Any one else applying to Texas A&M c/o 2015

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Nope (thank god) but I can offer advice/answer questions/whatever else.

A&M applicants aren't real common on this forum since they use TMDSAS and not VMCAS: no one wants to fill out 2 applications unless they've a good shot at getting in.

We did seem to have an inordinate number of A&Mers here this year though.
 
I am! This will be my first time applying, and I'm only applying to A&M.

Have you checked out the essay on the supplemental? It's almost the same prompt as the TMDSAS essay!

TMDSAS: "Discuss your philosophy of the veterinary profession and indicate your goals relevant to the profession."
AND
Supplemental: "Describe what motivates you to want to be a veterinarian, including what you would like to gain from and contribute to the profession."

Could they have picked two more similar questions? :scared: Anyway that's my biggest complaint at the moment, but I'm sure there will be more to come as my stress level rises! 🙂
 
They are the same, and I used the same PS for both of them. No reason not to and all the reason to. Writing a PS is hard. Writing two? Oy.
 
One has a 5000 character limit, and 3000 for the other. 😕
 
...really? Is A&M's the 3000 one?

Either they've reduced the limit or I had part of mine hacked off last year, because aside from the last paragraph in the A&M one, I used all the same stuff for the VMCAS one (in other words, my A&M one was actually longer).
 
those essays are both for TAMU, the TMDSAS TAMU app and the TAMU supplemental app.

I really don't know why they need a supplemental app when they are the only vet school using TMDSAS.

I wrote the supplemental essay first and then i'm going to do the TMDSAS essay. they will be very similar though.
 
Does the supplemental one ask the same question? I don't remember it being like that and they used the same supplemental questions three years running, so I'd assume they'd do the same for this year. Guess I just have a crappy memory. I do remember the supplementals having much shorter character limits though.



I really don't know why they need a supplemental app when they are the only vet school using TMDSAS.

So they can charge an extra $70.
 
The shorter word count is for the supplemental one. They have definitely messed with the supplemental since last year because when I first registered on the website, the essay wasn't there, and then we got a mass email a few weeks ago saying an essay had been added. In the email it said, "Please be sure to answer the new question as our selections committee will be considering this question as a part of the "Personal Essay" criteria of your application." ...which makes me think they don't want the same essay twice.

On another note, I contacted admissions by email back in March about a prerequisite substitution, and they said they'd get back to me but it might take a while. I never heard back, so I contact them again about 3 weeks ago and got no response. 🙁 It would be helpful to know if they'll accept the substitution since I've already signed up for classes and don't want to get screwed.
 
On another note, I contacted admissions by email back in March about a prerequisite substitution, and they said they'd get back to me but it might take a while. I never heard back, so I contact them again about 3 weeks ago and got no response. 🙁 It would be helpful to know if they'll accept the substitution since I've already signed up for classes and don't want to get screwed.

Who did you email? I contacted them as well about prerequisites and substitutions and I heard back from them the same day I emailed them. The person who responded to me is Yolanda Brinkman. She was always very helpful and quick to respond. Maybe try contacting her directly? Her email address is on the directory: http://vetmed.tamu.edu/directory
 
Never leave messages either. The average turn around time for them calling you back is about 3 weeks. Have thrice left messages and several weeks later get a call "Hi, you called asking about such and such" "Erm, yah...couple of weeks ago. I figured it out"
 
On another note, I contacted admissions by email back in March about a prerequisite substitution, and they said they'd get back to me but it might take a while. I never heard back, so I contact them again about 3 weeks ago and got no response. 🙁 It would be helpful to know if they'll accept the substitution since I've already signed up for classes and don't want to get screwed.


Yeah...good luck with getting any response back quickly. At least you're trying to figure it out early. I had two pre-reqs I needed to finish by the spring of this year if I was to be eligible for the c/o 2014 and I tried to e-mail/phone them multiple times, sent in my syllabus and everything for the class I was trying to substitute. Never got an answer, so I went ahead and signed up for it, because of the registration deadline. Then I got my acceptance letter saying that I only needed to complete ONE of the pre-reqs, meaning I guess they took my substitution, but no one bothered to tell me, haha. Would have been nice since it bumped me up to the next tuition bracket that semester, but oh, well...it's water under the bridge now. Good luck! All I can suggest is to keep on top of it and yes, talk to Yolanda if at all possible. Oh, and if you send an e-mail with the syllabus or anything, call, and have them check that they received it, because they lost my first one. I called a couple of days later and sent them another one and asked them to send me a confirmation email that they'd received it and forwarded it to the proper person (I didn't have Yolanda's email at the time, I don't think).
 
I'm applying to good old TAMU this upcoming cycle... its my IS. 🙂 Let the commiserating begin! lol.

Re: getting a reply out of them... Keep reminding them that you need an answer. I sent about five emails back in march trying to straighten out what exactly I needed to take to satisfy the missing 1 credit of biochem and this animal science class thing they want since what they wanted wasn't exactly matching up with what we have available at CSU.

For reference, I was emailing the generic "student admissions" email (lol) , and the first time a Carley responded, and the second time Yolanda answered me. Fingers crossed you get a response soon, ATX!
 
My memory must really be failing me. I don't even remember writing an additional essay like that for the supplemental. I just thought we had to write an essay that said why we chose to apply to A&M.


Unless you have a file that needs to be sent to them, I don't recommend emailing them for help. Calling until I got a person on the phone was more effective when I needed questions answered.
 
My memory must really be failing me. I don't even remember writing an additional essay like that for the supplemental. I just thought we had to write an essay that said why we chose to apply to A&M.
I think it must be new for this year. I remember a 'why TAMU', an 'elaborate', and a 'tell us anything you didn't have room for' question last year, and it had less questions than the year before (year before had something additional like 'what fields are you interested in' or some such).

Tried to make a new account to see but I need a TMDSAS ID to do so.
 
I'll be applying to Texas this fall. I called them last week with a couple questions, talked with Yolanda who was great. She gave me immediate answers to several questions and I was very impressed.
 
I'll be applying to Texas this fall. I called them last week with a couple questions, talked with Yolanda who was great. She gave me immediate answers to several questions and I was very impressed.


I think it depends when you talk to her. At the beginning of the app cycle, she seemed very nice and extremely helpful, but closer to the decision deadline she sounded like she wanted to eat me.
 
Thanks for the tip, guys! Yolanda got back to me by email almost immediately. 🙂

What would I do without SDN? 😍
 
What would I do without SDN? 😍
I applied my first cycle without the benefit of SDN. It is not fun.

You're lucky to have found it and I try to wave everyone I meet who's pre-vet this way. Found two of them here locally this summer but no idea if they joined or not.
 
SDN is great! Unfortunately, I didn't find it until shortly before my interview, but it was still really helpful. Use it as much as you can!
 
Just curious how everyone is doing with their applications? I should have mine submitted sometime this weekend 🙂

I'm so excited to get this part of the process done. Of course, then the waiting begins... I hate waiting

:luck: Good luck to all the TAMU applicants :luck:
 
Just curious how everyone is doing with their applications? I should have mine submitted sometime this weekend 🙂

I'm so excited to get this part of the process done. Of course, then the waiting begins... I hate waiting

:luck: Good luck to all the TAMU applicants :luck:
You're way ahead of me! I'm not done/happy with any of my essays, so I still have a lot of work to do. Other than the essays, I'm pretty much done. Still waiting on one LOR to be submitted, but the vet writing it is the evaluator I was least worried about to begin with -- she's not flakey and I know she'll write a good one, so I'm trying to not stress over that. 🙂

I'll be so relieved when my app is submitted and I can start freaking out about interviews. :scared:

Good luck! :luck::xf:
 
I'm a very proud Aggie, Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2009, whoop! I spent four years in the Corps of Cadets and Aggie Band. I graduated with my bachelors in Biomedical Science in 2009 and will be getting my masters in Biomedical Science in Spring 2011. Besides going to class in the vet school all these years I've also worked there...pretty much have LIVED there. Lol, and if I get into vet school I might as well set up residence there.

I'm done with the application. I might go over the coursework and chronology one more time for good measure. Essays are written, just being reviewed and edited. I figured there is still time so I'm taking my time with it. Did y'all do the optional essays as well? I figured even though they say "optional" they aren't really.
 
I will be applying to A&M in 2 years. I'm working on my pre-reqs now. I am so thankful to have found this website and have people to ping with questions!

I'm a little nervous about my chances since I am a non-trad student and don't have the extensive education background it seems a lot of people on this site have. I do not have my BS degree, but by the time I get all the pre-reqs done will likely have the credits.

Does anybody know the stats for A&M accepting non-degreed students into the vet program? It's my IS scool. To be realistic though I've got 3 other school I will apply to just in case. 😳

About my background: I have an AS in Business, a lot of animal experience, some vet experience and am gaining more of each prior to applying. I am volunteering with a handicap therapeutic riding center, working full time, busting my hump taking as many science classes as I can squeeze into a semester (shooting for as close to 4.0 as possible) and will take the GRE as many times as necessary to get a great score.

All that said, any suggestions on how to strengthen my application beyond what I'm already doing would be much appreciated.

Also thinking ahead and want to start working on my PS, so any suggestions there would be appreciated also!

😉
 
Does anybody know the stats for A&M accepting non-degreed students into the vet program? It's my IS scool. To be realistic though I've got 3 other school I will apply to just in case. 😳

Don't know stats but our class has about 4 or 5 of them. Probably more.


and if I get into vet school I might as well set up residence there.

Probably a very feasible option. Sleep in grasshopper room, shower in locker rooms....
 
I don't know about the men's, but I definitely wouldn't shower in the women's locker room. The showers are a bit creepy...
 
. Did y'all do the optional essays as well? I figured even though they say "optional" they aren't really.

I did 3 of the essays (I think there were 5?) The others I felt would be redundant because I covered what they asked in the required essays and one of the optional essays
 
I was going to only do one of the two optional TMDSAS essays, but I changed my mind and I'm doing both.

For those of you who have finished with your essays, how similar are your two "why vet med"-type essays (i.e. the 3000 character on the supplemental and the 5000 character on TMDSAS)? I'm worried mine are too focused on "philosophy of the profession" and not personal enough. So right now I feel like those two essays could almost be one big 8000 character essay, just organized differently. I also feel like both of my optional essays could be put with either prompt because they're so open ended. I hope I'm not doing this completely wrong. :scared:

I hate these kinds of essays more than anything. 🙁
 
What are the two optional questions? I think we only had one last year, and it was an 'explain bad grades' thing.

I'm worried mine are too focused on "philosophy of the profession" and not personal enough

I think my focus on that made my PS better. The bulk (about half I think) of my PS was solely on my philosophy of the profession. Introduced the essay with an anecdote of how I got into vet med, launched into my philosophy, and then ended with what I plan to do for the future. I think it helped eliminate a lot of the "does he know what he's getting into?" questions.
 
What are the two optional questions? I think we only had one last year, and it was an 'explain bad grades' thing.

I think my focus on that made my PS better. The bulk (about half I think) of my PS was solely on my philosophy of the profession. Introduced the essay with an anecdote of how I got into vet med, launched into my philosophy, and then ended with what I plan to do for the future. I think it helped eliminate a lot of the "does he know what he's getting into?" questions.

Oh good, thanks so much for your input. I feel like I'm addressing the question, but that doing so makes it less of a typical "personal statement". It sounds like my format is very similar to yours.

The two optional ones are on TMDSAS:

Unique Experience -- Briefly discuss any unique circumstances or life experiences that are relevant to your application which have not previously been presented.

Personal Characteristics -- Please describe any personal characteristics and/or important or challenging experiences you have had that will contribute to the diversity of or provide educational benefits to the student body.

These both have 2500 character limits. Some people I've talked to seemed to think you should always write every optional essay because it's another chance to sell yourself, but I think that only applies if you have something valuable/new to say. I'm sure they can smell BS from a mile away and get sick of reading essays that don't say anything.

There is another "explain bad grades" option on the A&M supplemental, as well as an opportunity to write about your interests if you're not interested in clinical practice and know you want to do research, teaching, public health, etc. I'm skipping both of those.
 
For those of you who have finished with your essays, how similar are your two "why vet med"-type essays (i.e. the 3000 character on the supplemental and the 5000 character on TMDSAS)?

With the philosophy of the profession I focused on what my philosophy is and with the why do you want to be a vet I focused on my story of why i'm applying and what I'm going to do with my degree. But I agree it could be pulled together in one larger essay. There is definitely overlap between the two.

I want to go into research so the 3rd essay I wrote was talking about why I want to do that.

hmmm.... now i'm debating about whether I should write the other two optional essays.... On the one hand, I don't know what else I would say that I haven't already covered. But then again I don't want to miss out because I left them blank... 😕
 
Unique Experience -- Briefly discuss any unique circumstances or life experiences that are relevant to your application which have not previously been presented.

Personal Characteristics -- Please describe any personal characteristics and/or important or challenging experiences you have had that will contribute to the diversity of or provide educational benefits to the student body.


[Weird, the font just randomly changed on me...we'll just roll with it]

Oh, ok. Those are the two that've been there for the past 3 years. What I did was I expounded more on how our clinic worked on the 'unique experience' bit, because we rotated through every aspect. One week you worked kennels, one week you worked tech, lab, reception, phones, etc. You did it all. Some people got put in some areas more frequently than others but you'd always do a rotation through an area at least every two or three months or so, so I tied that into understanding how every aspect of the vet clinic runs (or something like that), since I want to own my own vet clinic some day.

For the personal characteristics one I wrote about my hearing loss and the challenge it presents on a daily basis (understanding people for the most part, since that's the range my loss is in: crucial when you consider professors).

I'm not sure I would have written anything in the latter essay had I not had the hearing loss but I would think there's gotta be something you can write in the former. Maybe one particular experience that was just freaking awesome that you didn't get to give full attention to in the TMDSAS (like if you did a VIDA trip or externship or just hung out with a vet for the day who showed you lots of neat stuff or some such). But if there's nothing you consider particularly special or worthy of expounding upon, I'd just leave it blank vs trying to cobble something together. Edit: Oh this could also be a good spot for if you have some minor hour experiences (like, less than 20 or so), such as shadowing a zoo vet for the day or something.
 
Last edited:
HopefulAg,

Thanks for the wonderful tips on the PS! I won't be submitting mine for a couple of cycles, but I am definitely thinking about it now and want to get something on paper. These comments help! 🙂
 
HopefulAg,

Thanks for the wonderful tips on the PS! I won't be submitting mine for a couple of cycles, but I am definitely thinking about it now and want to get something on paper. These comments help! 🙂


You should look on Amazon.com and find a book called "Writing About Me" by Barbara Huntington and Linda Masse. It's a guide on how to write a strong personal statement for any kind of medical/dental school. Its really helpful by sorting out your strong/weak points and building it into an effective statement, among other awesome ideas they write about.
 
You should look on Amazon.com and find a book called "Writing About Me" by Barbara Huntington and Linda Masse. It's a guide on how to write a strong personal statement for any kind of medical/dental school. Its really helpful by sorting out your strong/weak points and building it into an effective statement, among other awesome ideas they write about.

Thanks for the tip!! 🙂
 
And I just hit the submit button 😀 TMDSAS and the supplemental are submitted and the checks are in the mail.

Let the waiting begin :xf:
 
Congrats on being done! :luck:

I'm still picking at all my essays...
 
No worries. The earliest I submitted on any year was September 26th. The latest (during the past cycle I got accepted on!) was literally 30 minutes before the deadline. I had completely forgotten about the TMDSAS after submitting the VMCAS.
 
When are evaluations due?

I originally assumed Oct. 1, but then I saw something that said postmarked by October 15th. Now I can't find where I saw that, and I'm wondering if I dreamed it up. 😕
 
When are evaluations due?

I originally assumed Oct. 1, but then I saw something that said postmarked by October 15th. Now I can't find where I saw that, and I'm wondering if I dreamed it up. 😕


It needs to be postmarked by Oct. 15th. Its on the actual evaluation form.

Ugh, I'm so jealous su_grad2007 I wish I had my submitted! I bet its a huge relief to have it done. Good luck! I'm still not happy with some of my essays but I'm hoping by the end of this week I'll be done.

Has anyone tried submitting their application fee by money order? I have a bit of lack of confidence in the mail especially dealing with such an important thing.
 
It needs to be postmarked by Oct. 15th. Its on the actual evaluation form.

Ugh, I'm so jealous su_grad2007 I wish I had my submitted! I bet its a huge relief to have it done. Good luck! I'm still not happy with some of my essays but I'm hoping by the end of this week I'll be done.

Has anyone tried submitting their application fee by money order? I have a bit of lack of confidence in the mail especially dealing with such an important thing.
I think check or money order will both be fine. I intend to send my fees via registered mail, because then you have a receipt that shows you sent it and if/when it was received.
 
Did any of y'all do your undergrad there at A&M? I needed help concerning GPA calculations and A&M's Q-drop/Freshman Exclusion rules.
 
Did any of y'all do your undergrad there at A&M? I needed help concerning GPA calculations and A&M's Q-drop/Freshman Exclusion rules.

I did. Valid q-drops (up to 3 I believe) count, but Freshman Exclusion does not for the purposes of vet school.
 
OK I've been trying to go to their (TAMU's) applicant site off the link for the past three days and it says their server is down. Anyone else running into this problem? All my stuff is done too I just need to hit the submit button AH!
 
Currently working for me - just logged in... You're trying to go to https://www.cvm.tamu.edu/applicantsite/ , right? Once I log in and go to the supplemental, everything looks fine too. Of course, if I click "Application Confirmation" it gives me a funny looking error but I figure that's because I didn't click the submit button yet either. When did you try last?
 
This is what I get every time:
"SSL connection error.

Unable to make a secure connection to the server. This may be a problem with the server, or it may be requiring a client authentication certificate that you don't have."

I can get on every other page on their website except that one. Right about now I'm thinking "OH S***!" lol
 
Well, that's super weird. Have you tried accessing it from another location? Maybe its something funky with your service provider? Don't fret yet, there is still a week left to click the button. 😀
 
Yeah it's my computer, I got slammed with a nasty virus a couple weeks ago and it's been on the fritz ever since. My roommate sitting right next to me with the same connection just logged right on with her computer, guess I'll be stealing hers tonight! Thanks for helping me out!!
 
Try a different browser first. If using IE, try Firefox, and vice versa.
 
Currently working for me - just logged in... You're trying to go to https://www.cvm.tamu.edu/applicantsite/ , right? Once I log in and go to the supplemental, everything looks fine too. Of course, if I click "Application Confirmation" it gives me a funny looking error but I figure that's because I didn't click the submit button yet either. When did you try last?

I get that error to and I've submitted my supplemental application. I'm not sure what that's about
 
Top