I am a pre-veterinary student, an under-grad sophomore. My grades are average. I excel in biology, my official major, but I struggle in general chemistry (I'm getting better though). My gpa was a 3.0, but a calculus class and a chemistry class brought it down to a 2.5 last semester. However, I have what I assume is good experience. I eventually hope to work with large farm animals, especially horses. I have been around horses my entire life, starting to ride when I was 5. I currently give lessons as well as train horses and work with problematic horses, usually emotionally damaged. I have experience caring for wounds and diseases and I have kept a journal of all my work. I have a "chapter" dedicated to each rider, training horse, "problem" horse, medications, feed, and much more. I know grades are a huge factor in getting in to a veterinary program, but would my experience and passion help me much? Please be honest! Thank you!
I'll be blunt. It's not because I'm trying to be mean or a jerk, it's because I want to communicate loud 'n clear. I may be reading between the lines inappropriately, so I may be off-base.
I get a real sense of .... misplaced hopefulness. Sorta like "I know my academics aren't good, but I'm really really passionate and I'm hoping that will carry me through" kinda thing.
It probably won't. Experience definitely will help you, and you have some fantastic experience. But unless you have a lot of other experience you didn't list, you have almost no variety/breadth of experience. You need to get some. If you want to do equine work, you need to start spending a lot of time with an equine vet, and a little time with some other vets (large animal, small, whatever). The experience you mentioned above isn't even veterinary experience, which is what you really need.
Passion will help sell your Personal Statement and interview, but you simply can't get in just by really wanting to.
A full 0.5 point drop in one semester is dramatic, even for a sophomore, so I'm presuming you kinda bombed those classes. You need to stop that stuff now, because it's an uphill climb from 2.5 to a halfway decent GPA. It's very doable, and you can do it, but don't make it harder by not starting to fix it <now>.
If you take anything away from SDN, take away this: Don't blow off your grades. Get back up to at least a 3.2 (below average at most schools), and better yet a 3.5 (which is more or less around average for most schools). People get in with even a sub-3.0 GPA <sometimes>, but they are rare exceptions to the rule. You still have the chance to fix it, so give it 110% now rather than blowing it off and trying to fix it later. And go get more, and more varied, veterinary experience.
G'luck!! It's still well within your grasp if you apply yourself.
