At one institution where I worked, I routinely evaluated the international batch of candidates for our internship. This was usually a pretty sizeable group- between 40 and 50 of 200 applications. Unfortunately for the applicants, it was one of the easiest groups to evaluate. A short skim of most applications would reveal them to be unacceptable candidates, so a thorough analysis was not needed to determine where they might rank as a candidate. It’s harsh but true. If you are not from the United States, and you are applying for a veterinary position here, it is a steep uphill battle.* Here are five ways to improve your success.
1) Get some time working for an academic clinical specialist. Ideally one in the United States, but a well-regarded institution in the English-speaking world or Utrecht is better than nothing. This is the most important point because it is ESSENTIAL. No one who hasn’t been trained in it knows the U. S. system, so any letters of recommendation you get have no bearing on how well you would do in a U. S. internship. If you have an application with only letters of recommendation from your home country, unless it is the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, or The Netherlands, you won’t get very far. You need to spend AT LEAST 2 weeks- but 4 weeks is better- with a single specialist. Ideally, all of your letters of recommendation will be from specialists in the U. S.
2) Figure out the visa situation. This has become more problematic in the current political climate. Most private practices and many universities simply cannot accept international applicants. This may be true even if you are from Canada or Mexico. Check with the institution unless they specify it in their program description. If you can’t get a visa, you can’t get an internship.
3) Have a native speaker proofread your work. I realize you may be fluent in English, but English is an incredibly ridiculous language. I have almost never read a letter of intent from a non-native-speaker which was 100% correct. Even professional editorial services can’t always be trusted unless they are small and personalized and feature native English speakers.
4) Apply shortly after you graduate. I see a lot of applications from people who graduated 4-5 years ago and since then have a very strange work history. It may be a normal work history for that country but, from a U. S. perspective, doing a 7-month internship at the school you graduated from and then doing 2 months as a food inspector and then being a small animal clinician and then working for the state is weird. Most U. S. applicants apply straight out of vet school. You should aim to do the same. If you are reading this too late to make the decision to apply for internships, make your professional progression CLEAR. You did this, THEN this, THEN this. Don’t muddle up your professional responsibilities and jobs. If you did part-time work, specify this.
5) Get some time working for a veterinary practice in a country with a strong clinical training emphasis in their veterinary education. We took interns from some European countries which do not have a strong clinical focus and it showed, and we largely stopped taking those applicants. You need your vet school training to be on par with vet students in the U. S. in order to be competitive. You could also spend time working as a vet in a country where clinical training is emphasized.
Essentially, you need to make your application as close to a senior veterinary student in the United States as possible. If your application can’t indicate that you are at least as competent as an average new veterinary graduate, it won’t go anywhere. There are plenty of more qualified applicants.
*This generally does not apply to those in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, although you still need to look at the visa situation.