In a message of , Marianne Ryan (1:203/127) writes:
 >I haven't checked with Davis about Vet Tech course because I 
 >was told by one of the counselors for the Junior College that I must 
 >complete my general education and alot of science before I could try 
 >for that and Now I may have a way for my work to reimburse me for my 
 >general education, I know that they were saying the other day that 
 >Human Resources has a new program to reimburse for College for up to 
 >$500 a year.  I have to find out how that works though.  So wish me 
 >luck if not I will pay for it myself through Junior College then 
 >hopefully get some kind of grant or assistance by the time I get to the 
 >University.  
Hi, Marianne -- 
I've been following your messages and think it's great that you want to go 
back to school.  As a one-time graduate student, may I give you a little 
advice?  Go ahead and write Davis about their Vet Tech course NOW and ask 
them what kind of preparation they want for applicants to that program.  The 
requirements may change by the time you are ready to apply, but Davis will 
know better what *specific things* they want of an applicant than the 
counselors at your Junior College do.
This is one of my big beefs about school in general and school counselors in 
particular, that they are put in the position of advising people about stuff 
that they just don't know about, at least some of the time.  For instance, if 
I had known in junior high school that I would be expected to know either 
French or German in order to finish a PhD program, I could have taken French 
*and* German in high school, where it would have been easier to learn them.  
(I could have learned them more slowly, had more time to study them, and best 
of all, could have learned them for FREE in high school.)  But nobody 
suggested that if I was bored with Spanish it might be fun to switch to 
another language instead, and that it would come in handy later when I went 
to college.  
Yes, you'll have a lot of courses which you must take to complete your 
general education stuff, but you usually have some choice about what you can 
take to fill those requirements, and it may be to your advantage to take one 
class over the other.  You won't know how to decide unless you ask now.  
So gather as much information as you can -- ask the programs which you are 
interested in applying to, ask people who are Vet Techs now if they were 
happy with their education and if they would have done anything different, 
and so on.  I'm not saying you should ignore your counselors; just think of 
your information-gathering as a supplement and extension of what they are 
telling you.  And talk to the reference librarians at your college or local 
public library -- they may know sources of information that will be of help 
to you.
Good luck!
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