Does anyone know the reason for supplementals?

[HopefulAg]

It seems that most of them are just redundant and me putting in information that they'll already receive via VMCAS. Kind of a waste of time. And some of them are like filling out the entire VMCAS over again (Missouri, Western, Colorado...I'm looking at you!).

Is there any reason for supplementals other than to get more money? They don't seem to supplement anything.

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[nyanko]

It's funny that you mention Colorado's. I actually think theirs is one of the most useful, because of the way it has you explicitly list each semester/quarter with how many hours you worked in that quarter and your GPA. And Colorado and Cornell don't interview, so the supplemental is really the only place where you can give specific information as to why you are applying to those schools in the essays, or additional information you weren't able to include in VMCAS.

I don't have a problem with supplementals at all.

 

[psjlg2]

I've decided that it is just their way to get an extra $60. Some of the supplementals that I have filled out ask for your name, address, and some other questions I've filled out on VMCAS. If 1000 people apply to a school and they charge $60 dollars for a supplemental...thats a lot of money.
I'm sure there is a really good reason for it.....but after about the 4th supplemental I've gotten tired of shelling out another chunk of change.

CSU had the only useful section for the GPA/work load ration. I liked that.

 

[Pigsfoot]

i agree with you 100%. if anything-it makes the vmcas seem questionable-what is the point of *that* if you are already filling in all the same info to the schools? someone out there is making a lot of money off of applications.
if anything I think it kind of weeds people out-last time i applied i didn't even *realize* there were supplementals til the 2 weeks before the deadline, so i ended up omitting a couple of schools i originally was going to apply to. meh.

 

[HopefulAg]

Ok CSU, you're off the hook, since I found out today that they have a (functioning!) database system that takes your information from last year and transposes it over.

...your check is in the mail.

 

[eventualeventer]

I've decided that it is just their way to get an extra $60. Some of the supplementals that I have filled out ask for your name, address, and some other questions I've filled out on VMCAS. If 1000 people apply to a school and they charge $60 dollars for a supplemental...thats a lot of money.
I'm sure there is a really good reason for it.....but after about the 4th supplemental I've gotten tired of shelling out another chunk of change.

CSU had the only useful section for the GPA/work load ration. I liked that.

I didn't even think about the numbers. $60,000 for supplemental application fees? That sounds like the salary for someone to be devoted 100% to admissions. Maybe that's what it is, for all I know. Amazing.

 

[sumstorm]

I didn't even think about the numbers. $60,000 for supplemental application fees? That sounds like the salary for someone to be devoted 100% to admissions. Maybe that's what it is, for all I know. Amazing.

Some of the ones I filled out were pretty applicable. One had hours of experience with various types of animals (hoof stock, birds, etc) seperated out. NCSU uses supplemental essays instead of interviews. One was an essay about a current topic in vet med.

The ones that bugged me were: name, address, are you related to any other vets.

 

[HopefulAg]

Two of the supplementals I've filled out so far (Missouri and...Iowa I think) have had prerequisite sections where you put in all your courses that meet the prerequisites. I thought that was a good idea so that someone isn't left stranded because they forgot about a prerequisite or something.

 

[DVMDream]

I liked Washington's supplemental it had you put in your courses that you have taken and then showed how many units you had obtained compared to the number needed to fulfill the prereq's, so you know if you are ok with the prereq's. The only bad thing is Washington makes you pay the supplemental fee before you can fill it out.

 

[sumstorm]

I think some of them also let you designate which classes you are using for the pre-reqs. IE if you have 2-3 classes that qualify, you can pick the best one GPA wise.

 

[HopefulAg]

I think some of them also let you designate which classes you are using for the pre-reqs. IE if you have 2-3 classes that qualify, you can pick the best one GPA wise.

Oh....I uh...didn't know that the ones you put in were used to calculate a GPA.

*scurries off to make sure he chose the right ones*

 

[NittanyKitty]

I'm not sure if I'm more irritated by re-listing all of my courses and experience (Missouri) or just my name, address, and interest in the field (Penn)...and then shelling out $60.00 for the privilege of both.