MCAT vs. GRE?

[lilrosebush]

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i am currently a 3rd year undergrad and just took the MCAT this past april 😱 , but i recently started looking into vet school. i read that the MCAT is acceptable, but when i looked at the requirements for specific vet schools they only mentioned GRE scores. does anyone know if i could apply with just MCAT scores or is taking the GRE recommended? thanks!

 

[adenovirus]

Some vet schools will gladly take an MCAT score, but some will not. I took the MCAT under the assumption that it was a harder test and all vet schools would accept it...I was wrong.

Michigan State and Missouri (I am sure that there are others), for instance will take the MCAT without a GRE score...Purdue will not (they take only GRE scores - and they average multiple GRE exams nonetheless 🙁). ALL vet schools will take the GRE, however, and that is considered the standard test for vet school admission. Hope that helps.

Adeno

 

[HorseyVet]

i am currently a 3rd year undergrad and just took the MCAT this past april 😱 , but i recently started looking into vet school. i read that the MCAT is acceptable, but when i looked at the requirements for specific vet schools they only mentioned GRE scores. does anyone know if i could apply with just MCAT scores or is taking the GRE recommended? thanks!

Most vets schools accept the GRE...they may take your MCAT scores in place if you talk to them. I've known a few programs that with take either depending on the students circumstance...That being said the GRE is a MUCH easier test...many schools that take both the GRE or MCAT do not take that into account (Ohio state)...Basically you'll get a point value dependent on your percentile...they told me at OSU that they don't even see which test you took. So this means you don't get any credit for doing OK on a hard test vs. doing excellent on an easy one.

I'm wondering though...why did you take the MCAT if you want to go to vet school? Did you recently make a shift from human med to vet? There may be a little application concerns about your "devotion" also....

Also, you'll need to see how long your scores are good for. If you aren't applying this year then the MCAT score may be no good anyway b/c it will be too old.

 

[wishes]

i am currently a 3rd year undergrad and just took the MCAT this past april 😱 , but i recently started looking into vet school. i read that the MCAT is acceptable, but when i looked at the requirements for specific vet schools they only mentioned GRE scores. does anyone know if i could apply with just MCAT scores or is taking the GRE recommended? thanks!

I took both the GRE and the MCAT and applied to both medical school and veterinary school at the same time. It can be done, but I would not really recommend it.
I can say from experience that the general GRE is much easier than the MCAT, although unfortunately your MCAT studying will not help you out as much for the general GRE as you would think. I did not take the biology subject GRE, as most schools do not require it.
Even though you took the MCAT, I would encourage you to take the general GRE also, if you do apply to veterinary school. Very few schools accept the MCAT, although some do. I sent my GRE and MCAT scores to schools that accepted both. Cornell, where I will be attending, is one veterinary school that does honor MCAT scores.
If you are wavering between medical school and veterinary school, I can totally sympathize with you because I have been in your shoes. I have now committed to veterinary school and will be beginning this fall. If you have any specific questions about making the choice between the two careers, please feel free to ask me.
Also, you may want to check out the previous thread, vet residency, as it has some discussion that pertains to this subject.
The link to it is:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=270883
Good luck!

 

[HorseyVet]

[COLOR=DarkSlateGrayI did not take the biology subject GRE, as most schools do not require it.
Good luck![/COLOR]

I thought that test was uber easy...I had to take it after a heavy final exam week...never studied for it at all and was in the 95%

 

[lilrosebush]

thanks all for your advice - i really appreciate it!

horseyvet and wishes,
throughout college so far, i have been human med, but i have always loved animals ever since i was little (whenever ppl asked what i wanted to be when i grew up i answered a vet lol). my dad is a doctor and my mom is a nurse and i come from a huge family of doctors so that has heavily influenced my decision thus far. this summer would be the summer i apply to med school so i just wanted to explore some other options first before commiting. MCAT scores are good for up to 5 years i believe, so that wouldn't be a problem. i am planning on using this summer to work in an animal clinic of some kind and gain some real exposure to working with animals. i've had tons of pets throughout my life but that's not exactly the same. if i did choose to go the vet route then i would dedicate a good year to year-and-a-half to clinic work and hopefully, that would, to some degree, take care of the "devotion" problem you mentioned. i know it wouldn't look like i wanted to become a vet since the first day i was born, but i just had to try out other avenues in order to realize what was right for me. wishes, what finally convinced you??? thanks for that other thread too, it was very helpful. anyways, i hope that explained a little bit behind my question. thanks again!

 

[lilrosebush]

wishes,
i just read a bit more of the other thread and realized you already answered my question! i'll just read it from there 🙂

 

[wishes]

I know it wouldn't look like I wanted to become a vet since the first day I was born, but I just had to try out other avenues in order to realize what was right for me

Actually, as long as you have some veterinary experience to back yourself up, I think admissions committees view this approach as a very convincing and mature outlook.

wishes, what finally convinced you??? Thanks for that other thread too, it was very helpful.

Reading the other thread hopefully helped you see some of the things that convinced me to go the veterinary route. Unfortunately that thread also opened up a whole different can of worms that I did not intend for it to 🙁.
I think the long and short of it is that I am a happier and more productive person if I don’t take life (or myself) too seriously. For me, this lifestyle will be easier to achieve as a veterinarian, rather than as a physician.
Besides, animals are just cool!

 

[HorseyVet]

that would, to some degree, take care of the "devotion" problem you mentioned. i know it wouldn't look like i wanted to become a vet since the first day i was born, but i just had to try out other avenues in order to realize what was right for me. wishes, what finally convinced you??? thanks for that other thread too, it was very helpful. anyways, i hope that explained a little bit behind my question. thanks again!

Again, sounds like you read that other thread but I would also add, in case you had any worries...In most of the veterinary interviews, people are keen on asking something to the affect of "why go into vet med, instead of human which makes a ton more money"....Usually you have a little "tell us about yourself and/or how you decided on vet med" time...When I did that I covered where and why I made the switch to vet med, and that part of the reason why I did it was because in vet med one really does get to work with people and animals and that this was important to me....This mindset also removes you from the dreaded "I want to work with animals because I hate people" population.

They do want to make sure you are devoted, but initially wanting to do human medicine can really be seen as a plus depending on why you made the switch. I remember I was a little concerned b/c I had so much straight research and human med experience...that I obviously was doing instead of working at an animal hospital... that it would look poorly in comparision to the people that had been vet med from day one. I think similar to your situation, for me it was a matter of exposure...I'd always been around animals, but I'd been a ton more exposed and directed to human med than vet such that it almost didn't occur to me at first to weld the two interests together.

Anyway, good luck!