Constructive ways to improve the process of applying and getting into vet school

[2020Heful]

After watching many of you go through this process, I have a few suggestions on how VMCAS and the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine could improve the process. Please feel free to add your suggestions. Please keep this constructive and professional.

Let's start with VMCAS

• Let applicants pay upfront if they want to so that transcripts can be verified as they come in.
• Make sure the software works flawlessly.
• Empower customer service reps to fix problems and follow up.
• Allow applicants to choose to let schools (other than those applied to) look at their information at no additional fee. This would allow schools to search the data base and contact students they might be interested in.

CVM

• Assuming information is available from VMCAS in early September, try to move the interview process up to be completed by the end of January.
• Give students the option to commit and pay the deposit or commit and wait one month to pay the deposit. This would give the schools an idea of how many students are waiting for answers from wait listed schools and might shift. It would also save the applicants money.
• Tell applicants their number on the wait list. I realize schools want a certain mix, but students are left in limbo on jobs, leases, classes, etc.
• Be as transparent as possible. Communicate often.
• Share what you are looking for in a candidate so that applicants can spend their money wisely when choosing which schools to apply to.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DVMDream]

After watching many of you go through this process, I have a few suggestions on how VMCAS and the Colleges of Veterinary Medicine could improve the process. Please feel free to add your suggestions. Please keep this constructive and professional.

Let's start with VMCAS

• Let applicants pay upfront if they want to so that transcripts can be verified as they come in.
• Make sure the software works flawlessly. hahhahahahaha. I mean, I agree, but still... lol.
• Empower customer service reps to fix problems and follow up.
• Allow applicants to choose to let schools (other than those applied to) look at their information at no additional fee. This would allow schools to search the data base and contact students they might be interested in. We already have "issues" with students applying to schools and then realizing later once accepted they actually don't like that school. It would be a waste of time for a school to go through an additional thousand or so applications of students who didn't even pay to apply to their school. There is a decent chance a student didn't apply to their school because they were not interested in that school for whatever reason (cost, location, curriculum, etc). The schools are already rushed for time to get through the applications they do receive that this above isn't feasible nor does it make sense. As a professionaly student, you need to make the decision on where you want to apply and apply, not rely on schools to be randomly contacting you without submitting an application.

CVM

• Assuming information is available from VMCAS in early September, try to move the interview process up to be completed by the end of January. Meh, ok, fine. Not going to make much difference really if interviews are done in January or March, but earlier is nicer. Just not that big of a deal in the long run.
• Give students the option to commit and pay the deposit or commit and wait one month to pay the deposit. This would give the schools an idea of how many students are waiting for answers from wait listed schools and might shift. It would also save the applicants money.
• Tell applicants their number on the wait list. I realize schools want a certain mix, but students are left in limbo on jobs, leases, classes, etc. Yeah, I get this would be nice. Believe me, I was wait listed many a times and rarely knew where I stood on those lists. However, I understand why some schools don't do this, because of the way they construct the class. And, in the end, does it really matter? If you know you are number 42 vs. 54? That doesn't tell you anything about your chance of being called off. Some years, the list is exhausted and everyone gets a call, other years only the first few people do. I would say knowing really doesn't change much unless you are the top five, maybe.
• Be as transparent as possible. Communicate often. Most schools do communicate as much as they can. If questions are asked, most school address them within a reasonable time frame. I get that applicants want updates constantly, but honestly, most of the time... nothing has changed. This would also create them either needing another staff member just to communicate or a staff member to stop what they are doing with applications and take the time to email everyone just to tell them, "yup, we are still working, will let you know soonish".
• Share what you are looking for in a candidate so that applicants can spend their money wisely when choosing which schools to apply to. You can find this information on many of the school websites. Also schools aren't just looking for someone to have x,y,z and a, b, c... there isn't some exact, specific criteria or trait schools are looking for. They are more looking for a package that might include x and b and a in one candidate, but in another they have y and c and z. And another may only have z but they have d and f that the school really finds interesting or unique... there just isn't some "perfect vet student prototype"

My comments above in blue.

I think VMCAS has a lot that they can change. A whole lot. Overall though, these things that you notice when applying and that were inconvenient at the time, once you are done with the process and look back on it after school has started, you realize how much those things really weren't all that big of a deal. Trust me, I hated the waiting, the extended time to know if you even have an interview. I hated the wait list, not knowing what may come. I understand the wanting to know what a school is doing at every moment, has my application been touched, read, burned, thrown out, ran over by a truck?? I get it, but in the large picture, the wait isn't all that big of a problem. Even the wait list wait isn't all that bad, it sucks, for sure, but really is ok. As far as being in "limbo" for all those things... those things are a lot easier to figure out than you think in the moment. It seems super stressful at the time (and it is, I have done it a number of times... including finding housing in a one week time frame in a different country), but it really does work out ok in the end.

I think the biggest changes that can happen with the process reside within fixing VMCAS. The reduced waiting times and wanting constant communication are just "wants" not necessarily needs that need to be fixed. They aren't broken, just stressful.

 

[twelvetigers]

Let's start with VMCAS

• Make sure the software works flawlessly.

I lol'd.

Software rarely works flawlessly - look at apps and stuff like that. And VMCAS seems to bungle things up more often than not. I'm sure they try, but...

 

[Osudairy]

Allow applicants to choose to let schools (other than those applied to) look at their information at no additional fee. This would allow schools to search the data base and contact students they might be interested in.

I agree, this would be counter-intuitive for an institution to look at applicants that did not pay to apply to their school. I chose not to apply to certain schools because a) Their requirements and accepted stats were extremely high, b) I was not interested in the school, or c) COST. The schools would be wasting their already limited time.

 

[thecatastrophist]

Pretty sure that the programmers I know would laugh at the idea of any program working flawlessly.

Don't get me wrong. VMCAS has flaws, especially because their customer service will give completely different answers on the same topic. That's a problem. I don't think the solution is making a database of potential applicants who didn't even apply to their school. That would be so time and resource intensive for applicants who may not even consider an offer of admission.

The schools have every right to choose whether or not they disclose their waitlist numbers. There's good reasons not to. Imagine being waitlist #2 and being told "we almost always call the first five people on the waitlist" and then... Not.

I agree with DVMdream. The waitlist sucks. I know. I was on the waitlist until a month before school and then got called off. I had already moved on--job offers, an apartment lease hundreds of miles away, and plans for the next stage of my life. It was hard and stressful to move. There's two people in my class who were called off two weeks prior to school. It's an unfortunate reality of life. Sometimes, you just won't have time to do everything in advance. Schools are as transparent as they can be.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

How would letting schools 'find' a student be beneficial at all, for either the school or the student? They don't have to do any of that, students flock to them. Sounds like it would waste everyone's time.

Also, there's a reason you have to pay a deposit when you commit. If you were allowed to commit without putting money down, you risk having students commit to multiple schools to give them more time to decide. That goes against the very purpose of having a deadline. It doesn't matter if they are waitlisted elsewhere or not...a seat belongs to them until they notify the school otherwise. This has been discussed at length on this forum several times. An accepted student has every right to pay their deposit at one school, but keep a waitlist spot elsewhere (there are numerous reasons that this happens). Also, don't apply/commit to a school you don't fully intend on going to. It's as simple as that. It also wouldn't actually give a school any idea of who's hoping to be called off a waitlist. Waitlist movement has happened as late as 2 weeks into the first semester before. Giving someone a month to wait for movement elsewhere is nothing.

I agree that some change could be beneficial, but some of these wouldn't be an issue if the applicant put a lot of thought into school choices and their backup plan between cycles.

 

[SummerTheLynx]

I lol'd.

Software rarely works flawlessly - look at apps and stuff like that. And VMCAS seems to bungle things up more often than not. I'm sure they try, but...

This is why @LetItSnow is going to make a whole lot of money when he makes the app that competes with VMCAS

 

[Jess Monster]

They should do vet school like a sports' draft. Press conferences and all. That would be really amusing to watch.

 

[rockatiel]

Would allowing schools to search for students be a for-profit type of thing? Like Ross sending me 6 emails a week? Granted I requested a view book last year, but still lol.

 

[Coquette22]

Assuming information is available from VMCAS in early September, try to move the interview process up to be completed by the end of January.

Considering my Canadian school didn't even send out interview invites until mid-March, didn't interview until June and I didn't get a decision until July, I find this kind of cute when Americans complain about the wait.

 

[DVMDream]

Considering my Canadian school didn't even send out interview invites until mid-March, didn't interview until June and I didn't get a decision until July, I find this kind of cute when Americans complain about the wait.

'Merica!

 

[Coquette22]

Also, I've realized that my comment above probably isn't "constructive and professional" but.... whatevs.

 

[cdo96]

They should do vet school like a sports' draft. Press conferences and all. That would be really amusing to watch.

This would be amazing. Imagine the possibilities. The school with the lowest NAVLE score gets a first round draft pick.

 

[Osudairy]

Would allowing schools to search for students be a for-profit type of thing? Like Ross sending me 6 emails a week? Granted I requested a view book last year, but still lol.

Same, all I did was attend their talk at our school when I was in undergrad. Four years later, I am still getting spammed by their emails.

 

[wheelin2vetmed]

They should do vet school like a sports' draft. Press conferences and all. That would be really amusing to watch.

"And for this year's politically correct inclusive pick, we choose and call to the stage w2vm. ****, Susan do we have a ramp? Just grab something, damnit."

 

[LetItSnow]

This is why @LetItSnow is going to make a whole lot of money when he makes the app that competes with VMCAS

Right. In my copious spare time.

 

[DVMDream]

Right. In my copious spare time.

I mean, we all know vets just roll around in money with puppies and kittens all day then drive off home in their Aston Martin to their 10 bedroom, 5 bathroom mansion complete with a movie theater in the basement