Here's my situation...

[Snakegal]

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Ok, I've been reading post after post and I'm learning a lot. I'm just wondering about my circumstances. So, I'm going to lay out my life and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

I got my BS from Texas A&M (WHOOP!) 👍 in bio-environmental sciences. My undergrad GPA isn't that great. I went through a period I like to call my "Stupid years". I started in 1993 and graduated in 1999. I not only had my degree, but also a husband and a child (I didn't acquire these until after my stupid years). I worked as a field biologist for a couple of years and then went to grad school. I started in Biophysics and was studying the metabolic rate of killer whales when my advisor got another job and left. He kept saying that we'd finish, but after waiting on him for three years I was ready to quit.

Instead of quitting I transferred to another school. The town I live in is "geographically challenged" so it was the only other school within driving distance. I started last fall and am planning to defend this spring. I basically had to start over. I'm doing research on snakes which is great and I really love it. I was planning to pursue my PhD after I got done, but couldn't get excited about it.

I thought about what I wanted to be when I "grew up" and what it was I needed to do to get there. Vet school (with specialization in zoo/exotics) was the answer.

My concerns are that
1. My undergrad GPA will hurt me even though I will finish my MS with a 4.0
2. I didn't take 8 hours of Organic in undergrad but I had a year of Organic/Biochem during my first year of grad school. So will they let that count?
3. I only took 4 hours of physics. I didn't know how this would affect me and my chances of getting in to some places.
4. I have had Animal nutrition, animal science courses, physiology courses (one for each system of the body), evolutionary genetics, herpetology, among many other science classes.
5. As for experience - I've worked for a vet one summer and then for another vet for about a year. I worked at the Wildlife and Exotic center down at A&M. I've worked in a pet store for about 1.5 years during college. As I said I'm currently working with about 120 snakes. I call it running a snake brothel. I feed 'em and breed 'em. I'm also drawing blood from them every month. Once I finish my MS, I want to voluteer at the zoo (an hour from my house) and work at the vet's office again.
6. I'm not applying this year to vet school b/c I want to make sure that my thesis gets done. I should have about 5 publications coming out of this and I want to make sure before I go and tell admission boards anything.
7. I've had the GRE but will have to retake it b/c I took it in 2001. I'll also have the biology GRE done (required to graduate in the spring).
8. I would like some input on schools that have good exotic/zoo programs. I feel that I'm a competitive candidate, but I don't want to end up in the wrong program for me. (But I DO however want to get in somewhere!!😀)

I'm so sorry this went on for so long. I appreciate any advice. My husband told me last night that he knows that vet school would be a better choice for me than PhD school (even though PhD programs pay stipends) because I can't stop talking about every little thing I find out about the different schools. He can definitely tell that I'm more passionate about vet school and my propects afterwards than just obtaining my PhD.

Ok, I'm gone so you don't have to read anymore!!

Thanks again!
-Laters....

 

[bakaduin]

Well I would say your definitely going to have to finish up with Physics and Id guess youd have to take atleast Organic 2 with its Lab. I think these questions would be good for an advisor at a vet school though.

 

[cattykitty]

Just speaking from what I know, so far....

1. While your undergrad GPA might be a factor, your most recent grades and degree will definitely outweigh what you did previously. so 4.0 will definitely add to your application.

2. Regarding the course work, you really should check with the schools that you are interested. If they say you haven't fulfilled the prereq, you probably should just take the ones that they do accept. (Another way to boost your GPA!)

5. I guess most vet schools want you to have experiences working with different animals. But also note that working w/ animals does not equal to vet experiences. You need to work w/ a vet side by side to count as vet experiences. So make sure you also have considerable number of hours of vet exp.


8. Sorry, I dont know much about exotic/zoo programs. So can't really give you any advice on that.


But best of luck on your thesis and on your application next year. I'm sure all your research and work experiences will pay off. 👍

 

[ri23]

1. While your undergrad GPA might be a factor, your most recent grades and degree will definitely outweigh what you did previously. so 4.0 will definitely add to your application.

This is not really true. Though getting a 4.0 will help schools still pretty heavily look at your undergrad GPA.

As for your classes, the good or bad news is (depending on how you look at it) that for some schools your pre-reqs have to be completed in the past 10 years. So for schools like Ohio, some of the classes you took awhile ago will have to be retaken. Though this may seem like a pain, it may also be beneficial as your grades from those classes won't count either.

As for the pre-reqs, most schools are pretty strict on their pre-reqs and you probably wouldn't be able to get away with what you've taken.

 

[BobDog]

But also note that working w/ animals does not equal to vet experiences. You need to work w/ a vet side by side to count as vet experiences. So make sure you also have considerable number of hours of vet exp.
👍

This is not true. The research that you have done with snakes (I assume it is novel research done under the direction of a PhD scientist, right?) counts as vet experience. The VMCAS and vet schools are very clear that research performed under the direction of a PhD, MD, or DVM counts as veterinary experience since one component of veterinary medicine is research. I would think that you will have alot of hours that will strengthen your application tremendously, since it is research AND is very applicable to vet med. So...don't let anyone tell you that it isn't vet experience, because it is 😀.
I think your experiences are pretty good. You should definitely add to them, but I would focus on rounding out your pre-reqs since there is probably no doubt that schools are going to require the second organic. You can do it!

 

[BobDog]

As for your classes, the good or bad news is (depending on how you look at it) that for some schools your pre-reqs have to be completed in the past 10 years. So for schools like Ohio, some of the classes you took awhile ago will have to be retaken.

This is something that my schools have waived (although they had 6 year rules) since I was away for 2 years doing volunteer work and now am finishing a PhD in a related field. The schools figured I am current or more than current in most of the core coursework. Probably your graduate work would prove this, which will allow you to petition for a waiver from the admissions committee. They gave it to me no problem at Auburn and K-State. Most schools will certainly consider it since they are serious about recruiting people with research skills and interests (and therefore advanced degrees), and these things don't always come within 6 years of undergrad. I would definitely check before you apply though. Hope this helps. 😀

 

[keyingredient]

Yes as the last person just said, your undergrad GPA will still be important and could be a problem at some schools. I think my situation sounds so similar to yours... BS in 2000 and an MS in 2004, and married... I was very surprised to find out that some schools could care less that I got an MS but other schools would average everything together. Some schools had an 8 year cut off for certain courses too which really hurt me. My advice is to get the Purdue VMSAR publication (http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/) and study each school's criteria to see which best fits what you have. One nice thing everyone keeps telling me as an older applicant with an improvement is that we will sometimes be given a little forgiveness in some aspects (like GPA) if our other attributes like additional education and experience are well above average. Good luck!

OK - I meant ri23 as the "last person." While I was writing, BobDog posted a couple replies 🙂

 

[BobDog]

Yes as the last person just said, your undergrad GPA will still be important and could be a problem at some schools. I think my situation sounds so similar to yours... BS in 2000 and an MS in 2004, and married... I was very surprised to find out that some schools could care less that I got an MS but other schools would average everything together. Some schools had an 8 year cut off for certain courses too which really hurt me. My advice is to get the Purdue VMSAR publication (http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/) and study each school's criteria to see which best fits what you have. One nice thing everyone keeps telling me as an older applicant with an improvement is that we will sometimes be given a little forgiveness in some aspects (like GPA) if our other attributes like additional education and experience are well above average. Good luck!

Sorry to keep chiming in...I really should be writing. Oh well 😳. The problem with grad school GPAs is that there is alot of fluff as far as research hours go (almost always As and almost always 9 hours or more per semester), so getting a high GPA in grad school is sort of easy. For me, what wasn't easy (at least at my school) was doing good in highly competitive grad school classes where 100 PhD, MD PhD and masters students are mixed together and 6 or so As are given out. The moral of the story (and I hope adcoms at least understand this) is overall GPA isn't as impressive as getting good grades in advanced classes. Even if they don't look at your grad school GPA, your dedication to completing your degree and experience will be recognized. So I think it won't be that they don't care that you got an MS, they just may not care about your MS GPA 😀. As someone said, some schools will throw your grad school GPA out and some will average it in, so you may want to target these schools.

 

[Snakegal]

Thank you so much for all the great advice. It's so hard to show who I am and what I'm capable of on a sheet of paper.

Yes, my snake work is under a PhD advisor and it is pretty new stuff. One thing I'm looking at has only been done once and it wasn't in a tropical species. The IGF levels have only been looked at in reptiles twice (once in alligators and once with garter snakes). I'm using a tropical snake plus adding the effects of diet and genetics...

I'm hoping to slowly narrow things down so I can focus on what I need to do. I guess - first things first - I need to finish my MS.

I know that Grad GPA is fluffed a lot. You can't really look at overall, but at individual classes. I've gotten A's in some pretty tough courses for my MS and I got A's and B's in grad level courses (that aren't included in my MS) in biochem, organic, and physiology. We had classes for each area of physio.

Thanks again for all the help. It appears (as with everything) there's no universal solution.

-Laters...

 

[cyrille104]

It sounds like you still have a lot of stuff to do, and that's good if you can stick to it. The only advice I have is to make sure this is absolutely what you want to do. Zoo medicine is VERY competitive and VERY difficult to get into. From what I hear, you basically have to work in small animal practice until a spot opens up at a zoo (someone retires), and even then the pay is usually poor. If you can do it, that's awesome. Just be prepared before you put all that work in and change careers. Good luck