Back-Up Plan?

[AuburnPreVet]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Quick intro.. I'm a pre-vet student applying this year hoping to get in to Auburn (my in-state school) in Fall '07. My question is, if I don't get in to vet school this first attempt, is it appropriate to take another year of upper level bio-type courses and re-apply, or would taking 2 years to do a Bio-Medical Sciences (Patho) Masters degree be more beneficial to my application to vet school and my overall academic base. The masters degree program I would enter WOULD be something highly beneficial to my knowledge base, however I've heard comments on here (& other places) that grad school GPA's really aren't highly regarded - so maybe taking more undergrad classes would "count" for more, and only take 1 year as opposed to the masters program I'm interested in which is a 2 year ordeal?

Needless to say I plan (hope) to get in on my first attempt and avoid this issue all together, but I want to have a back-up plan in line... especially as the masters program that I'd be interested in is somewhat competitive and I would need to put in my pre-lim application with the professor relatively soon to show my interest. Which further complicates matters as the vet school would see that I've applied for both which could make them think I'm not 100% dedicated to vet school... (?)

😱 😱 😱

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

AU

 

[cyrille104]

A common backup plan for med school, at least, is to go into a 1 or 2-year graduate program. I'm pretty sure it's more beneficial to get a solid knowledge base - plus it shows that you're advancing. That is, you're trying to prove that you are ready for a veterinary professional program, and while the grades might not count as much, the fact that you're in a professional program already counts for a lot. Also, you should be able to find 1-year masters programs if that's what you're really looking for. No thoughts on whether or not applying to another program would hurt you. For sanity's sake I would hope not.

 

[MissBehavior]

I think it depends on why you get rejected (and hopefully you won't!). As far as I know, you can get information back telling you what would make your application stronger next time. Now, I'm sure they're not going to say "get a Master's degree", but if your GPA is the problem, it may help if you get excellent grades in grad school. Is your GPA the reason you're worried about not getting in? Another reason for not getting in could be a low GRE score, or not having enough veterinary experience. I have definitely heard of people taking time off after getting their bachelors to gain more vet experience, whether they got rejected or they just put off applying for a year. And obviously the GRE can be taken again. But it sounds like maybe you really want to do this Master's program, so why not go for it? If you think it's something that would really benefit you as a vet, and you don't mind taking the extra time to do it, I don't see how it could hurt. But I'm not sure if they would dislike the fact that you're applying to vet school and grad school at the same time. I'm sure someone else on here can tell you 😉 Good luck!

 

[AuburnPreVet]

Thanks for the responses. I've yet to find a really interesting 1 year masters program, but that would honestly be ideal (assuming I don't get accepted).

Yes, if I don't get in to AU CVM it would be due to GPA, and not GRE or experience etc. I have a tremendous amount of experience (animal, clinical, research, small/large, and feral) 🙂 The GPA on the other hand isn't terrible, but isn't good. My Auburn GPA is actually not bad at all, but I did dual-enrollment in highschool and did just mediocre (at best). . . and Auburn is factoring in that into my GPA, since the credits did transfer. . . That brings the GPA down to a very sad x.x, but the trend GPA is 3.7, and Organic/Physics GPA is a 4.0. I will be applying in-state, great letters of recommendation, I work at the vet school in one of the research labs etc... So, I do still hold out some hope :--) but....(??) gotta have a plan.

No, Cory... You aren't the only guy on here, lol. . Are you applying this year? Which schools?

Take care,

AU

 

[cyrille104]

Sounds like you have a good shot at getting in. I'm applying this year, although I'm not really planning on going because I'm a resident of New Jersey, which, as I'm sure we all know, recently had a budget crisis that forced them to eliminate the funding for all of their sponsored seats. I think they put some of the money back into it, but ideally I'd like to get into penn, defer for a year to declare residency, then pay in-state tuition.

 

[Boxsterluv]

If your GPA isn't that great, then you do the Master's program and you do really well, you can market this to the adcom's as "Significant Improvement" and a "Trend of Improvement" and whatever else you can make it out to be. You can show that yeah, your dual-enrollment wasn't so hot, but your undergrad was pretty good and your Masters was even better than that, so just imagine how great you'll do in vet school! I think the Master's thing is a great idea, not only will you be learning important stuff but you'll be gaining more great stuff to put in your app.. either way, like you said, hopefully the issue can be totally avoided by you just getting in this year.. Good Luck!!

 

[PAThbrd]

Sounds like you have a good shot at getting in. I'm applying this year, although I'm not really planning on going because I'm a resident of New Jersey, which, as I'm sure we all know, recently had a budget crisis that forced them to eliminate the funding for all of their sponsored seats. I think they put some of the money back into it, but ideally I'd like to get into penn, defer for a year to declare residency, then pay in-state tuition.

If you really want to go to Penn, I would recommend looking at the cost difference between in state and out of state (really not that much) and decide if that few thousand dollars is worth waiting a whole year for. Penn is terribly expensive whether you are a PA resident or not, whats a few more dollars when you're graduating $150k in debt? 🙂 You could probably make up that difference (the few thousand, not the $150k) in the year by being a practicing vet instead of hanging out for a year as an admitted pre-vet...

 

[Quaggi]

I'm a resident of New Jersey, which, as I'm sure we all know, recently had a budget crisis that forced them to eliminate the funding for all of their sponsored seats.

NJ is still paying contract money (yay for me), and although it is a bit less than in the past, i dont think that will affect your applications to vet schools this year. and if we can get corzine out of there, it may go back up 🙂

 

[cyrille104]

If you really want to go to Penn, I would recommend looking at the cost difference between in state and out of state (really not that much) and decide if that few thousand dollars is worth waiting a whole year for. Penn is terribly expensive whether you are a PA resident or not, whats a few more dollars when you're graduating $150k in debt? 🙂 You could probably make up that difference (the few thousand, not the $150k) in the year by being a practicing vet instead of hanging out for a year as an admitted pre-vet...

Yeah, but Penn told me that the residents also get an extra grant to the tune of $6-8k per year. It's not reflected in the tuition difference, but that is a total of $25-30k that I'd rather not pay, in addition to the original tuition difference.

 

[cyrille104]

NJ is still paying contract money (yay for me), and although it is a bit less than in the past, i dont think that will affect your applications to vet schools this year. and if we can get corzine out of there, it may go back up 🙂

Yeah, I heard that they were paying half of it or something. I got a letter from someone in the government saying that they had restored some funding, because I wrote a really angry letter to everyone and their mom about it. From what I understand, though, NJ applicants (not sure if this is true for all states with seats) are put in the same applicant pool as out-of-staters, so it doesn't make a difference for admissions. It's just that I'm planning on going into a field that makes no money, so I don't want to be in debt for years and years.

 

[PAThbrd]

Yeah, but Penn told me that the residents also get an extra grant to the tune of $6-8k per year. It's not reflected in the tuition difference, but that is a total of $25-30k that I'd rather not pay, in addition to the original tuition difference.

I wish! The grant this year is $4200, but it is usually not that high. Average the last couple years has been about $3500...