Nontraditional student

call the schools you're applying to! it's out of anybody's opinion whether you'll get in, if there are simply rules that the adcoms can't get around. in other words, you might be a fantastic applicant, but rules are rules, and they can't just overlook the age of your reqs just because you look good otherwise.

i don't think that just because you have a degree will exempt you from the 10 year rule. but check schools! i don't think they all have this rule. could be wrong, and it would definitely be a shame if you applied and THEN found out that they can't accept you.

obviously, you look very strong academically, and i think most adcoms will love the high school bio teaching. good idea trying to get the GRE up. as far as experience, how much experience with horses? if those two years in the avian clinic were over ten years ago, i strongly suggest getting another part time clinic position, especially one with an equine vet if that's what you plan to do. they won't really take you seriously if you have nothing to back your plans up with. remember, a lot of the other applicants you'll be up against will have thousands of experience hours.

did any of that make sense? i don't think my brain is working correctly this morning. hope some of that helped. feel free to keep askign questions, and good luck in your endeavors.

lyndaelyzoo said:

I was not sure if there was a universal vet school rule about the age of the prereq courses.

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Sadly, I don't think there's a uniform rule amongst the vet schools about almost anything re: admissions. That's probably a slight overstatement, but that's how it felt at times. Calling the individual schools is always the best idea. Though, I'd actually say that for UCD, emailing Kim O'Bryan might be better. She's not the one answering the phone, and she's really the best informed IMO.

Good luck!

lyndaelyzoo said:

I will be applying to vet school next year and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions about increasing my chances of acceptance. I am a nontraditional student who has been teaching biology and forensic science in a public high school for about ten years. I have always wanted to go to vet school and am finally going to apply next year. I have a BS in zoology from 1994 and have heard that the science prereqs must be taken within ten years of vet school. Does that apply if I have a degree? I will also receive a MS in Forensic Science from UF this month with a 3.9 GPA that included a mammalian pharmacology class through UF vet school. My GRE score was a 1080, and plan on retaking it in January. I have experience working with horses, worked as a vet assistant at an avian clinic for about two years before I started teaching, and will be spending a couple of weeks working with an equine vet in Wellington. I am planning on studying equine, conservation, or zoo medicine, and specialize in veterinary forensics. I will be applying to UF, UCDavis, Cornell, UGA, Tuskegee, Western, and Virginia-Maryland. Any advice is greatly appreciated. My main concern is the fact that I received my BS in 1994 and am wondering if that will affect my chances of acceptance. Please advise.

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Hi lyndaelyzoo! I'm a NT student as well - BS in Bio 2002 and Master's of Lab Animal degree in 2006. I applied to Western (again) this year and I know they have an 8yr rule for prereq's. My biochem course expired just this past summer and now have to retake next semester, which is a bummer b/c it counted for last years app (was waitlisted.) Not sure about the other schools though but def speak to an admissions counselor (rather than looking at online info) at each school you're interested in applying.
Hope this helps, good luck!

Another very useful resource for admissions requirements for all US schools and some international schools is the Veterinary Medical School Admission Requirements book put out by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. You can pick it up at Amazon. Make sure you get the most recent edition. I have the 2008 Edition for 2009 Matriculation. I do not know when they come out with the new Editions, but this one should be very helpful.

Good Luck to you!

lyndaelyzoo said:

Thank you for the suggestion about calling the individual schools. I was not sure if there was a universal vet school rule about the age of the prereq courses. As for my equine experience, I have been riding horses since the age of nine and worked at a stable full-time for about four years. I assisted the veterinarian, taught riding lessons, trained the horses, and managed the stable. I also worked with an avian vet for two years full-time before I began teaching (about ten years ago). I plan on working with an equine vet this summer as well to gain more recent experience. Anyway, hopefully, I won't have to retake the prereq courses again. Does anyone know of the schools that do not accept prereqs that are older than ten years?

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see, you people always have your **** more together than you let on in your original posts.

management of any sort is always good, and good for getting the vet experience this summer. sorry, but i don't know anything about pre-req expirations :/

I will be applying to UF, UCDavis, Cornell, UGA, Tuskegee, Western, and Virginia-Maryland.

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Since you're coming from Florida, I think you might consider that UC Davis, and UGA accept very few out-of-state students. UGA accepted 0 last year. These are both very long shots and will probably just end up costing you money.

You may want to consider applying to Oklahoma State and Kansas State. They seem to accept many out of state students.

I'm in a similar situation as you, with most of my pre-reqs more than 10 years old and also a teacher! I have been focusing on CSU since that is my IS school (and where I really want to go) and they do not have a time limit for pre-reqs... you just have to show "current proficiency" in the field. I would think your teaching and the MS would help show current proficiency. I had to take biochem (ironic that I had never taken it as a chem major!) and will take genetics, and was told that doing well in those classes should show current proficiency.

I have also looked some at KSU and was initially very demoralized that they had (if I remember correctly) a 6 year limit on ALL pre-reqs. Several e-mails later revealed that they are more flexible than their website implies and are more aligned with what CSU has told me as far as having a few more recent classes showing that I can handle the material. I also asked if 7 years of teaching could count as the "public speaking" pre-req and they said yes.

I don't have any advice on the schools you are applying to, but as others have said talking directly with the schools will provide you with more info, and hopefully more hope for your situation!

The nitty gritty in-writing requirements for all the VMCAS-participating schools is here: http://www.aavmc.org/vmcas/vmcas.htm

(VMCAS = master giant application that most of the accredited schools use. Exceptions include Tufts and Tuskegee and... ? I can't remem.. And then, most schools have their own supplementals).

I agree with some above posters. Cornell will not like your GRE. They want high GRE's and high GPA, IMHO. As someone else said, KSU and Oklahoma give more out-of-state love than many others. Don't disregard Ohio (ahem, THE Ohio...) either, as I did, thinking that they bang you out for $50k/year. They credit back for in-state tuition later on, as some others on here would probably tell you.

Try to up your GRE score - as much as a PITA it is. And definitely try to get newer vet experience. Most schools like varied vs. all-in-one (equine only, etc.).

I'm biased, because I got the out-of-state love from Kansas, and only Kansas, and so I encourage you to contact K-State and ask what they think of your pre-req's in light of your formidable teaching experience. Perhaps it's just my gut impression, but I think - not only does KSU like the out-of-staters, but they are also non-trad friendly as well. There are several non-trad's in my class, and in others, here. And Manhattan is a nice little town.

Good luck!

projekt said:

Since you're coming from Florida, I think you might consider that UC Davis, and UGA accept very few out-of-state students.

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True, the odds are long, but they do accept some (there are five of us OOSers at UCD this year), so if you really want it, you should go ahead and apply. It is good to be aware of the odds, though. But you should certainly make sure to apply to a mix of schools where the odds are more favorable, too. Your IS, for sure. And I agree with CookieBear...KSU shows much OOS love. So does Iowa State. I'd try those for sure if those locations/programs sound at all interesting to you.

I just crossed KSU off of my list for the 6 year pre-requisite thing, too, and for looking like they don't take graduate GPA into account. Looking at their stats didn't make it seem all that non-trad friendly to me, to be honest. For the class of 2012, 23 is a pretty low average age and the distribution had like, 1 30 year old and 1 32 year old. I wouldn't call that non-trad friendly. Just my thoughts....

nyanko said:

I just crossed KSU off of my list for the 6 year pre-requisite thing, too

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I've heard from multiple sources that getting a waiver for course work older than 6 years is not hard, though KSU apparently doesn't publicize that very well.

nyanko said:

I just crossed KSU off of my list...and for looking like they don't take graduate GPA into account.

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I have nothing official to go on here, but if they don't take graduate GPA into account at all for admissions, I cannot imagine I ever would have gotten an interview, let alone an offer of admission. My raw undergrad GPA was a stellar 3.1. I had a few additional undergrad courses that would have gotten factored in (2 physics classes, a stats class, possibly a biochem, though that was technically grad level, too), but we all know how utterly unhelpful a handful of "A"s are when you're trying to bring up a GPA accumulated over 4 years. By comparison, my grad GPA was 3.97. All of this to say I'd be very surprised if they didn't take that at all into consideration given the fact that they were interested in me.

Not that I think you need this info, nyanko. I'm pretty sure you'll continue to be a UCD girl. Just want to add to the dialogue for other folks reading out there.

Just as a follow-up since it was mentioned here, I had actually emailed KSU's admissions email to ask these questions and the response I got was that they do not use graduate GPA in their calculations, only undergrad (though individual graduate courses can be used to fill their prerequisites), and that they are flexible about the six year policy (which people here have attested to..). So all in all, it's still a tentative no because of my trainwreck of an undergraduate record, but not as definitive of one as it'd be if I had to retake general chemistry and organic chemistry again.

From memory, I don't think they even consider cumulative GPA though - I think it's all prereqs GPA and last 45 undergrad hours, so maybe that could have helped you out, VAgirl. Or they just couldn't resist how interesting all of your work since undergrad has been.