First time applicant, 25 years old (26 in about a week!), Female, PA resident.
BA from UC Santa Cruz in 2007, Environmental Science
Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Health Program University of Pennsylvania
Applied: University of Pennsylvania, Kansas State University, Ohio State University, Auburn, Purdue, Iowa State University, Washington State University, University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, University of Missouri, University of Tennessee, Oklahoma State University
Rejected: Purdue, Iowa State, Washington State, University of Wisconsin
Interviewed: Ohio State, Kansas State, Auburn, Mississippi (declined), Penn, Tennessee (declined)
Waitlisted: Ohio State, Auburn, Michigan State, maybe Missouri??
Accepted: Kansas State, Oklahoma State, UPenn
Cum GPA @ time of application: 3.62 Undergrad, 3.28 Post-Bacc
Prereq GPA 3.28 maybe higher if you add in additional classes like nutrition and statistics
Last 45 credit hrs: Not sure how to calculate with undergrad in quarters and post-bacc in semesters
GRE: 640q, 640v, 4.5a
Veterinary Experience (most recent first):
-30 hours volunteer in an immunology lab working with mice and whatnot (been volunteering there full time since so my hours are much higher, but this is what vet schools saw on my VMCAS)
-200 hours volunteer for an equine clinical trial
-50 hours volunteer foal sitter
-100 hours ride-alongs with a large animal vet
-800 hours receptionist for small animal hospital
-800 hours vet tech assistant for a mixed animal practice
Animal Experience Hours
-1000 hours intern at a center for non-releasable wild and exotic animals
-100 hours volunteering at zoo
-30 hours at a Dolphin Research camp
-many years of owning way too many pets!
Employment:
Besides the ones listed above, lots of waitressing and catering and babysitting--ahh the joys of being a pre-vet!
Extracurricular/Community Activities:
-Leader of UC Chapter CSSC (a student sustainability organization)
-Co-President of the College Eight Senate
-Member of UC Environmental Club
-College Eight representative to the Student Union Assembly
-And stuff in high school--but I think I'm too old for that to really matter
eLORS:
-Biology Professor (PhD)
-Vet at the mixed practice I worked for (DVM)
-Vet in charge of the foal sitting program (DVM)
-Committee letter from my Post-Bacc program (although I'm not sure many schools read it because it was in paper form)
Awards and Honors:
-graduated with honors in the major and college honors
-high school stuff that I can't remember right now
Hopefully this gives some hope to someone with a lower science GPA. I think my broad range of experiences helped my application. I also applied to a lot of schools. I am so lucky to have gotten into more than one. I would have been happy just to be called off a waitlist. I applied to so many schools because I'm a little older and I knew it was a somewhat random process so I wanted to give myself the best possible chance to be a vet in four years. Good luck to all future applicants!