Illinois C/O 2028

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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OOS Interview!
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Does anyone know if we have to submit our fall transcript?
 
OOS Interview!
 
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Second interview of the cycle for me I’m insanely grateful I genuinely did not expect my first cycle to go this well.
Anyone have resources for interview prep they want to share? I’ll wish I lived closer so I could visit the school.
 
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OOS interview invite!! 2 questions, does anyone know the formatting of the interviews? As well, do we know a time frame/length of interviews? I work full-time and I am trying to ask for that day off, I am just curious if its is a all-day event with interviews and meetings with students, etc or if its just a quick 15-20 min interview and then you are done.
 
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I have an interview from another school on the same day. I’m praying that they are not at the same time.
 
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ohnaurcleo said:
OOS interview invite!! 2 questions, does anyone know the formatting of the interviews? As well, do we know a time frame/length of interviews? I work full-time and I am trying to ask for that day off, I am just curious if its is a all-day event with interviews and meetings with students, etc or if its just a quick 15-20 min interview and then you are done.
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They have an info session at I think 2 different times (same info given by the school in both but questions asked by people may be different) but the actual interview is under 30 min (mine was honestly like 10 min and most of the ones where I was on the interview panel were 15 min or so). There’s a panel with I think 3 (maybe it’s 4?) different people (an alumni, someone who works at the school, and a 3rd/4th year student) and they ask you a few questions. They know nothing about your application, just your name. Just be yourself and answer the questions honestly, not just what you think they want as an answer. We care more about *how* you answer rather than you being “right” or “wrong.” You are allowed to ask for a second to collect your thoughts. You don’t have to immediately blurt out your answer after they ask it. You’re more than allowed to take some time to think and formulate your answer.
 
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SkiOtter said:
They have an info session at I think 2 different times (same info given by the school in both but questions asked by people may be different) but the actual interview is under 30 min (mine was honestly like 10 min and most of the ones where I was on the interview panel were 15 min or so). There’s a panel with I think 3 (maybe it’s 4?) different people (an alumni, someone who works at the school, and a 3rd/4th year student) and they ask you a few questions. They know nothing about your application, just your name. Just be yourself and answer the questions honestly, not just what you think they want as an answer. We care more about *how* you answer rather than you being “right” or “wrong.” You are allowed to ask for a second to collect your thoughts. You don’t have to immediately blurt out your answer after they ask it. You’re more than allowed to take some time to think and formulate your answer.
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This was helpful, thank you! I've heard some mixed things about the interviewers' attitudes. Some people say they were very friendly/personable, and some say that they are trained to be serious and generally unresponsive to avoid bias. Does it vary between the panels?
 
For anyone that’s a current student at Illinois, is the faculty/administration typically as rude as the rejection letters they sent out, or do they not treat their students like that. I got an interview invite, but their rejection letters made me look at the school sideways and I’m unsure if I would want to go there if that’s how the staff is
 
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spiane said:
This was helpful, thank you! I've heard some mixed things about the interviewers' attitudes. Some people say they were very friendly/personable, and some say that they are trained to be serious and generally unresponsive to avoid bias. Does it vary between the panels?
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It's person dependant. There's no real training to be an interviewer and comes down to who volunteers. So if someone is less personable in real life, they'll be less personable in an interview.
jimbo42 said:
For anyone that’s a current student at Illinois, is the faculty/administration typically as rude as the rejection letters they sent out, or do they not treat their students like that. I got an interview invite, but their rejection letters made me look at the school sideways and I’m unsure if I would want to go there if that’s how the staff is
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I failed out of Illinois due to grades and had to repeat first year. Then during second year, my sister died two weeks into the year and I was gone for 2.5 weeks. The school was 100% supportive and the dean went to bat for me with the academic committee after her death and my grades tanked.

I never received a rejection letter from Illinois (besides my dismissal letter). So I would have to see the letter to gauge how I would interpret it. Rudeness has a level of subjectivity to it and I'd want to see for myself prior to judging
 
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battie said:
It's person dependant. There's no real training to be an interviewer and comes down to who volunteers. So if someone is less personable in real life, they'll be less personable in an interview.

I failed out of Illinois due to grades and had to repeat first year. Then during second year, my sister died two weeks into the year and I was gone for 2.5 weeks. The school was 100% supportive and the dean went to bat for me with the academic committee after her death and my grades tanked.

I never received a rejection letter from Illinois (besides my dismissal letter). So I would have to see the letter to gauge how I would interpret it. Rudeness has a level of subjectivity to it and I'd want to see for myself prior to judging
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Here was my rejection letter. Everyone got the same one of course and people on reddit were making fun of it
IMG_7865.png
 
Little Red Rats said:
Here was my rejection letter. Everyone got the same one of course and people on reddit were making fun of it View attachment 381407
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Yeah, I have zero issue with this. It's straight to the point and that's about it. And I applied for 3 cycles with a total of 14 rejections.

I mean, what do people expect when they're told no?
 
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When every other school acknowledges the hard work people put in in applications and that it was a tough or competitive year and they’re sure the rejected student will make a great fit somewhere else, whereas illinois writes 3 short sentences and tells people to make alternate plans like Illinois was their only option or everyone’s top choice. Someone who’s always advocating for people to go to illinois is of course gonna be biased, but it’s good to hear the faculty isn’t rude in person.
 
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jimbo42 said:
When every other school acknowledges the hard work people put in in applications and that it was a tough or competitive year and they’re sure the rejected student will make a great fit somewhere else, whereas illinois writes 3 short sentences and tells people to make alternate plans like Illinois was their only option or everyone’s top choice. Someone who’s always advocating for people to go to illinois is of course gonna be biased, but it’s good to hear the faculty isn’t rude in person.
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And I would argue that other schools acknowledging it was a hard cycle is trite and doesn't mean anything because the vast majority of cycles are hard. And there's probably a 10-15% of applicants who are denied that would not make good veterinarians, who had red flags in their letters of rec or essays, who didn't read instructions and applied without pre-reqs/appropriate GPA, ect. They get the same generic line of being a great applicant for elsewhere or at a later time despite their failings. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Those letters or no less generic.

I also always advocate for students to act as if they're denied until they're accepted; alternative plans should be thought of before the application cycle is even started. But unfortunately, most of us don't think about that until we're in this spot; I know I didn't (can't tell you how much I regret my bio degree after the fact!).

I also primarily advocate for people to go to their cheapest acceptance, not necessarily Illinois all the time. I'd probably say I don't recommend Illinois about half the time since they're around the 50% mark for COA out of most schools.

I absolutely have a bias for Illinois and I wouldnt be a vet if it wasn't for Dr. Foreman specifically as an individual. He gave me his personal cell phone number after my sister died for just in case. But I've also spoken extensively about the cons of the program (I did fail out after all and was made to repeat a year because I missed the mark by half a percent). I just don't like taking immediate offense to a completely neutral letter of denial that has no malice intent or meaning behind it, or automatically assuming the school as a institution is filled with rude heartless people based on three sentences.
 
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Yeah all of my other rejection letters tried to be as gentle as possible about it and offered ways to help. Illinois was just like “do something else because you sure as hell won’t be here.”

Here was VMCVM for example.
IMG_7868.png
 
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Purdue as well:
IMG_7869.jpg

The point is there are certainly better ways of wording it.
 
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And my point is that there was no negativity in their short, to the point, neutral letter. Lacking positive words of affirmation is not automatically rude. Quite literally the definition of neutrality.

I honestly wish schools would be up front to candidates on how qualified they were and why they were denied. For those who have serious red flags, it would save them time and money from reapplying immediately. For others, it would give them a sense of where they stand amongst the pack of thousands; they can then easily determine if reapplying is worth the shot. None of them publish their attrition rate, none publish their how many applicants should never have applied, etc.

However admissions and academics committees of 15-20 people don't have the time or money for that. And, not for nothing, 1000s times 50-100 dollar applicant fees is just another revenue stream. And that goes for all schools, including the ones with generic positive dismissal letters.
 
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Just to add, I would also be careful with what you post online. I know of vets on admissions committees who look at the social medias of applicants including SDN and take into account what they have put out there. So if you say negative things about the school on here they might see that if you apply again in a future cycle and view it as unprofessional.
 
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On the website it says 150 people are accepted and it's approximately split 50/50 between IS and OOS applicants. Are these numbers accurate or do they vary more? Do they ever accept more IS applicants?
 
spiane said:
On the website it says 150 people are accepted and it's approximately split 50/50 between IS and OOS applicants. Are these numbers accurate or do they vary more? Do they ever accept more IS applicants?
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All schools actually over accept by a certain percentage. As an example, prior to the class of 2021, Illinois over accepted IS by less than 20% because over 80% or IS students would accept their seat. So they didn't need to have a long wait list. However, they would over accept OOS students by something like 40-45% because a lot more OOS students would decline in favor of their IS or "dream" school.

Then the class of 2020 happened (my original class). A huge number of OOS students accepted their seat, resulting in a class of 180 as of April 15, 2016. They closed the wait list at that time, sending an email that day stating they wouldn't be pulling from the wait list that year. They were more lenient for deferrals. Eventually the class was reduced to 164 and the school was placed on a weird accreditation status because class sizes cannot be drastically changed without the AVMA COE permission. They had to bust their butts to get things accommodated because the remodeled classrooms were only suppose to fit 140, not to mention everything else. Obviously it all worked out and the school took advantage of this since only a few years later, they've gotten permission from the COE to allow a class size 25% larger than the class of 2019.

spiane said:
Just to add, I would also be careful with what you post online. I know of vets on admissions committees who look at the social medias of applicants including SDN and take into account what they have put out there. So if you say negative things about the school on here they might see that if you apply again in a future cycle and view it as unprofessional.
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This is also true. There was an incident where an old SDN vet student from back in the late 2010s was reprimanded by their vet school for what they had posted. She hasn't been on social media in general in a long time. So really anyone is fair game based on the code of conduct of the student.
 
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Hi - I am looking at this summer's Certificate of Vet Science at the Univ of IL as a way to increase my GPA. Anybody here attend that certificate program? Recommend it? Or is it not really worth the 8K? Does anybody think it helped them get into vet school this cycle?
 
dvminmyfuture said:
Hi - I am looking at this summer's Certificate of Vet Science at the Univ of IL as a way to increase my GPA. Anybody here attend that certificate program? Recommend it? Or is it not really worth the 8K? Does anybody think it helped them get into vet school this cycle?
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I believe this is the program @VeggieTrex did
 
VeggieTrex said:
It is, although I did the academic year program. I would highly recommend it, and it is highly relevant to veterinary school material.

I also had a really good time with it!
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thanks for the reply! in your situation, did you participate to raise your gpa? this is why I would participate, do you feel it helped you gain entrance to vet school?
 
dvminmyfuture said:
thanks for the reply! in your situation, did you participate to raise your gpa? this is why I would participate, do you feel it helped you gain entrance to vet school?
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It definitely raised my GPA. I am also doing the Master's and applying this cycle so it's hard to say right now. I do know it's helped other people though!
 
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SnakeNerd said:
Does anyone know when we'll find out what time our interviews are?
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Not yet, but there is a somewhat schedule for the interview day on the website. Just saying interviews are 8-5 and there’s a couple information sessions.
 
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Does anyone know when after interviews Illinois sends out acceptances/denials?
 
futurevetH02 said:
Does anyone know when after interviews Illinois sends out acceptances/denials?
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Couple of weeks max. My year was March 1. But the following year was 10 days after.
 
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Any idea when we will be notified of our interview time slot? I know probably not for another week or so but I'm getting antsy! 😅
 
spiane said:
Any idea when we will be notified of our interview time slot? I know probably not for another week or so but I'm getting antsy! 😅
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I believe last year we were notified three days before the interview day
 
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hey guys! This is my first time using SDN, but I’m OOS with an interview. in all the stress of waiting to hear back from everywhere, working full time, and taking an additional class, I completely missed the deadline to send over my fall transcript. I didn’t take any pre-requisites last fall, I was finishing up my degree. I just requested a transcript from my university, which will probably process later this week. Am I screwed? Are they gonna take away my interview? Do you think I still have a shot at getting in even though my fall transcript was sent late? please let me know, and thanks in advance from a nervous first time applicant
 
wannabevet123 said:
hey guys! This is my first time using SDN, but I’m OOS with an interview. in all the stress of waiting to hear back from everywhere, working full time, and taking an additional class, I completely missed the deadline to send over my fall transcript. I didn’t take any pre-requisites last fall, I was finishing up my degree. I just requested a transcript from my university, which will probably process later this week. Am I screwed? Are they gonna take away my interview? Do you think I still have a shot at getting in even though my fall transcript was sent late? please let me know, and thanks in advance from a nervous first time applicant
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Call them and ask. No one on here can tell you what their policy is and if they’re flexible with the deadline.
 
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