So for context, I'm a Pre-veterinary student. 600+ hours of shadowing a veterinarian is considered competitive in order to get into vet school. I'm at around 250. I work 8 hours a day 5 days a week, and I go shadow 5 hours a day 5 days a week. I also am in school online. This is. Exhausting. I'm not getting enough sleep, and I'm sacrificing the quality of my personal relationships. I'm doing 25 hours of shadowing a week in order to try to be semi-competitive by August. The deadline to apply is September and they like you to apply early.
Additionally, even though I have all other prerequisites met to get into vet school, I've been recently told that until I get my bachelor's, I won't be competitive either. I won't get my bachelor's until December of 2027, which, due to how application cycles work, means that if that's true, I won't be competitive until the 2028 application cycle.
So my question is: should I push through this burnout and this difficulty to get the maximum amount of shadowing hours, or is it not worth sacrificing my mental health and personal relationships given that I'll likely have much more time to get the hours I need based on the advice I received that I won't be competitive until I get my bachelor's? Does anyone know if this advice is even credible? What do I do?