For those of us not accepted...what next?

[Tonkspaws]

Ok there are way too many threads on here for people that were accepted and their plans for the summer and what not. Unfortunately, I was not accepted (One wait list but I'm not counting on this). Does any one have advise on the best way I can improve my application. My grades weren't great I'm fully aware of this (I have like a 3.4) there really isn't much I can do at this point to change this. I'm thinking of retaking the course I did poorly on my last semester of undergrad but I don't know if its really worth it. For starters I hated it so do I really want to relearn stuff that is of no real use to me. (It was developmental biology) I'm going to retake the GRE for sure my score was 350 I think, so not horrible but again not great.
Also what do people recommend as far as rewriting your PS....should I start fresh or just edit my old one.

gahhhh applying is so much work I don't want to go through another year of all this stress but its my dream so I guess I have too.

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[pinkpuppy9]

Do file reviews, and go from there. If they recommend repeating courses, do so. if they suggest more experience, get it! Also, research more schools that are more forgiving when it comes to average/below average GPAs.

 

[LetItSnow]

Ok there are way too many threads on here for people that were accepted and their plans for the summer and what not. Unfortunately, I was not accepted (One wait list but I'm not counting on this). Does any one have advise on the best way I can improve my application. My grades weren't great I'm fully aware of this (I have like a 3.4) there really isn't much I can do at this point to change this. I'm thinking of retaking the course I did poorly on my last semester of undergrad but I don't know if its really worth it. For starters I hated it so do I really want to relearn stuff that is of no real use to me. (It was developmental biology) I'm going to retake the GRE for sure my score was 350 I think, so not horrible but again not great.
Also what do people recommend as far as rewriting your PS....should I start fresh or just edit my old one.

Maybe it's just because it's a fairly short post, but ..... it's difficult to give advice without knowing why you didn't get accepted.

Have you asked the schools to which you applied what the areas of weakness were in your application or what they think would most significantly improve it?

I mean.... should you rewrite your PS? I don't know - if it was amazingly well-written then no, you shouldn't. If it was weak, then yes, you should. Retaking classes probably isn't necessary with a 3.4 ... that's not a bad GPA (it might be below average a bit, but so what?). Unless, of course, you have a couple really stand-out bad grades. Then it might be.

Get the idea? Hard to say what to improve without knowing what exactly the weaknesses were. You need to talk to the schools.

 

[k80rigs]

I'm in your same boat in terms of grades...I have a 3.4 as well. My GRE I got a 155 and a 160, which isn't terrible, but isn't outstanding either. However, I got accepted to 2 schools and got waitlisted at 2, while only applying to 5. I think the difference here (at least for me, because I knew my grades were poor) is that I have a lot of varied experience...and that would be my advice to you. I worked at a swine facility, in equine repro, in a research facility bottle feeding baby calves (so cute!) and in a small animal general practice...to name a few. I think it's important to supplement your poor performance in grades (I know mine wasn't so hot) with diverse and numerous experience. I have somewhere around 4-5000 hours of animal experience, with around 1000 hours of vet experience. That would be my advice, because I don't think retaking classes was applicable to me.
A master's program is always another route you can take as well to raise grades if you are truly worried about them.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Also, maybe it was just me, but I found reapplying much less stressful. Part of it could have been that I was living the dream in Orlando....aka I didn't make VMCAS my life last summer. It felt great. The first time I applied, I lived/breathed VMCAS. I checked my school statuses as often as every 10 minutes. My class friends probably wanted to smack me. Applying consumed me. Try to be more relaxed next time! You'll feel way better.

Another thing, a waitlist on your first try is still really, really good in my opinion. I was flat out rejected my first try.

 

[Lab Vet]

Ok there are way too many threads on here for people that were accepted and their plans for the summer and what not. Unfortunately, I was not accepted (One wait list but I'm not counting on this). Does any one have advise on the best way I can improve my application. My grades weren't great I'm fully aware of this (I have like a 3.4) there really isn't much I can do at this point to change this. I'm thinking of retaking the course I did poorly on my last semester of undergrad but I don't know if its really worth it. For starters I hated it so do I really want to relearn stuff that is of no real use to me. (It was developmental biology) I'm going to retake the GRE for sure my score was 350 I think, so not horrible but again not great.
Also what do people recommend as far as rewriting your PS....should I start fresh or just edit my old one.

gahhhh applying is so much work I don't want to go through another year of all this stress but its my dream so I guess I have too.

Sorry to hear about your situation, Tonk. Just so you know, developmental bio is important. It comes up again and again in anatomy. I'm not recommending that you retake the class, but you may want to reconsider your labels as to what will/will not be important throughout your clinical education. Best of success in next year's application cycle. How do your experiences look- are they broad, with at least one significant area of depth? I would retake the GRE- this is an aspect of the application that can be 'fixed' in a shorter time frame than GPA. As for the PS, I wouldn't recycle my essay from the current year. When you submit next year, you'll have several months more experience under your belt, and new fodder with which to form your essay. I have no idea whether or not schools look at the PS of a given applicant across two cycles and compare them. If it were me, I'd want to weave how I had grown/changed throughout that year into my PS. Just something to think about.