Question Re: GPA and Extenuating Circumstances

[Rat-a-tat]

Hi all!

I have a fairly specific-ish question for people who have applied to vet school before:

I am a "nontraditional" applicant - I graduated from college in 2013 with a degree in Music and Management, took zero science classes, and a few years ago, decided vet med was my passion (after extensive work as a vet tech) and am in the process of completing my prereqs at an extension school program in my area. Now here's the issue:

I started taking my prereqs roughly 3 years ago, when I was in an extremely emotionally abusive relationship that I felt trapped in thus it ended up lasting WAY longer than it should have. I just navigated my way out of that relationship about 6 months ago, with the help of a wonderful therapist, who knows about the situation in detail. Prior to escaping that relationship, however, I had an extremely difficult time with my classes because of this relationship - I was anxious and depressed 99% of the time and focusing on anything was pretty much a non-starter. Naturally, I did extremely poorly in most of my classes (I'm talking a range from C- to Ds). Now that I am thankfully free, I am retaking the classes I did poorly in in hopes to do better now that I am in a better place - and luckily I am finding it MUCH easier to actually focus on my schoolwork and expect to actually get better grades.

My question is: if anyone has found themselves in a similar situation, in which their grades suffered immensely because of personal circumstances, what is the best way to convey the reason for those bad grades to the admissions committee? Is this something I can actually bounce back from, provided my future grades are up to par? Would it help at all if my therapist wrote a letter to the admissions committee that I could include with my application to verify these circumstances? Just not sure how to best navigate this situation.

Thank you so much! And sorry for the wordiness!

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[ajs513]

Hi all!

I have a fairly specific-ish question for people who have applied to vet school before:

I am a "nontraditional" applicant - I graduated from college in 2013 with a degree in Music and Management, took zero science classes, and a few years ago, decided vet med was my passion (after extensive work as a vet tech) and am in the process of completing my prereqs at an extension school program in my area. Now here's the issue:

I started taking my prereqs roughly 3 years ago, when I was in an extremely emotionally abusive relationship that I felt trapped in thus it ended up lasting WAY longer than it should have. I just navigated my way out of that relationship about 6 months ago, with the help of a wonderful therapist, who knows about the situation in detail. Prior to escaping that relationship, however, I had an extremely difficult time with my classes because of this relationship - I was anxious and depressed 99% of the time and focusing on anything was pretty much a non-starter. Naturally, I did extremely poorly in most of my classes (I'm talking a range from C- to Ds). Now that I am thankfully free, I am retaking the classes I did poorly in in hopes to do better now that I am in a better place - and luckily I am finding it MUCH easier to actually focus on my schoolwork and expect to actually get better grades.

My question is: if anyone has found themselves in a similar situation, in which their grades suffered immensely because of personal circumstances, what is the best way to convey the reason for those bad grades to the admissions committee? Is this something I can actually bounce back from, provided my future grades are up to par? Would it help at all if my therapist wrote a letter to the admissions committee that I could include with my application to verify these circumstances? Just not sure how to best navigate this situation.

Thank you so much! And sorry for the wordiness!

Depending on how many bad grades you have, you may be able to bounce back. I had some really bad grades. Some C’s (not a ton), but three F’s and a D. Most of them were earned when I was going through stuff with my dad (emotional abuse and eventually disowning me). I discussed this on my explanation of academic whatever they call it on VMCAS. I will say that I got rejected from a good number of schools, some because I didn’t even meet their GPA cutoff when you factor in retakes and only go based off of the VMCAS GPA’s. It went from a 3.32 to around a 3.0 because of this. So I would definitely make sure you’re applying to schools whose GPA cutoffs you meet or exceed. I ended up doing fine and I’m extremely happy to be going to Penn, which was my top choice. But I do regret not doing better even with the stuff I went through. My point is, you could still be okay depending on your circumstances. You could also stand a good chance at Ross or St. George’s if you’re okay with going out of the US for school.

 

[EngrSC]

This is my first application cycle and I still have a slew of schools to hear from, but I’ve been accepted to SGU and interviewed at LMU so far. I had medical issues when I was an undergraduate engineering student so I used my explanation statement to talk about that. I very factually explained what happened, what I did about it, and included an example of how much better I am at handling things now. If done right, I think your explanation statement can be portrayed as a strength, as people who have been through **** and come back from it are resilient and less like to fall off the tracks over the little things. I’d be happy to PM you my statement if it would be helpful to you.

I think what you do going forward will be super important in determining if you are accepted to vet school in the future. Do whatever you can to make As to bring up your science GPA and apply with a strong last 45 GPA. If both of those are strong, you can focus on applying to schools that weigh those more heavily and apply to schools that honor grade forgiveness for repeated courses. Additionally, Mizzou and Illinois allow you to petition to ignore your prior academic record after some period of time. I didn’t personally pursue this avenue but it may be worth looking into. One of the schools requires a second bachelors (iirc) and I didn’t want to take that many credits.