Apply Early with Fewer Hours? Or Later with More?

[vetwardbound]

Hello everyone! I'm going to be applying this summer for the 2008 school year. However, I declared pre-vet really, really late in the game and I am extremely limited on hours of veterinary experience. I know that it will be a stretch to get in this year, but I want to give it a try anyway. Is it better to submit my application as early as possible with what I have now in terms of hours or should I wait until October 1 and get as many extra hours as possible? I have a full time job that does not involve veterinary experience, so this extra time may only get me 5-10 hrs/week or 80-160 hours and my application would end up at the bottom of the pile. What does everyone think? Also, how much can good grades/GREs/other life experiences make up for lack of experience?

Sorry for writing a book! Thank you!!

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[silverelf]

well start your app now, but wait until like a week before october 1st to submit it so you can tack on as many hours as possible...you don't get brownie points for handing it in early, so take your time!!! In the meantime, you can write your personal statement, start getting your letters of recommendation, fill in your college/class information, etc etc etc.

 

[ckgilabert]

i thought i heard that the earlier you apply the better chance it is to get into veterinary school. something about how they see your application first and might interview you first. am i totally wrong?
oh, and i noticed a couple of schools on vmcas want you to have done your gre by july 31st.

 

[CookieBear]

I'm with Silver Elf. I'm not sure if it really matters that much with many schools how early you get your stuff submitted on VMCAS.

One of the "M" schools.. Minnesota? Michigan? I'm sure someone will help me out here... they say they have rolling admissions or similar? That they look at applications as they do come in? But that's the only place I heard that actually says they do it.

Since you feel you're light on the experience hours, I would vote to get all your ducks in line now and through the summer, and don't hit the Submit button on VMCAS until you can log as many hours of experience as you can.

I would think that the better experience would help you further than getting the application in early. IMHO.

 

[silverelf]

i thought i heard that the earlier you apply the better chance it is to get into veterinary school. something about how they see your application first and might interview you first. am i totally wrong?
oh, and i noticed a couple of schools on vmcas want you to have done your gre by july 31st.

No, like CookieBear said, there's only a few that do rolling admissions and either way I don't really think it will hurt you. And I don't even know if VMCAS will send it out to schools early if you complete it early...They may just send it out in a batch at the end (I clearly remember Cornell not receiving my VMCAS until a few weeks after I submitted it). You HAVE to do your GRE basically ASAP in case you need to retake it...you'd be taking your life in your hands if you didn't do it until August for the first time...especially if you'll be lacking experience and need all the bonus points you can get.

 

[ri23]

It's Michigan that does rolling admissions. I'm pretty sure that's the only one. If you turn it in 2 weeks early I think you should be alright. You can always send update letters.

 

[sofficat]

veterinary experience is essential. consider working less to gain more vet experience this summer. the loss of a few hundred bucks is so worth having a better chance to get into vet school next year. that's just my opinion.

 

[ri23]

i thought i heard that the earlier you apply the better chance it is to get into veterinary school. something about how they see your application first and might interview you first. am i totally wrong?
oh, and i noticed a couple of schools on vmcas want you to have done your gre by july 31st.

No, I really don't think that is valid. The only school that does rolling admissions is MSU, and I really don't think the other schools look at when you turned in your application. As for the GRE, I was under the impression that most schools only required it to be complete by October 1st, the day VMCAS was due. I know a couple schools will accept it later, but I wasn't aware of any schools that required it be done earlier.

 

[ckgilabert]

thanks for the replies. im glad you can turn in your application later. i hope to do an internship at the zoo or aquarium next summer. or maybe do a summer program at davis or michigan.

http://www.aavmc.org/vmcas/documents/Kansas2008_001.pdf

it says "GRE must be taken by July 31st of the application year"

and i remember another school that said that too.

good luck on applications!

 

[Spartanvet4cows]

I'm at MSU, and yeah we have rolling admissions. It's kind of a strange way of doing it though. I didn't get my app in until about the first week of September, and had my interview and acceptance by Christmas. They sort of "stack" the first set of interviews with the candidates with higher GPA's, GRE's etc, and then roll the interview process from there. So I would agree with others to get it in with as many hours as possible because getting mine in as late as I did didn't effect me even with the rolling admissions. Where are you applying? Good luck!

 

[soxbox]

from what I have gathered, most if not all of the vet schools were requiring GRE scores by July 31st this year because they were supposed to change the GRE format starting Sept 1 and not offer the exam during the month of August... By requiring all the tests to be done by July 31, the schools were then going to be able to not have to deal with the differing scores due to the new format of the test. However, a few months back, the GRE people announced they were NOT changing the test, but this is after all the vet schools had changed their GRE due date... Now I am not sure what the schools have decided to do with the deadline now that the test is not being changed... Wouldnt hurt to contact all the schools you are thinking about applying to to see if they changed their deadline back to October 1st... good luck

 

[JumptheMoon]

i thought i heard that the earlier you apply the better chance it is to get into veterinary school. something about how they see your application first and might interview you first. am i totally wrong?
oh, and i noticed a couple of schools on vmcas want you to have done your gre by july 31st.

As others have said, most vet schools do not have rolling admissions, so it really doesn't matter when you complete your VMCAS (as long as you meet the deadline, obviously ) And also keep in mind, even if you submit VMCAS June 2, it won't get sent out to your schools until your LORs are all in. Actually, a certain undergrad institution which shall remain nameless turned my health professions advisory committee letter in LATE, despite several polite (and increasingly panicked) reminders from me! But it all turned out fine, and the people from the VMCAS help line said that they don't finish sending everything out for at least a month anyway.

Medical schools are another story though, which I think may often be the cause of the confusion.

 

[pressmom]

I submitted my application in the last week and still got into three schools. Get it as ready as you can and get any questions to the VMCAS people and the schools, but don't hit the big button until September. Also, someone suggested in a previous thread is leave the end dates of your ongoing experiences blank to let the schools know you're continuing to gather experience.

 

[vetwardbound]

Amazing -- thanks for the excellent advice, everyone! I was a bit confused because a lot of my friends applied to medical school this year and the ones that got their apps in early definitely seemed to have an advantage. It's fantastic that vet school doesn't do rolling admissions. I know for sure that I can't take off work to get more vet hours because I am in an internship without vacation that pays for the whole summer, and not by the hour . As for where I'm applying, I'm going for A&M (Tx resident), UC Davis, Western, Colorado, Washington, and maybe a few others. I'll double check to see what each school's specific admissions policy is. I took the GRE a few weeks ago and got that out of the way, but I'm not sure if my scores will cut it because I really need that to make up for my lack of experience...I'm worried about retaking it, though, and doing worse . We'll see! Thanks again for the feedback!