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relentless11

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Hey everyone. I'm new here, I'm not a pre-vet (pre-med), but have a friend who is pre-vet. She is planning to apply, but doing a grad program first. Her GPA is sub-par, but is doing excellent in the grad program (3.5+). So i was wondering:

1) Should she take more grad courses or undergrad upper division courses to improve her application. (or both?)

2) How weighted are GRE scores vs. GPA (e.g.: equally? GPA > GRE?, GRE > GPA?)

3) With a <3.0 undergrad GPA, and a 3.5 grad GPA (1 year of grad courses, full time student), should she take more classes. (e.g.: wait till next year to apply).

As you can see I'm clueless on the finer details of pre-vet life. But I have to admit, things are so much more well-defined in the vet school application world compared to getting into med school. 🙂 Anyway, I hear that UCD will be sending out news (hopefully good news) to you all soon. I wish everyone good luck, and thank you ahead of time for the assistance!! 🙂
 
Okay, well first of all, why are you posting this and not your friend? 🙂
Secondly... you're right to assume that med school apps are much more well-defined than vet school apps. These questions cannot be answered with one answer that applies to all schools... each school is very different!
As far as a >3.0 undergrad GPA goes, I think that this depends on what her science GPA was. If her science GPA was less than a 3.0 I wouldn't have very high hopes for getting into any US schools. Also, is her grad work in a core science?
GPA's, in general, are weighted heavier than GRE's. But some schools weigh GRE's almost as much as GPA's, so it depends on which schools she applies to.
I would say she needs to decide which schools she wants to apply to and then go from there. She has the best shot at whatever is her in-state school ... so what state is she a resident of?
I would say start with this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...ref=sr_1_1/103-9852910-6915821?_encoding=UTF8
And this website: http://aavmc.org/vmcas/college_requirement.htm
Those should help her decide where she would like to apply, and that book gives some idea of how each school weighs applicants (GPAs/GREs/experience/interview/etc.). I would also suggest to her to check out Ross University, in the Caribbean... they are often more forgiving about "past mistakes" with GPA's.
Also, I think that she may want to ask her own questions next time 😉 We're all extremely helpful in this forum but I think it's best that she is asking these questions and getting answers directly.

relentless11 said:
Hey everyone. I'm new here, I'm not a pre-vet (pre-med), but have a friend who is pre-vet. She is planning to apply, but doing a grad program first. Her GPA is sub-par, but is doing excellent in the grad program (3.5+). So i was wondering:

1) Should she take more grad courses or undergrad upper division courses to improve her application. (or both?)

2) How weighted are GRE scores vs. GPA (e.g.: equally? GPA > GRE?, GRE > GPA?)

3) With a <3.0 undergrad GPA, and a 3.5 grad GPA (1 year of grad courses, full time student), should she take more classes. (e.g.: wait till next year to apply).

As you can see I'm clueless on the finer details of pre-vet life. But I have to admit, things are so much more well-defined in the vet school application world compared to getting into med school. 🙂 Anyway, I hear that UCD will be sending out news (hopefully good news) to you all soon. I wish everyone good luck, and thank you ahead of time for the assistance!! 🙂
 
tygris said:
Also, I think that she may want to ask her own questions next time 😉 We're all extremely helpful in this forum but I think it's best that she is asking these questions and getting answers directly.

Thats what I said. But she doesn't have a connect at home, so since I have my SDN thing for the allopathic med stuff, I decided to send a message anyway. On a side note she is doing an MS in pathology, so taking courses through the vet school at UCD. But yea I thought that was kinda cool.

Anyway, I'm glad that things are relatively similar in terms of the expectations, and your timely response. I will try to poke and prod her to get a SDN name so she can post messages herself...haha. I don't think this will be a common thing on my end 🙂 Thanks again! 🙂
 
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relentless11 said:
Thats what I said. But she doesn't have a connect at home, so since I have my SDN thing for the allopathic med stuff, I decided to send a message anyway. On a side note she is doing an MS in pathology, so taking courses through the vet school at UCD. But yea I thought that was kinda cool.

Anyway, I'm glad that things are relatively similar in terms of the expectations, and your timely response. I will try to poke and prod her to get a SDN name so she can post messages herself...haha. I don't think this will be a common thing on my end 🙂 Thanks again! 🙂

Haha, well if she doesn't, no big deal.. not having an internet connection is a pretty good reason not to participate in message boards 😉 Good luck to her (and to you as well)!
 
relentless11 said:
1) Should she take more grad courses or undergrad upper division courses to improve her application. (or both?)

2) How weighted are GRE scores vs. GPA (e.g.: equally? GPA > GRE?, GRE > GPA?)

3) With a <3.0 undergrad GPA, and a 3.5 grad GPA (1 year of grad courses, full time student), should she take more classes. (e.g.: wait till next year to apply).

I agree with (I think it was tigris)...but also I would tell her to start arranging meetings, telephone or other wise with the Dean(s) of admissions of any school which she is considering. Basically get together a resume, maybe a breakdown of GPA/experiences by year and discipline (I did this) and basically ask the admissions advisor "this is me, what should I do?"

If her goal is to go to school in the US, I would seriously look at almost all schools b/c they are so very different in what they believe is ideal. Work on the things that seem do-able and essentially cater to those schools...check in with them once you have completed a "step" and then ask for more guidiance. This way they get to know you and you can get a from-the-horse's mouth understanding of what needs to happen.

good luck to your friend