What To Do?

[Ren Malee]

My friend wants to be a vet, but is having a rough time getting into vet school. She graduated with a BS in animal science with a 2.5 gpa. Her gpa wasn't the best because she worked two jobs in undergrad to pay her way...parents couldn't help and wanted to save loan money for vet school. Mostly b's and c's, some a's, no d or f. She was at a quarter school with a max of 12 hours per semester so not much room for error. She has a Masters in public health with a 3.4 gpa. She has large animal/small animal experience. She has two years experience working as a vet assistant...however I think she does more tech duties from what she tells me...she is doing dentals at current hospital. Small animal experience (work/volunteer) includes private practice, Banfield, vet school teaching hospital. She also has experience working with primates. Planning on taking the GRE. Has taken it before, but before the scoring changed...not sure of her score. She also has experience with research: independent study projects for her BS and of course plenty more from her Masters.

I'm not sure how vet school admissions work, but she has expressed it is very competitive. She says though she has a Masters and vet experience, she has to take some pre-reqs over. I'm thinking she is pretty good though. Especially since her cum gpa is counting her taking a few courses over and getting a better grade. I don't know if she could do much more. Any advice of what I can tell her? She is working so hard and I feel bad that an admin board could look at her cum gpa, despite her graduate gpa, and not think twice about at least interviewing her.

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[TheComfyCat]

Well, one thing she can do is focus on schools that don't look at cGPA (like Minnesota or Michigan). If she retakes some classes, she can apply to schools that will replace the old grades with the new ones (like Western and... there's a thread about grade forgiveness that lists the others).

Also, Mizzou has the option to ignore grades 6 years old or older. Some other schools may have similar options, but I don't recall off the top of my head.

 

[DoctorToby]

Well, one thing she can do is focus on schools that don't look at cGPA (like Minnesota or Michigan). If she retakes some classes, she can apply to schools that will replace the old grades with the new ones (like Western and... there's a thread about grade forgiveness that lists the others).

Also, Mizzou has the option to ignore grades 6 years old or older. Some other schools may have similar options, but I don't recall off the top of my head.

illinois I think has that option too

 

[that redhead]

While your idea to offer her advice is well-intentioned, it's often best to get it "from the source", either by asking admissions offices herself, or by coming here and posting her information in the "what are my chances" thread since she can provide us with details and reply to our questions directly.

If you want to help her out, you're better off just being a supportive friend to her during the process of improving her application and (if she gets to the point) the application cycle itself. Be her sounding board when she's frustrated, encourage her when she's getting sick of re-taking classes, offer to take up a hobby together to keep her mind off of all the tedium that is the application cycle, etc.