Future DVMs- C/O 2021!

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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ResoluteMike said:
I hate writing, but I love telling stories. So I recorded the story and transcribed it. Still needs work, but it at least got the statement to first draft stage.
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That's actually a really cool idea. I like writing, but I only do it well when I'm motivated and in the mood so I started kinda early. It's definitely a process!
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PrincessButterCup said:
I keep forgetting how expensive the GRE is. My local test center just added more dates for July (before the only dates scheduled were May). I was just going to live with my score, but now . . . I could take it again. Got through to the final payment page of registration and cried because it's SO MUCH MONEY to spend trying to do well on ONE DUMB TEST.

Ah well. I really, really want to take it again. So :arghh:.
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I totally know how you feel. I want to improve my quant score a tad and just signed up for it again last week. So painful to cough up that money a second time:(
 
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Anyone know if research publications can go in the Explanation Statement? I authored and co-authored a few. I have a cited page that I feel should be put on my application, but I ran out of room in the Experiences Section. Anyone have any advice on this?


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cali_bear said:
Anyone know if research publications can go in the Explanation Statement? I authored and co-authored a few. I have a cited page that I feel should be put on my application, but I ran out of room in the Experiences Section. Anyone have any advice on this?


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Personally, this is not something I would put in the Explanation section. If you can't put it in the Experiences section you may be able to put it in the Achievements.
 
cali_bear said:
Anyone know if research publications can go in the Explanation Statement? I authored and co-authored a few. I have a cited page that I feel should be put on my application, but I ran out of room in the Experiences Section. Anyone have any advice on this?


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They state specifically that you should not use the explanation state as a continuation from other areas of your application. Best of luck.
 
mmmdreamerz said:
Personally, this is not something I would put in the Explanation section. If you can't put it in the Experiences section you may be able to put it in the Achievements.
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Thanks! I actually just emailed admissions about it since I was asking a few other questions already. She said to put it under Awards/Honors or Experiences of room permits.


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Coopah said:
They state specifically that you should not use the explanation state as a continuation from other areas of your application. Best of luck.
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Thanks, Coopah! I didn't think the Explanation Statement was the place to put it, but I wasn't 100% sure. I think I'm beginning to question/overthink any decision I make on VMCAS.


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cali_bear said:
Thanks, Coopah! I didn't think the Explanation Statement was the place to put it, but I wasn't 100% sure. I think I'm beginning to question/overthink any decision I make on VMCAS.


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It happens. We're just lucky that we have this place to publicize our intentions so we can be told if we're way off or not ;)
 
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ResoluteMike said:
I was struggling to get anything down at all with the personal statement. Finally, I just imagined I was telling the story directly to the folks that do the admissions. Perhaps that might help?
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Thats actually a really helpful idea, thank you!


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Emily Faith said:
How's everyone doing with the application process? I'm starting to really feel the stress of getting it all set and ready to go come deadline. Between working nearly full-time, moving out of one apartment and into another, and scrambling to be ready for the GRE in two weeks I'm struggling to find sufficient time for it all. I keep telling myself one thing at a time, but do I really have that luxury? :(
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I'm feeling the same way. If it's not lack of time, it's lack of energy for working on this stuff. I am scheduled to take the GRE on the 16th and I'm tempted to reschedule it because I don't feel ready enough for it. /sigh
 
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cali_bear said:
Thanks! I actually just emailed admissions about it since I was asking a few other questions already. She said to put it under Awards/Honors or Experiences of room permits.








Yes, I was going to say to put it under achievements.
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I think my least favorite part of VMCAS is writing descriptions for experiences. I feel like it's taking me forever. Slowly but surely...
 
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ResoluteMike said:
The whole trying to put the ongoing experiences into weekly evenly proportioned hours is driving me nuts.
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Oh gosh me too! Finally I just gave up the idea that it was going to be the way I really wanted it to be and went with the closest approximation of reality. Def frustrating!
 
ResoluteMike said:
I have passed the compressed summer Organic Chemistry 1 from hell.
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Ick...I could never do what you just did. Just taking physics+lab in a summer session was bad enough :p

Just saw that my first LOR has been submitted, the one from DVM. It's giving me a little kick in the butt to start working on the miscellaneous things I've been putting off from entering on the app! (time to hunt down high school stuff, I s'pose)
 
Well I got a call from OSU today and I'm going to be a part of the class of 2020! I had given up hope on this year!
 
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1. So I know many people have talked about including high school accomplishments in VMCAS. I did some volunteering at a nursing home and at the Chevron Houston Marathon in Houston one year to count towards hours for National Honor Society my senior year of high school. Is this worth adding?

2. Is there anyway to make an experience count as both Animal and Vet experience on VMCAS?

3. I'm curious...does VMCAS have a limit of experiences that are allowed to be added?
 
brownswissfanatic said:
1. So I know many people have talked about including high school accomplishments in VMCAS. I did some volunteering at a nursing home and at the Chevron Houston Marathon in Houston one year to count towards hours for National Honor Society my senior year of high school. Is this worth adding?

2. Is there anyway to make an experience count as both Animal and Vet experience on VMCAS?

3. I'm curious...does VMCAS have a limit of experiences that are allowed to be added?
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1. No reason to leave anything out, so yes, I would include it
2. Not that I know of, but someone who is more familiar with how VMCAS currently works may know better. As far as I know you have to choose one category, that's why they have that flowchart. If you were supervised by a vet it's vet experience, if you weren't but you were working with animals it's animal experience.
3. No (pretty sure anyway)
 
brownswissfanatic said:
1. So I know many people have talked about including high school accomplishments in VMCAS. I did some volunteering at a nursing home and at the Chevron Houston Marathon in Houston one year to count towards hours for National Honor Society my senior year of high school. Is this worth adding?

2. Is there anyway to make an experience count as both Animal and Vet experience on VMCAS?

3. I'm curious...does VMCAS have a limit of experiences that are allowed to be added?
Click to expand...
If I had experiences that were both (say I was supervised by a vet for only part of it) I split them into two - one where I explained my unsupervised duties/responsibilities and one where I explained what I did when the vet was there. This is helpful especially if you start out in a clinic as desk staff or something and then move on to being a technician.
 
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Been staring at a blank Word document the past hour and a half trying to rewrite my personal statement. I've brainstormed and outlined some ideas, but I'm having trouble starting it. I feel like it needs to grab their attention right off the get go but I'm not sure how I want to do that quite yet. :shrug:
 
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aggievethopeful2021 said:
Been staring at a blank Word document the past hour and a half trying to rewrite my personal statement. I've brainstormed and outlined some ideas, but I'm having trouble starting it. I feel like it needs to grab their attention right off the get go but I'm not sure how I want to do that quite yet. :shrug:
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Are you me? Anyhow, just start writing, it'll come to you. If you get hung up on the perfect intro you'll never be satisfied. Just crank that sucker out and ship it to some vets/advisors/whomever for their input and revise accordingly. Besides, you'll probably get a better idea of what you're trying to convey once you start getting into the meat of the essay and see how it's shaping up.
 
aggievethopeful2021 said:
Been staring at a blank Word document the past hour and a half trying to rewrite my personal statement. I've brainstormed and outlined some ideas, but I'm having trouble starting it. I feel like it needs to grab their attention right off the get go but I'm not sure how I want to do that quite yet. :shrug:
Click to expand...

What I always learned from English classes over the years is do not try to start at the very beginning with the introduction. Leave the introduction and conclusion until last. If you have brainstormed some ideas for other parts of the essay, start there. Write about what you can write about at the moment. If you have some experience or story or whatever that you know you want to include in the essay somewhere, just write about that. Don't worry about the paragraph or paper looking or sounding like an actual essay. Once you have some different ideas on paper then you can rearrange your stories and goals and reorganize it into your body paragraphs like a puzzle.

After you finish your body paragraphs then go back and write your conclusion and introduction. Perhaps while you were just brainstorm writing about your different experiences you will come up with an idea of something you will want to start with.

Just remember to keep track of your character count while reorganizing your paper or you will have a lot of characters to cut out (happened to me with my PS from last cycle).

When writing my PS this cycle, I decided to go about it from a completely different perspective. I focused on my interest in International Veterinary Medicine and started my paper with one of my unique travel experiences. After countless edits by several people on here, friends, and former English teachers, I think I have just about finished my PS, just waiting on some final look-overs before calling it "done."
 
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brownswissfanatic said:
What I always learned from English classes over the years is do not try to start at the very beginning with the introduction. Leave the introduction and conclusion until last. If you have brainstormed some ideas for other parts of the essay, start there. Write about what you can write about at the moment. If you have some experience or story or whatever that you know you want to include in the essay somewhere, just write about that. Don't worry about the paragraph or paper looking or sounding like an actual essay. Once you have some different ideas on paper then you can rearrange your stories and goals and reorganize it into your body paragraphs like a puzzle.

After you finish your body paragraphs then go back and write your conclusion and introduction. Perhaps while you were just brainstorm writing about your different experiences you will come up with an idea of something you will want to start with.

Just remember to keep track of your character count while reorganizing your paper or you will have a lot of characters to cut out (happened to me with my PS from last cycle).

When writing my PS this cycle, I decided to go about it from a completely different perspective. I focused on my interest in International Veterinary Medicine and started my paper with one of my unique travel experiences. After countless edits by several people on here, friends, and former English teachers, I think I have just about finished my PS, just waiting on some final look-overs before calling it "done."
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I think it's interesting to hear about everyone's different writing processes. I personally hate writing unless I start with a good introduction and conclusion (and I almost always write these first). The "meat" always comes to me perfectly when I have a solid intro/conclusion, but never the other way around.

I do agree that just starting from anywhere is a perfect idea. Write about what fascinates you, write about what keeps you up at night, write about what gets you all starry eyed when you think about it! You can always throw out an essay that you dislike, but you can never include things you haven't written.
 
WildZoo said:
1. No reason to leave anything out, so yes, I would include it
2. Not that I know of, but someone who is more familiar with how VMCAS currently works may know better. As far as I know you have to choose one category, that's why they have that flowchart. If you were supervised by a vet it's vet experience, if you weren't but you were working with animals it's animal experience.
3. No (pretty sure anyway)
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vetmedhead said:
If I had experiences that were both (say I was supervised by a vet for only part of it) I split them into two - one where I explained my unsupervised duties/responsibilities and one where I explained what I did when the vet was there. This is helpful especially if you start out in a clinic as desk staff or something and then move on to being a technician.
Click to expand...

WildZoo,I've seen and read the flowchart VMCAS posted. However, this experience is a little more complicated than that. This experience this past year as an intern with ADRA (Adventist Development Relief Agency) in Madagascar has been both. Most of the time I've worked with farmers and breeder groups to help supervise and give them advice for working with their animals (mostly chickens). However, on separate weeks at separate times, I've been on visits to the countryside with veterinarians analyzing the improvements the breeders have made to their chicken raising, have been with them as they've trained community livestock workers, and have even had the opportunity to vaccinate 6 chickens against avian cholera (subQ shot). So I can't just follow that flowchart. The majority of the time may be animal experience, but this whole year hasn't just been animal experience. And I can't just leave out those precious vet hours, especially with them being from such a unique experience as this one I've had here in Madagascar.

Vetmedhead, how exactly did you split them into 2 experiences? So let's say you worked for a place for a year. Did you divide the year into half and then say the first half of the year was animal experience and then the second half of the year was listed as the vet experience (or however long makes the appropriate division for the hours reported)?
 
brownswissfanatic said:
WildZoo,I've seen and read the flowchart VMCAS posted. However, this experience is a little more complicated than that. This experience this past year as an intern with ADRA (Adventist Development Relief Agency) in Madagascar has been both. Most of the time I've worked with farmers and breeder groups to help supervise and give them advice for working with their animals (mostly chickens). However, on separate weeks at separate times, I've been on visits to the countryside with veterinarians analyzing the improvements the breeders have made to their chicken raising, have been with them as they've trained community livestock workers, and have even had the opportunity to vaccinate 6 chickens against avian cholera (subQ shot). So I can't just follow that flowchart. The majority of the time may be animal experience, but this whole year hasn't just been animal experience. And I can't just leave out those precious vet hours, especially with them being from such a unique experience as this one I've had here in Madagascar.

Vetmedhead, how exactly did you split them into 2 experiences? So let's say you worked for a place for a year. Did you divide the year into half and then say the first half of the year was animal experience and then the second half of the year was listed as the vet experience (or however long makes the appropriate division for the hours reported)?
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Usually it was an easy division to make as I transitioned from non-supervised work and did not go back. However, in cases where it was a mix of both throughout the whole time I worked there I had them listed for the same time period but different hours reflective of the work. I explained it in the description, usually really briefly (sort of like "Veterinary supervised. Did XYZ." vs "Not supervised by veterinarian. Did XYZ" type thing)
 
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vetmedhead said:
Usually it was an easy division to make as I transitioned from non-supervised work and did not go back. However, in cases where it was a mix of both throughout the whole time I worked there I had them listed for the same time period but different hours reflective of the work. I explained it in the description, usually really briefly (sort of like "Veterinary supervised. Did XYZ." vs "Not supervised by veterinarian. Did XYZ" type thing)
Click to expand...

I actually did try that, but VMCAS didn't let me for some reason. It said there was an error. Maybe it was my internet connection because I was having problems with VMCAS in general when trying to upload different experiences. Or maybe VMCAS was having issues at that time.
 
brownswissfanatic said:
I actually did try that, but VMCAS didn't let me for some reason. It said there was an error. Maybe it was my internet connection because I was having problems with VMCAS in general when trying to upload different experiences. Or maybe VMCAS was having issues at that time.
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lmao VMCAS had so many issues I basically had a subscription by the time I finished applying. :yeahright:
 
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brownswissfanatic said:
WildZoo,I've seen and read the flowchart VMCAS posted. However, this experience is a little more complicated than that. This experience this past year as an intern with ADRA (Adventist Development Relief Agency) in Madagascar has been both. Most of the time I've worked with farmers and breeder groups to help supervise and give them advice for working with their animals (mostly chickens). However, on separate weeks at separate times, I've been on visits to the countryside with veterinarians analyzing the improvements the breeders have made to their chicken raising, have been with them as they've trained community livestock workers, and have even had the opportunity to vaccinate 6 chickens against avian cholera (subQ shot). So I can't just follow that flowchart. The majority of the time may be animal experience, but this whole year hasn't just been animal experience. And I can't just leave out those precious vet hours, especially with them being from such a unique experience as this one I've had here in Madagascar.

Vetmedhead, how exactly did you split them into 2 experiences? So let's say you worked for a place for a year. Did you divide the year into half and then say the first half of the year was animal experience and then the second half of the year was listed as the vet experience (or however long makes the appropriate division for the hours reported)?
Click to expand...
I would do what vetmedhead suggested then :)
 
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So I'm currently working on rewording my experiences to drop the "I's" that I used last year because some of them are really crunched for space and dropping that opens up characters. Plus now I know I don't need the "I".

I have a few experiences that have a short description. So I don't need to save space on those but I'm assuming I should still rewrite them so that the format of my descriptions is consistent? Would you guys agree on that?
 
finnickthedog said:
So I'm currently working on rewording my experiences to drop the "I's" that I used last year because some of them are really crunched for space and dropping that opens up characters. Plus now I know I don't need the "I".

I have a few experiences that have a short description. So I don't need to save space on those but I'm assuming I should still rewrite them so that the format of my descriptions is consistent? Would you guys agree on that?
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Consistency is always good - I would rewrite everything anyway just so you know you've gotten fresh eyes onto it.
 
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Hey guys! Asking this for a friend - if you took AP classes, but didn't receive credit, how do you list that?

I told her I thought you weren't supposed to, but she said they told her to list them and say "NG". But since she didn't get credit, she doesn't have course codes or titles anything to list for them.
 
heyyimhayley said:
Hey guys! Asking this for a friend - if you took AP classes, but didn't receive credit, how do you list that?

I told her I thought you weren't supposed to, but she said they told her to list them and say "NG". But since she didn't get credit, she doesn't have course codes or titles anything to list for them.
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Interdasting. Why take them if they weren't going to count for credit? (Acknowledging this is totally irrelevant, but a curiosity. Completely inefficient and so furrowed my brows adding yet another winkle into my brow line. haha)
 
heyyimhayley said:
Hey guys! Asking this for a friend - if you took AP classes, but didn't receive credit, how do you list that?

I told her I thought you weren't supposed to, but she said they told her to list them and say "NG". But since she didn't get credit, she doesn't have course codes or titles anything to list for them.
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Huh. I had one or two AP classes I didn't take the tests for, and thus received no credit. I didn't list them at all. I don't see what reason there would be to do so if they don't show up anywhere on your college's official transcript. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding the situation here...?
 
Lupin21 said:
Interdasting. Why take them if they weren't going to count for credit? (Acknowledging this is totally irrelevant, but a curiosity. Completely inefficient and so furrowed my brows adding yet another winkle into my brow line. haha)
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As in didn't get a 4 or 5 on the test
 
When I applied I put my AP tests in a "Tests" section with the GRE, then just the one class I got credit for as "CR" in my first term (where it is in on my transcript). Not sure if VMCAS is still set up the same way, though.
 
heyyimhayley said:
Hey guys! Asking this for a friend - if you took AP classes, but didn't receive credit, how do you list that?

I told her I thought you weren't supposed to, but she said they told her to list them and say "NG". But since she didn't get credit, she doesn't have course codes or titles anything to list for them.
Click to expand...

From how I understood that directions, if you didn't pass the AP exam then its not considered college credit and it wouldn't be listed. If you did pass, then it would be listed as NG. Let me know if I'm wrong because this is how I did mine!
 
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heyyimhayley said:
Hey guys! Asking this for a friend - if you took AP classes, but didn't receive credit, how do you list that?

I told her I thought you weren't supposed to, but she said they told her to list them and say "NG". But since she didn't get credit, she doesn't have course codes or titles anything to list for them.
Click to expand...
I didn't list any of the ones that I didn't get credit for, and it wouldn't make sense to. They literally have no bearing on your college credits and they don't even show up on your transcripts.
 
FeenyFee said:
From how I understood that directions, if you didn't pass the AP exam then its not considered college credit and it wouldn't be listed. If you did pass, then it would be listed as NG. Let me know if I'm wrong because this is how I did mine!
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Yeah this is how I did it. You get the credits but there isn't a grade associated with them, hence the NG.
 
Locked down 2 more classes for the fall. I am so tempted to try and convince the biology department to let me take two more classes so I can graduate and be done with school for a bit.
 
You guys were correct re: my question. I believe what happened was that VMCAS didn't fully read her question when they emailed her back and just told her the same "yes list them exactly as they appear on your transcript with NG for grade" thing, which confused her since they weren't on her transcript.
 
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What have you all been putting as the due date for evaluations? It seems odd to me that they would have us give a due date if we were just supposed to have it due on the 15th. Anyone have suggestions on a good time frame?
 
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