Illinois

[seaturtlegirl]

UGH! I have been so distracted with everything that I forgot to look at the link given in the letter until today! thanks for the heads up guys!

I have looked at the list of types of questions...does anyone know if they are looking for veterinary related or answers, or can we pull from any experiences?

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[Tsuki]

From what I gather, we don't have to limit ourselves to veterinary related answers...I think I might have read that somewhere on their CVM webpage...

 

[TurboVet]

i think they would have said something if we had to limit our responses to our vet-related experiences. i think they're looking for solid examples of how you apply your problem solving skills, or your leadership qualities, and i know i'm planning on pulling those from extra-curric activities, work, vet, life experiences. i want to be able to give good examples, so i'm not planning on limiting myself. if i walk in the door and they say "only vet experiences please" you'll know me by the giant wet spot on my nice suit.

 

[alonepear]

I'm curious about the Tablet PC requirement. Anyone know if they require you to purchase a specific brand/model through the school, or if it is up to the student? I'm actually kind of excited that I'd have a reason to update my pc

Also I'm wondering how extensive our tour will be.. I plan on wearing low-heeled shoes, which is fine for a once-around the school, but I've heard of a few school's tours going through the fields & pastures, in which case they may not be suitable...

 

[Tsuki]

Also I'm wondering how extensive our tour will be.. I plan on wearing low-heeled shoes, which is fine for a once-around the school, but I've heard of a few school's tours going through the fields & pastures, in which case they may not be suitable...

I didn't even think about fields and pastures. My interview outfit also includes low heeled shoes and I figured I'd be alright if it was a walk around the school, but not too sure about a walk outdoors......

 

[alonepear]

Did everyone make it home safely before the blizzard?? We managed to bump our flight scheduled for this evening to last night, and I'm cozy and warm in my 50-degree home state of NC =) Goodluck to everyone flying out today!

Question, did they say we'd hear a response by February 21st, or is that the day they will be mailing out the responses?

 

[cyrille104]

Did everyone make it home safely before the blizzard?? We managed to bump our flight scheduled for this evening to last night, and I'm cozy and warm in my 50-degree home state of NC =) Goodluck to everyone flying out today!

Question, did they say we'd hear a response by February 21st, or is that the day they will be mailing out the responses?

My friend and I raced the storm back to Chicago, it was kind of scary. The 21st is when they send them out.

 

[Tsuki]

Yep, got back alright. I arrived at O'hare a little early for my flight to Newark at 7:20. So they put me on an earlier flight at 6:20. The plane didnt arrive at the gate until after 6:20 and we didn't take off until much later. Meanwhile, my original flight had already taken off

Glad I didn't get stuck..I really just wanted to get home..

 

[Secreast84]

My roomate had an interview yesterday. She decided to drive there so I went with her. We thought we weren't going to make it back due to the storm. She was the very last interview and we had to drive back to NC that evening. We didn't run into any of the blizzard though.

 

[seaturtlegirl]

Got home safely as well...wouldn't you know that they said on the news today that for the first time in 35 years, the school is closed!!! Good thing the interviews were on monday!

 

[PdxYOSHI]

Me and my hubby raced back into Chicago on Monday night to fly out (interview at 1pm, flight left at 6pm) instead of trying to go with our original flight on Tues 2/13. I'm so glad my paranoia made me change our flights since it seemed like a lot of flights were canceled/delayed on Tuesday. I'm really appreciating the 45 degree rain in Oregon right now. What did everyone else think of the school/campus?

 

[nordicat]

hey all! I'm new around here, but I just wanted to wish everyone who interviewed at U of I GOOD LUCK!

I apologize for my state's LOVELY weather! Glad you guys all made it out okay! Now all we have to do is wait a week to find out...at least they're fairly quick about it.

(i'm in-state, btw, and mail usually takes 2 days to get up here [chicago] from Champaign...so I figure it'll be next Friday or Saturday when I find out)

 

[anc84]

Yeah, it was weird having snow days in college, but I felt like a little kid again waiting for them to post our closing. Well, they didn't post it the first day until 8:54 am, so I found out by trudging through the blizzard to my 9am lecture and having them send us home. We knew by 6pm that night that it was going to be closed again the next day though!

I'll keep you guys posted about the acceptance/rejection letters though as I will probably be one of the first to receive it because I am in Champaign. I'm guessing the two snow days might delay it though since only "essential personnel" had to report to work...I don't think that includes the admissions committee.

 

[mainegirl85]

Good Luck to all who are going to accept offers from Illinois. However they CANCELLED my interview after I emailed them saying I had the flu and couldnt travel. I asked for another opportunity but was eliminated. Sorry, but I think this awful policy should be made public

 

[ri23]

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. I agree that is a terrible policy.

 

[Bluepawelephant]

That is a shame, I feel that it is unfair to limit ones acceptance based on the interview. How is the interviews a good way to determine if a person will make a good student, or veterinarian? It all seems to depend on the interviewers that each person gets and if they like you or not. Does anyone feel the same way? The reason why I ask, how is it that one person will make it to the interview portion one year and not get accepted and then get accepted the following year, eventhough nothing has changed on their application, they just had different interviewers?

My interview experience at one school was very positive and then at another felt negative because of the interviewers. One group seemed truly interested while the other group seemed to be annoyed and impatient.
The later group made it difficult to explain situations and provide results because I felt that they wanted to be anywhere but listening to another applicant.

 

[anc84]

I'm sorry you were sick and couldn't interview here mainegirl. They don't accept a reschedule because they have their interview system organized. They do all 300 interviews in one day and then send out letters a week later. If they were to allow reschedules, it would push the whole thing back for everyone.

I think the interview process is important. I'm not saying I like interviews- they are very stressful- but I do think it's important. U of I does behavior based interviews, which are scored based on how well they are answered, not whether or not the interviewer likes you. I'm sure having a good connection to your interviewers plays a small roll, but that goes towards character judgment. You should be able to strike up a conversation with the vets and professors in a good way if this is what you want to do. All of the interviewers I ran across seemed very friendly and nice. None of them were required to be there- they chose to be part of the selection process. I would assume that people who did not get in one year would do something in the year off to improve themselves in some way like more vet or animal experience. In that sense, they have a higher rank because of experience and they also have more and better experiences to pull responses to interview questions from.

 

[RosieMoll3]

U of I does behavior based interviews, which are scored based on how well they are answered

Speaking of which, does anyone have any insight into their scoring system? The numbers my interviewers wrote down after I answered each question were in plain sight, and it was a little distracting. When they asked me if I had any questions for them, I almost said, "yes, what does that number you just wrote mean?"

 

[HiatusAfflatus]

yeah i was wondering if high or low numbers were good on the scoring

 

[nordicat]

yeah i was wondering if high or low numbers were good on the scoring

i would assume high numbers are better than low. This is because everything i've seen regarding the scoring system says that the highest scored applicants will be accepted.

I kinda wish I'd paid more attention to what they scribbled down!

 

[anc84]

Yeah, I'm pretty positive high scores are the best...this isn't golf- we're already ranked from high to low and then they compare it to the interview. I think they change their system periodically because the vet who wrote my letter of rec (who went here and his daughter is a fourth year here) said you can just get a positive, neutral, or negative to your responses, but I don't think that's how it works anymore.