Future DVMs- C/O 2021!

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Would it be better to ask one doctor in the clinic I work at to write an eLOR, or can they write a group letter? I'm close with several of the vets there and have worked there almost 3 years now, knew a few of them before I worked there too. Several of them would be great evals and I don't know if I need to pick just one! I'm applying to U of MN (instate) and Mizzou, if that matters.

Also, how much can/should I be breaking down experiences? For example, I was/am very active in 4-H. I did 30-40 "general" projects each year, and did state fair trips with them as well, things like photography/dog display/citizenship. I also did demonstrations at the county and state level, and I feel like I could include this with general projects. I was club photographer, club president, county ambassador, and county federation member. I participated in dog quiz bowl at regionals and state level as well as was in the dog project showing my dog at county/state in 5 areas. Was a youth project leader for the dog project as a 4-H member, and since graduating 4-H I have been the official adult leader for the dog project (teaching classes, running the county show, etc), and coach dog quiz bowl.

Would it be acceptable to do a "general" 4-H member, a dog 4-H member, and an adult dog project leader as 3 separate entries? Do I then just list the club/county roles with general project area? I want to clearly explain all that I have done with 4-H since it's been a huge part of my life but I don't want it to look like I'm padding hours at all.
 
1doggeek said:
Would it be better to ask one doctor in the clinic I work at to write an eLOR, or can they write a group letter? I'm close with several of the vets there and have worked there almost 3 years now, knew a few of them before I worked there too. Several of them would be great evals and I don't know if I need to pick just one! I'm applying to U of MN (instate) and Mizzou, if that matters.

Also, how much can/should I be breaking down experiences? For example, I was/am very active in 4-H. I did 30-40 "general" projects each year, and did state fair trips with them as well, things like photography/dog display/citizenship. I also did demonstrations at the county and state level, and I feel like I could include this with general projects. I was club photographer, club president, county ambassador, and county federation member. I participated in dog quiz bowl at regionals and state level as well as was in the dog project showing my dog at county/state in 5 areas. Was a youth project leader for the dog project as a 4-H member, and since graduating 4-H I have been the official adult leader for the dog project (teaching classes, running the county show, etc), and coach dog quiz bowl.

Would it be acceptable to do a "general" 4-H member, a dog 4-H member, and an adult dog project leader as 3 separate entries? Do I then just list the club/county roles with general project area? I want to clearly explain all that I have done with 4-H since it's been a huge part of my life but I don't want it to look like I'm padding hours at all.
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I would ask one of them to be your main evaluator and then see if they can get input from the other vets for the letter. That's what I did for one of mine.

As far as the experiences go, I would tend toward keeping experiences with the same organization together. However, if you don't have enough space to adequately describe what you want to, then splitting them up is probably fine.
 
WildZoo said:
I would ask one of them to be your main evaluator and then see if they can get input from the other vets for the letter. That's what I did for one of mine.

As far as the experiences go, I would tend toward keeping experiences with the same organization together. However, if you don't have enough space to adequately describe what you want to, then splitting them up is probably fine.
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Thanks! I think I'll stick to the 3 splits for 4-H then - general projects as extracurricular, dog member as animal experience and then dog leader as animal experience but in a different capacity.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
Does anyone else have an employer/family friend type person doing an evaluation?

One of my experiences that WSU thought was unique was a goat tending job I did off and on (for the owner while she left town). I know her pretty well now, and I went on a backpacking trip with her a few years ago. She offered to write me a letter for my application this year and I said yes, but in starting to have nagging doubts about the number of evaluators I have this time . . . all three from last year, plus one WSU asked me to add, plus the goat owner.

I guess I'm just afraid that 5 letters is a lot. I know they will all be strong, but I'm worried it will feel like over kill?
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I don't think there is necessarily a wrong way to do it. Five letters might be too many in some cases (ie if two of the letters aren't as strong), but I think it's just dependent on your own unique situation/ which schools you are applying to. Personally, I chose 3 people that I knew would write me the strongest letters. But they allow you to have up to six for a reason!

In terms of the family friend, I don't think there's anything wrong with it in your case. The veterinarian that I work for started out simply as my boss but ultimately has become a very good mentor/friend. If anything, someone you are closer to can say more about you as an individual. Obviously family MEMBER is a different story🙂
 
sheltermed said:
Looking at my experiences section, it threw all of them into a random order, as in, not in the ordered I entered things. It's totally random. So, even if I re-enter everything in chronological order, won't it just shuffle them up again? Meh
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That happened to me, too. I asked VMCAS about it and they didn't know why it did this and they didn't know whether it would happen every time.
 
bombai said:
That happened to me, too. I asked VMCAS about it and they didn't know why it did this and they didn't know whether it would happen every time.
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Yeah, mine are also in a somewhat random/slightly grouped order that I know is not the order I originally entered them in (it mostly has put them into categories, as in all the animal stuff together and all the vet stuff and non-animal things together, but there are some random stragglers out of that order too?)

I'm not sure how it ended up ordering them after submitting last year. Did anyone find out how to access your old PDFs if you copied over from last cycle?
 
vetmedhead said:
I believe TAMU is the only one not using VMCAS. TMDSAS is not a huge headache, but it's different enough from VMCAS that you should pay attention closely when filling it out. They ask a lot more personal questions (things like high school attended, are you dependent on a military veteran, have you ever received snap benefits, etc.). My suspicion was that TX law may have required them to ask those questions.

TMDSAS requires you to attach a picture of yourself to your application.

Biggest difference is in character counts. I believe they give you 5000 characters for your personal statement but only 300 for experiences/awards/extracurriculars/etc. (this is half of what VMCAS gives you).

I will also add that TMDSAS tells you not to include anything from high school/before college (TAMU's supplemental, however, allows you to enter from any time and encourages you to do so).
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Oh wow! Thank you very much for this information! 300 characters for experiences, yikes! Those will be tough to cut down..
 
What's the difference between an honor and an award? Also, I received a scholarship for all four years of undergrad. If the "date issued" was Aug 2012 but I received it every semester until May 2016, how would I list that chronologically? As something in 2012 or something in 2016? I'm only doing one entry, and just specifying in the description how long it lasted.
 
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I'm taking 2 pre-req courses over the summer (otherwise I'm totally done). These grades are really important to my GPA, and the second class officially ends on 8/17. I have taken a few other pre-reqs at this university in the past two semesters. Should I wait until the final grade for the second class is posted and then immediately request transcripts to be sent to VMCAS, or should I just send what I have until this point (or after the first class ends in July), and then send it in again after the other class finishes? I don't want schools to miss seeing that grade or for it to not be calculated into my final GPA, I'm worried that will happen if I send it in by itself.
 
floridajl said:
What's the difference between an honor and an award? Also, I received a scholarship for all four years of undergrad. If the "date issued" was Aug 2012 but I received it every semester until May 2016, how would I list that chronologically? As something in 2012 or something in 2016? I'm only doing one entry, and just specifying in the description how long it lasted.
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When I was listing scholarships like this, I ordered them by date issued.
 
Are there any cons to taking the GRE later (other than you can't retake it)? I wanted to take it August 4th. Deadlines for the schools I'm applying to aren't until mid-late August.... How long does it take for scores to post officially and for the schools to receive them? Do we receive any confirmation when schools receive our scores?

Thanks everyone! 🙂
 
FeenyFee said:
Are there any cons to taking the GRE later (other than you can't retake it)? I wanted to take it August 4th. Deadlines for the schools I'm applying to aren't until mid-late August.... How long does it take for scores to post officially and for the schools to receive them? Do we receive any confirmation when schools receive our scores?

Thanks everyone! 🙂
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I think not being able to retake is the only con of taking it later... but that's a pretty big con in my eyes since you don't know how you're going to do.

I strongly recommend giving yourself time to retake it at least once. Just in case.
 
finnickthedog said:
I think not being able to retake is the only con of taking it later... but that's a pretty big con in my eyes since you don't know how you're going to do.

I strongly recommend giving yourself time to retake it at least once. Just in case.
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I took it about 4 months ago so this would be my retake. 🙂 I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Thanks!
 
FeenyFee said:
Are there any cons to taking the GRE later (other than you can't retake it)? I wanted to take it August 4th. Deadlines for the schools I'm applying to aren't until mid-late August.... How long does it take for scores to post officially and for the schools to receive them? Do we receive any confirmation when schools receive our scores?

Thanks everyone! 🙂
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Hey! I also wanted to take it August 4th as the second attempt! Lol


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
FeenyFee said:
Are there any cons to taking the GRE later (other than you can't retake it)? I wanted to take it August 4th. Deadlines for the schools I'm applying to aren't until mid-late August.... How long does it take for scores to post officially and for the schools to receive them? Do we receive any confirmation when schools receive our scores?

Thanks everyone! 🙂
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I remember it taking a few weeks for the scores to be official, so I feel like taking it August 4th with a deadline later that month might be cutting it a little close
 
WildZoo said:
I remember it taking a few weeks for the scores to be official, so I feel like taking it August 4th with a deadline later that month might be cutting it a little close
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For UF it says:
  • Last date to take the GRE for 2016-17 application cycle is August 31st, 2016
Doesn't that mean its okay to take it later? Technically they don't need to scores until September 15th? Not sure if I'm understanding this right.
 
FeenyFee said:
For UF it says:
  • Last date to take the GRE for 2016-17 application cycle is August 31st, 2016
Doesn't that mean its okay to take it later? Technically they don't need to scores until September 15th? Not sure if I'm understanding this right.
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I'm pretty sure GRE says it takes 10-15 days to get scores back. So technically, August 31st gives you 15 days. Probably not a good idea to take it that late, but it would be possible.
 
1doggeek said:
I'm pretty sure GRE says it takes 10-15 days to get scores back. So technically, August 31st gives you 15 days. Probably not a good idea to take it that late, but it would be possible.
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Okay so Aug 4th should be okay
 
WildZoo said:
I submitted my VMCAS an hour or two before it was due. Agreed. Don't do that.

It worked for me too, though 😉
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A friend of mine a couple years ago submitted their vmcas application literally one minute before the deadline!
 
ilikecake said:
I'm taking 2 pre-req courses over the summer (otherwise I'm totally done). These grades are really important to my GPA, and the second class officially ends on 8/17. I have taken a few other pre-reqs at this university in the past two semesters. Should I wait until the final grade for the second class is posted and then immediately request transcripts to be sent to VMCAS, or should I just send what I have until this point (or after the first class ends in July), and then send it in again after the other class finishes? I don't want schools to miss seeing that grade or for it to not be calculated into my final GPA, I'm worried that will happen if I send it in by itself.
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I would send the first transcript of everything you have so far from this school, and then send a new transcript once the class is over and your grade is posted. You don't want to risk them not receiving any transcript from this school. It has taken a month sometimes for transcripts to be received and then verified, so I would definitely send in what you already have. Plus, schools don't look at any transcripts and files fully until after September 15th anyway.
 
PreVetMed said:
I would send the first transcript of everything you have so far from this school, and then send a new transcript once the class is over and your grade is posted. You don't want to risk them not receiving any transcript from this school. It has taken a month sometimes for transcripts to be received and then verified, so I would definitely send in what you already have. Plus, schools don't look at any transcripts and files fully until after September 15th anyway.
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Yes but once VMCAS calculates your GPA, that's it. They are not going to recalculate it. I'm not sending my transcripts in until after summer classes because my last 45 semester hours jumps from a 3.5 something to a 4.0, and that's critical for me.
 
ilikecake said:
I'm taking 2 pre-req courses over the summer (otherwise I'm totally done). These grades are really important to my GPA, and the second class officially ends on 8/17. I have taken a few other pre-reqs at this university in the past two semesters. Should I wait until the final grade for the second class is posted and then immediately request transcripts to be sent to VMCAS, or should I just send what I have until this point (or after the first class ends in July), and then send it in again after the other class finishes? I don't want schools to miss seeing that grade or for it to not be calculated into my final GPA, I'm worried that will happen if I send it in by itself.
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If it ends in August that should be plenty of time to get your transcripts to the school after the grade has been posted. And because I'm me lol, depending on the timeline your school has for sending transcripts, I would pay for the expedited request.
 
I just got home from my 3rd GRE attempt. My 1st quantitative percentile was 25th ( . . . 🙁 ). My 2nd test improved just a liiiiiitle bit to the 32nd percentile. Today's score was 153, which puts me in the 52nd percentile! Which is still below average, but now I'm within the top 50% of those who take it, right? That's really good, right? 😉

My average for all 3 sections is 66th percentile, which is above average for my IS school, so I'm feeling sort of okay about that. I wish I'd scored higher on the quant, but I didn't, and I don't know if it's worth it to take it a fourth time. So I'll be over here celebrating my small achievements even though it's still sub average. 🙂
 
PrincessButterCup said:
I just got home from my 3rd GRE attempt. My 1st quantitative percentile was 25th ( . . . 🙁 ). My 2nd test improved just a liiiiiitle bit to the 32nd percentile. Today's score was 153, which puts me in the 52nd percentile! Which is still below average, but now I'm within the top 50% of those who take it, right? That's really good, right? 😉

My average for all 3 sections is 66th percentile, which is above average for my IS school, so I'm feeling sort of okay about that. I wish I'd scored higher on the quant, but I didn't, and I don't know if it's worth it to take it a fourth time. So I'll be over here celebrating my small achievements even though it's still sub average. 🙂
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If it helps you feel any better, I was accepted with a 153 Quant. My Verbal was a 158, I believe, and I made a 5.5 in Analytical Writing (which of course no one cares about), for reference. Provided that you've got a solid GPA, I think you'll be fine with an average percentile of 66!
 
For research experience, does anyone know if we should include specific lab techniques we used?

I found something online saying that for med school you should NOT (<-- emphasis not mine) list them but that seems weird to me and I don't know if vet school is different. Obviously I wouldn't only list techniques, but I don't see why adcoms wouldn't want to know which ones you're familiar with. Any thoughts?
 
TrashPanda said:
For research experience, does anyone know if we should include specific lab techniques we used?

I found something online saying that for med school you should NOT (<-- emphasis not mine) list them but that seems weird to me and I don't know if vet school is different. Obviously I wouldn't only list techniques, but I don't see why adcoms wouldn't want to know which ones you're familiar with. Any thoughts?
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Not sure if its right or not, but I've included it in mine
 
mht2k3 said:
Not sure if its right or not, but I've included it in mine
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I did not include any of the techniques and was fine. However, including it will not hurt you considering you definitely learned something from the experience.
 
Osudairy said:
I did not include any of the techniques and was fine. However, including it will not hurt you considering you definitely learned something from the experience.
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What did you write, if not the techniques? Just curious!
 
Coopah said:
Yes but once VMCAS calculates your GPA, that's it. They are not going to recalculate it. I'm not sending my transcripts in until after summer classes because my last 45 semester hours jumps from a 3.5 something to a 4.0, and that's critical for me.
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I don't think the GPAs get calculated until after you've submitted the entire app AND everything gets verified (which may take a while). At least, that's how it was last year. I submitted on the day of deadline and remember waiting anxiously for my app to be verified/GPA calculations appear.
 
Devastating said:
I don't think the GPAs get calculated until after you've submitted the entire app AND everything gets verified (which may take a while). At least, that's how it was last year. I submitted on the day of deadline and remember waiting anxiously for my app to be verified/GPA calculations appear.
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Yeah, once you submit things go into a queue to be verified and it totally takes forever if you submitted it closer to the deadline. Folks who submit earlier (like August and earlier) usually get stuff verified within a few weeks. I submitted a day before the deadline and it took like a month and a half. I definitely remember the same thing as you: waiting anxiously for things to be verified.
 
Devastating said:
I don't think the GPAs get calculated until after you've submitted the entire app AND everything gets verified (which may take a while). At least, that's how it was last year. I submitted on the day of deadline and remember waiting anxiously for my app to be verified/GPA calculations appear.
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Yes that's very true, but if you finalize the transcripts and send the incomplete transcripts to VMCAS, I was under the impression they could calculate your GPA, and then they wouldn't change it. Is this correct? Or do you have to submit your application for them to verify and calculate your GPA?
 
they only verify and calculate your GPA after you submit the application
 
Coopah said:
Yes that's very true, but if you finalize the transcripts and send the incomplete transcripts to VMCAS, I was under the impression they could calculate your GPA, and then they wouldn't change it. Is this correct? Or do you have to submit your application for them to verify and calculate your GPA?
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Not totally sure since I haven't been in the situation, but I assume that even if you sent the transcript with the class in-progress, you'd still have to ultimately send the new one once the course is completed, and since it is a summer course this would be able to arrive in time (before VMCAS September deadline) to be factored in once you submit--if that makes sense? I know they do not calculate things until the app is submitted into the queue. Not sure how it would work if someone submitted the complete app before the updated transcript of summer course.
 
Devastating said:
Not totally sure since I haven't been in the situation, but I assume that even if you sent the transcript with the class in-progress, you'd still have to ultimately send the new one once the course is completed, and since it is a summer course this would be able to arrive in time (before VMCAS September deadline) to be factored in once you submit--if that makes sense? I know they do not calculate things until the app is submitted into the queue. Not sure how it would work if someone submitted the complete app before the updated transcript of summer course.
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Has anyone asked VMCAS about this? I know occasionally VMCAS is functionally equivalent to a burning pile of newspaper, but they should be able to give some insight into what they would do with summer transcripts in situations like this.
 
vetmedhead said:
Has anyone asked VMCAS about this? I know occasionally VMCAS is functionally equivalent to a burning pile of newspaper, but they should be able to give some insight into what they would do with summer transcripts in situations like this.
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The only information I have is in the FAQ which says that once they have calculated your GPA it will not change, even if you send them an updated transcript. I'm just not sure when they do the calculating.

mht2k3 said:
they only verify and calculate your GPA after you submit the application
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If this is true then that is the anwser.
 
mht2k3 said:
from here: https://portal.vmcas.org/vmcasHelpPages/frequently-asked-questions/vmcas-gpa/

Q: When will VMCAS calculate my GPA?
A: VMCAS will calculate a standardized VMCAS GPA after your application has been verified. To learn more about what is required before VMCAS can begin verifying your application, please see the VMCAS Verification page.


if you follow that link it says they will not verify until after the app is submitted and you paid.
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Thanks for the info!
 
Honwstly, I never remeber seeing a GPA on my VMCAS. I emailed about it and never got a response. And schools will calculate as they see fit anyways, so I wouldn't sweat the GPA calculation.
 
rockatiel said:
Honwstly, I never remeber seeing a GPA on my VMCAS. I emailed about it and never got a response. And schools will calculate as they see fit anyways, so I wouldn't sweat the GPA calculation.
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I remember seeing my GPA on the PDF of your application that you could download after submitting your app. I can't remember if that was downloadable after you submitted or after VMCAS verified your app though.
 
vetmedhead said:
I remember seeing my GPA on the PDF of your application that you could download after submitting your app. I can't remember if that was downloadable after you submitted or after VMCAS verified your app though.
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Hmmmm... I'm gonna see if I can access that. I'm curious now!
 
vetmedhead said:
I remember seeing my GPA on the PDF of your application that you could download after submitting your app. I can't remember if that was downloadable after you submitted or after VMCAS verified your app though.
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If I remember right, the PDF is accessible after submission. At least it was last cycle.
 
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