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- Dec 9, 2003
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After listening to Lifeisgood's story about Tufts and how they won't accept some of his prereqs because they were taken at a community college, I thought I'd share a little nightmare that my girlfriend went through in her application process.
She applied to, interviewed at, and was accepted to her top choice vet school. They loved the fact that she had graduated magna cum, phi beta kappa, with international research in Thailand and Belieze. However, this school had certain prereqs that were specifically different than any of the other schools she was applying to so she emailed to make sure that the classes she had taken would count. She was told she would be fine and subsequently was accepted and made plans to move the 1500 miles to school. The only thing she had to do was take nutrition and animal science courses before matriculating -- something she could do via correspondence (through the mail at another school).
The summer before beginning school (litterally one month before classes started) she received an email that, due to the fact that she had never taken Gen Bio 1 (she was excused at undergrad because of APs) she was not going to be able to start vet school until this class was completed. Well, obviously she (we) were completely stunned! We had moved to this new town, signed a lease, and she had even turned down an acceptance from another vet school! And it was GEN BIO!!!! She was a TA for a 3000 level bio course and they weren't going to let her start school because of a technicality!
The short of it is that after meeting with the dean twice and jumping through some unbelievable hoops she was finally allowed to register for classes on a conditional basis. She currently has a 3.96 through two years of school and is at the top of her class. However, I wanted to let everyone know that these schools have policies that are sometimes more cut and dry than what should make sense. Obviously, getting straight A's in upper level bio classes should suggest that you would have done just as well in an intro class, but sometimes "the rules are the rules" and the sensible thing to do is not always done. My girlfriend was very lucky.
I'm not mentioning this to scare everyone. My intention is to show that you need to be proactive (like lifeisgood) about finding out where you stand with a particular school. Just because your prereqs are acceptable at one school does not automatically mean they will be acceptable everywhere else as well! If there is any question about your prereqs, your state residency, or even that a school has received the materials you sent in the mail, YOU NEED TO FIND OUT FOR SURE! I would recommend using email correspondance whenever possible so there is some record of the response you received. If my girlfriend had kept the email saying her prereqs were fine way back when she first applied, this would have been a non-issue.
Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck!
Mack
She applied to, interviewed at, and was accepted to her top choice vet school. They loved the fact that she had graduated magna cum, phi beta kappa, with international research in Thailand and Belieze. However, this school had certain prereqs that were specifically different than any of the other schools she was applying to so she emailed to make sure that the classes she had taken would count. She was told she would be fine and subsequently was accepted and made plans to move the 1500 miles to school. The only thing she had to do was take nutrition and animal science courses before matriculating -- something she could do via correspondence (through the mail at another school).
The summer before beginning school (litterally one month before classes started) she received an email that, due to the fact that she had never taken Gen Bio 1 (she was excused at undergrad because of APs) she was not going to be able to start vet school until this class was completed. Well, obviously she (we) were completely stunned! We had moved to this new town, signed a lease, and she had even turned down an acceptance from another vet school! And it was GEN BIO!!!! She was a TA for a 3000 level bio course and they weren't going to let her start school because of a technicality!
The short of it is that after meeting with the dean twice and jumping through some unbelievable hoops she was finally allowed to register for classes on a conditional basis. She currently has a 3.96 through two years of school and is at the top of her class. However, I wanted to let everyone know that these schools have policies that are sometimes more cut and dry than what should make sense. Obviously, getting straight A's in upper level bio classes should suggest that you would have done just as well in an intro class, but sometimes "the rules are the rules" and the sensible thing to do is not always done. My girlfriend was very lucky.
I'm not mentioning this to scare everyone. My intention is to show that you need to be proactive (like lifeisgood) about finding out where you stand with a particular school. Just because your prereqs are acceptable at one school does not automatically mean they will be acceptable everywhere else as well! If there is any question about your prereqs, your state residency, or even that a school has received the materials you sent in the mail, YOU NEED TO FIND OUT FOR SURE! I would recommend using email correspondance whenever possible so there is some record of the response you received. If my girlfriend had kept the email saying her prereqs were fine way back when she first applied, this would have been a non-issue.
Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck!
Mack
