WAMC - young/non-traditional application (would appreciate any and all help)!

[vindelilas]

Hi everyone! I am somewhat of a non-traditional 19-year-old student transfer student who has moved over twenty times (including lived in Eastern Europe and South America) due to family reasons. I began attending college full time when I was 15-years-old (did not go to high school or do dual-enrollment), but decided to add a couple more years to my undergraduate studies to gain more experience.

I would love some feedback on how my application looks! I am a part time certified caretaker for my mother and brother who have terminal illnesses, my sister who had cancer, and my sister who was temporarily paralyzed so I had a bit of a rough year last year with the diagnoses (I landed a few Bs and a C). I love research and hope to apply to dual PhD/DVM programs despite these academic transgressions (although my advisor discourages me from doing so entirely due to my GPA).

I really would like to figure out which schools would be most realistic for me to apply to next year. I know I am not a perfect student, but I would love to hear any suggestions you all may have on refining my application. I started attending university solely as a pre-veterinary student but began listening to my family members (who wanted me to be a lawyer or a human doctor) and completely lost sight of what I wanted to do. I still intend to fulfill my Pre-Med and Pre-Law concentrations, but after much soul searching (+ shadowing), I realized it was never my dream to be a human doctor or lawyer. I hope to convey this in my application. My main concern is getting veterinary experience, I am starting to get nervous looking at the recent statistics of successful applicants. But I am beyond excited at the prospect of applying next year <3 Thank you!!


Cumulative GPA: 3.799
Science GPA: 3.822

Any degrees achieved
Will graduate with four degrees: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Cell/Molecular Biology, Psychology, and Honors Studies with Pre-Vet, Pre-Med, and Pre-Law concentrations

GRE results: Q/V/W - did not take

Veterinary Experience:

• Small animal veterinary assistant (+ certification): 252 hrs
• Exotic/lab animal shadowing (this is an amazing PhD/DVM researcher i started shadowing recently): 10 hrs
• Exotic animal shadowing + assisting: 100 hrs
• Pre-Vet internship (shadowed/assisted a variety of specialties and subspecialties related to equine, LA, SA, exotics, etc.): 52 hrs

Animal Experience:

• Co-Founder, Co-Vice-President, and Secretary of a 4-H chapter (showed rabbits lol): 160 hrs
• Volunteer at an African animal preserve: 700 hrs
• Humane Society: 100 hrs
• Animal Center: 20 hrs
• English Equestrian: 450 hrs
• FFA Volunteer: 20 hrs
• I am contemplating adding this but if I do the math, I have 1760 hours of animal care due to me owning horses (I am unsure if this is looked down upon to add this though)

Research Experience (about 1000 hrs):

• Studied bioinformatics, genomics, and genetics in relation to med/vet entomology at a different university
• First year research assistant - studied E. coli and antibiotic resistance
• Personality psychopathology undergraduate research assistant - helped with a lot of studies/ran participants but first authored a study on emotion dysregulation, gender, and college dynamics
• Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Cancer literature review (published paper)
• I have written honors research papers for all of these research opportunities and presented my findings for each at symposiums and/or conferences but hope to have another paper published in the next year (who knows if it will be lol)
• Will begin nutrition-based cardiothoracic veterinary research (will take place at my school’s vet hospital, aid me in refining my surgical skills, and received the research scholarship for this that I talk about below) beginning this fall

Awards/scholarships:

• Research-based freshman scholarship
• Dean’s list x6
• President’s list x8
• Academic scholarship x8
• Military family scholarship
• Dean-appointed award/scholarship for “dedication to academic achievement and research”
• Recently won my school’s research scholarship

Extracurriculars (about 1200 hrs):

• Sorority - Positions Held: Nationals Inclusion Committee, Academic Assistant
• Global Medical Brigades (pre-medical study abroad) - Positions Held: Secretary
• Internship at pediatric hospital
• Internship through university at cardiology-focused hospital and clinic
• Pre-DO club - Positions Held: Founder and President
• Rural Medicine club - Positions Held: Secretary
• Ag Honors Representative (appointed by my school’s Ag Dean, allowed me to attend 6+ conferences and increase our college’s involvement at the university)
• Friends of Doctors without Borders: General Member
• AMSA: General Member
• African American Psychologists: General Member
• Fundraising and FInance Team Member for our school’s danceathon
• Biochemistry Club: General Member
• Pre-Vet Club: General Member
• Developed an application that reminds my grandfather to water his crops due to him having Alzheimer’s

Volunteer Experience (about 2000 hrs):

• Ag College Ambassador
• Founder/President of a rural beach clean up organization
• Student Academic Mentor for freshman ag major students
• Caretaker for family
• Volunteer at human hospital
• Volunteer at a center for people with physical disadvantages

Employment (Teaching really intrigues me so I hope to get into academia in the future) (about 400 hrs):

• Private Tutor - Underclassmen Mathematics
• School-employed Tutor - 20+ STEM and Spanish courses
• Supplemental Instruction Leader - Calculus I
• Supplemental Instruction Leader Associate Mentor

Picking a maximum number of schools to apply to isn’t a concern for me, but here are the ones that intrigue me the most. I am very open to adding or taking away from this list:

- OK State (IS)
- Texas A&M (Hometown)
- Auburn
- Tuskegee
- Midwestern
- Cornell
- Western
- UTK (Did vet research here)
- UGA
- University of Florida
- LSU
- Mississippi State
- NCSU
- University of Pennsylvania
- Colorado State
- Tufts

Thank you for reading this super long post! Any advice (especially from reformed Pre-Law/Pre-Med successful applicants) would be greatly appreciated.

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[matthirten13]

Cumulative GPA: 3.799
Science GPA: 3.822

Your GPA is competitive for DVM/PhD. Don't agree with your advisor unless your last 45 semester unit GPA is horrendous. However, your vet hours are low. That is the main negative I see. Also, some dual degree programs require the GRE even if the main program does not -- look into this if you're seriously thinking DVM/PhD.

Also... just want to confirm you actually want the DVM?? Most of your post reads to me that you really love research, and although you considered some medical pursuits, it wasn't your thing. Nothing in what you wrote really emphasizes why DVM/PhD to me? Why not just PhD? (Not necessarily something you need to decide now, think about as you get more vet experience)

But for where to apply: Personally I think it is especially important for someone trying to become a clinician scientist to go somewhere with a teaching hospital. Drop Western imo and add a place with a decently funded DVM/PhD tbh. Pick somewhere that has the type of research you want to do.

 

[supershorty]

Midwestern does not have a formal dual degree program. Tuskegee's is in its very early stages.

Also agreed with everything Matt said.
Will have more thoughts later but am in between patients.

 

[vindelilas]

@matthirten13 @supershorty Thank you both so much! I guess I misread Midwestern's terms and conditions 🙃 I am definitely planning on taking the GRE next year (especially since it is required for my in-state school). But I do really, really want a DVM. I am particularly interested in exotics or food animal, but was advised to become a more well rounded applicant and acquire small animal and equine veterinary experience (which I am working on as of now)! A couple subspecialties I have shadowed also intrigued me, specifically ophthalmology and dermatology. My graduate research interests are primarily medical veterinary entomology, cardiovascular biology, and food science (which will be my senior honors thesis research project). I definitely need to narrow my interests down because they are all over the place. I am hoping to do so in the next year gearing up for applying.

 

[supershorty]

@vindelilas I still haven't gotten around to giving you a real reply (sorry, I'm on surgery and have almost no time ) but @matthirten13 is an incoming dual degree student, I am a final year dual degree student, and @WildZoo just finished her dual degree program (though her program is sequential; matt and I are both in concurrent track programs), so we're all happy to chat with you about that type of program if you have questions.

I'm going to be honest that I don't recommend that someone who wants to be a PI do a dual degree program with concurrent degrees vs doing them sequentially, I think you don't gain much from it and your research that you put out during your degree is going to be more limited in a program like that than if you are doing a PhD program where you're not in a time crunch.

My hobbies include voluntolding other people to talk about their lives without asking them first.

 

[WildZoo]

I love UTK with my whole heart, but from the financial side you're going to have a better time doing a dual program elsewhere, particularly as an OOS student. The dual program does not fund your DVM at all, and while you get tuition coverage, health insurance, and a stipend during the PhD portion, the stipend is really low. There is also an expectation to finish in 3 years post-DVM, which while doable can really restrict the scope of your research. Most of us end up working part-time in clinical practice to help with the finances but you can see how that would limit your time even further. It's not a program I would recommend applying to if you're going in with the intention of being a dual student - more something that's a nice option to have if you're already in vet school there and decide you want to do a PhD as well. As far as I am aware you cannot apply to the dual program until you have already started vet school there anyway.