Okay, here goes:
I'm a first time applicant. 22/F, Oregon resident. I didn't think I would be applying this year, but the vet I'm shadowing encouraged me to.
My GPA is pretty low - 3.4 - mostly because of science (I'm double majoring in Biology and French and my French GPA is ~3.7).
I take the GRE tomorrow, hoping to destroy verbal and quantitative but very nervous about writing.
I have 2 LOR's lined up, one of which is a vet I know pretty darn well and have shadowed ~50 hours thus far. Looking for a third LOR.
Vet experience:
- I started working 15-20 hours per week as a tech at a busy emergency clinic in April. I have
180 hours so far and will continue to work there until I actually go to vet school!
-
40 hours shadowing vet at emergency clinic (will continue ~8hrs per week)
Animal experience:
2000+ hours animal ownership (rats, rabbit, cats, dog)
~100 hours pet sitting
3.5 years horseback riding combined experience (English and western - no idea how many hours this would be)
160 hours as a kennel attendant at the emergency clinic where I currently tech
50 hours volunteering for a cat rescue (cleaning cages, and feeding, playing w/ cats)
10 hours observing during calving season on a toy ranch
25 hours helping with chores/feeding on ^ toy ranch (chickens, goats, horses, cows...)
200 hours raising + socializing chicks in our home
These are rough estimates. I've been lucky to have lots of contact with animals but because it's been so inconsistent that it's difficult to tally.
I have had a gazillion other jobs in college, including:
- working summers in a wine wholesale business warehouse (2005-2010)
- 1 summer as a cheesemonger/deli clerk/demo person at a high-end natural foods grocery store
- 1 summer as a program assistant for my college's international student exchange program (chaperoned groups japanese students during daily activities around the school and city)
- 1 academic term as an international student mentor
- 1 academic year as a computer lab attendant/tech support person (~15 hours per week)
- 1.5 academic years as a sound technician for our school's student-lead professional audio services group (we set up for and recorded concerts, invited speakers, student events etc). was promoted to lead technician and administrative assistant during the last academic term I worked there (~20 hours/week)
It's a long shot for me, I know. I am ONLY applying to my IS school for financial reasons, and because I don't really see myself going anywhere else!
Please feel free to offer suggestions of any nature. I'm fully prepared to dominate my summer class and fall term classes so as to bring up my GPA. I will continue working on my hours, and I'm itching to find a large animal vet to shadow this summer. The vet I'm currently shadowing actually used to work strictly with cows - I'm definitely considering large animal as a specialty because of what I've heard from her.
Back up plan: apply the following year. This cycle, I am also going to apply to a master's program (in French, hehe) at my current uni. If I don't get into vet school, I will likely go for my masters first and just keep applying. I figure it's a good way to bring my GPA up while I work on vet hours, AND my school will practically pay it's French grad students (TAships, etc).
Oh, one more thing: I said my science GPA is low - this is because literally every bio class I have taken I have earned a B in. I got A's in general chemistry and a C+ in the first term of ochem (I took the second term P/F... to explain as simply as possible, biochemistry at my uni only requires the first term of ochem and my IS vet school says you only need enough ochem to get into biochem. I basically took the second term for the hell of it but didn't want to risk screwing my GPA over). I have one C in the first quarter (read: NOT semester) of gen bio too. Question is, should I retake any of these?
EDIT: In case you were wondering why the heck my hours are so low, I didn't actually seriously start pursuing pre-vet until this year. I was previously pre-med (bleh) and then undecided.
Wow, sorry about posting my life's story...