College of Medicine, and as an academy for students, it featured a lot of educational content. There were classes taught directly by professors, and undergraduate students at Seoul National University served as mentors, striving to provide us with new experiences. Therefore, I can say that participating in the academy activities greatly helped me set my career plans. Through conversations with seniors who had entered the medical college and were majoring in pre-veterinary studies, I learned about the characteristics of the career path. This allowed me to transform what had been a vague idea into a plan that considered realistic aspects.
Among the classes I took through the academy at that time, the one led by the director of the Radiation Health Research Institute was the most memorable. In this class, I encountered presentations related to animal experiments, including mouse experiments, and gained new knowledge through the process of learning how to explain them in report form. Since it was taught by an expert who directly conducts and researches animal experiments, I learned a great deal about the practical processes and characteristics of such experiments. Beyond this class, I also participated in a veterinary medicine-related animal hospital experience program. We visited a local animal hospital affiliated with Seoul National University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and saw many familiar animals like dogs and cats. During this time, I adopted a puppy from the hospital’s experimental animal adoption program.
The high school students attending the academy formed teams for small group activities. Even after completing the academy program, we continued meeting regularly to set and pursue career goals together. We particularly documented and researched the process of raising the puppy we adopted from the hospital at school. To raise the puppy, we obtained permission from the school to build a doghouse next to the school flower bed. The puppy we adopted was a Beagle, the breed most commonly used for experiments. Beagles are known for their cheerful temperament, but they are also full of energy and very active. They would sometimes destroy the house and frequently overturn the flower bed. Whenever these problems arose, we repaired the house or flowerbed to continue our dog-raising activities and persisted with our beagle research. If I become a veterinary student in the future, I want to continue researching breeds I’m interested in, like beagles and Maltese.
Examples of Care, Sharing, and Cooperation and My Reflections
“My Experience Volunteering at a Local Animal Shelter”
I stayed in touch with friends I met through a veterinary academy program I participated in during my second year of high school. Since we shared the same goal, we formed a small study group and did club activities together. Our activities included studying biology and chemistry, participating in external events, and volunteering. We especially made time for regular volunteer work despite our busy study schedules. All our volunteer work was related to ‘animals’. So we visited local animal shelters to volunteer.
As I became interested in local animal shelters, I realized there were more people than I expected actively caring for and trying to rehome abandoned dogs. While I knew the problem of abandoned dogs and cats was serious, I hadn’t paid attention to the many hands across society working to solve it. This volunteer work made me feel a lot. We gathered with friends from our small group to visit dog and cat shelters, participating whenever possible, often every weekend. I was among those who volunteered every weekend. Whenever I had time, I cared for the beagle at school, and visiting the shelter to volunteer became my hobby whenever the weekend came.
We worked together with friends who volunteered to assist with facility tasks. The most critical issue was hygiene for the abandoned dogs, especially since many were injured or sick and needed care to recover. We tried to improve the facilities so each dog had sufficient space, placing soft cloths and clean chairs in each pen to ensure hygienic management. Additionally, we participated in specific medical activities like carefully moving animals with injuries to bathe them, applying medication to sore spots, or disinfecting wounds. These medical activities were particularly pivotal in helping me determine that pursuing pre-veterinary studies aligned with my aptitude.
Write about the two most influential books you read in high school and your reflections on them
“History of Modern Veterinary Medicine, Cheon Myeong-seon”
Starting in my sophomore year of high school, I set my sights on a career in veterinary medicine and sought out various books related to the field to read. In particular, I gained an introduction to veterinary science through the book ‘A Preview of Veterinary Medicine’. This book allowed me to preview content I would learn in college and acquire foundational knowledge of veterinary science, which served as the basis for reading ‘The History of Modern Veterinary Medicine’. Reading ‘The History of Modern Veterinary Medicine’ revealed to me that the field of veterinary medicine itself has its own history. Of course, this was a time when I was studying biology and chemistry to prepare for science inquiry studies, and studying the history of veterinary medicine during this period could be considered an activity that took time away from other studies. However, driven by a strong curiosity about the history of veterinary medicine, I read the book thoroughly from cover to cover in less than a week. Reading the book at that time, I gained basic knowledge about veterinary history by learning about the emergence of professional veterinarians, ancient animal medical institutions, efforts to overcome livestock epidemics, and topics related to the smallpox method and Pasteur’s vaccines. I was particularly surprised to learn that companion animals existed as far back as ancient Egypt and that veterinarians existed to care for these animals. I also came to understand that animal medical issues and human medical issues are significantly interconnected. In this way, the book introduced me to new knowledge and expanded my general understanding.
“Everything About Canine Skin Diseases, by Shawn Messonier”
There was a clear reason I ended up reading this book. At the time, our school was raising a Beagle adopted from an animal hospital, and we were all involved in documenting the entire process of raising this dog. The Beagle was a puppy raised together with our small group of friends and was beloved like the school mascot, but the problem was that it often caused trouble or got sick. While we could handle things like property damage, the frequent illnesses requiring treatment were a major issue. He particularly suffered from allergic dermatitis, like atopic dermatitis, which meant frequent visits to the vet. Frustrated that his skin condition wouldn’t improve no matter how many times we went to the hospital, we started reading books to gain knowledge about canine skin diseases. It was while reading this book I found at the library that I first considered the possibility environmental factors or dietary issues might be affecting the Beagle. So, applying the medical knowledge gained from the book, I began reviewing the existing food I was feeding him, adjusting the humidity in his living environment, and checking for bacteria like demodex mites. Through these efforts, I ultimately identified humidity and diet as the issues. By improving these factors, I was able to completely cure the dog’s skin disease. As a student aspiring to be a veterinarian, I felt immense satisfaction from the experience of applying the knowledge I gained to treat the dog.
