Am I a lost cause?

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ExoticVetWanabee

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I really want to be a veterinarian. It's the one career in life I have passion for, but there are a few things standing in my way.

1. I dropped out of college in my third semester due to loss of interest in what I was doing. Quite frankly I stopped giving a **** about what I was going to school to do (Dental ironically enough) As a result my grades started to slip. I also was working a lot trying to support myself, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to study. I had a 3.5 my first semester, my second semester I failed both my chem and math class, and third semester I failed them again. All of my other classes I passed though(mostly A's and B's one or two C's)

2. Due to my fathers income (Er doctor) I apply for hardly any financial aid. I get enough loans to cover tuition, and that's it. I have to cover books out of pocked (my parents do not help me out at all financially) So I have to cover books, rent bills and food all by my self when I do go back to school.

I'm just scared that if I go back I won't be able to afford books, or rent (my rent is pretty high, 450 a month) I'm also worried that with the large workload I'll have to pull to get into I won't be able to work it around my job, at least work it around enough to get enough hours to support myself, let alone cover books.

Is there anyone else who got into vet school with a sub-par GPA. And do you guys have any tips for helping me apply for more financial aid(such as how to be classified as an independent so I can apply for more loans, to maybe cover books and possibly help me with living expenses)

Thanks for your guys support and advice!

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Well, most of my suggestions are just based simply on my situation, so I am not totally sure how they would work out for you. But I went to undergrad with some financial support from my parents, which included a fund they started for me when I was a few weeks old. However, that ran out five semesters in and paid for only direct school expenses: tuition and housing on campus. My plan was to graduate from school with no debt. A few steps I took:

1) The school I went to was dirt cheap. I cannot emphasize that enough. It was cheaper for me to go to my school, out of state, then it would have been for me to go to my local community college. The average cost there for 16 credit hours and on campus housing was about 5,000-6,000, give or take. So look for a school that you could physically afford in the short and/or long term, depending on if you're trying to avoid loans. You can still get a good education at a smaller state school. Prestige of school seems to mean little in the grand scheme of getting into vet school.

2) Scholarships. I was in a similar situation where my parents made just enough money to put me out of contention for a lot of need based scholarships. So I went for scholarships that were more skill/academic based. I got a four year academic scholarship that really helped out. If academic scholarships aren't really an option, there are others. A few of us got "leadership" or "achievement" scholarships. There are scholarships out there for lefties, red-heads, etc. You just have to look for them and try for it. That's rough, but there's that option.

3) Living within a certain level of means. I worked two jobs during college in order to pay for the last few semesters and I bought the bare minimum of what I needed. Food and gas. Literally nothing else, including pencils, pens, etc. I used everything until it fell apart. Granted, I lived on campus, but I had to pay for that at the beginning of the semester all in one go instead of monthly payments. If you want to have the minimum amount of loans/spend the minimum amount of money, find a cheaper apartment, buy the safeway brand bread instead of the brand name, shop at goodwill, etc. Honestly, that wasn't all that hard. The safeway brand stuff worked just fine and who can say no to spending only 5 dollars on a pair of jeans?!?

Those are what helped me best. Honestly, even if my parents hadn't thought ahead to make me a small college fund, I still would have been able to afford school following these rules with where I chose to go. Probably would have had loans, but in would have been 10,000 or less, which would have been manageable with the jobs I had during school.
 
I strongly relate to your #1. I highly recommend reading through this year's and past years' "Successful Applicant Stats" threads if you haven't already. There are a lot of incredible people who got all their pre-reqs done in 3 years and with a 4.0 and near-perfect GRE scores etc., but then there are also people like me with ... um, slightly different stats. I got in and they haven't kicked me out yet, so I'd say there's hope for you too. ;)

If you need to take some time away from school to get your **** together, do it. Like I said, I can relate. I took a long, long break from school, partially to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. For me finally having a reason to do well in school (knowing I wanted to be a vet) made a huge difference in my grades when I eventually went back. It also allowed me to work (a lot), mostly as a vet tech, so I was able to save money and get clinical experience. When I went back to school I kept working, which was challenging to balance with studying and scheduling classes, but made it much easier to finance tuition/rent/food. (I also had no family contributions at that point.) It's difficult, and it might take longer to get your pre-reqs done if you have to schedule classes around your work schedule, but it is doable. I second the recommendation to look for as affordable a school as possible. My last undergrad had dirt cheap tuition, and I took as many pre-reqs as I could at community colleges for even cheaper tuition.

Also I will take this opportunity to promote LSU as a possible vet school to apply to when you're at that point. We have a great exotics program (it's one of the main reasons I wanted to go to school here), and admissions cares about your grades in your pre-reqs and last 45 hours way more than your cGPA. Which is very nice for those of us who had a rough start to college. :)
 
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