Future DVMs- C/O 2021!

[emlady09]

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So I took ROTC for two years, some of which involved taking classes on the Air Force. I'm not sure what subject this is. It's listed as AS on my transcript, but I don't know what that means. Should I put it under history? We basically covered history, and tactics. I just don't want to put it under aerospace because that implies something way different. Any thoughts?

I did ROTC at San Diego State and it was listed under Military Science. I was able to put it under that on VMCAS last year no problem.

 

[heyyimhayley]

So most of what I've heard says include experiences from high school. Does this only mean relevant (aka animal) experiences? Should I add any of the other extracurriculars, or especially leadership experience I have from high school, even if they're for my Italian Honor Society or something totally non-animal? Also, according to the VMCAS FAQ it says "Q: How far back in my career should I list experiences? A: Anything relevant" - so should I include my zoo experience from middle school? I have (I think) plenty of hours without it, including zoo, and it would only add 50 or so.

I listed a Bronx Zoo internship from middle school on my application! I got asked about it at both my Penn and Tufts interviews. So my piece of advice is, yes, list everything, but make sure you can talk about everything - even the stuff from way far back.

 

[heyyimhayley]

Do some schools not count music classes as humanities? Purdue's website says that the humanities are cognitive and social sciences.... Which would suck because I've taken a lot of music classes over the years to fulfill my humanities/ diversity/ international credits..


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I think they count. I used a music therapy class to fill that requirement for a couple schools.

Some specified that music LESSONS don't count, but I think most classes would fit.

I also didn't apply to Purdue though - so do ask the schools to make sure 🙂

 

[emlady09]

By chance does anyone know off hand which schools do not count previously failed courses, only the grade when you retook the class?

 

[lhmhtd]

By chance does anyone know off hand which schools do not count previously failed courses, only the grade when you retook the class?

well for sure UGA because I just asked them and got an email back this morning lol.

 

[rockatiel]

I wa

By chance does anyone know off hand which schools do not count previously failed courses, only the grade when you retook the class?

wanna say WSU does this? LSU will do it if the grade is like 10 years old. All I know off the top of my head though.

 

[floridajl]

It says to list experiences starting with the most recent. Does that mean most recent ending date or starting date? Ex: I've been working at Place A from Jan 2014- Jan 2016, but also volunteered at Place B from Jan 2015-Aug 2015. Which would I list first, as the "most recent"?

In another scenario, say I stopped working at Place A while I was working at Place B, would I list Place A as a different entry for each time period (one for Jan-Dec '14, one for Aug 15-Jan 16)?

 

[Devastating]

It says to list experiences starting with the most recent. Does that mean most recent ending date or starting date? Ex: I've been working at Place A from Jan 2014- Jan 2016, but also volunteered at Place B from Jan 2015-Aug 2015. Which would I list first, as the "most recent"?

In another scenario, say I stopped working at Place A while I was working at Place B, would I list Place A as a different entry for each time period (one for Jan-Dec '14, one for Aug 15-Jan 16)?

Honestly my experiences section is all over the place, I'm not even sure how some of them got ordered that way, so it must not be a huge deal to manually put them in order (don't know why it doesn't arrange automatically by date)--but I would say that the one ending in Jan 2016 would count as "more recent" because it ended more recently therefore you were in it most recently? And I would say yes, list that entry twice since it was two time periods separated by a year.

 

[BrownSwissCows]

In another scenario, say I stopped working at Place A while I was working at Place B, would I list Place A as a different entry for each time period (one for Jan-Dec '14, one for Aug 15-Jan 16)?

I would say that it depends if you were doing the same thing there or something different. In my application I had something that I only did in summer, but it was for 3 consecutive summers, so I put Jun 09- Jun 11 and then just said in the explanation part that it was only during summer. If you had a different position both times, I would make a different entry.

 

[deleted676737]

It says to list experiences starting with the most recent. Does that mean most recent ending date or starting date? Ex: I've been working at Place A from Jan 2014- Jan 2016, but also volunteered at Place B from Jan 2015-Aug 2015. Which would I list first, as the "most recent"?

In another scenario, say I stopped working at Place A while I was working at Place B, would I list Place A as a different entry for each time period (one for Jan-Dec '14, one for Aug 15-Jan 16)?

Honestly? Disregard the "list by most recent" bit. I worried about it a lot last year, too, and unnecessarily, as they were automatically ordered upon submission and exportation to PDF. I'd imagine that it would be similar for this cycle.

I seriously restarted listing experiences over and over because I was so afraid about making sure things were in chronological order, and it wound up not mattering in the end. I wish VMCAS would reinstate automatic ordering as you actually enter experiences (from what I have heard, the older versions did this) and/or get rid of the "chronological order" part of the instructions. If last cycle was any indication, it just confused people more.

 

[TrashPanda]

Some more questions about experiences:

1) I've been volunteering for the same place for 3 years, but also did an internship there for a few months. Can I list these separately, or should I cram it into one space? I'd like to give the internship its own spot, if possible.

2) I volunteer in a shelter in both veterinary and non-veterinary roles. I guess these need to go separately so they can see my veterinary vs. animal hours. Is this correct?

Honestly? Disregard the "list by most recent" bit. I worried about it a lot last year, too, and unnecessarily, as they were automatically ordered upon submission and exportation to PDF. I'd imagine that it would be similar for this cycle.

I seriously restarted listing experiences over and over because I was so afraid about making sure things were in chronological order, and it wound up not mattering in the end. I wish VMCAS would reinstate automatic ordering as you actually enter experiences (from what I have heard, the older versions did this), but alas.

Sandstorm, are all activities listed together chronologically, or are they separated by type?

 

[deleted676737]

Some more questions about experiences:

1) I've been volunteering for the same place for 3 years, but also did an internship there for a few months. Can I list these separately, or should I cram it into one space? I'd like to give the internship its own spot, if possible.

2) I volunteer in a shelter in both veterinary and non-veterinary roles. I guess these need to go separately so they can see my veterinary vs. animal hours. Is this correct?



Sandstorm, are all activities listed together chronologically, or are they separated by type?

If I remember correctly, all of the experiences (vet, animal, extracurricular, work, volunteer) are lumped together collectively on the Experiences tab while you're actually inputting them, but they will be separated by type and ordered chronologically on the PDF that is created when you actually submit your application.

 

[BirdsinMyHouse]

By chance does anyone know off hand which schools do not count previously failed courses, only the grade when you retook the class?

Ohio State replaces old grades with new ones, though I'd double check about failed courses. It'll still be on your transcripts, and you may be asked about it in an interview, but improvement does count for something.

 

[TrashPanda]

If I remember correctly, all of the experiences (vet, animal, extracurricular, work, volunteer) are lumped together collectively on the Experiences tab while you're actually inputting them, but they will be separated by type and ordered chronologically on the PDF that is created when you actually submit your application.

Ah, good to know. Thanks!

 

[floridajl]

Thanks everyone! I was wondering why they didn't automatically reorder once submitted, and was kind of stressing about it. That makes me feel better.

Some more questions about experiences:

1) I've been volunteering for the same place for 3 years, but also did an internship there for a few months. Can I list these separately, or should I cram it into one space? I'd like to give the internship its own spot, if possible.

2) I volunteer in a shelter in both veterinary and non-veterinary roles. I guess these need to go separately so they can see my veterinary vs. animal hours. Is this correct?

I've worked at the same place for three years, and have worked as a basic intern, a team leader, and a vet assistant. I'm entering all three experiences separately to A) differentiate between vet/animal hours, and B) show how my responsibilities were different in all three roles. Just make sure to not double count your hours - if you've got 100 hours there and it was half and half animal/vet hours, say 50 animal and 50 vet, not 100 for each. That's what I'm doing and it feels okay to me!

Edit: I just noticed your username and LOVE it

 

[Coopah]

In the experiences section, are we supposed to write what kinds of animals we worked with? I can't find another place to say that, but maybe it's supposed to be obvious?

 

[TrashPanda]

Thanks everyone! I was wondering why they didn't automatically reorder once submitted, and was kind of stressing about it. That makes me feel better.



I've worked at the same place for three years, and have worked as a basic intern, a team leader, and a vet assistant. I'm entering all three experiences separately to A) differentiate between vet/animal hours, and B) show how my responsibilities were different in all three roles. Just make sure to not double count your hours - if you've got 100 hours there and it was half and half animal/vet hours, say 50 animal and 50 vet, not 100 for each. That's what I'm doing and it feels okay to me!

Edit: I just noticed your username and LOVE it

That sounds reasonable. Thanks, I love your avatar!

In the experiences section, are we supposed to write what kinds of animals we worked with? I can't find another place to say that, but maybe it's supposed to be obvious?

When you select "animal" or "veterinary" for type of experience, there are boxes to check off for different animals including one for "other."

 

[wildlifer]

Ok so for the experience section, I have a question. I have a few seasonal positions I've had that are with wildlife and all of them were through a university working for a graduate student or for a non profit working for a biologist. All of the projects were a research project of some sort. Would I list that as research, even though it wasn't MY research, I was essentially just a tech helping out? Or would I list it under animal experience, since all of them had hands on experience to a degree?

 

[cdo96]

In the experiences section, are we supposed to write what kinds of animals we worked with? I can't find another place to say that, but maybe it's supposed to be obvious?

it's at the bottom! There's checkable boxes like "Small" "food animal" "equine" etc

 

[cdo96]

Ok so for the experience section, I have a question. I have a few seasonal positions I've had that are with wildlife and all of them were through a university working for a graduate student or for a non profit working for a biologist. All of the projects were a research project of some sort. Would I list that as research, even though it wasn't MY research, I was essentially just a tech helping out? Or would I list it under animal experience, since all of them had hands on experience to a degree?

I would list it as research. Vet schools prob don't expect us to have our own research projects- my research experience was as a research aid.

 

[floridajl]

Ok so for the experience section, I have a question. I have a few seasonal positions I've had that are with wildlife and all of them were through a university working for a graduate student or for a non profit working for a biologist. All of the projects were a research project of some sort. Would I list that as research, even though it wasn't MY research, I was essentially just a tech helping out? Or would I list it under animal experience, since all of them had hands on experience to a degree?

In the faq it says list all research as research, regardless of whether it was with animals or under a vet. Also, like cdoconn said, I think it'd be really impressive and much less common for undergrads to be the head of a research project, so I'd totally count helping out as experience anyway.

 

[Devastating]

In the experiences section, are we supposed to write what kinds of animals we worked with? I can't find another place to say that, but maybe it's supposed to be obvious?

If you're inputting an animal/vet experience, it should have a little dropdown at the end where you choose what type of animal it involved (it lists stuff like small, large, equine, mixed, avian/exotic, other...) and if "other" it also has a text field where you can explain.





I started looking through Wisconsin and Cornell's websites to find some more info and try to decide which I should go for as my 4th pick (since applying to multiple is just so expensive...), and I have questions for those of you who are familiar with either of them. First off Cornell says that regarding GRE scores they will pick your highest score of each section, even if from different test attempts. Does anyone know how exactly Wisconsin factors GRE scores? Highest total score of one attempt or highest of each section?

Also, Wisconsin says that they do not accept "advance standing transfer credits". I took that to mean something like my algebra credit (listed as a P advanced standing on my transcript because I tested out), but does that also include credits transfered in advance from another institution? I entered college with several community college credits (in English and Social Sciences type courses).
And does Cornell list their previous applicant stats? I can't find it on their site anywhere.

 

[cheathac]

1) If we worked somewhere with more than 1 vet as the supervisor in the last name can I put Drs. X,Y, and Z, then just select one for the email contact info? Then the first name would be blank?
2) What exactly is the difference between temporary, part time, and per diem? Thanks!

 

[cdo96]

1) If we worked somewhere with more than 1 vet as the supervisor in the last name can I put Drs. X,Y, and Z, then just select one for the email contact info? Then the first name would be blank?
2) What exactly is the difference between temporary, part time, and per diem? Thanks!

1. I would just choose one. Choose the one you worked the most with. It'd be easier.
2. From what I understand, Part time is a consistent job (ex every day in summer), temporary is randomly throughout the year (or for like a week at a time), per diem is where they pay you for the materials and tools used.


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[Frozenshades]

Yeah well @Frozenshades is just a jerk, everyone knows that 😉

I will cut you

 

[WildZoo]

I will cut you

Well as long as you sew me back up 😀

 

[heyyimhayley]

per diem is where they pay you for the materials and tools used.

Hmm... Not sure about this. I had a per diem job... I was paid a regular hourly wage, but it meant that I took shifts when they were availible, but I didn't have a regular schedule. It means "per day". So I would consider a job where you just came in occasionally, but not regularly, to be per diem.

 

[Devastating]

1) If we worked somewhere with more than 1 vet as the supervisor in the last name can I put Drs. X,Y, and Z, then just select one for the email contact info? Then the first name would be blank?
2) What exactly is the difference between temporary, part time, and per diem? Thanks!

1) That is what I did for my clinic with 2 vets 🙂 Put "[Lastname] and [Lastname]" in that field, "Drs." under title. Then I listed the general contact info for the clinic.
2) Temporary would be something that wasn't a long-term job, usually something you're only contracted to do for a certain time frame (for example a seasonal job). From a google search: "A per diem employee is someone whose work hours may vary from week to week depending on the employer s need and how much or little the employee wishes to work. A per diem is paid by the day, is not part of the regular staff, and usually not eligible for employer benefits." I had an on-campus job in undergrad and it was considered per-diem (could work 10-20 hours per week at times accommodating my schedule, only up to a certain amount of money earned per academic year.)

 

[lhmhtd]

I hope this hasn't already been asked. How do we input courses that were a 4 and 0 semester hour course- example, when I took zoology, I had to take the lab at the same time, so it wasn't the lecture was 3 hours while the lab was 1 like many science courses, it was the lecture was 4 and the lab was 0.

 

[vetmedhead]

I hope this hasn't already been asked. How do we input courses that were a 4 and 0 semester hour course- example, when I took zoology, I had to take the lab at the same time, so it wasn't the lecture was 3 hours while the lab was 1 like many science courses, it was the lecture was 4 and the lab was 0.

In my transcript these were entered as "NGC"s or non graded components. I entered them as classes (since the labs were listed separately on my transcripts) but made them worth 0 credits on VMCAS and wrote NGC instead of a grade and VMCAS seemed to accept it.

Whatever format your own transcripts use is what you should default to though, as I only used NGC as a grade since that's what my transcripts had.

 

[aggievethopeful2021]

Hey guys, its my third time applying to vet school and I'm really hoping this year is the year. I'm a 24 yr old applicant, first time applying OOS, 3rd time to A&M. I'm applying to a lot of schools because this may be the last time I apply.

Texas A&M (IS), Illinois, Ok state, Mississippi, Michigan, VA-MD, Lincoln Memorial, and Midwestern.

 

[mht2k3]

Honestly? Disregard the "list by most recent" bit. I worried about it a lot last year, too, and unnecessarily, as they were automatically ordered upon submission and exportation to PDF. I'd imagine that it would be similar for this cycle.

I seriously restarted listing experiences over and over because I was so afraid about making sure things were in chronological order, and it wound up not mattering in the end. I wish VMCAS would reinstate automatic ordering as you actually enter experiences (from what I have heard, the older versions did this) and/or get rid of the "chronological order" part of the instructions. If last cycle was any indication, it just confused people more.

AH this is such a relief. its a pain in the ass to try to list everything in order. I had to delete something because it was out of order and reorder but I'm going to stop being obsessive about this if it doesn't actually matter.

 

[Coopah]

it's at the bottom! There's checkable boxes like "Small" "food animal" "equine" etc

Thanks, I just missed it. I knew it was something I wasn't seeing

 

[finnickthedog]

I hope this hasn't already been asked. How do we input courses that were a 4 and 0 semester hour course- example, when I took zoology, I had to take the lab at the same time, so it wasn't the lecture was 3 hours while the lab was 1 like many science courses, it was the lecture was 4 and the lab was 0.

How does it look on your transcript?

 

[Coopah]

I hope this hasn't already been asked. How do we input courses that were a 4 and 0 semester hour course- example, when I took zoology, I had to take the lab at the same time, so it wasn't the lecture was 3 hours while the lab was 1 like many science courses, it was the lecture was 4 and the lab was 0.

Depends on how your transcript lists it. If they list just the one course, then put that one in and don't put in the lab, I believe under the finalization section there's a spot for classes that included labs. If your transcript listed it as a separate class worth o credits then do that. Just follow your transcript!

 

[FeenyFee]

Hey ya'll! Few questions here.

1. The vet I work for sees goats regularly. These are usually dairy goats, show goats and companion animals. I think a few were sold for meat. Anyway, are these considered exotic? We are mainly a small animal clinic but have the occasional bird nail/beak trim, rat or guinea pig. I just don't know how to classify this on VMCAS.

2. I swear this was talked about somewhere but I can't find it... I want to submit 4 LOR's to VMCAS because I'm paranoid one of the writers will miss the deadline. Is there a way I can select which ones to ACTUALLY submit to the schools? All the schools I am applying to only want 3.

3. Graduating with honors like magna cum laude, etc. Does that go under honors or is that not a thing at all? 😛

 

[Coopah]

Hey ya'll! Few questions here.

1. The vet I work for sees goats regularly. These are usually dairy goats, show goats and companion animals. I think a few were sold for meat. Anyway, are these considered exotic? We are mainly a small animal clinic but have the occasional bird nail/beak trim, rat or guinea pig. I just don't know how to classify this on VMCAS.

2. I swear this was talked about somewhere but I can't find it... I want to submit 4 LOR's to VMCAS because I'm paranoid one of the writers will miss the deadline. Is there a way I can select which ones to ACTUALLY submit to the schools? All the schools I am applying to only want 3.

3. Graduating with honors like magna cum laude, etc. Does that go under honors or is that not a thing at all? 😛

1. I believe goats were food animals but then there is definitely avian/exotic below so cover all your bases, just make sure to be explicit in the description on what you worked with.

2. Nope just do all four and the schools will manage. It won't count against you to have ONE extra, I just think schools don't want to be reading 6 letters all saying the same damn thing.

3. Yes, it does go under honors! congrats by the way.

 

[finnickthedog]

2. I swear this was talked about somewhere but I can't find it... I want to submit 4 LOR's to VMCAS because I'm paranoid one of the writers will miss the deadline. Is there a way I can select which ones to ACTUALLY submit to the schools? All the schools I am applying to only want 3.

Talk to the schools.

The school I'm applying to only takes three and they have us designate which ones as part of the supplemental. But other school might decide which letters to read some other way so it's best to just find out what they're going to do and plan accordingly.

 

[lhmhtd]

Thanks guys! I guess I was just looking for No Credit or whatever like they used to have as an option on the VMCAS, but now it's literally just numeric, so I wasn't sure. My transcript has "XX" in the grade so I guess that's what I'll put, just seemed weird.

 

[sheltermed]

This is probably already written somewhere, but I'm wondering if anyone would mind sharing what they wrote/will be writing for their experience "Description/Key Responsibilities." Wondering if it's a better idea to put in bullet form/paragraph form/complete sentences/etc. Thanks, good luck everyone 🙂!

 

[lhmhtd]

Also, does everyone else have a big jumbled mess of "Prerequisites Information:..." at the bottom? I have no clue what this is about, maybe it's not compatible with Safari. It's just literally words all on top of each other and I can make up the names of some courses.

 

[lhmhtd]

I'm copying and pasting from my CV, which is bullets. It makes it easier on the reader I feel and they're not as likely to get lost in the mumbo jumbo. Just me personally though.

This is probably already written somewhere, but I'm wondering if anyone would mind sharing what they wrote/will be writing for their experience "Description/Key Responsibilities." Wondering if it's a better idea to put in bullet form/paragraph form/complete sentences/etc. Thanks, good luck everyone 🙂!

 

[Coopah]

Also, does everyone else have a big jumbled mess of "Prerequisites Information:..." at the bottom? I have no clue what this is about, maybe it's not compatible with Safari. It's just literally words all on top of each other and I can make up the names of some courses.

Yes, this is annoying but it's the same information under the schools info for prerequisites.

EDIT: It's not just safari, I tried chrome, IE, and Firefox nothing makes it go away.

 

[finnickthedog]

This is probably already written somewhere, but I'm wondering if anyone would mind sharing what they wrote/will be writing for their experience "Description/Key Responsibilities." Wondering if it's a better idea to put in bullet form/paragraph form/complete sentences/etc. Thanks, good luck everyone 🙂!

I used paragraphs because I found it easier for me to write in that format. Other people use bullets.

Ultimately I don't think matters and you can do whichever you want.

 

[Doktor Timo]

Hey ya'll! Few questions here.

1. The vet I work for sees goats regularly. These are usually dairy goats, show goats and companion animals. I think a few were sold for meat. Anyway, are these considered exotic? We are mainly a small animal clinic but have the occasional bird nail/beak trim, rat or guinea pig. I just don't know how to classify this on VMCAS.

2. I swear this was talked about somewhere but I can't find it... I want to submit 4 LOR's to VMCAS because I'm paranoid one of the writers will miss the deadline. Is there a way I can select which ones to ACTUALLY submit to the schools? All the schools I am applying to only want 3.

3. Graduating with honors like magna cum laude, etc. Does that go under honors or is that not a thing at all? 😛

Goats are not considered exotics. They're large animal/food animal. But birds, rats, ferrets, etc. would be exotics. Basically dogs and cats are small animals, anything you eat (except chickens) or ride is large, and everything else is exotic or zoo/wildlife.

 

[Frozenshades]

Well as long as you sew me back up 😀

You get the staples.

 

[Great Butts]

So, I'm currently filling out TMDSAS for TAMU, if anyone has seen my last post on this thread, and I'm currently stuck on the Extracurricular and Leisure Time section. Would it be acceptable to be honest and list that video games/tabletop board games is a hobby of mine? I tend to play competitive and strategic video games and tabletop board games in my free time, my main activity tbqh, but I feel that "video games" still has a huge stigma in the medical field. Would the fact that they're strategic and competitive be worth putting on my app? Or should I just not even bother entirely?

 

[alohacat319]

Am I the only one who remembers them changing the character count on the PS in the middle of the cycle? I'm not sure if I dreamed that but I swear it changed from 5000 to 4500 one random day and confused the heck out of me.

I 130% remember this too. I am so sure it was 5000 when we started.

 

[vetmedhead]

I 130% remember this too. I am so sure it was 5000 when we started.

THE CONSPIRACY IS REAL EVERYBODY!

 

[deleted676737]

THE CONSPIRACY IS REAL EVERYBODY!