Does it seem that...

From looking at the AVMA website it appears that 5740 people applied this year, while around 5100 applied the previous year. So it does look like there was an increase in applications (or at least in increase in people/schools using VMCAS).

If they do publish those results I would also love to see them!

 

My thinking is its because of Hurricane Katrina.

 

How so?

 

It's because it's the greatest job in the world.

 

Even if the number of applicants didn't increase, it would still be possible for each school to see more applicants. This would happen if on average an individual applicant this year applied to more schools than an applicant last year. A vet I've worked with (and who counsels applicants every year) has the impression that exactly that is happening. Years ago (she says) most students applied only to their state school or whatever their nearby regional school was. Now, applying to 5 or more isn't uncommon, especially since VMCAS makes it so easy to just check off another box, and if you apply to less than that you'll be told you're really taking your chances.

Kind of a shame... You apply to more schools because the competition is getting worse, and part of that is because of the steady rise in grades and GRE scores caused by more (and more qualified) people applying (for the reason CookieBear suggested)... But everyone applying to more schools artificially inflates the competition even further, and increases the random chance that you'll get overlooked...

 

I'm pretty sure when I check the website earlier it said the average applicant applied to 3.8 schools, while it was 3.7 last year. So from last year it seems as though there was an increase in overall applications, and a slight increase in how many schools were being applied to (though I'm sure as was stated earlier that there has been an upward trend in the number of schools applied to)