WAMC 2027, help with choosing schools, etc

[ch3yruh]

Hi!! Long time lurker but this is my first time posting on here. This will be my 3rd cycle applying (still haven’t heard from LMU, western, or tufts, but assuming I will probably get rejected, I want to work on next years apps. I had already heard from multiple other schools as well denying me.) 1st cycle applied in 2019 and 2nd cycle applied 2021.

Just some background about me:

GPA/GRE:

• Undergrad was not so great. I was in Army ROTC (mainly to get an academic scholarship) so that took over a lot of responsibility and thus caused me to put less focus on grades. I had an upward trend toward the last year of my undergrad (did 4.5 years). And I retook multiple classes and also took classes at community college to boost some of my prereq science grades. Due to my grades being so low, I did a file review with Oregon after the 1st cycle and they suggested either taking more upper div science classes to boost my science gpa or doing a masters heavy in science classes. I chose the latter and I am currently in the last year at my Laboratory Animal Science masters program and have had straight As since then. Still I feel like in the middle of my program my grades overall (including undergrad, grad, and post back retakes) aren’t that competitive.
• According to VMCAS these are my grade calculations:
• Graduate GPA: 3.88
• Overall Cumulative GPA: 2.81
• Overall Science GPA: 2.68
• Calculating my last 45 right now(self calculation): 3.56
• Calculating last 45 (assuming I get all A’s in the last semester of my masters): 3.72
• So in regards to my grades, even after I finish my masters, I feel like it will boost my last 45 a lot but not so my cumulative/science.
• GRE scores:
• I took them twice but overall best scores are 153 V/152 Q/ 4.0 W

Experiences:

• There’s A LOT. Like I don’t think this part is a problem but overall here is the breakdown
• 2360 hours in Animal Experience – internship with goats, internship at wildlife center (mainly birds), animal shelter volunteering(dogs/cats), and a veterinary medicine immersion camp in HS (dogs, cats, cattle)
• 3638 hours in Extracurriculars – various HS sports and clubs, ROTC events in college, ROTC leadership positions, anime club officer in college
• 1713 hours in Employment (non animal related) - Army Reserves (part time), dishwasher during college, retail store
• 360 hours Research – class research, undergraduate research in lab with bees/flowers/pollination, and then conducted my own research for senior practicum with cows
• 3855 hours in Veterinary experience – most of that comes from working in a small animal vet clinic (dog, cats, rabbits), but I have also some from working with laboratory animals in my masters program (rabbits, mice/rats, NHPs), shadowing at a clinic on a military base and various other clinics before getting an actual job(dogs/cats), and volunteering with cow research and helping veterinarian insert urinary catheters there.

Achievements:

• Korean defense medal
• Army reserves component overseas training ribbon
• Undergraduate research award
• Army service ribbon
• National defense service medal
• ROTC certificate of achievement
• Army reserve officers training corp 3 year scholarship
• Then various other HS sports related awards

LORs

• Based off the 1st cycle file review from Oregon, they noted that my LORs spoke very highly of me. But these are from the 2nd cycle.
• 2 from veterinarians that I have worked with for the past 2 years at my job
• 1 from academic director of masters program
• 1 from army reserves supervisor
• 1 from research mentor

Personal statement

• I talked about my journey to wanting to become a veterinarian, through my experiences, especially in research throughout undergrad and through the masters program that Im in.
• Again based off the 1st cycle file review (before masters program), they noted that my essays were very well written.

SO after all that being said, I feel like for the 2nd cycle I did not choose wisely in the schools I wanted to attend. I thought applying to more would give me a better chance of getting in but, nonetheless, here I am. I applied to UC davis (im a CA resident), western, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, midwestern, Arizona, LMU, tufts, cornell, Minnesota, and Illinois. I wanted to focus on schools that didn’t require GRE (since I thought mine were not that competitive) and schools that took a more holistic approach and that didn’t have a GPA requirement.

Do you guys have ideas of how I should proceed? I am thinking that I should retake the GRE to help that offset my grades and give me better options with other schools that do require the GRE. But I think it would be wise to look at schools that also focus on last 45 credits too. And with GPA in general, I feel like it wouldn’t do much if I start retaking some classes that I did poor in like Calculus and physics? (I already retook gen chem/ochem and biology)

Overall, I would like your recommendations on what are smart schools to apply to next cycle with all this in mind. I would consider international schools (like SGU), but I would have to keep in mind my Army responsibilities as I would have to drill one weekend a month.

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