Pony

I'm looking into working as a veterinary assistant at a company that supplies non-human primates for medical research. My goal is to eventually apply to animal behavior or maybe specifically primatology grad programs. For now I want to get some work experience to figure out what I want to do and bolster my app for grad school. The working with monkeys part of the job sounds great. I don't have any previous experience so I feel like it would be a good first step into primatology/animal science. My concern though is that it's a medical research facility. You hear a lot about ethical issues and inhumane conditions related to these institutions, but it's hard to judge the validity of these claims. Does anyone have any experience with animal medical research? I want the experience working with the monkeys, but I'm not sure I want to work with them in this way. Also, I'm not sure how relevant this would actually be to my eventual grad school application and if it's worth sinking a year or so into. If anyone with more experience could offer any advice that would be awesome.

Hey guys. I recently switched career goals from medicine to Ecology and Evolutionary Biology PhD, which means I have very little to no relevant experience and need to make up for it. I've been appying to internships and jobs and anything that I can find, mostly related to primates because that's what I'm into currently and I want to see if that's what I'd like to do. Most things require previous experience, so my current tentative plan is to do one or two volunteer/field class experiences, which generally last a few weeks and seem to be more of a just sign-up-and-your-in type thing. I'm currently looking at a research assistantship in Peru and a volunteer experience in South Africa. The problem there is obviously that I'll run out of money really fast, since these are either unpaid or actually require a fee, and I have to cover travel costs. I'd be totally okay with spending the money on this if it means finding the thing that I want to do and preparing myself for grad school, as long as I can get something paid afterwards. Basically as long as I have enough money to not die over the next year I'm fine with that. And I figure even if my experience afterwards isn't directly related to what I want to do, like if it's in a lab, having 4-8 weeks field experience from volunteer work/classes plus a year's worth of semi-related research probably isn't a terrible situation to be in when applying to EEB programs? I feel like I'm kinda rambling, but does this sound like a decent plan or does anyone else have a better one? Has anyone been in a similar situation with needing to get experience, or does anyone have suggestions for where to find entry field experiences? Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Can I ask what you mean by very little research experience, just out of curiousity? Like even if I managed to start at a research position next week, I still couldn't get a full year's experience by the time I'd apply. I see some applicants on this forum with 4 full years of experience. Thanks for the replies!

I'm currently in my first year out of undergrad. Been pre-med track since sophomore year, took my gap year to apply, then decided I didn't want to me an MD. Now I'm looking at PhD programs in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. There are a couple issues that I'd like to ask you guys about to assess my chances of actually getting into a decent program. 1. I'm an Exercise Science major. I was pre-med, so I've done all the big science courses: intro chem/bio, orgo, biochem, micro, genetics. I had two semesters of anatomy and physiology, but it was in the health sciences college, not bio. So big ones that I'm missing as far as I can tell are molecular, ecology, and possibly a biology-specific physiology. Do I need to take these courses to have a decent chance (I'm guessing ecology might be important)? If I took these classes, how big of an issue would it be that I'm not actually a biology major? I would qualify for a minor. 2. I currently have no laboratory research experience. I am doing research about 16 hours a week this year, but it's more sociology/healthcare policy type research in a hospital, I'm not in a lab. I would like to try to get some experience working in a bio lab before I apply, but I'm not sure how feasible that is seeing as I'm not a student anymore. Would it be acceptable to contact professors from my alma mater and see if they have a spot for me anywhere in there lab? And if I can't get any research experience, do I have any chance of getting into school? Those are my two main concerns right now. My GPA is 3.85, science is around 3.82. A's in all bio classes except for a B+ from intro freshman year and an A- in genetics senior year, same for chem except for a B freshman year. 33 on the MCAT with a 12/15 on the biological sciences section, not sure if that counts for anything at this point. Sorry for all the text/if I come off as an idiot, still in the early stages of figuring this out. Any input would be greatly appreciated.