Applying to Multiple Vet Schools in Canada

[Mexi]

Quick question for any Canadian applicants out there (or those familiar with the application procedures):

I live in the east coast in Canada, so my designated vet school is AVC. My boyfriend is a science student with goals that head towards med school, which would lead him to Dalhousie University. Given that these two schools are roughly 4 hours apart, we're looking for an alternative.

I briefly considered school in the States, but it just doesn't seem feasible for an international student. Ergo, my most recent consideration is a different province in Canada, presumably Ontario.

I am aware that I would have to live in Ontario for a year before being able to apply, but my question is in regards to applying to other schools as well. I have heard (though it doesn't rationally make sense) that once you have applied to a Canadian school, you are committed to applying to this school and cannot apply elsewhere in Canada. ie, If I applied to OVC one year and did not get in, I would not be able to apply to AVC in a following year.

Can anyone shed some light on this? From everything I've read on the institutions' web sites, application just has to do with provincial status. So, you may have to live in the province for a year (unless you have parents there) which is a waste of time... but it doesn't seem "forbidden", per se.

As a side note, I will be initiating answers from the "higher ups," but it's nearly spring break and I was curious as to whether or not anyone here might have an answer.

Thanks 🙂

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[Coquette22]

I am aware that I would have to live in Ontario for a year before being able to apply, but my question is in regards to applying to other schools as well. I have heard (though it doesn't rationally make sense) that once you have applied to a Canadian school, you are committed to applying to this school and cannot apply elsewhere in Canada. ie, If I applied to OVC one year and did not get in, I would not be able to apply to AVC in a following year.

I think, depending on your circumstances, you could live in Ontario for a year and still maintain your residency for AVC based on where you graduated high school and where your parents still live.

 

[Mexi]

Yes, I assume that I will be okay to apply for AVC even after having lived in another province for a few years due to the fact that I'll have lived here for ~24 years at that point, plus my parents are here.

I just want to make sure that there isn't any truth to the seemingly absurd "rule" that once you apply to one school, you're stuck applying to that school.

 

[Coquette22]

FWIW, that's the first time I've heard that rule.

 

[Escalla]

Don't you have to show some sort of proof of residency after the year of living in another province?

I'm from Alberta and I'm pretty sure that with the University of Calgary, you have to provide proof of Albertan residency when applying. Doesn't that include switching over your driver's license and health care and such -- more than just changing addresses?

I'm quite interested in this because I want to become a Manitoba resident to qualify for in-state tuition for the University of Minnesota.

I don't think there's really any way of getting out their sectioned off residency requirements.

 

[Coquette22]

I'm guessing each school requires different proof of residencies, but I'd be surprised if they only require 12 months residency and but still want you to get a new drivers' license and health card. I suppose it's possible, but I can't see why saving things with your new address (phone bills, tax documents, etc) wouldn't suffice. Again, just my opinion, I don't pretend to know much about other schools' requirements.

 

[Mexi]

From the OVC website:

"Canadian citizens (including those holding dual citizenship) or individuals who have Permanent Resident status in Canada of at least one year's duration, are eligible to apply as Canadian students if they satisfy the Ontario residency requirement by January 1st (the application deadline date). A ‘resident’ in this context is interpreted to mean someone who has resided in Ontario for 12 months, exclusive of time spent in post-secondary institutions."

They only require you to live there for 12 months, so I'm assuming that most schools would follow this protocol. However, I would check with individual institutions to be sure.

Also keep in mind that you would essentially be taking two years off. This just came to me recently, as, silly me, I was thinking, "oh, it'll only be a year off." But the residency requirement must be fulfilled by the application deadline.

Using myself as an example, if I graduate with my BSc in April, move in May... when the application deadline rolls around (January 1st), I'll only have lived there for ~9 months, so I will have to wait and apply the following year. Unfortunate, but I don't think there is any *legal* way around it.

 

[New Foundland]

This would mean that calgary residents could only apply to one of UCal or WCVM ?

Doesn't sound accurate, but I never bothered checking

 

[Escalla]

This would mean that calgary residents could only apply to one of UCal or WCVM ?

Doesn't sound accurate, but I never bothered checking

We can apply to both but only because WCVM has set aside 20 seats for Alberta every year, just like they set aside seats for BC, Sask. and Manitoba. So that's a combined total of 50 seats between the two schools for Albertans........

The number of seats available to Canadians from any part of the country is seriously lacking, but that's no new argument.

 

[168135]

So... if I gain residency in BC, I can apply to Western and AVC? 😕

 

[Coquette22]

Yes. You still tick off 2 of the 3 residency boxes for AVC (parents still presumably in Atlantic Canada and you still graduated from an Atlantic Canadian high school), so there's no reason you couldn't apply to both. I have an ex-friend who was going to apply to both OVC and AVC because she went to high school in Ontario and her parents still live there, but she's been living in NS, so she covered residency for both (though AVC did require some more documentation from her in the form of employment records).

 

[168135]

Sweeeeet. I wish I had known about this before!

 

[Mexi]

Does anyone know the reason that Canadians are limited in applying to vet schools in their own nation? Is it merely because we have less schools than our southern neighbours?

I understand it, to an extent... but realistically, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. To me, it is more rational to do as the States does (can't believe I'm saying that, haha)... they have more seats for their in state applicants, but other American citizens are still welcome to apply, they just have to accept that their odds at getting in are much slimer if they apply out of state.

I know we only have a few schools to go around, but to make someone take a ~2 year break from studies just to be able to apply to a school in a different province from the one in which they were raised? They certainly don't make it easy for us.

 

[Coquette22]

I know we only have a few schools to go around, but to make someone take a ~2 year break from studies just to be able to apply to a school in a different province from the one in which they were raised? They certainly don't make it easy for us.

Funding, plain and simple. Ontario isn't going to pay to educate a Nova Scotian just so the Nova Scotian can go back to Nova Scotia. I suppose you could ask if you could apply as part of their international pool, but then you'd be paying international tuition and that's not something I'd want to be doing. Not with what vets get paid around here, lol.

 

[Mexi]

Funding, plain and simple. Ontario isn't going to pay to educate a Nova Scotian just so the Nova Scotian can go back to Nova Scotia. I suppose you could ask if you could apply as part of their international pool, but then you'd be paying international tuition and that's not something I'd want to be doing. Not with what vets get paid around here, lol.

But that is a large assumption. What if I'm a student who wants to move out west but I end up staying here because I don't want to wait two years to be able to further my studies? Or, what if I stay here for school because of the 2 year wait, and then move out west afterwards... that's Nova Scotia "paying" to educate someone who moves immediately upon graduation.

It's not something that can be accurately predicted. It's a gamble, really, and while understandable to an extent, it's really constricting.

 

[Coquette22]

I assume they're playing the odds. I'm guessing the majority of students stay in the province they've lived in after they graduate, or at least in the region. And like I said, there's the issues of salaries. Most Canadians with a veterinarians' salary are not willing to go as far into debt as the Americans are, because it seems that we just won't make as much money as they will. We also don't seem to have access to nearly the loans that the Americans do. At most, a NS student (don't know about the other provinces) can get about $14,000 in student loans each year, which wouldn't even touch out of province tuition; above and beyond that, we have to get lines of credit. It seems like the Americans have access to way more loan funding which makes it possible for them to take higher tuition as long as they're okay with the debt on the other end.

Note: I'm definitely not arguing with you, just presenting some possible rational. I do think the system is odd, but I'm also a big fan of low tuition. I'm also not sure how I personally would cope with applying to several schools; I'm doing everything in my power to make myself a competitive applicant according to AVC's standards, and I don't think I could cover all the bases (MCAT for OVC, letters of reference for UCVM, etc).

 

[168135]

The crummy part is that I have excellent references and I don't even get to use them.

I still don't think it's fair that you get a certain chance based on where you're born. At least Americans can make up for that by applying OOS.

 

[Braki]

That's actually really interesting how AVC's requirements work, that could possibly allow you to apply to two schools. Both WCVM and UCVM's residency requirements only allow you to use your parent's address if you live with them.

 

[raisin]

I think you'd definitely be able to apply to both. I just don't think i could be bothered to write the MCAT though, haha.

 

[camcam]

I am in Toronto so I can only apply to OVC up to 4 times if I am not in OVC after the 4th try my dream of being trained as local vet is shot.

so applying to USA and Carribbean and oversears schools has to be considered my plans.

It makes things challenging that canadians who want to become vets can only apply to closest local school so we have to consider the options of being internation students if becoming a DVM is something we really want.