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Hey everyone, I have a few questions that I thought maybe some of you could help me with concerning my situation.

So, im 31 and I have a degree in criminal justice and just finished my first year of law school. I went this route because I was pressured by my family. I'm not returning and decided to go back and take the pre-req needed to apply to vet school.

I worked as a vet tech for 6 years before I went to law school and I should I have went this route to begin with.

1. I made C's my whole first year of law school, would that affect my chances?

2. Should I get a second bachelors or just take the pre-reqs? I have about 16 classes I need to take to fulfill the prereqs. Mostly all the sciences and a few others. My overall GPA before law school was a 3.1. All my bad grades were from straight out of high school ten years ago. The last three years of my bachelors degree I made A and B's.

3. Will it look bad on my app that I went to law school and quit after a year?

Also, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm going back to school in the fall and just wanted to know opinions on how I should approach this.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by FJTX

1. I made C's my whole first year of law school, would that affect my chances?

2. Should I get a second bachelors or just take the pre-reqs? I have about 16 classes I need to take to fulfill the prereqs. Mostly all the sciences and a few others. My overall GPA before law school was a 3.1. All my bad grades were from straight out of high school ten years ago. The last three years of my bachelors degree I made A and B's.

3. Will it look bad on my app that I went to law school and quit after a year?

Also, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm going back to school in the fall and just wanted to know opinions on how I should approach this.

Thanks in advance.

1. Were you graded on a curve, as in a certain number of people got As, Bs, Cs, etc. regardless of the percent of questions answered correctly? If that was how you were graded, then probably not. I ask because I know a few people who went to different law schools and they were all graded that way.
2. I would suggest only doing the classes that you have to in order to gain admission to vet school. The fact that your more recent classes from undergrad were good helps, but you should focus on trying to boost your GPA with the classes you'll be taking.
3. It won't look any worse than any other non-traditional student leaving their field to pursue vet med.

Good luck!

I don't have any answers to the rest of the post, as I don't know. You mentioned some classes were 10 years ago. I don't know how recent the rest of your undergrad was, but keep in mind that some schools require ALL of your pre-reqs be taken withing 5-6 years of applying to vet school.

Might want to look into that to determine which classes you will have to retake!

Originally Posted by FJTX

1. I made C's my whole first year of law school, would that affect my chances?

Maybe. Yes. And no. It depends on where you apply and how they calculate GPAs. Some schools look at your lifetime total cumulative GPA, some look at your most recent (often 45 credits), some look at at the pre-reqs, and many use a combination of a couple of these.

So it depends on where you apply. You will definitely have to submit transcripts from law school; you'll need to submit transcripts from any schools attended.

Originally Posted by FJTX

2. Should I get a second bachelors or just take the pre-reqs?

If you have 16 classes for pre-reqs, that's about 64 credits (~4 cr/course). If it were me I'd check out what your in-state vet school (if you have one) looks at for GPAs, and I'd consider out-of-state schools that look at only the most recent credits along with pre-reqs. Get outstanding grades in those 16 classes and you're good to go. Duck the schools that look at long-term cumulative GPAs.

Originally Posted by FJTX

3. Will it look bad on my app that I went to law school and quit after a year?

Not necessarily. You may want to address it as part of your personal statement. What led to the change of heart? Why vet med? What characteristics will make you excel in vet med? What did you learn from your law school experience that might give you a leg up on the rest of us?

Originally Posted by FJTX

I'm going back to school in the fall and just wanted to know opinions on how I should approach this.

I think you just focus on getting really great pre-req grades and you'll be as good a candidate as anyone (from the limited info I've got, obviously). My one suggestion would be not to sit back and assume your years as a vet tech will be all the experience you need. You certainly have the hours, but (and this is just me thinking aloud) an application committee may want to see that you've become active again in vet med since the decision to leave law school. So if it were me I'd pick up a job as a vet tech again while you're doing pre-reqs, or find some volunteer opportunities, or whatever. Just something so that when you're filling out the experience section it's not all stuff that's ... what ... 3.5 years old at that point? That will give your personal statement more credibility too (with the decision to shift gears).

Welcome to SDN, and specifically the vet/pre-vet corner. I represent the local grump contingent.

Thanks for all the info, I appreciate it.

Yes, my law school graded on a C curve.

I am surprised no one else thinks your quitting law school looks bad. It is not the same as quitting a job after a year. It shows indecision and inability to commit. You also had academic difficulties, which may impact your admissions chances. People say grad gpa doesn't matter much because it is notoriously inflated. Probably not true for law school but don't expect this to look good. It looks like you are just quitting when the going gets tough.

There are plenty of eager applicants with stellar records. Why should they pick a law school dropout? (This is not intended to be mean. You need to think long and hard to come up with a GREAT answer about why you are awesome. Then write a killer PS and hope for the best)

I would recommend contacting admissions departments and trying to find out how this situation would be viewed.

...I would couch this post in some nicities but I am on my phone. You can do it, but it would be easier if you could erase last year.

Originally Posted by SnowyRox

I am surprised no one else thinks your quitting law school looks bad. It is not the same as quitting a job after a year. It shows indecision and inability to commit. You also had academic difficulties, which may impact your admissions chances. People say grad gpa doesn't matter much because it is notoriously inflated. Probably not true for law school but don't expect this to look good. It looks like you are just quitting when the going gets tough.

There are plenty of eager applicants with stellar records. Why should they pick a law school dropout? (This is not intended to be mean. You need to think long and hard to come up with a GREAT answer about why you are awesome. Then write a killer PS and hope for the best)

I would recommend contacting admissions departments and trying to find out how this situation would be viewed.

...I would couch this post in some nicities but I am on my phone. You can do it, but it would be easier if you could erase last year.

I am no expert by far, but I'm going to disagree here. Not meaning any offense SnowyRox!

I think the explanation about family pressure towards one career path and then a change of heart and direction is actually a great reason for the lower grades and the choice to back out. Better she/he did it in first year than after graduation and have wasted all that time! I think a stellar PS + ES will cover that.

I think changing your career path after one year in Law School is brave and shows a lot of self awareness. I think to go against your family's wishes and dive headlong into a totally different life is bold and inspiring. Why wouldn't the admissions board consider her?

Grades have to be great! PS has to be really good! But it IS DOABLE. Would it be easier to erase last year? (Or in my case, a freshman year from 1997 that nearly ruined my cum. GPA!) Sure it would. But ya gotta work with what you have and be ready to defend it.

I think the advice everyone has given you so far is great. And like LIS said, definitely get in touch with whatever schools you're interested in and get their perspective. From my experience, schools are more than willing to help you out in any way they can.

As for quitting law school, I'm going to go with Pigsatuga on this one. I don't think think it will necessarily be looked down on as long as you explain your decision to change really well and are able to back it up. If I had family pressure to go into a particular field that I wasn't really interested in, I'm sure I would have had a similar result as you. I don't necessarily think it means you lack dedication or anything like that. Hell, there are people who get through their first year of vet school and decide it's not for them or not worth the debt. Yeah, it might take away spots from other applicants, but I don't think it necessarily means that person didn't want it at the time or didn't deserve to get in. Sometimes it takes actually being in the environment to realize that. Yes, shadowing/working in a vet's office is supposed to help make sure you really want it, but being an assistant or just shadowing still doesn't give the whole picture.

So like everyone said, get back into the field and get some fresh experience and really focus on acing your pre-reqs. And when the time comes, ace your GRE as well. Some schools will look at that to make up for a less than stellar GPA.

And as for your grades that are from 10 years ago, check and see what schools allow grade replacement/forgiveness as well. Also, like someone mentioned, some schools require that classes be max 5 years old, so if you were going to use any of those for pre-req, you will have to retake them. For retaking classes, some will replace grades, others will average the two grades, so that is something to consider as well.

Good luck and let us know if you have any more questions!

I think that you can make a good personal statement about why you chose vet med over law. I don't think it would look bad if you only went to law school for 1 year. I think it will help if you explain this in your personal statement. Sometimes it's hard to turn around and quit a job/school program that you are not passionate about because you feel like you have to do it, and the fact that you were honest with what you really wanted and took the courage to change your direction is admirable.

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but another way to make your application strong besides academics is to get AS MANY HOURS of experience working with vets as you can! Having a variety of veterinary experience is usually favored as well, so work with a small animal vet, a large animal vet, equine, etc. Animal experience is also required, so maybe try volunteering at a shelter to start off, volunteer at a zoo, etc. Applicants with lots of experience hours usually have strong applications.

And of course, do well in your pre-req classes and GRE

Good Luck!

I actually agree with SnowyRox - quitting a professional program is much different from quitting a job, when you are applying for admission to another professional program.

Originally Posted by orca2011

Hell, there are people who get through their first year of vet school and decide it's not for them or not worth the debt. Yeah, it might take away spots from other applicants, but I don't think it necessarily means that person didn't want it at the time or didn't deserve to get in.

But part of the purpose of having admissions standards in the first place is to try to screen OUT people who are likely to do this. A track record of having done the exact same thing before is a negative predictor, regardless of how you spin it.

But like any other negative predictor, you'll have to discuss it at length and you'll have to somehow prove that it isn't going to happen again. I feel like it will be a very uphill battle for the OP since there's that PLUS the poor GPA. Everyone's right in that you will probably have to seriously ace the vet school prerequisites, and I'd try to do it as a full time student if I were you as well. Also ace the GRE. And get more current vet experience. It's probably going to be a long road for you. Good luck!

Originally Posted by nyanko

I actually agree with SnowyRox - quitting a professional program is much different from quitting a job, when you are applying for admission to another professional program.



But part of the purpose of having admissions standards in the first place is to try to screen OUT people who are likely to do this. A track record of having done the exact same thing before is a negative predictor, regardless of how you spin it.

But like any other negative predictor, you'll have to discuss it at length and you'll have to somehow prove that it isn't going to happen again. I feel like it will be a very uphill battle for the OP since there's that PLUS the poor GPA. Everyone's right in that you will probably have to seriously ace the vet school prerequisites, and I'd try to do it as a full time student if I were you as well. Also ace the GRE. And get more current vet experience. It's probably going to be a long road for you. Good luck!

I agree that the admission process is there to prevent things like this from happening, but sometimes I think it takes a little more to realize that it might not be something you really wanted to do. And I'm not trying to say that it's not a negative predictor ever, I guess I just felt like in this case there were outside pressures that I hope the OP would be able to explain in a beneficial way to help her application. I just don't see it necessarily as a death sentence. Obviously I'm not an adcom or anything, so what I think really doesn't matter in the end.