Applying to schools (with my horse)

[Aprilthearab]

Hi all, I'm new here and looking forward to joining this online community!

Some background: I am in the process of applying to vet schools for 2021 matriculation/2025 graduation. I am from Maine (no in-state schools for me ) and currently live in PA, still holding Maine residency. I just graduated (2020) from a small private PA college with a bachelor's in biology. I came in with 40 AP credits, so I graduated in 3 years taking 19 credits during most semesters. I am taking the 2020/2021 academic year as a gap year working as a non-certified vet tech at a small animal vet hospital. I've been working there for over a year now.

What I am looking for in a vet school: The closer, the better. By that I mean to PA... and also to Maine. Yes, it's complicated. I have a horse in tow - I adopted her from a rescue in Maine. They don't like their adopted horses going out of Maine but made an exception for me to bring her to PA because she was very hard to home and the two of us are a great fit. Any stable I move her to needs to be reviewed and pre-approved by the rescue (or else they have the legal right to take her back). That means, for one, *they* like her closest to Maine, and two, *I* would like my future vet school to not be ridiculously far away so that it's not incredibly difficult to find/visit a new stable close to the vet school and move her to it. I moved her 400-500 miles from Maine to PA, which was a piece of cake, so I am ready to move her again - the question is, where to. For multiple reasons, she needs to come with me wherever I end up, though she doesn't need to be right on top of me. Right now I have her 30 miles away and that's working great.

Keeping that in mind, I would prefer a rural or rural-surrounded suburb school because, well, it's easier to keep a horse in/around those places. Plus, I grew up in a rural area and I do not enjoy city life. On top of that, I am a Maine wimp and I don't like the heat (though I am perfectly healthy and won't die in it). I have already been pounded by the PA heat and going too much further south might push my mental wellbeing limit. That being said, -40F winters in Wisconsin aren't necessarily my idea of fun either, especially since I plan to visit my horse. The cool but stable New England weather is my ideal.

I know I am applying to these schools:
Cornell (rural, close to New England, yay!)
Tufts (rural, in New England, yay!)
Penn (urban, not yay - but close to where I currently live)
Lincoln Memorial (4th year would be near impossible jumping state to state with horse in tow, but using as backup)

I knocked out a ton of other schools because of their lack of proximity (like California, Oregon, Washington, etc) as well as the heat factor (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, etc). Can't apply to Virginia-Maryland because of the medical terminology pre-req. That leaves me with the handful schools in the Midwest that are in the "maybe, but I don't know much about them" category. NC is a maybe too - I might suck up my hatred of heat for a cheap(er) backup school. What is Tennessee like? Could someone enlighten me about these schools and which ones might fit the bill for me as backups? The undergrad school I chose was actually a last-minute add-on and not my first choice. Despite being accepted to my first choice that I thought I was dead-set on going to, I got a great scholarship from this PA school and chose it instead and had the absolute time of my life. I want to stay open to opportunities like that in my vet school applications rather than limiting myself to just the four schools above.

If it helps, here is some of my basic application info. Hours still need to be calculated out exactly, but this is the gist (without turning it into a WAMC post):
cGPA: 3.855
GRE: to be determined, taking it this week - usually do well on standardized testing, SAT was 1500 out of 1600 1st try without studying
Experience:
1500+ non-certified vet tech at small animal hospital (not including additional planned 40 hours a week for the next 12ish months)
30-40 hours volunteering cleaning surgical rooms and instruments, shadowing surgeries under a shelter veterinarian
A few dozen hours shadowing with a mixed practice vet; primarily equine, large animal, and zoo, mix of Western medicine and chiropractic/acupuncture and Eastern medicine
A few hours shadowing equine dentist
+ miscellaneous vet experience like mock disease outbreak with USDA vet, regional pre-vet symposium
5700+ non-vet equine hours as working student at stables
+ miscellaneous non-vet animal experience like pet sitting and pet ownership
Recommendations: 2 professors and 2 vets (one vet is also my current employer)

Secondary question: for schools that allow you to establish in-state residency after your first year, how likely is it to be accepted for in-state tuition? Is it a 50/50 shot? Almost guaranteed? Only on special occasions? For example, Ohio is quite expensive for out-of-state tuition, but if I could establish in-state for the last three years, it would overall be much cheaper than other schools. I don't want to take that risk if it's a coin-toss, though.

Tertiary question: are there any vet schools that won't accept AP credits in place of undergrad classes? As stated before, I went into undergrad with 40 AP credits. They completely covered most of my English requirements and all of my math and statistics requirements, and I did not re-take the covered classes during undergrad.

Quaternary question: will schools deny me because of a single C+? I got a C+ in human physiology in my first semester of senior year. That is dragging down my cumulative GPA and science GPA and most recent credits GPA. The beginning of that semester was absolutely awful (bad mental health: whole family including me crashed their cars in the same week, sister was in a psych ward indefinitely, parents needed my emotional support) and I bounced back in all of my other classes that semester, but I had an awful human phys professor who wouldn't let that happen in hers. The whole class was senior honors students and half of them failed. I plan to include the mental health aspect of this situation under the "explanation statement" portion of my application unless you all think it's a horrible idea. All of my other classes are As, just a few A-s, and a single B.

Thanks for reading my ginormous post! Any input is very helpful, even if it's just encouragement or pointing out where I could strengthen my application!

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[meelc]

You should definitely still apply to VMCVM if the only thing holding you back is that prereq. You can always indicate on your app that you plan to take it online in the spring, and either follow through and take it if you get an interview (you find out November/December) or not take it if you don't get an interview. I took it online through UCSD extension and it was only a month long, numerous start dates, and super easy/straightfoward Medical Terminology: An Anatomy and Physiology Approach | UC San Diego Extension. There are also a handful of other places it is offered online.

As far as your C+ goes, don't sweat it. I got into 3 schools with multiple C's. You seem strong enough in your overall GPAs where I don't think they would really even bat an eye at that single grade.

 

[Aprilthearab]

You should definitely still apply to VMCVM if the only thing holding you back is that prereq. You can always indicate on your app that you plan to take it online in the spring, and either follow through and take it if you get an interview (you find out November/December) or not take it if you don't get an interview. I took it online through UCSD extension and it was only a month long, numerous start dates, and super easy/straightfoward Medical Terminology: An Anatomy and Physiology Approach | UC San Diego Extension. There are also a handful of other places it is offered online.

As far as your C+ goes, don't sweat it. I got into 3 schools with multiple C's. You seem strong enough in your overall GPAs where I don't think they would really even bat an eye at that single grade.

Thank you! The school I graduated from does offer a 3 credit medical terminology course, so it would be rather simple to set myself up to take it if need be. I just didn't get the chance to take it while I was a full time student. I am not sure if they offer it in the spring though - there was only talk of it being offered Fall 2020. I can check. That is a fantastic idea.

 

[mmmdreamerz]

Hi all, I'm new here and looking forward to joining this online community!

Some background: I am in the process of applying to vet schools for 2021 matriculation/2025 graduation. I am from Maine (no in-state schools for me ) and currently live in PA, still holding Maine residency. I just graduated (2020) from a small private PA college with a bachelor's in biology. I came in with 40 AP credits, so I graduated in 3 years taking 19 credits during most semesters. I am taking the 2020/2021 academic year as a gap year working as a non-certified vet tech at a small animal vet hospital. I've been working there for over a year now.

What I am looking for in a vet school: The closer, the better. By that I mean to PA... and also to Maine. Yes, it's complicated. I have a horse in tow - I adopted her from a rescue in Maine. They don't like their adopted horses going out of Maine but made an exception for me to bring her to PA because she was very hard to home and the two of us are a great fit. Any stable I move her to needs to be reviewed and pre-approved by the rescue (or else they have the legal right to take her back). That means, for one, *they* like her closest to Maine, and two, *I* would like my future vet school to not be ridiculously far away so that it's not incredibly difficult to find/visit a new stable close to the vet school and move her to it. I moved her 400-500 miles from Maine to PA, which was a piece of cake, so I am ready to move her again - the question is, where to. For multiple reasons, she needs to come with me wherever I end up, though she doesn't need to be right on top of me. Right now I have her 30 miles away and that's working great.

Keeping that in mind, I would prefer a rural or rural-surrounded suburb school because, well, it's easier to keep a horse in/around those places. Plus, I grew up in a rural area and I do not enjoy city life. On top of that, I am a Maine wimp and I don't like the heat (though I am perfectly healthy and won't die in it). I have already been pounded by the PA heat and going too much further south might push my mental wellbeing limit. That being said, -40F winters in Wisconsin aren't necessarily my idea of fun either, especially since I plan to visit my horse. The cool but stable New England weather is my ideal.

I know I am applying to these schools:
Cornell (rural, close to New England, yay!)
Tufts (rural, in New England, yay!)
Penn (urban, not yay - but close to where I currently live)
Lincoln Memorial (4th year would be near impossible jumping state to state with horse in tow, but using as backup)

I knocked out a ton of other schools because of their lack of proximity (like California, Oregon, Washington, etc) as well as the heat factor (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, etc). Can't apply to Virginia-Maryland because of the medical terminology pre-req. That leaves me with the handful schools in the Midwest that are in the "maybe, but I don't know much about them" category. NC is a maybe too - I might suck up my hatred of heat for a cheap(er) backup school. What is Tennessee like? Could someone enlighten me about these schools and which ones might fit the bill for me as backups? The undergrad school I chose was actually a last-minute add-on and not my first choice. Despite being accepted to my first choice that I thought I was dead-set on going to, I got a great scholarship from this PA school and chose it instead and had the absolute time of my life. I want to stay open to opportunities like that in my vet school applications rather than limiting myself to just the four schools above.

If it helps, here is some of my basic application info. Hours still need to be calculated out exactly, but this is the gist (without turning it into a WAMC post):
cGPA: 3.855
GRE: to be determined, taking it this week - usually do well on standardized testing, SAT was 1500 out of 1600 1st try without studying
Experience:
1500+ non-certified vet tech at small animal hospital (not including additional planned 40 hours a week for the next 12ish months)
30-40 hours volunteering cleaning surgical rooms and instruments, shadowing surgeries under a shelter veterinarian
A few dozen hours shadowing with a mixed practice vet; primarily equine, large animal, and zoo, mix of Western medicine and chiropractic/acupuncture and Eastern medicine
A few hours shadowing equine dentist
+ miscellaneous vet experience like mock disease outbreak with USDA vet, regional pre-vet symposium
5700+ non-vet equine hours as working student at stables
+ miscellaneous non-vet animal experience like pet sitting and pet ownership
Recommendations: 2 professors and 2 vets (one vet is also my current employer)

Secondary question: for schools that allow you to establish in-state residency after your first year, how likely is it to be accepted for in-state tuition? Is it a 50/50 shot? Almost guaranteed? Only on special occasions? For example, Ohio is quite expensive for out-of-state tuition, but if I could establish in-state for the last three years, it would overall be much cheaper than other schools. I don't want to take that risk if it's a coin-toss, though.

Tertiary question: are there any vet schools that won't accept AP credits in place of undergrad classes? As stated before, I went into undergrad with 40 AP credits. They completely covered most of my English requirements and all of my math and statistics requirements, and I did not re-take the covered classes during undergrad.

Quaternary question: will schools deny me because of a single C+? I got a C+ in human physiology in my first semester of senior year. That is dragging down my cumulative GPA and science GPA and most recent credits GPA. The beginning of that semester was absolutely awful (bad mental health: whole family including me crashed their cars in the same week, sister was in a psych ward indefinitely, parents needed my emotional support) and I bounced back in all of my other classes that semester, but I had an awful human phys professor who wouldn't let that happen in hers. The whole class was senior honors students and half of them failed. I plan to include the mental health aspect of this situation under the "explanation statement" portion of my application unless you all think it's a horrible idea. All of my other classes are As, just a few A-s, and a single B.

Thanks for reading my ginormous post! Any input is very helpful, even if it's just encouragement or pointing out where I could strengthen my application!

Ohio State would probably fit the bill. Columbus is a city, but you can very quickly and easily find yourself in rural areas outside the city. It's actually also a very big horse area.

When I applied for residency, you had to jump through a lot of hoops, but most people still got it. As of this year, it's basically automatic after the first year, so major plus

I finished undergrad in three years because of AP and didnt have problems. The classes just have to be on your undergrad transcript usually.

One C+ shouldn't hurt you at all. Your grades are otherwise very strong

 

[Aprilthearab]

Ohio State would probably fit the bill. Columbus is a city, but you can very quickly and easily find yourself in rural areas outside the city. It's actually also a very big horse area.

When I applied for residency, you had to jump through a lot of hoops, but most people still got it. As of this year, it's basically automatic after the first year, so major plus

I finished undergrad in three years because of AP and didnt have problems. The classes just have to be on your undergrad transcript usually.

One C+ shouldn't hurt you at all. Your grades are otherwise very strong

Thanks, that's all really helpful! How do you like it at Ohio State (assuming you're speaking from experience)? Is it easy to find affordable housing?

 

[mmmdreamerz]

Thanks, that's all really helpful! How do you like it at Ohio State (assuming you're speaking from experience)? Is it easy to find affordable housing?

I love OSU Yes, housing is easy to come by and compared to where I went to undergrad, it’s very reasonable. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions

 

[supershorty]

We have quite a lively horse scene out in Minnesota (with heated barns/indoors so that whole super cold winter thing is less painful than some of the places I rode when I was back east)! I'm not sure if the U of M is a school that's on your list or not @Aprilthearab so I'll refrain from waxing poetic about it for now unless you want to know more about it

 

[battie]

Illinois fits your requirements (I lived at a house that had a horse barn 15 minutes from the vet school), and I think you have a decent chance at the interview. If you have any questions, let me know.

 

[Aprilthearab]

@mmmdreamerz That's great! Around here, the cheapest you can find for a bare minimum, closet sized, unfurnished, utilities-paid-separately studio apartment is about $1000. I'll look into how Columbus compares. Also, I was glancing at the stables advertised around there, and wow, everyone charges less than $200 for board?! Around here the average is $700. I found someone's backyard stable where I pasture board at a steal for $200 and self-care. I was anticipating about that price hiking up significantly wherever I go, but Columbus looks promising.

@supershorty and @batsenecal I am absolutely open to hearing whatever information and experiences you have about either of those schools. Although those ones are a bit more out of the way, I would like to get a comprehensive view of the schools in the Midwest states in case one of them really stands out to me more than the Northeast ones. I visited Minnesota during an animal shelter building volunteer trip and I loved the state, at least the tiny rural area I experienced of it. For any school, what I would particularly like to know is average cost of living for a small apartment, availability of nearby stables, how urban or rural the campus/surrounding area is, and how you personally feel about the curriculum/atmosphere. Also, a brief description of the area would be greatly appreciated - hilly and forested, flat farmland, etc. I visited southern Colorado once for a volunteer trip and felt completely out of place in the flat, sandy, treeless environment, for example, and would rather not find myself in a similar position for four years.

@batsenecal How did you end up at a house with a stable? Family connections or just local advertisements for apartments?

 

[Mythical]

. Also, a brief description of the area would be greatly appreciated - hilly and forested, flat farmland, etc. I visited southern Colorado once for a volunteer trip and felt completely out of place in the flat, sandy, treeless environment, for example, and would rather not find myself in a similar position for four years.

CSU is in Northern Colorado with mountains only an hour drive away. Lots of green and trees in Fort Collins.

 

[Aprilthearab]

CSU is in Northern Colorado with mountains only an hour drive away. Lots of green and trees in Fort Collins.

CSU isn't a consideration because that would be one heck of a drive to move my mare. I was just using my experience in the state (not in relation to the school) as an example of a landscape I wouldn't be very happy in so that could be extrapolated to other schools' landscapes closer by.

 

[Mythical]

Yeah, I figured CSU wasn’t ideal for your situation

 

[Amanasoul]

Purdue is also an option to consider. Quite a few people here have horses boarded and go riding regularly. Your stats also appear to hit the diversity angle that Purdue likes to go for so I'd say you have a good chance at getting an interview

 

[battie]

I would particularly like to know is average cost of living for a small apartment,

My monthly expenses for purely housing (rent, utilities, internet, etc) is a max of $570/month, depending on how crazy we get with the electricity. It's definitely been less with managing the electricity well. I can easily live off of less than $1000 per month with miscellaneous spending. That's with a roommate, but a 2020 bestie lived alone for $660 rent. Friends who live in houses with roommates manage rent at 400-500/month as well. @SportPonies

availability of nearby stables

West of town is a horse barn that advertises specifically to vet students as it was owned by someone in 2020 while she was at Illinois Vet Med. I've heard of a few others that are a little bit farther out of town (20ish or so miles). I don't have a whole lot of info, but people in vet med definitely have horses here.

how urban or rural the campus/surrounding area is

Champaign-Urbana-Savoy is more suburban with downtown Champaign and the north end of town approaching urban-ish. South becomes more rural. Vet Med itself is the most southern part of campus with soy and corn fields next door. lol. The area surrounding town as a whole is rural.

personally feel about the curriculum/atmosphere

I like Illinois Vet Med personally though I was going to pick whatever school was cheapest if I got more than 1 acceptance. UIUC was my only acceptance, so here I am.

Pros for me: I genuinely feel that the profs/faculty care with a few exceptions. I had multiple life changing events while in vet school and the school admin as a whole really helped me through those really difficult times. The most recent, the faculty/staff/admin went out of their way to help me through. I like how easy it is to get involved in so many things (as someone who was involved in way too many things). My class has an overall great atmosphere. I like how we get 1 quarter per year in the teaching hospital. We only have 2 tests per 8 week quarter, which I have a love-hate relationship with.

Cons for me: we only get 1 grade per quarter. So even though you're in 5-7 core classes, you only have 1 grade between them. It's nice that if you really suck at one subject, being good or great at the others saves your grade. But it makes it difficult to get a feel for what is high yield to study for the test since all 5-7 subjects are covered in a 1 day midterm and a 2 day final. Second year was hell as the tests are worth as much as 45% of the grade.

Overall, I drank the kool-aid and genuinely like my school. @SkiOtter and Sporty are both also UIUC students who may have input.

brief description of the area would be greatly appreciated - hilly and forested, flat farmland, etc.

Flat farmland for days. I used to drive between CO and IL for breaks, and it's pretty much flat farmland all the way around town for miles.

@batsenecal How did you end up at a house with a stable? Family connections or just local advertisements for apartments?

I found this house on Zillow. It's a 6 bed, 3 bath house with a barn 20 yards from the house. The place is about 15-20 minutes south of vet med in the middle of soy and cornfields. A 2019 grad boarded her horse and goat there while I lived there. She just had to come out to feed and all that jazz. The barn literally was just there for some place for critters to live. If you end up deciding on Illinois, I can give you the landlady's info!

 

[Aprilthearab]

@batsenecal So what I'm learning is that maybe these Midwest places aren't ridiculously cheap, it's just that I live in a ridiculously expensive area

Thanks so much for all the detailed input! Illinois wasn't something I was strongly considering, but wow, a rent situation like that with horse boarding on site is just completely unheard of around here and blows my mind (in a good way). The only thing stopping me from doing 100% self-care for my horse is having to drive there twice a day. If it's literally just a 30 second walk away, that makes a world of a difference on care, and also makes riding regularly a lot more realistic. Do you know how much the landlady charges for boarding, by chance?

 

[battie]

No clue on how much she charged for horse boarding, unfortunately!

 

[itsrocky]

I have nothing to add except when I first read the title, I pictured in my head a bright eyed pre vet student eagerly filling out the VMCAS with a horse by their side, and it was honestly such cute imagery lol.

 

[Aprilthearab]

Got the GRE done today! Unofficial results are 158 verbal 159 quantitative. Would have done better on quantitative if I didn't have to pee so bad during the last section after my bladder told me it was fine in the 10 minute break (got 164 on the ETS practice test). Considering only Penn and Lincoln Memorial (out of the ones I am seriously planning on applying) and Minnesota (vaguely considering applying) require the GRE this year, and those are also lower on my list, I'm not worried. Cornell, Tufts, VMCVM, NC, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Purdue etc all dropped the GRE.

Now I just need to narrow down my final list. Definitely not planning on applying to 10+ schools. How many did everyone here apply to?

 

[battie]

Now I just need to narrow down my final list. Definitely not planning on applying to 10+ schools. How many did everyone here apply to?

My 1st cycle, 5. My 2nd cycle, 2. My third cycle, 8. I was only eligible to apply to 13 due to a missing prerequisite.

 

[Amanasoul]

Now I just need to narrow down my final list. Definitely not planning on applying to 10+ schools. How many did everyone here apply to?

I applied to two. However, I was constrained by the fact that I did not take the GRE (because my instate dropped it and I REALLY did not want to take another standardized test so I dropped the other schools that still required it ). When I was applying, however, only three schools did not require the GRE and I was missing a prereq for one of the three so...two But I originally told myself I would allow myself to apply to five.

 

[Aprilthearab]

Some silly questions -

I'm in the process of filling out my experiences on VMCAS right now. One of my experiences was rather sporadic since I went on farm calls with a Maine vet for the full day three times when our schedules worked out, once the summer before freshman year of undergrad and twice the summer after freshman year. Do I put the start date as the first day and the end date as the last day, even though they're over a year apart and it was only three days total, then just select "per diem"? Then I can put 9 under average weekly hours x 3 weeks? Would that make sense to whoever is viewing it?

As for the vet's contact information. It's not required to fill out, but I have it. Is there any negative connotation to selecting "no" under "may we contact this organization," and does VMCAS actually call all of your experience sources, or just recent ones, or do they even bother at all? There is no reason they shouldn't call this vet, but it feels silly thinking about them calling him to ask about a shadower who he hasn't seen in two years (since I moved to PA year-round). I don't mind if they do, I feel like he had a positive impression of me and would speak nicely (if he even remembers me), I was just curious.

Also, for goat experience of the backyard pet kind, would it be more appropriate to label that as "Other: small ruminant" than "Food animal"?

 

[alleycat03]

Some silly questions -

I'm in the process of filling out my experiences on VMCAS right now. One of my experiences was rather sporadic since I went on farm calls with a Maine vet for the full day three times when our schedules worked out, once the summer before freshman year of undergrad and twice the summer after freshman year. Do I put the start date as the first day and the end date as the last day, even though they're over a year apart and it was only three days total, then just select "per diem"? Then I can put 9 under average weekly hours x 3 weeks? Would that make sense to whoever is viewing it?

As for the vet's contact information. It's not required to fill out, but I have it. Is there any negative connotation to selecting "no" under "may we contact this organization," and does VMCAS actually call all of your experience sources, or just recent ones, or do they even bother at all? There is no reason they shouldn't call this vet, but it feels silly thinking about them calling him to ask about a shadower who he hasn't seen in two years (since I moved to PA year-round). I don't mind if they do, I feel like he had a positive impression of me and would speak nicely (if he even remembers me), I was just curious.

Also, for goat experience of the backyard pet kind, would it be more appropriate to label that as "Other: small ruminant" than "Food animal"?

While I do not know the answers to your specific questions, I do suggest posting them here: VMCAS Questions and Rants c/o 2025 and you should hopefully get a response from other helpful users!

 

[EquusObsessed]

I took my horse with me (PA to TN) so I can chime in. I genuinely kind of regret it. After moving him he's had non-stop lameness problems (this horse was never lame in the 6 years I've owned him) that I'm HOPING are due to farrier problems. I am bleeding money trying to sort out his issues. I had the option to leave him in PA with a friend and wish I'd taken it- the stress of trying to commute back and forth to the barn and the constant juggling of finances is wearing on me, especially because I can barely see him with the course schedule right now (he's boarded 35 minutes away from me, and this was the best/cheapest board situation I could find.)

I hate saying this, because I'm a die-hard "horseperson" who lives and breathes all things equine, and even plan to go into equine vet med, but think very carefully before bringing your horse with you to school. I'm tentatively looking to rent a property next year that would be twice as far away from school just because I can keep my horse on the property. This means I would have to stay on campus when I'm on-call for clinics (we have to be within 20 minutes when we're on call) and that I will probably have to send my dog back to PA to live with my parents because I won't be able to commute to/from school to let her out during the day.

It can be very difficult to balance the horse thing with the vet school thing. Also- I've never heard of a rescue agreement like that, and not that I want to advocate undermining their contract but it is my understanding that they really can't enforce telling you where you can/can't move the horse once it's legally yours. Unless you don't have full ownership of the horse (I've seen some rescues that have more of a "permanent lease" arrangement) it's a courtesy, not a requirement that you honor the clause of them inspecting every single barn you move the horse to.