Advice for next cycle if not accepted: please help!

[Rhetrick19]

Hello! I applied this cycle c/o 2025. I’ve received one rejection so far and I’m trying to plan for what to do if I need to reapply. I could really use any advice.

20 y/o female traditional 1st time applicant.
School list: Iowa (IS), Kansas (rejected), Illinois (made to phase 2, unsure of interviews yet), Colorado.

Culm GPA: 3.6
Science GPA: 3.3 (VMCAS calculated, but I took biochem, physics, and physiology this semester, so if I need to reapply it should go up).
Last 45 GPA: 3.6 (calculated 3.5 for Iowa)

GRE: None require.

Awards/Honors:
-Dean’s list 2 semesters
-President’s list 2 semesters
-Dean’s scholarship
-Honors in high school (put on Iowa’s sub app)
-Top Reading State Assessment (High School)

Veterinary Experience:
-2,100 hours working as an assist/kennel tech at a small animal clinic
-220 hours shadowing at a mixed practice clinic (80% small, 20% large) I broke this up on VMCAS.
-15 hours shadowing large animal vets
-5 hours shadowing zoo vet
-6 hours working with wildlife vet on whale necropsy

Animal Experience
-440 hours doing weekend boarding (no vet present).
-100 hours of large animal husbandry on farm
-6 hours volunteering at equine barn
-15 hours volunteering at aquarium (Included shark husbandry).

Research
-225 hours doing great white shark population studies. I also assisted in studies on whales/dolphins and with smaller shark species.

Employment:
-Chemistry tutor 180 hours
-After school teacher at elementary school 350 hours
-Swim lesson instructor 500 hours
-Night manager at Dairy Queen 1,400 hours
-Model and actress with local agency 45 hours
-Worked at a daycare 80 hours
-Actress on Hawaii Five-O 40 hours

Volunteer:
-15 hours making ecobricks
-8 hours of beach clean ups
-10 hours at a local theatre club

Extracurriculars:
-Hiking (Several times a week)
-Photography 200 hours
-Theatre/Show choir (Involved for 8 years, over 4000 hours).
-Choir
-Speech club
-Football manager
-Traveling

Diversity:
-I grew up as a military brat. I've lived in 5 states and attended 12 schools so far. I talked a lot about this experience in my essays.
COVID:
-I was supposed to spend a month shadowing various vets in Costa Rica this past summer, but is was canceled due to COVID.

LORS:
-Small animal vet, my practice manager, a chem professor, trig professor

My main concern is my science gpa and my other gpas being on the lower side of average. I also had a major ankle injury this summer and have been in a boot/cast before and after surgery since July till now. I put this in my explanation statement, but it caused me to cut down my experience hours a ton. Right now my plan if I have to reapply is to pursue a masters in biomedical science at Iowa State. I’m hoping to do a field research program abroad (covid permitting) and begin volunteering at our local zoo. I applied for another job not vet related and plan to keep working and shadowing at vet clinics throughout the spring semester. Is there anything else I could do to improve my chances next time around? I’ve had so much anxiety about getting in and just want to do all that I can to become a stronger applicant.

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[mmm032]

Honestly I would suggest more veterinary experience in the areas where you only have a few hours. And the kennel job, were you working alongside a vet the whole time? Normally those positions are more animal experience (but this definitely depends on what exactly you are doing). Also, put EVERYTHING you can think of on the VMCAS. If you were involved in any clubs or sports, include awards and honors in those. Any awards or honors related to your hobbies? I know in the interviews I’ve had so far all the schools told me they were excited about my application because not only did I have a ton of diverse vet experiences, but I have hobbies outside of vet med and animals which I am SUPER involved in. I even put things like winning grand champion with some of my woodworking projects at our local fairs, and I got asked in all but one interview to show them some of my projects because they were very interested. Also, edit your VMCAS essays and do the best you can on those- be different and try to stand out. For the one about how vets serve in a community, give SPECIFIC examples of how you are going to do this as a future vet. For example, I wrote that I want to be the on call vet for our county fair as a way to give back to the 4H programs I grew up in- multiple schools told me they were so surprised to see this because they’d never had an applicant mention something like that before. Also, only do more schooling if it’s something you really want to do. Remember, what you do this year is what counts on the next cycle, not what you do next year. And also, check to see if some of the schools you are currently applying to will let you send an updated transcript if this will improve your gpa!

Hello! I applied this cycle c/o 2025. I’ve received one rejection so far and I’m trying to plan for what to do if I need to reapply. I could really use any advice.

20 y/o female traditional 1st time applicant.
School list: Iowa (IS), Kansas (rejected), Illinois (made to phase 2, unsure of interviews yet), Colorado.

Culm GPA: 3.6
Science GPA: 3.3 (VMCAS calculated, but I took biochem, physics, and physiology this semester, so if I need to reapply it should go up).
Last 45 GPA: 3.6 (calculated 3.5 for Iowa)

GRE: None require.

Awards/Honors:
-Dean’s list 2 semesters
-President’s list 2 semesters
-Dean’s scholarship
-Honors in high school (put on Iowa’s sub app)
-Top Reading State Assessment (High School)

Veterinary Experience:
-2,100 hours working as an assist/kennel tech at a small animal clinic
-220 hours shadowing at a mixed practice clinic (80% small, 20% large) I broke this up on VMCAS.
-15 hours shadowing large animal vets
-5 hours shadowing zoo vet
-6 hours working with wildlife vet on whale necropsy

Animal Experience
-440 hours doing weekend boarding (no vet present).
-100 hours of large animal husbandry on farm
-6 hours volunteering at equine barn
-15 hours volunteering at aquarium (Included shark husbandry).

Research
-225 hours doing great white shark population studies. I also assisted in studies on whales/dolphins and with smaller shark species.

Employment:
-Chemistry tutor 180 hours
-After school teacher at elementary school 350 hours
-Swim lesson instructor 500 hours
-Night manager at Dairy Queen 1,400 hours
-Model and actress with local agency 45 hours
-Worked at a daycare 80 hours
-Actress on Hawaii Five-O 40 hours

Volunteer:
-15 hours making ecobricks
-8 hours of beach clean ups
-10 hours at a local theatre club

Extracurriculars:
-Hiking (Several times a week)
-Photography 200 hours
-Theatre/Show choir (Involved for 8 years, over 4000 hours).
-Choir
-Speech club
-Football manager
-Traveling

Diversity:
-I grew up as a military brat. I've lived in 5 states and attended 12 schools so far. I talked a lot about this experience in my essays.
COVID:
-I was supposed to spend a month shadowing various vets in Costa Rica this past summer, but is was canceled due to COVID.

LORS:
-Small animal vet, my practice manager, a chem professor, trig professor

My main concern is my science gpa and my other gpas being on the lower side of average. I also had a major ankle injury this summer and have been in a boot/cast before and after surgery since July till now. I put this in my explanation statement, but it caused me to cut down my experience hours a ton. Right now my plan if I have to reapply is to pursue a masters in biomedical science at Iowa State. I’m hoping to do a field research program abroad (covid permitting) and begin volunteering at our local zoo. I applied for another job not vet related and plan to keep working and shadowing at vet clinics throughout the spring semester. Is there anything else I could do to improve my chances next time around? I’ve had so much anxiety about getting in and just want to do all that I can to become a stronger applicant.

 

[mmm032]

Oh and for reference, my gpa is 3.54 cumulative and 3.2 science, so do what you can, but grades are not the only thing considered!

 

[Rhetrick19]

Honestly I would suggest more veterinary experience in the areas where you only have a few hours. And the kennel job, were you working alongside a vet the whole time? Normally those positions are more animal experience (but this definitely depends on what exactly you are doing). Also, put EVERYTHING you can think of on the VMCAS. If you were involved in any clubs or sports, include awards and honors in those. Any awards or honors related to your hobbies? I know in the interviews I’ve had so far all the schools told me they were excited about my application because not only did I have a ton of diverse vet experiences, but I have hobbies outside of vet med and animals which I am SUPER involved in. I even put things like winning grand champion with some of my woodworking projects at our local fairs, and I got asked in all but one interview to show them some of my projects because they were very interested. Also, edit your VMCAS essays and do the best you can on those- be different and try to stand out. For the one about how vets serve in a community, give SPECIFIC examples of how you are going to do this as a future vet. For example, I wrote that I want to be the on call vet for our county fair as a way to give back to the 4H programs I grew up in- multiple schools told me they were so surprised to see this because they’d never had an applicant mention something like that before. Also, only do more schooling if it’s something you really want to do. Remember, what you do this year is what counts on the next cycle, not what you do next year. And also, check to see if some of the schools you are currently applying to will let you send an updated transcript if this will improve your gpa!

Thank you so much! This helps a ton. The kennel job is confusing because part of my shift was kennel work, but most of it was assisting with vets and techs (drawing blood, running idexx work, restraining, pulling up vaccines, assisting in radiographs, etc.) I tried to explain this the best I could on VMCAS, but I think I should have put more of my duties down. I know I can always improve though I’m working to get more large animal and equine experience, so hopefully that’ll help some!

it’s also super reassuring to hear about your gpa. I know it’s not super low, but it’s not amazing either. I definitely think it’s the lowest of part of my application. Thank you again

 

[mmm032]

You’re welcome! I know my GPA and fee scores were not the best (thank goodness those didn’t count this year, I didn’t do bad, but they were only average).

Thank you so much! This helps a ton. The kennel job is confusing because part of my shift was kennel work, but most of it was assisting with vets and techs (drawing blood, running idexx work, restraining, pulling up vaccines, assisting in radiographs, etc.) I tried to explain this the best I could on VMCAS, but I think I should have put more of my duties down. I know I can always improve though I’m working to get more large animal and equine experience, so hopefully that’ll help some!

it’s also super reassuring to hear about your gpa. I know it’s not super low, but it’s not amazing either. I definitely think it’s the lowest of part of my application. Thank you again

 

[Rhetrick19]

You’re welcome! I know my GPA and fee scores were not the best (thank goodness those didn’t count this year, I didn’t do bad, but they were only average).

I feel you! I feel like my gpa’s weren’t bad, just very average. Luckily I didn’t have to take the GRE. Best of luck to you though! Hopefully we’ll both get good news this cycle

 

[sbrider12]

Right now my plan if I have to reapply is to pursue a masters in biomedical science at Iowa State. I’m hoping to do a field research program abroad (covid permitting) and begin volunteering at our local zoo. I applied for another job not vet related and plan to keep working and shadowing at vet clinics throughout the spring semester. Is there anything else I could do to improve my chances next time around? I’ve had so much anxiety about getting in and just want to do all that I can to become a stronger applicant.

If you get accepted to your masters program, I assume it'll be a while before you apply again to a DVM program? So are you looking for long-term advice or short term (applying next cycle)? Asking because many threads are looking for short-term advice (year to year).

Regardless, I think what could help you is finding a way to show that pursuing a DVM was an adult decision. I'm not trying to knock you for your age, as you've obviously accomplished a lot in 20 years, but it seems that more and more programs are looking for that continued drive. Your masters program will definitely do that (they'll see that you still want to pursue DVM even after achieving the MS), also increasing your vet experience in underrepresented fields (research, wildlife, large animal) will help tremendously. Ultimately, you have the stats and base to be accepted to any program, it's just a matter of standing out now, and persistence.

 

[battie]

You should hopefully be hearing from Illinois around March 1 (though the last few years have been sooner). At that point, you'll either be waitlisted or accepted. If you're waitlisted, contact ASA to do a file review with our academic student affairs office. I would honestly suggest doing that for all your schools on your list. I would also mention that you will be doing a master's program and ask how beneficial that would be to your application.