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I think plenty has been said on the subject at this point. Can we get back to talking specifically about Midwestern, please?
Midwestern Class of 2020 applicants
- Thread starter rockatiel
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I didn't say any of those things. Not a single one. But you told me I was belittling you, too. Maybe, just maybe there's a little defensiveness here.
If you are seriously this invested, vet school applications can break you. we don't want that to happen. It would be really good for people to remember it is out of your control now. You can only apply and interview if given the chance. Take the time to try and focus on other things. Don't burn out BEFORE getting into vet school.
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OMG, get some therapy.
Yes, if you want to be "terrified," you're allowed to be.
But that doesn't make it reasonable. In this case, it's stupid. It's just vet school. It's not someone holding a gun to your head, it's not living amidst some war-torn nation, it's not the half-second before an impending horrible car wreck ...
... it's just an application to a school.
Sure. Be terrified if you want. It's your choice. You can be terrified to step on cracks in a sidewalk if you want, too. That's equally dumb.
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This I appreciate! Definitely burned out before vet school!! Very much so. Always took on too much and literally gave up eeeeeeverything to put myself where I needed to be. I definitely Agree this time can break you. That's definitely how I feel! Been thinking about that a lot lately
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what hobbies do you have? Maybe focus on something fun? Go to a wine and painting night or go to a batting cage and vent some. Play cards against humanity with friends, etc. Focusing on something you have no control over is going to make everything worse.
So funny you say that. During one of my interviews the interviewers asked me what I do for fun and I'm like ummmm. I don't, I answered differently of course. I put myself through school so I work two jobs to pay for everything and My classes are exceptionally tough right now so I basically eat, sleep, study and do it again
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so pick something up. It will probably help you in your school work (decreasing stress can do that). Even just playing an hour worth of video games. But painting and drinking with friends is fun. I highly recommend it. Surely you can take a night off.
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Woah. Neat.
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..... Wait.... Applying to vet school is a terrifying process???? 
...... 🤣 I'm just glad I don't have explosions in my ears or rounds going by my head anymore... this is a breeze.As has been said, just breathe... (into the little brown bag if you must)
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Did it for the first time last Friday and loved it! Music, good company, good vibes, good drinks and an awesome paint-guider/host! My painting came out looking wonderful even though I like to think that I am artistically-challenged!
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No arguments need be started. I've skimmed through some of the craziness above haha hurt my head a little. From the research I conducted before applying to any of the vet schools I looked at multiple break downs of the selection process provided by many schools as I'm sure we all have. I know someone on the admission's board at UF and this is how she explained the selection process and my research backs this GPA/GRE scores is what is looked at first then decisions are made regarding those scores and where they stand against other applicants the breakdowns of the selections process on most of the vet school websites state this. In some cases, at least in Midwesterns case they look at other things as well explanation statements, extracurriculars which I think honestly is the only reason I received an interview invite. Bless Midwestern. UF on the other hand according to my contact if you don't make the cut with either your GPA or GRE scores first then they don't look any further, if your close to that cut off though they may look at some other pieces of the application. Either way I'm just excited to have been offered an interview and ultimately put on the alternate list which is much better then a denial which I'm expecting from a couple of the other schools I have applied to. Ultimately GPA/GRE scores do play their parts, but I know many of the schools are attempting to look past just the numbers, but those stats are the first hurdles.
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a lot of times the minimum GPA is something like a 3.0. But some schools have grade forgiveness. MN comes to mind. So yeah, there's a hurdle but it isn't weighted as much as people have been weighting it here.
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I've been told it's a little higher then a 3.0, but every school is different and weighs everything differently. For instance NC state's OOS min according to a couple of my friends who have applied there is a 3.4 and they do not round up. My friends applied there with GPAs 3.39 they were immediately sent rejection letters stating their GPAs did not meet the min requirement of 3.4. I sought out the schools that don't weigh the GPA's as heavily for that exact reason.
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yes, every school is different. But for many, it is a 3.0
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Which I am grateful for. It was a major part of the research that went into the selecting of the schools I applied for this cycle.
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Agreed <3 No more stressing!
On a lighter note.. who has an interview next month?!! My interview is Dec 2.. Can't wait to meet some of you!!!
D
deleted676737
I am also interviewing on December 2nd! I think there are several of us in this thread. 😉
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Thats so exciting! I'm totally going to run around being like "Where my SDN peeps at?"
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You may have been "told that" by a "couple of friends" but it would be much easier to just go to NCSU's website and find out that they are sorta right and sorta wrong.
It is 3.4 for *out of state* residents for all three of the GPAs they calculate. It is 3.0 for in-state cumulative, 3.3 for required pre-reqs, and 3.3 for last-45.*
As is often the case, actually going to the authoritative source rather than trusting a "couple of friends who have applied there" will get you more complete and more accurate information.
* https://cvm.ncsu.edu/education/dvm/admission/eligibility/
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D
deleted676737
We totally need to come up with a secret SDN handwave or something, hahaha. 😛
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Oh don't worry I checked the website myself back in June when I was trying to figure out which schools I was planning to apply to and since I live in Florida and would be applying OOS the information is correct they were also both OOS applicants as well, but thank you I appreciate your input.
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The pre-vet kids at my university are always so shocked that I know so much information and argue with me from time to time because their cousin's sister's best friend who knows someone who applied to vet school 5 years ago told them something different through the grapevine. I tell them all the same thing - research your shiat yourself. Go to the university's actual website and dig. Be the science student you are (or are at least supposed to be) and seek actual data rather than hearsay.
SDN and your distant relative's neighbor's aunt's nephew are great resources, but seek the source for definitive information. Extrapolate, analyze and make an educated decision.
Unless of course you like 3rd-hand misinformation, then by all means, come, I have some snake oil to sell you...
D
deleted676737
Hahaha, yes, exactly!
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In that case, perhaps when you post information it should be more complete and accurate so as not to mislead someone else.......
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But as you said they should use the "authorative source" rather then any of my postings or my OOS friends who previously applied.
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The difference is that you were attempting to use that as an example to show someone that they were "wrong" by using a single outlier point to their comment that "most" schools have a cutoff of a 3.0...
So you were omitting information, using an outlier and ignoring the entire definition of "most" to attempt to get your opinion and incorrect statement across as some sort of truth or indication that GPA is worth as much as you think it is or whatever the heck your point was. You just happened to not succeed.
I was trying to stay away from the forum since my experience here last year wasn't the greatest (good community, but I too was given the "you can only try to improve yourself since your stat this year isn't great" speech).
Now, my interview is tomorrow and I am getting scare/nervous. I glanced over what was said in the last page or 2, and the truth is that it does freak me out with the GPA. I was rejected from Davis this year (like last year) but my coworker applying for his first time got one. I did my Western interview last week and will be a while before I hear back (I felt meh about it, since I was one of the first to finish both interviews and maybe they didn't show much interest in me). My stats definitely isn't great (3.26 overall, with similar for last 45, and I think lower for overall science) but I did decent on GRE (V:159, Q:163, A:3.5). Back to negative is that I have almost nil for (academic) extracurricular activity (I love hanging out with friends and playing board games as my hobby), but I try to make it up with 2 years of experience (which is still minor) working at a specialty practice.
The point? I'm very poor stat-wise, and somewhat of a dull person. I am scare of rejections and will be quite pessimistic after tomorrow's interview. I wish schools like Davis would see pass things than GPA - I am a hard worker who will cover many days and night shifts for my hospital, come in days off to transport patients for imaging, stay overtime to help when it gets going, etc. I don't know if I will be able to get those points across - I blank out when I freak out. But I am trying - at some point that is all we can do...try.
Now, my interview is tomorrow and I am getting scare/nervous. I glanced over what was said in the last page or 2, and the truth is that it does freak me out with the GPA. I was rejected from Davis this year (like last year) but my coworker applying for his first time got one. I did my Western interview last week and will be a while before I hear back (I felt meh about it, since I was one of the first to finish both interviews and maybe they didn't show much interest in me). My stats definitely isn't great (3.26 overall, with similar for last 45, and I think lower for overall science) but I did decent on GRE (V:159, Q:163, A:3.5). Back to negative is that I have almost nil for (academic) extracurricular activity (I love hanging out with friends and playing board games as my hobby), but I try to make it up with 2 years of experience (which is still minor) working at a specialty practice.
The point? I'm very poor stat-wise, and somewhat of a dull person. I am scare of rejections and will be quite pessimistic after tomorrow's interview. I wish schools like Davis would see pass things than GPA - I am a hard worker who will cover many days and night shifts for my hospital, come in days off to transport patients for imaging, stay overtime to help when it gets going, etc. I don't know if I will be able to get those points across - I blank out when I freak out. But I am trying - at some point that is all we can do...try.
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I wish you the best of luck! Take deep breaths and just be yourself.
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As far as Davis goes, they most recently made the switch to making the GPA cutoff the first thing to look at. If I'm remembering correctly, they went from a more rounded approach to the more stricter GPA look a couple of years ago, and many people were against it in the administration. Mind you I'm not a Davis student nor have I applied there, so take my word with a grain of salt.
you are correct.....the class of 2016 was the last class under the old admissions formula. The old formula took a holistic look at applicants while the new is strictly a numbers game
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Excuse me while I go find the biggest eye-rolling gif I can.
Don't be a d-bag.
Kkthxbai.
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Meh.
You can't do jack about your GPA at this point, right? So put it in the rear view mirror and be the awesome candidate you can during the interview. Your GPA was good 'nuff, because you got an interview. Now is the time to be CONFIDENT and shine. It will go well. Tell yourself that at least 50 times tonight. And tomorrow morning. Then smile a huge smile, take a deep breath, and just be a confident, relaxed human being. You can do it.
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Yes, seriously. Someone posted incorrect (or at least incomplete) info. I corrected them and said hey, maybe you should use an authoritative source rather than 'friends'. Which is pretty solid advice. So they pull out the SUPER passive aggressive 'gee, nobody should listen to me since I'm not an authoritative source, so why does it matter' bs?
Yeah. That's being a d-bag. Sorry I'm calling it like it is and not playing the kumbaya song of unicorns, rainbows, and fluffy happy bunnies when people are putzes.
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I gave you the "you can only try to improve yourself speech" a couple years ago in the "what are my chances thread".
I read back through it and stand by all of my statements. I wasn't rude in my posting, I was very honest. We do have people here with lower stats that get accepted. It can happen, so don't freak yourself out over it. However, my advice then was basically a "look you still have some time before applying and you still have the GRE to take, so take those things you have control of and use them to your advantage" and guess what... you took my advice... look at that GRE! You rocked it as I suggested you do. 😉
Did you get some experience with food animals? Horses? I know in some areas these experiences aren't easy to come by (I had a heck of a time finding them myself when I was applying) but diverse experience helps.
My point back then was that, you can't change your GPA. At that point, you need to show that you can handle veterinary school, which means either 1. Rock a good GRE. 2. Take some more science courses and rock them or 3. A combination of the two.
Did you get an application review from Davis last year? Will you get one again this year? As someone who applied 3 times myself, these really do help. I promise they don't bite when they review your application, they are, however, very honest. My review from CSU after my first year stung, a lot. They aren't going to sugar coat it for you, but they sure will give you all the information you need to improve your application in order to best increase your chances for acceptance (better than any of us can do).
Everyone is scared of rejection, at this point you need to just be who you are. If you go into the interview thinking "I am going to get rejected" it will come across in your attitude, behavior and body language. Go in there with confidence (even though it is difficult to do), smile, be yourself, and have a conversation with your interviewers.
I gave you the "you can only try to improve yourself speech" a couple years ago in the "what are my chances thread".
I read back through it and stand by all of my statements. I wasn't rude in my posting, I was very honest. We do have people here with lower stats that get accepted. It can happen, so don't freak yourself out over it. However, my advice then was basically a "look you still have some time before applying and you still have the GRE to take, so take those things you have control of and use them to your advantage" and guess what... you took my advice... look at that GRE! You rocked it as I suggested you do. 😉
Did you get some experience with food animals? Horses? I know in some areas these experiences aren't easy to come by (I had a heck of a time finding them myself when I was applying) but diverse experience helps.
My point back then was that, you can't change your GPA. At that point, you need to show that you can handle veterinary school, which means either 1. Rock a good GRE. 2. Take some more science courses and rock them or 3. A combination of the two.
Did you get an application review from Davis last year? Will you get one again this year? As someone who applied 3 times myself, these really do help. I promise they don't bite when they review your application, they are, however, very honest. My review from CSU after my first year stung, a lot. They aren't going to sugar coat it for you, but they sure will give you all the information you need to improve your application in order to best increase your chances for acceptance (better than any of us can do).
Everyone is scared of rejection, at this point you need to just be who you are. If you go into the interview thinking "I am going to get rejected" it will come across in your attitude, behavior and body language. Go in there with confidence (even though it is difficult to do), smile, be yourself, and have a conversation with your interviewers.
Heh, things do come in full circle. Can't believe you remember that still. Unfortunately, I still could not grab more diverse experience. And my rejections hit me hard that I didn't really follow up - I sort of drowned my sorrow out with work. I know it isn't what you want to hear after those great advice, but I want to say that I did sort of rediscover myself. It isn't the same in the traditional sense of "diverse experience," but I made due with what I could and I went around working with all the different specialty departments (dabbled with ER, oncology, internal medicine, surgery, neurology, and radiology). Combined with a great radiologist, I fell in love working in that specialty - it is a tough road since radiology is a ridiculously hard specialty to get into, but I have a goal in mind now. I know it is still an uphill battle for me, but I realize that if I want to succeed, I have to change myself so I do well in vet school should I get in. I can't fiddle around like I did in undergrad. Again, sorry if this isn't the ending/follow up you were expecting, but I guess last year hit me way harder than expected.
Edit: Also I did try and go back to boost my GPA. After drowning myself in work for a few months, I went back to take a microbiology class (particularly to fill in for pre-req in some schools). I aced the class and got a LoR from the professor. But one class wasn't going to change much and the hospital was slightly short staffed so they needed me more and more, I wanted to go take more classes, but time/work constraint made it difficult to do.
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Yup, rejections do sting... I had 16 of them over 3 years of applying.... I get it. You have to brush off the rejection dust though and move on.
Good luck on your interview and if you do find yourself needing to, get those file reviews! (Hopefully you won't need them).
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Oh, and I didn't remember that I gave you advice... vet school doesn't allow for that much long-term memory. It is rather easy to search back on peoples' posts to see what they have posted before.
I am totally afraid of this too.....I got rejected by UCD which i was expecting so it wasnt TOO bad. I was pretty upset but I also had two midterms this week so I had to get my ish together real quick and refocus. So I like cried, and was sad, and then woke up the next morning, Like alright, get it together. But if there are more rejections I am kinda concerend with how ill handle them too...I feel ya
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Things you can do to make up for few extra curriculars? Join groups out in the real world. Take up a leadership position once a month or something. Start a meet up group for board games in the area or something. Don't let vet med be your life. And if you do get rejected again, think of it as a learning experience and make sure you do the review. You can't improve if you don't learn from the experience. And insanity is doing the same exact thing over and over again and expecting different results.
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It's this kind of reaction that makes me think rejections are a good thing for a few of you. Rejection is a part of life. Learning to handle it appropriately is a good life skill. Growing from the experience and not taking it as a personal insult is important. Makes the rest of life easier
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... Resiliency is the goal y'all. I think that's kind of the bottom line here.
If you find rejection at your door, open the door, be pissed, tell her to go home, and then start with your applications again next year with more determination and fervor than before.
Create a support system within yourself for dealing with grief and rejection. Adulting and (I assume) being an awesome vet requires it.
No matter what the outcome becomes; know you've got it if you're rejected everywhere. You've got it if you decide to apply next year and you've got it if you decide to pursue a different avenue. I think everyone on this forum knows how strong you are already -- you've made it this far and you'll undoubtedly make it to the end of application season, no matter what the result.
Also somewhat related: IMO, lower expectations and being surprised > great expectations and being disappointed.
