Best time to apply for coming admissions cycle?

[brassmonkey]

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When would be the best time to apply for the upcoming admissions cycle? I will be applying to MSU (rolling admissions), and my thoughts are: apply early and possibly (?) have a better chance at getting in, or rack up more hours this summer and apply closer to the Oct. deadline to allow myself the chance to enhance my experience section, which I feel is lacking...
Experience thus far consists of 8 months or so of 20-30 hours per week at a small animal clinic (800 hrs), along with 3.5 months (560 hrs) full time employment at an animal shelter (couldn't get used to doing 20-30 euths. per day...). I also worked as a paramedic PT/FT for several years, which appears to count, according to what I read on the MSU website... I would like to add some LA experience to the list, since I do have somewhat of an interest in LA but am pretty ignorant about what LA vets really do...
Thoughts? Or if you're from MI and know of any LA opportunities, that would be great, too!

 

[Tsuky2008]

Well, take this with a grain of salt because I haven't applied yet (I'm applying this year).

I'm worried about my lack of experience and I'm going to definitely wait until the summer is over to send my applications in so I can put more veterinary related hours on them. So what I will do is fill out my applications to their entirety as much as I can over the summer and then when the summer ends in August I'll tack the new hours onto the applications and send them on in! I probably won't wait any later than August though just because anything later than that would seem like too much of a close call for me! Oh, and my undergrad classes start then so I won't have any time to work on them anyways haha.

 

[CanadianGolden]

Sometime between when the VMCAS form opens and October 1. 😉

 

[Ruffian]

I think CanadianGolden gives great advice, but I suppose that I will put in my 2 cents anyway. My friend (an Ohio resident) was accepted to Michigan State during late December of this application cycle. She submitted her VMCAS in mid-September and received an interview during the first cycle of interviews. My other friend submitted her VMCAS just before the deadline and received an interview at MSU during the last cycle of interviews. As of last week, she still does not know whether she is in or not.

I suppose the point of my ramblings is that you can receive an earlier interview at MSU if you submit your VMCAS several weeks early. However, I would add as much experience to the VMCAS application as I could and definitely not submit early just so I could receive an earlier interview. Whether you get an early or late interview, you want to present yourself as the best possible candidate to increase your chances of receiving that oh-so-coveted acceptance letter. Edited to add: I don't believe receiving an earlier interview increases your chances of getting in. The way I understand it, they take a certain of applicants from each interview cycle. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

BTW, I attend KSU, and I submitted my VMCAS one week before the deadline. However, all interview invites and acceptances/rejections for KSU go out at the same time, so it really does not matter when you submit your VMCAS.

 

[shuvball1]

I applied to MSU OOS and submitted September 26th. I was interviewed at the end of February and found out this week that I was accepted. It seems that at MSU you have just as good of a chance to get in if you interview later as you would if you interviewed earlier. Just my opinion but I would not sacrifice experience to get an earlier interview. If you think the experience will make you a more competitive applicant, then it would be much better to wait two months for an interview/acceptance than to wait another year and apply again.

Good luck!!! 😀

 

[bovine]

I could be wrong but last year I was under the impression that VMCAS did not start sending applications to Vet Schools until the first couple of weeks of September. So even if you submitted the application to VMCAS earlier than September the schools didn't get it much earlier. If what I am remembering is right then there really wouldn't be any advantage to getting your VMCAS in too early. You could submit your VMCAS the first of September and the difference in experience hours between then and the first of October would be pretty small, but your application would still be one of the earlier ones to go out to the schools.

 

[OSJ]

I applied a few days before the Oct 1st deadline and got an interview at a MSU as well. I almost didn't apply there because of their rolling admissions. I think submitting sometime in September is fine. I had most of mine filled out in early September which was good because the website slows down as it gets closer to the deadline. I just held on to it to review and proofread... and I was a little afraid to hit the big submit button!
Good Luck with your applications!