University of Illinois c/o 2021 Applicants

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Chimikins

Cornell c/o 2021
7+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
63
Reaction score
104
Hello! UIUC is my instate (so my first choice by default). Can't wait to see/ meet whoever else is applying this year!

Btw, I'm a 22 year old female, first time applicant, and recent graduate from college.

Members don't see this ad.
 
YAYYYY GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
I will most likely be applying to Illinois. 28, female, first time applicant. Have two Bachelor's degrees (animal science and wildlife) but haven't felt "ready" to pursue this until now. Always been the goal but needed and wanted to take a more "scenic" route to get there!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
Yayyy! I'm from the class of 2020, I did my undergrad here and love this school, best of luck on your application journey, I hope to see you all next year!
:highfive:
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Warms my heart to see this. lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Does anyone know specifics about phase 1 of admissions (the cognitive evaluation)?

The website says this: "The initial applicant assessment ranks all applicants (usually between 850 to 950) numerically according to a composite score derived from the Cumulative and Science Grade Point Averages, the GRE percentile score, and an evaluation of the rigor of the undergraduate collegiate academic experience."

I'm curious about how the cGPA, sGPA, and GRE are weighted and if the science GPA is the same as the VMCAS GPA.
 
Oh, and any general info about what U of I tends to look for would be fantastic. I know there are some applicants on here who have done file reviews or gone to admissions presentations and I'd love some insight.

I know if you're interviewed, they throw out your GPA/GRE and you're judged solely on your experience/essays/interview. I'm a non-trad with a not-spectacular number of veterinary hours and I'm wondering how much that will hurt.
 
For starters, I was waitlisted and then called off the list in 2014 for the class of 2018. I had applied and gotten waitlisted the year before and did a file review. They basically told me I didn't have enough variety in animal and veterinary experience. I had worked at a small animal/exotics clinic for 2 years at that time. They also told me that even though the hours were broken down up above that I needed to restate how I came up with my hours of experience in the explanation box. I took their advice and began volunteering for a horse rescue and a wildlife center. I also shadowed a large animal vet for a day. I continued to work at the clinic for another year. Though I was waitlisted, it put me much closer to the top and I managed to get called off the list. In total, I had over 3,000 hours at the clinic, 20 or so at the horse rescue, and close to 75 at the wildlife center by the time applications were due. I also volunteered for a country vet when I was in high school. That added up to about 100 hours. They look for more than anything variety and enough hours to properly grasp how important whatever field or animal you're handling is in the grand scheme of veterinary work. Hope that helps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
You can also go through the accepted students stats threads to see what those of us have stats wise. You could also post your stats in the what are my chances thread.

For me, I do believe that my experience helped me balance out a stint of poor grades. I had a boat load of vet/animal experience, with family pet stores being pretty unique. So between my phase I and phase II scores, it balanced out to enable me to get to phase III. If you have low hours, but great grades, I would go for it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Thanks @cloverbug and @batsenecal! That's definitely helpful. I'm IS, so I'm applying no matter what. I think my grades/GRE are a little above average, and my hours/diversity are a little below and I'm curious about how that will balance out. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now except keep trying to improve my application.

They also told me that even though the hours were broken down up above that I needed to restate how I came up with my hours of experience in the explanation box.

Like literally type out again "4 hrs/wk x 10 wks" or whatever? Or split up duties like "observed surgeries (20 hrs), restrained animals during exams (20 hrs)"?
 
Last edited:
Thanks @cloverbug and @batsenecal! That's definitely helpful. I'm IS, so I'm applying no matter what. I think my grades/GRE are a little above average, and my hours/diversity are a little below and I'm curious about how that will balance out. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now except keep trying to improve my application.



Like literally type out again "4 hrs/wk x 10 wks" or whatever? Or split up duties like "observed surgeries (20 hrs), restrained animals during exams (20 hrs)"?
They want you to write out how you did the math to arrive at the final number. They told me that even though it says it right there and they can do the math if they really want to, they want us to write it out anyway. I think it's ridiculously repetitive but whatever.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
They want you to write out how you did the math to arrive at the final number. They told me that even though it says it right there and they can do the math if they really want to, they want us to write it out anyway. I think it's ridiculously repetitive but whatever.

Wow I had no idea we had to do that, I didn't do that on my app but I still got in.
 
They want you to write out how you did the math to arrive at the final number. They told me that even though it says it right there and they can do the math if they really want to, they want us to write it out anyway. I think it's ridiculously repetitive but whatever.
I don't remember doing this either, but I don't remember much from that period of time haha.

UIUC is biiiig on experience. I applied twice. First time, rejected without an interview. My file review told me to get more experience, but that my grades were completely fine (3.6 cGPA, 158V/154Q). The second time I applied, I had nearly tripled (or more, I remember nothing) my experience. I was accepted without a waitlist.

Not having a lot of experience doesn't mean you shouldn't try, by any means! Just know that some schools value experience more heavily than others.
 
They want you to write out how you did the math to arrive at the final number. They told me that even though it says it right there and they can do the math if they really want to, they want us to write it out anyway. I think it's ridiculously repetitive but whatever.

I feel really dumb but I'm still not getting this. VMCAS already has you do the math like this: so I'm not sure what other math they would want. Can you give an example? (Sorry to keep pestering you!)
 
FIrst year applicant! I would be OOS. Glad to hear Illinois likes experience, I have much better experience than my average academics!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
FIrst year applicant! I would be OOS. Glad to hear Illinois likes experience, I have much better experience than my average academics!

Same here! Illinois is my #2 school behind my IS. A big reason I fell in love with the school is how they pick their applicants for interviews. The idea that they don't look at your academics after you pass phase 1 is a big plus to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Same here. My early years in undergrad weren't all that stellar, so, I'm hoping they will focus more on my wide array of experiences more over my grades.
 
I feel really dumb but I'm still not getting this. VMCAS already has you do the math like this: so I'm not sure what other math they would want. Can you give an example? (Sorry to keep pestering you!)

Basically those blanks written out into a sentence, i.e. I worked 35 hours a week for 100 weeks which gave me 3500 hours of experience x. It's dumb, I know, but that's directly what my file reviewer said for me to do. Lots of people didn't do it and got in. I'm just passing off information I was specifically told.
 
Basically those blanks written out into a sentence, i.e. I worked 35 hours a week for 100 weeks which gave me 3500 hours of experience x. It's dumb, I know, but that's directly what my file reviewer said for me to do. Lots of people didn't do it and got in. I'm just passing off information I was specifically told.

Oh, weird. Thanks! I'm not sure if I'll have enough characters to do that, but I'll try.
 
Good luck everyone! I'm a 4th year at Illinois. I'm hoping that I can help with interviews next year! (My junior surgery schedule didn't allow me to help out this year.)
 
Hi everyone! I am applying to Illinois IS! I also have a high GPA but really average/low experience so I am worried about that
 
Does anyone know how many instate vs oos applicants applied in previous years? I know illinois is a big state, but I'm curious about how many IS applications they get.
 
So that supplemental essay.

How long was everyone's essay? I'm not sure how in depth/ detailed I should go here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
So that supplemental essay.

How long was everyone's essay? I'm not sure how in depth/ detailed I should go here.
Mine was about a page long in Microsoft Word, single-spaces. I maybe went a little longer, but that was the suggested length when I applied.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Mine was about a page long in Microsoft Word, single-spaces. I maybe went a little longer, but that was the suggested length when I applied.
Okay that's what I gathered. So how are citations going to work? I'm thinking about including a small works cited at the end but I didn't know if that was necessary?
 
Okay that's what I gathered. So how are citations going to work? I'm thinking about including a small works cited at the end but I didn't know if that was necessary?
I would definitely recommend a works cited area at the end. I just added a heading beneath my essay titled "works cited" and cited my sources using APA formatting. I'm not sure if there's a particular style they prefer, that's just what I did. Just make sure you include the sources you used, I'd have to dig for it but I know students who had file reviews in the past stated here that they were told to use citations for the essay during their review.
 
I would definitely recommend a works cited area at the end. I just added a heading beneath my essay titled "works cited" and cited my sources using APA formatting. I'm not sure if there's a particular style they prefer, that's just what I did. Just make sure you include the sources you used, I'd have to dig for it but I know students who had file reviews in the past stated here that they were told to use citations for the essay during their review.
That was me actually the first time I applied lol. But yes, echoing everything thecatastrophist said.
 
That was me actually the first time I applied lol. But yes, echoing everything thecatastrophist said.
Same. I was specifically told to treat it as a research paper. I did in text citations in addition to the full 'Works Cited' section at the end.
 
UIUC's supplement is killing me. I think I might be over thinking it, but I can't seem to find any good sources for historical examples. I've seen some with chemical control of a species, but not much for GM mosquitoes...
 
UIUC's supplement is killing me. I think I might be over thinking it, but I can't seem to find any good sources for historical examples. I've seen some with chemical control of a species, but not much for GM mosquitoes...

I haven't found any reliable ones for history of GM mosquitos either. However, that is a fairly new scientific advancement. I did find a great article about the history of the use of GMO's in food so I was going to use that for my historical example since they wanted us to talk about the use in food as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I haven't found any reliable ones for history of GM mosquitos either. However, that is a fairly new scientific advancement. I did find a great article about the history of the use of GMO's in food so I was going to use that for my historical example since they wanted us to talk about the use in food as well.

That's a good idea. I nearly forgot that part of the question *face palm*
 
That's a good idea. I nearly forgot that part of the question *face palm*

Lol it's ok. I've been putting off writing this supplemental because I've had to write two in the past three weeks for grad school so I'm a little tired of them at the moment. :shrug: But it is an interesting topic they gave us so at least there's that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Hello everyone! I'm new on here. I'll be a sophomore in my undergrad starting this Fall so I still have a while before I apply to Vet school. But just by reading everyone's post I know what to expect when the time comes.
 
For starters, I was waitlisted and then called off the list in 2014 for the class of 2018. I had applied and gotten waitlisted the year before and did a file review. They basically told me I didn't have enough variety in animal and veterinary experience. I had worked at a small animal/exotics clinic for 2 years at that time. They also told me that even though the hours were broken down up above that I needed to restate how I came up with my hours of experience in the explanation box. I took their advice and began volunteering for a horse rescue and a wildlife center. I also shadowed a large animal vet for a day. I continued to work at the clinic for another year. Though I was waitlisted, it put me much closer to the top and I managed to get called off the list. In total, I had over 3,000 hours at the clinic, 20 or so at the horse rescue, and close to 75 at the wildlife center by the time applications were due. I also volunteered for a country vet when I was in high school. That added up to about 100 hours. They look for more than anything variety and enough hours to properly grasp how important whatever field or animal you're handling is in the grand scheme of veterinary work. Hope that helps.

First of all, congrats on making it of the waitlist!
This is absolutely terrifying to me though because most of my experience is also at a small animal clinic that works with exotics (about 1200 hours) and I was already nervous about it not being enough before reading this. I also have 450 hours working research that uses piglets so I have some hours in that. Do you think this would be sufficient? I have higher than avg grades (3.87 Cum. GPA, 3.96 last 30 credits, 3.8 science GPA) and decent GRE scores (158 Q, 160 V, 5.0 writing) which i was really banking on would average it out. Aaahhhh so nervous especially since this is my IS school :depressed:
 
Hi, I am instate
First of all, congrats on making it of the waitlist!
This is absolutely terrifying to me though because most of my experience is also at a small animal clinic that works with exotics (about 1200 hours) and I was already nervous about it not being enough before reading this. I also have 450 hours working research that uses piglets so I have some hours in that. Do you think this would be sufficient? I have higher than avg grades (3.87 Cum. GPA, 3.96 last 30 credits, 3.8 science GPA) and decent GRE scores (158 Q, 160 V, 5.0 writing) which i was really banking on would average it out. Aaahhhh so nervous especially since this is my IS school :depressed:
I am instate too but you look a lot stronger than my app. I will be applying with only 800 hours with around your academic stats. Illinois really doesn't care about grades, which is annoying since I worked so hard in college.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
First of all, congrats on making it of the waitlist!
This is absolutely terrifying to me though because most of my experience is also at a small animal clinic that works with exotics (about 1200 hours) and I was already nervous about it not being enough before reading this. I also have 450 hours working research that uses piglets so I have some hours in that. Do you think this would be sufficient? I have higher than avg grades (3.87 Cum. GPA, 3.96 last 30 credits, 3.8 science GPA) and decent GRE scores (158 Q, 160 V, 5.0 writing) which i was really banking on would average it out. Aaahhhh so nervous especially since this is my IS school :depressed:
I think your hours will be a great help, especially with research experience. They also look at animal experience so if you have more hours with that, that'll help. I did nothing veterinary related at the horse rescue, but it did get me more comfortable around horses. Your academics will most likely get you into the second tier of their application cycle but after that they don't look at them again. Also keep in mind I'm OOS so I had limited chances of getting accepted right off. UIUC has way more spots for IS and they usually only interview about 120-150 (I think, I'm not positive it's that many) IS each cycle because they know pretty much all IS-ers will keep their spots. Just breathe. All you can do right now is hope it's enough and if it's not, get a file review and take the extra year as an opportunity to expand your experiences. It took me 3 years to get into vet school, so don't give up if this isn't your year.
 
Has anyone finished the essay? I'm having a really hard time finding good sources talking about transgenic mosquitoes and Zika. I have found tons for GMOs in food but that's not the main part of the essay. :(
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Thanks @cloverbug and @batsenecal! That's definitely helpful. I'm IS, so I'm applying no matter what. I think my grades/GRE are a little above average, and my hours/diversity are a little below and I'm curious about how that will balance out. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now except keep trying to improve my application.



Like literally type out again "4 hrs/wk x 10 wks" or whatever? Or split up duties like "observed surgeries (20 hrs), restrained animals during exams (20 hrs)"?

Hi! Just wanted to chime in. I know I'm a bit late to the game. I was accepted OOS for the class of 2020 and going into it all I did not feel like I had an impressive amount of hours (700 vet (entirely small animal), 250 animal) but I had a good GPA (3.7) and GRE scores (163,163) and took a bit of my personal statement to explain why I didn't have that many hours.
Just wanted to let you/ everyone else know that it is still very much worth it! :)

Okay that's what I gathered. So how are citations going to work? I'm thinking about including a small works cited at the end but I didn't know if that was necessary?

I only did in-text citations and did NOT have a works cited at the end of my essay and they seemed to be fine with that (or at least I assume they were because they admitted me, hehe). For example I used stuff like "The American Association of Swine Veterinarians cites that..." or "According to the USDA...".
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Finished the application a few weeks ago! Out of state! Wahoo!
 
I think your hours will be a great help, especially with research experience. They also look at animal experience so if you have more hours with that, that'll help. I did nothing veterinary related at the horse rescue, but it did get me more comfortable around horses. Your academics will most likely get you into the second tier of their application cycle but after that they don't look at them again. Also keep in mind I'm OOS so I had limited chances of getting accepted right off. UIUC has way more spots for IS and they usually only interview about 120-150 (I think, I'm not positive it's that many) IS each cycle because they know pretty much all IS-ers will keep their spots. Just breathe. All you can do right now is hope it's enough and if it's not, get a file review and take the extra year as an opportunity to expand your experiences. It took me 3 years to get into vet school, so don't give up if this isn't your year.

thank you so much for you input! :)
 
Hi, I am instate

I am instate too but you look a lot stronger than my app. I will be applying with only 800 hours with around your academic stats. Illinois really doesn't care about grades, which is annoying since I worked so hard in college.

I'm a bit bummed about grades not counting as much too, thats why I'm excited about applying to ISU since academic review is 55% of their decision (or so it says on their web page)! In any case, best of luck to you and I hope that I see you next year at UIUC :)
 
What are some examples of what to include in an Explanation Statement other than low grades?
 
What are some examples of what to include in an Explanation Statement other than low grades?
This is a controversial topic and there are tons of threads on this already if you search for them.
 
How much does the essay get taken into account in terms of admissions decisions? I feel like I just wrote a pretty dang good response (especially considering I graduated a few years ago and haven't done very much scientific writing since oops) but does it really help me at all?
 
Good luck everyone! I'm currently a first year at U of I and this page was a huge resource when I was applying. Thought I would pass on a few notes from my own experience -

1) pinkpuppy and cloverbug rock, they were active on here last year and are great resources, huge thank you to both of them because I know they don't have a ton of free time!
2) Don't freak out about when you'll hear back. I know, easier said than done but one of the greatest uses of this page was checking in to see if anyone else had received letters. Do NOT expect that if you are told you'll hear something by a certain date that you actually will. WHEN that happens just check here, all letters and emails will go out at the same time so if people on here aren't posting about theirs, you didn't miss yours.
3) Use citations on your supplemental essay, it's the right thing to do.
4) Some bad news, Illinois shoots for a class size of 120-130, roughly 80-90 IS and the rest OOS. The class of 2016 is 162 strong. They usually send out extra OOS offers because the acceptance rate is lower but our class overwhelmed them. This means they will likely be more conservative with offers this year. They literally had to add seats to a classroom to fit us and can't fit another massive class. The silver lining here, there may be more movement on the wait list if they send out fewer offers.
5) I know it was mentioned before but keep getting experience! Not just small animal general practice but all over. Try to work with wildlife, zoo med, large animal. Even if you don't get in this year start working on that experience to improve your application for next year.

Hope to see you next year!

Thanks pinkpuppy and cloverbug!!!!!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Good luck everyone! I'm currently a first year at U of I and this page was a huge resource when I was applying. Thought I would pass on a few notes from my own experience -

1) pinkpuppy and cloverbug rock, they were active on here last year and are great resources, huge thank you to both of them because I know they don't have a ton of free time!
2) Don't freak out about when you'll hear back. I know, easier said than done but one of the greatest uses of this page was checking in to see if anyone else had received letters. Do NOT expect that if you are told you'll hear something by a certain date that you actually will. WHEN that happens just check here, all letters and emails will go out at the same time so if people on here aren't posting about theirs, you didn't miss yours.
3) Use citations on your supplemental essay, it's the right thing to do.
4) Some bad news, Illinois shoots for a class size of 120-130, roughly 80-90 IS and the rest OOS. The class of 2016 is 162 strong. They usually send out extra OOS offers because the acceptance rate is lower but our class overwhelmed them. This means they will likely be more conservative with offers this year. They literally had to add seats to a classroom to fit us and can't fit another massive class. The silver lining here, there may be more movement on the wait list if they send out fewer offers.
5) I know it was mentioned before but keep getting experience! Not just small animal general practice but all over. Try to work with wildlife, zoo med, large animal. Even if you don't get in this year start working on that experience to improve your application for next year.

Hope to see you next year!

Thanks pinkpuppy and cloverbug!!!!!!!
Illinois actually shoots for more of a 50/50 ratio now. That's something that's changed in previous years (they started that in 2019). Their class size now is actually 70 IS/60 OOS. But as far as I know, yeah the plan is to send out less initial offers than they have in previous years since more students accepted their offer last year.
 
Good luck everyone! I'm currently a first year at U of I and this page was a huge resource when I was applying. Thought I would pass on a few notes from my own experience -

1) pinkpuppy and cloverbug rock, they were active on here last year and are great resources, huge thank you to both of them because I know they don't have a ton of free time!
2) Don't freak out about when you'll hear back. I know, easier said than done but one of the greatest uses of this page was checking in to see if anyone else had received letters. Do NOT expect that if you are told you'll hear something by a certain date that you actually will. WHEN that happens just check here, all letters and emails will go out at the same time so if people on here aren't posting about theirs, you didn't miss yours.
3) Use citations on your supplemental essay, it's the right thing to do.
4) Some bad news, Illinois shoots for a class size of 120-130, roughly 80-90 IS and the rest OOS. The class of 2016 is 162 strong. They usually send out extra OOS offers because the acceptance rate is lower but our class overwhelmed them. This means they will likely be more conservative with offers this year. They literally had to add seats to a classroom to fit us and can't fit another massive class. The silver lining here, there may be more movement on the wait list if they send out fewer offers.
5) I know it was mentioned before but keep getting experience! Not just small animal general practice but all over. Try to work with wildlife, zoo med, large animal. Even if you don't get in this year start working on that experience to improve your application for next year.

Hope to see you next year!

Thanks pinkpuppy and cloverbug!!!!!!!
You're welcome and congrats on getting in! Hopefully the first week and a half hasn't bogged you down too much. Just remember that you'll have rotations for the second half of the semester and it'll help give you a bit of a break. Everything smallsER said is very accurate. The class size has been switched a bit more to 50/50 as thecatastrophist said, and it's possible they had a few people from the 2020 class defer. I was talking to some faculty and he had mentioned that a few had done that to try to get the 2020 class down to a manageable number. Even with this, don't give up guys. It's always better to try than to wonder what-if. And definitely keep getting experience. You never know what you'll learn about yourself by doing it.
 
Last edited:
Top