This is the story of how a non-traditional Vet School applicant moved from Canada to Grand Cayman, and used scrappiness, grit, and resilience to design his own life.
Next accolade: Specialty Surgeon.
Meet Dillon Scott, DVM.
When Dr. Dillon applied to Vet School, he was not the traditional undergraduate student. He was a Registered Veterinary Technologist, working and taking Prerequisites, and keeping his mind open to all possibilities.
What I loved about talking to Dr. Dillon was how he threw a bunch of darts at the board- he applied to several vet schools, none of which were the Canadian School in his Province, and then surveyed the Vet Schools he got accepted to. He laid them all on the table, with all of their pros and cons.
He chose St. Matthew’s University School of Veterinary Medicine. He up and moved to Grand Cayman, in the Caribbean, as it was the fastest and most efficient route to that DVM degree.
What he encountered there included:
* Getting creative in his transportation. He didn’t have a car but learned to love his bike and other rides!
* Meeting people from all walks of life, and all corners of the world. I will agree: your vet school friends are something special. How cool to have them stationed in Europe, North America and beyond!
* Getting through Vet School in 3.25 years!! They go to school year round, with several two-week long breaks. Shave a year off? YES, PLEASE!
Love learning about Dr. Dillon?! Share to your bestie- maybe one day you’ll both be on Grand Cayman together :)
Some lessons he’s learned along the way:
* Find different ways to learn. Do not limit yourself to books. Get into online textbooks, Notion, YouTube and any free study apps.
* Interview as often as you can. It’s practice for… life!
* Don’t be scared to live life your way. You do not have to follow the recipe. Not everyone has to be “cookie-cutter.” Just do it. Stop worrying about it!
Don’t be a perfectionist. Once you get to Vet School, you will all be the “Top 1%” of your class, and you will all be “drinking water from the firehose.” Let some things go. Not everything will be retained. Learn to let that stuff go now! Great practice for later. We are all recovering perfectionists :)
**Post-interview note: All Caribbean Vet Schools have many years under their belts.
* Ross opened Vet School doors in 1982.
* St. George opened Vet School doors in 1996.
* St. Matthews opened its Vet School doors in 2005.
* (Most of these Universities ALSO have Med Schools, and other Post-Graduate Studies, and these all opened at various times, making this easy to be confused!
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