For sure, in terms of low GPA, I'm thinking anything in the range of 2.5-3.0 in regards to either science or cumulative. An upward trend in the last 45 is definitely something I wanted to see if anyone had that may have contributed to admission decisions in their favor.
So I think based off of your thoughts of low GPA, I fall in that category. I’m a first time applicant this current cycle and I legit only applied to the three schools listed in this forum due to my science GPA barely making the cutoff for most schools. For reference, my IS is Ohio.
I’m graduating this May with my BS in Animal Science with an emphasis in Pre Veterinary Medicine and a double minor in bio and chem. According to VMCAS, my cGPA was a 3.20, science GPA 2.90. I didn’t calculate my last 45 myself but I know it is an uptrend trend. According to ISU calculations, it’s a 3.37. This past fall my semester GPA was a 3.55 and I made the Dean’s list. I had kind of a lot happen during my undergrad, which I explained in the explanation statement - my grandfather suddenly passed during midterm week of my freshman year, my dorm situation sophomore year was extremely toxic, as well as my great grandma, great aunt, and dog all dying that year as well.
Where my uni is located, and with the amount of pre-vet kids we have, it’s difficult to find a clinic job. Due to only being home in the summers, it made it difficult to find one at home too, and I didn’t have a job at a clinic in high school unfortunately. This led me to have a shortened amount of vet hours - 717 hours to be exact. I did end up getting two different jobs last year, one at a SA GP and the other a SA ER. And was lucky to get a lot of hours this past summer and good LORs from 2 vets as well (from the GP).
I’ve been doing research since my sophomore year ranging from COVID studies to cell culture and applied with 90 hours. My other stats were:
Volunteer: 35 hours (this was another weak spot of mine)
Extracurricular: 1,538 hours
Employment (non-animal related): 4,162 hours
Animal/non-vet hours: 2,380 hours
Other food for thought is that I scored in the 4th quartile for CASPER. I was rejected from VMCVM in early December and rejected from LMU with no interview yesterday. Only school left to hear from is ISU on the 14th.