Credits Question

[Kota1000]

Hello!

So, I am a freshman in undergrad; however, I can graduate in 3 years (or less if I take summer classes). I am planning on getting my pre-requisites done in 2 years and apply to vet school in the spring of my sophomore year. I would not have a degree then unless I do classes during summer/winter breaks, which I don't plan on doing. I was wondering how veterinary schools would look at my credits/GPA considering I would not have a full 120, I would have around 92 something. That being said - 18 credits are AP test based and don't count towards my GPA, and 13 credits are transferred from other colleges and they don't appear to impact my cumulative GPA unfortunately (I got all A's). So my question is, how would I compare to other students that took all their credits at 1 college (no AP's or transfer creds) and/or have completed their bachelors degree.

Any feedback on how Veterinary College admissions would look at this - positive or negative - and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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[JaynaAli]

For the most part, as long as you meet the prerequisites you should have just as good of a chance as someone else. I think UC Davis is the only school that requires a bachelors degree, but someone can correct me if I’m wrong. As long as you do well in your prerequisites, you should have a decent chance. I mean if you and someone a year or two older were exactly the same in every other way they may go with the older applicant because of ‘maturity’ or whatever since you’re basically a sophomore, but as long as your application is competitive I don’t see it being a huge roadblock. I only did three years of undergrad and it went fine. I would caution you about trying to take them too fast though. The prerequisites build on each other and there are a lot of science classes towards the end. Don’t try to take so many you get overwhelmed and do poorly or not as awesome as you could. Better to take the normal 3-4 years and get As that try to cram it into 2 years and get Bs and Cs. Take some fun classes and build yourself as a person too.

 

[Kota1000]

For the most part, as long as you meet the prerequisites you should have just as good of a chance as someone else. I think UC Davis is the only school that requires a bachelors degree, but someone can correct me if I’m wrong. As long as you do well in your prerequisites, you should have a decent chance. I mean if you and someone a year or two older were exactly the same in every other way they may go with the older applicant because of ‘maturity’ or whatever since you’re basically a sophomore, but as long as your application is competitive I don’t see it being a huge roadblock. I only did three years of undergrad and it went fine. I would caution you about trying to take them too fast though. The prerequisites build on each other and there are a lot of science classes towards the end. Don’t try to take so many you get overwhelmed and do poorly or not as awesome as you could. Better to take the normal 3-4 years and get As that try to cram it into 2 years and get Bs and Cs. Take some fun classes and build yourself as a person too.

Thank you for this! I will be taking between 14-16 credits per semester (5 classes per semester), with 1-2 “gen-Ed” classes per semester that are more relaxed and fun. I have all the basic prerequisites done, I just need to do Organic chem 1+2, physics 1+2, biochemistry, genetics, zoology, microbiology and statistics, so basically 2 prerequisite lectures per semester not counting labs.

 

[SkiOtter]

@cdo96 you applied after your sophomore year, right?

 

[WonderingStudent]

U of Tennessee I believe uses number of credit hours in its evaluation for admissions so that’s a possible disadvantage since you would have less than someone with a bachelors.

Admissions Procedure

vetmed.tennessee.edu

 

[cdo96]

@cdo96 you applied after your sophomore year, right?

yes ma’am! Ok State vet med doesn’t require that you have a degree, and Ok State undergrad biochemistry & molecular biology degree has an option of doing your senior year of UG at a vet/ med/ dental/ pharm school, and after that year (or the required number of credits are met), you get your Bachelor’s.

I applied the year after sophomore year and got accepted to OSU- declined at the others I applied to. Would the situation have been different if I waited? I’ll never know, but I’m glad to be 41 weeks away from cdo, DVM.

 

[Okapi]

As others have said, as long as you have all the pre-reqs done, you can apply. Couple things to know:

-If you're using any of your AP credit for pre-reqs, you need to make sure that 1) your undergrad will list it on your transcript per course, not lumped together as "ap credit: 18 credits" and 2) check that the vet schools you want to apply to will accept them in place of pre-reqs. I had one that wouldn't take my english credit so I had to take two semesters of composition.
-If the college classes you've taken were from an actual college and you have a transcript (meaning it wasn't a high school class you got college credit for), those grades will count for your VMCAS cumulative GPA, just not for your undergrad GPA.

Those things aside, your AP/transfer credits won't impact your chances in the slightest. I'm sure you've already looked into this but also make sure your undergrad accepts your AP/transfer credits in place of intro courses.

I would also echo JaynaAli and caution you against doing too much too quickly. You definitely should account for the labs when thinking about how many classes you're taking each semester--they are a huge time sink, both in literal classroom hours spent in lab and the extra work you have to do for them on top of studying for lecture. In my experience, taking orgo and physics at the same time would've been disastrous. Either of those + stats or genetics (if you don't do a lab) is generally more doable. But this will depend on you as a student, and what else you want to do with your time other than study.

Obviously I don't know anything about you, your study habits, or your academic abilities and I'm sure you can handle whatever schedule you choose to do. I'll just leave you with the cautionary tale of my own freshmen year of college where I thought I could handle 3+ pre-reqs no problem since I skated through all AP classes in high school. Tanked my GPA first semester and took me years to drag it up to where I was happy with it. I am also very glad I retook all my intro level courses because my AP bio/chem classes did not in the slightest prepare me enough for orgo, biochem, etc. both in terms of course material and the rigor of college coursework. If this is your first semester of full-time college classes, I would start lighter and then add more in following semesters if it was a breeze. Just my two cents.

One final note--you also need time to get animal/vet experience and form relationships with vets and/or professors to write rec letters. I certainly did not do that by the end of my sophomore year. But again that entirely depends on your individual experience.

 

[mmmdreamerz]

I finished in three years but did have a degree...you definitely give yourself less time to fit classes and experience, but it is doable.

 

[alissa14]

Hello!

So, I am a freshman in undergrad; however, I can graduate in 3 years (or less if I take summer classes). I am planning on getting my pre-requisites done in 2 years and apply to vet school in the spring of my sophomore year. I would not have a degree then unless I do classes during summer/winter breaks, which I don't plan on doing. I was wondering how veterinary schools would look at my credits/GPA considering I would not have a full 120, I would have around 92 something. That being said - 18 credits are AP test based and don't count towards my GPA, and 13 credits are transferred from other colleges and they don't appear to impact my cumulative GPA unfortunately (I got all A's). So my question is, how would I compare to other students that took all their credits at 1 college (no AP's or transfer creds) and/or have completed their bachelors degree.

Any feedback on how Veterinary College admissions would look at this - positive or negative - and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hi Kota,
i took the majority of my credits at a community college and therefore do not have a degree. I’m applying for a second time this cycle. From what I’ve heard, most schools do not look unfavorably on those without a degree, it’s just common for most vet students to have a degree and stats reflect this. That’s great that you have so many credits going into this! You will save not only time but money! I have 7 AP credits and wish I had done an early college program.

 

[Kota1000]

I really appreciate all your responses! I am going to try and do 2 years and then apply, and if I don't get in I will finish my 3rd year of undergrad.