Minnesota c/o 2021 Applicants

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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1doggeek

1doggeek

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Anyone else applying to U of MN this cycle? It's my instate! :p
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kcoughli said:
I know right? It just hit me today that I won't be here when the c/o 2021 starts... crazy...
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I read this and realized that I'll still be there after they graduate - and probably won't have finished either of my degrees yet (doing the concurrent dual track)...
 
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I'm probably applying here. Current student, how cold does it get?
 
ilikecake said:
I'm probably applying here. Current student, how cold does it get?
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It really varies from year to year. We've had some winters that were super cold - I think 2 winters ago, we had some record number of days where it was below zero - and others where we got barely any snow and it was really mild. Having said that, I think the cold here is much easier to tolerate than the cold where I grew up because it's pretty dry. If you have a good pair of boots and a good winter coat that covers your thighs, it's really not that bad.
 
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ilikecake said:
I'm probably applying here. Current student, how cold does it get?
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Not a student but I've lived here all my life - it can be cold, worst part is wind chill. Just expect to get good winter coat/hat/mittens/boots. Obviously plenty of people live in Minnesota and survive just fine. It's not entirely the winter wasteland we sometimes like to complain about it being when it's the middle of January. :p
 
Does anybody have any suggestions for the diversity essay portion of Minnesota's application? Here are the directions:

"Please share why diversity and inclusion are important to you and offer specific examples of how you have demonstrated this commitment."


 
rpdvm2021 said:
Does anybody have any suggestions for the diversity essay portion of Minnesota's application? Here are the directions:

"Please share why diversity and inclusion are important to you and offer specific examples of how you have demonstrated this commitment."


.
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Huh. Didn't know they had added that. Interesting.
 
rpdvm2021 said:
Does anybody have any suggestions for the diversity essay portion of Minnesota's application? Here are the directions:

"Please share why diversity and inclusion are important to you and offer specific examples of how you have demonstrated this commitment."
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Where did you find that at? I was pretty sure U of MN didn't have a supplemental application, and I haven't come across any extra essays for them... :confused:
 
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1doggeek said:
Where did you find that at? I was pretty sure U of MN didn't have a supplemental application, and I haven't come across any extra essays for them... :confused:
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It is listed in the VMCAS application in Minnesota's program page under "Questions". I wish it wasn't there. One more thing to worry about haha.
 
rpdvm2021 said:
It is listed in the VMCAS application in Minnesota's program page under "Questions". I wish it wasn't there. One more thing to worry about haha.
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Hmm. Last I looked it only said the only thing we needed to do other than the usual on VMCAS was pay $85. I'll check mine when I get back to a computer!
 
Hey guys, I'm considering applying here as an OOS because they seem to accept a decent amount of OOS students compared to other schools (*cough wisconsin*). I live in the South right now and need some out of state back ups that I would prefer to be not in the south haha....
Does anyone know of anything I can do to stand out to them when the time comes to apply? (I'm only 19, still have a while...). I'll probably have an average GPA (3.6ish hopefully) and hard to tell about experiences ill have by then.
 
coffeelauren said:
Hey guys, I'm considering applying here as an OOS because they seem to accept a decent amount of OOS students compared to other schools (*cough wisconsin*). I live in the South right now and need some out of state back ups that I would prefer to be not in the south haha....
Does anyone know of anything I can do to stand out to them when the time comes to apply? (I'm only 19, still have a while...). I'll probably have an average GPA (3.6ish hopefully) and hard to tell about experiences ill have by then.
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Psst tuition OOS at MN is wicked pricey. IS is also pricey. Just a warning for you.
Also MN looks at pre-req GPA and last - 45 credit GPA only, so make sure your last few semesters are awesome and your GPA will look that much better. Other than that, no idea :)
 
kcoughli said:
Psst tuition OOS at MN is wicked pricey. IS is also pricey. Just a warning for you.
Also MN looks at pre-req GPA and last - 45 credit GPA only, so make sure your last few semesters are awesome and your GPA will look that much better. Other than that, no idea :)
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That's probably a good point haha, thanks
 
coffeelauren said:
Hey guys, I'm considering applying here as an OOS because they seem to accept a decent amount of OOS students compared to other schools (*cough wisconsin*). I live in the South right now and need some out of state back ups that I would prefer to be not in the south haha....
Does anyone know of anything I can do to stand out to them when the time comes to apply? (I'm only 19, still have a while...). I'll probably have an average GPA (3.6ish hopefully) and hard to tell about experiences ill have by then.
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I would look at other schools that have a cheaper OOS price tag, but that's just me.
 
Anyone have any clue as to when interview requests will be sent out? I am OOS if that matters
 
Any idea when about the interviews will be? I can't seem to find it on their website
 
kcoughli said:
Probably the last weekend or two in January and the first weekend or two in February.
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And to answer the NEXT question, admittance notifications go out pretty much the next week after the last round of interviews. They are pretty fast once interviews conclude.

Now. Nobody ask for any more dates. :)
 
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Thanks for the heads up about the prices.I'd looked into it a little bit but not extensively. I wont have any debt from undergrad, so that's a plus. Who knows, maybe I'll just get into georgia and only have to pay in state haha
 
after further research it appears that Wisconsin is the cheapest out of state.... of course haha. Furthering its position as my dream school....ugh
 
coffeelauren said:
after further research it appears that Wisconsin is the cheapest out of state.... of course haha. Furthering its position as my dream school....ugh
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Same! :( If only UW accepted more OOS!! I didn't even bother applying.

Another OOS applicant patiently waiting to hear about interviews. Does anyone know how many OOS applicants are typically offered interviews and whether or not they allow you any schedule flexibility? Besides tuition, I'd also love to hear any personal pros/cons UoM students have to share.
 
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phenomenon said:
Same! :( If only UW accepted more OOS!! I didn't even bother applying.

Another OOS applicant patiently waiting to hear about interviews. Does anyone know how many OOS applicants are typically offered interviews and whether or not they allow you any schedule flexibility? Besides tuition, I'd also love to hear any personal pros/cons UoM students have to share.
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I was wondering the same thing, I was a little bit worried about cost of flights depending on what date you get assigned. When I flew to Minneapolis last year (I'm from New York), the flights were really expensive. And I am a little tapped out for money after this whole application process lol
 
You can always email them to ask these questions, either now or after you've been offered an interview. I know they typically do interviews over three weekends, so I'm guessing they could have some flexibility over which weekend, but I honestly don't remember

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You get to rank the weekends in order of preference when you get the interview offer, unless they've changed that from last year.

@phenomenon , one of my favorite things about the U is how passionate our profs are about making sure we understand the material. We have great faculty here and a lot of opportunities for students to learn more outside of class (example: I spent Thanksgiving shadowing in emergency/critical care and ended up being an extra set of hands because of the high volume of cases that day).
 
phenomenon said:
Same! :( If only UW accepted more OOS!! I didn't even bother applying.

Another OOS applicant patiently waiting to hear about interviews. Does anyone know how many OOS applicants are typically offered interviews and whether or not they allow you any schedule flexibility? Besides tuition, I'd also love to hear any personal pros/cons UoM students have to share.
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If you search past UMN threads, I think I've commented on the number of people they interview. But that would have been for in-state (seems to me it was about 100 people for roughly 50 seats). I'm not sure if they interview double that for OOS, since far more OOS people will decline offers, or if it's roughly the same. Can't recall.

And you should take that with a large grain of salt - it's rough recollection based off guesswork from counting how many people were there in the info meeting with me. I could be way off. I don't have insider accurate info.

Pros:
o Good faculty (though I dunno that I've ever heard a student at any vet school say their faculty weren't good);
o Slow, steady investment in facilities/equipment. Several years prior to my arrival they created the equine center, which is really outstanding. While I was there they revamped our 1940s era student carrel room and turned it into a tech'd out group learning environment. They also renovated one of the lecture rooms. The next year they revamped student surgery and put in all new tables, new (and nice) lights, an overhead camera at one table that could display to two drop-down monitors for teaching, etc.* After I left they broke ground on a new General Practice area in the hospital - the idea is/was to create a distinctive SA GP area that was self-contained to better model what SA practitioner graduates would see after they graduate. Had its own exam rooms, treatment area, etc. I haven't seen it, but the floor plans looked neat.
o Large teaching hospital. The case load is among the highest, which is nice come fourth year. (Downside: They don't see exotics!). The size gives you access to a broader set of experts than some students at some other schools will have. I can't remember who, but someone was talking about radiology .... their school has 0 board-certified radiologists. UMN has 4. Plus 3 residents. Other than the missing exotics, UMN is very well staffed.**
o Good community presence. Two clubs provide service to the community - one puts on an urban monthly clinic (mostly vaccines, but they do some skin scraping and that sort of thing), and another does multiple reservation trips in MN every year for wellness/sterilization. If you become super involved in those like I did you can gain a LOT of experience - much more than the school will ever be able to provide through the curriculum. As a bonus, you can really get to know some of the awesome faculty that are involved. There are other great clubs like any school, but these two stand out for what they offer the community as well as students. The urban clinic is similar in some ways to UC Davis's Mercer Clinic (but Mercer is, I think, a much more developed program.).
o Good public transportation. The metro bus/train service is well built-out in the Twin Cities. So long as you live somewhere with decent access to it you can easily bus to school for pretty cheap. I drove for a few years, but for my third year I mostly bused .... other than the time involved (I lived in a suburb so I had to switch buses midway) it was awesome.

Cons:
o Cost
o Cost
o Cost
o Minimal exotics exposure available fourth year without doing externships. (But that is probably true at many schools.) The UMN teaching hospital does not see exotics, including pocket pets, birds, or reptiles. (They do have the raptor center if you like birds, but they don't see pet birds.)
o Crappy parking. There is an expensive ramp right next to school, but otherwise it is outdoor lots that are at least a few blocks away, which can suck in Jan/Feb.
o Cost - I *love* UMN CVM. It's a great program with great staff. But they just plain HAVE to get their tuition back down to something reasonable, or hold it steady for many many years until inflation gets it back into a reasonable range. It is, last I checked, the most expensive land-grant school in the U.S. (as far as vet schools).


* Personally, I think the investment in surgery stuff was silly. I got WAY, WAY more experience in surgery doing SIRVS (similar to RAVS, but UMN-specific), RAVS, and a spay/neuter externship at a high-volume place than the single surgery I got as a second-year student...... UMN *ought* to be looking into ways to grow SIRVS or partner with low-income areas of the state: they could provide much more teaching/experience for a fraction of the cost of maintaining those facilities. But I think it's a tough swallow for administration to look at alternative approaches like that.

** The UMN Dentistry service is, last I heard, still shut down. It shut down the year I went into clinics when both dentists left for greener pastures. They apparently still have not hired someone. General Practice is doing some dentistry, but they need to get the Dentistry service back on its feet.
 
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LetItSnow said:
If you search past UMN threads, I think I've commented on the number of people they interview. But that would have been for in-state (seems to me it was about 100 people for roughly 50 seats). I'm not sure if they interview double that for OOS, since far more OOS people will decline offers, or if it's roughly the same. Can't recall.

And you should take that with a large grain of salt - it's rough recollection based off guesswork from counting how many people were there in the info meeting with me. I could be way off. I don't have insider accurate info.

Pros:
o Good faculty (though I dunno that I've ever heard a student at any vet school say their faculty weren't good);
o Slow, steady investment in facilities/equipment. Several years prior to my arrival they created the equine center, which is really outstanding. While I was there they revamped our 1940s era student carrel room and turned it into a tech'd out group learning environment. They also renovated one of the lecture rooms. The next year they revamped student surgery and put in all new tables, new (and nice) lights, an overhead camera at one table that could display to two drop-down monitors for teaching, etc.* After I left they broke ground on a new General Practice area in the hospital - the idea is/was to create a distinctive SA GP area that was self-contained to better model what SA practitioner graduates would see after they graduate. Had its own exam rooms, treatment area, etc. I haven't seen it, but the floor plans looked neat.
o Large teaching hospital. The case load is among the highest, which is nice come fourth year. (Downside: They don't see exotics!). The size gives you access to a broader set of experts than some students at some other schools will have. I can't remember who, but someone was talking about radiology .... their school has 0 board-certified radiologists. UMN has 4. Plus 3 residents. Other than the missing exotics, UMN is very well staffed.**
o Good community presence. Two clubs provide service to the community - one puts on an urban monthly clinic (mostly vaccines, but they do some skin scraping and that sort of thing), and another does multiple reservation trips in MN every year for wellness/sterilization. If you become super involved in those like I did you can gain a LOT of experience - much more than the school will ever be able to provide through the curriculum. As a bonus, you can really get to know some of the awesome faculty that are involved. There are other great clubs like any school, but these two stand out for what they offer the community as well as students. The urban clinic is similar in some ways to UC Davis's Mercer Clinic (but Mercer is, I think, a much more developed program.).
o Good public transportation. The metro bus/train service is well built-out in the Twin Cities. So long as you live somewhere with decent access to it you can easily bus to school for pretty cheap. I drove for a few years, but for my third year I mostly bused .... other than the time involved (I lived in a suburb so I had to switch buses midway) it was awesome.

Cons:
o Cost
o Cost
o Cost
o Minimal exotics exposure available fourth year without doing externships. (But that is probably true at many schools.) The UMN teaching hospital does not see exotics, including pocket pets, birds, or reptiles. (They do have the raptor center if you like birds, but they don't see pet birds.)
o Crappy parking. There is an expensive ramp right next to school, but otherwise it is outdoor lots that are at least a few blocks away, which can suck in Jan/Feb.
o Cost - I *love* UMN CVM. It's a great program with great staff. But they just plain HAVE to get their tuition back down to something reasonable, or hold it steady for many many years until inflation gets it back into a reasonable range. It is, last I checked, the most expensive land-grant school in the U.S. (as far as vet schools).


* Personally, I think the investment in surgery stuff was silly. I got WAY, WAY more experience in surgery doing SIRVS (similar to RAVS, but UMN-specific), RAVS, and a spay/neuter externship at a high-volume place than the single surgery I got as a second-year student...... UMN *ought* to be looking into ways to grow SIRVS or partner with low-income areas of the state: they could provide much more teaching/experience for a fraction of the cost of maintaining those facilities. But I think it's a tough swallow for administration to look at alternative approaches like that.

** The UMN Dentistry service is, last I heard, still shut down. It shut down the year I went into clinics when both dentists left for greener pastures. They apparently still have not hired someone. General Practice is doing some dentistry, but they need to get the Dentistry service back on its feet.
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Thanks for the awesome insight! Is there a significant amount of opportunity for hands-on experience during the first three years? I used to work at a CVM hospital and there were a lot of opportunities for vet students to have part time jobs assisting RVTs in the teaching hospital on the weekends, etc. I'm super excited about the case load, it's one of the reasons I applied! I've found that I learn best when I here something in class/discussion and then get to witness it first hand. ("Ohhhh, so that's what so-and-so was talking about." Once I've made that connection it sticks for life, not sure why but it works for me!)

Is the bus system still reliable during the winter months? I was raised in upstate NY but of course we drove everywhere, so I don't remember how that works with snow and ice. I know our bus systems in the south in general are okay, but the buses here are definitely not built to drive in harsh winters. Do you think it was definitely cost-effective to bus rather than drive?

Thanks again for your insight!
 
phenomenon said:
Thanks for the awesome insight! Is there a significant amount of opportunity for hands-on experience during the first three years? I used to work at a CVM hospital and there were a lot of opportunities for vet students to have part time jobs assisting RVTs in the teaching hospital on the weekends, etc. I'm super excited about the case load, it's one of the reasons I applied! I've found that I learn best when I here something in class/discussion and then get to witness it first hand. ("Ohhhh, so that's what so-and-so was talking about." Once I've made that connection it sticks for life, not sure why but it works for me!)

Is the bus system still reliable during the winter months? I was raised in upstate NY but of course we drove everywhere, so I don't remember how that works with snow and ice. I know our bus systems in the south in general are okay, but the buses here are definitely not built to drive in harsh winters. Do you think it was definitely cost-effective to bus rather than drive?

Thanks again for your insight!
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I believe there are a lot of opportunities to work in the hospital you just have to be proactive about getting them. I'm not the best one to ask though since I wasn't really looking for those jobs and instead worked off campus in a field more relevant to my career goals.

The bus system is just as reliable as the cars on the road as far as winter vs. summer in my experience. If its crappy driving conditions well it'll take both cars and buses longer to get from A to Z. As far as price, definitely cost effective to bus (you can buy a student bus pass for like $100/semester vs driving and paying for gas plus paying for parking). However it may depend on where you live as to how willing you are to bus it in. I rode the bus for the 20 minute ride when I lived pretty close, but once I moved further away I was not about to sit on buses for an hour + each way. Some people can use that time effectively and study but long commutes make me ansty and would have decreased my quality of life.
 
phenomenon said:
Thanks for the awesome insight! Is there a significant amount of opportunity for hands-on experience during the first three years? I used to work at a CVM hospital and there were a lot of opportunities for vet students to have part time jobs assisting RVTs in the teaching hospital on the weekends, etc. I'm super excited about the case load, it's one of the reasons I applied! I've found that I learn best when I here something in class/discussion and then get to witness it first hand. ("Ohhhh, so that's what so-and-so was talking about." Once I've made that connection it sticks for life, not sure why but it works for me!)

Is the bus system still reliable during the winter months? I was raised in upstate NY but of course we drove everywhere, so I don't remember how that works with snow and ice. I know our bus systems in the south in general are okay, but the buses here are definitely not built to drive in harsh winters. Do you think it was definitely cost-effective to bus rather than drive?

Thanks again for your insight!
Click to expand...

Hands on: Well, like I mentioned there is SIRVS and VeTouch (the rural and urban outreach programs, respectively). Those give you hands on, both in the 'technical skills' sense and - more importantly, in my opinion - in dealing with real, live, actual clients. Both those programs are extremely student-driven - they have faculty advisers, but the large bulk of the decision-making is done by students. There are jobs in the SA Hospital and Equine Hospital... some hands on, some not so much. I snagged a blood donor program job first year, so that gave me plenty of experience (for each draw we did a jug draw to save for cross-matching, a saphenous cather for fluid replacement, and then the main jug draw for the donation - lots of phlebotomy). Since I had no real technical experience before school, that was really beneficial. Third year I worked a lot of hours as an ICU student tech - that's one of those jobs where the more time you invest and the more skill you demonstrate, the more responsibility you get. No matter where you go, don't get TOO excited about 'hands-on' - the first few years you really have to focus on class work, though getting as much hands-on time as possible is good for your career and good for your mental health.

Bus: Reliable during the winter, yes. I once had to switch buses when mine got stuck in a snowdrift - otherwise they were reliable and on-time even in bad weather. It was *VERY* cost-effective ... I can't remember the exact cost, but I want to say I paid something like $100 for a semester of unlimited bus service? I lived 20 miles away, so that was a big deal. For me to drive my car was much quicker, but ... oh ... 40 miles round trip x $0.54/mi (current IRS biz rate) = $20/day in gas and wear/tear on the car. (Cash-wise a lot less, obviously, but....). And that doesn't count parking cost.

I agree with kcoughli - you have to be proactive. There are jobs all over the vet school and associated programs ... but some of them you have to dig to find.

Funny - kcoughli didn't like the bus ride ... I loved it. I could study sometimes, but more often than not I just napped. I love my afternoon nap on the ride home.
 
LetItSnow said:
Funny - kcoughli didn't like the bus ride ... I loved it. I could study sometimes, but more often than not I just napped. I love my afternoon nap on the ride home.
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I thought of you when I was answering :p If it were a train I wouldn't have had a problem but for some reason I stress out too much riding a bus that I would forget my stop or sleep through it or just not notice and then end up in the middle of nowhere with no way to get home...
 
Does anyone know the specific dates for interviews? I can't find them anywhere :(
 
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pancakemix6 said:
Does anyone know the specific dates for interviews? I can't find them anywhere :(
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The only thing I have seen is what they sent in the application confirmation which was

"The UMN CVM includes a mandatory, in-person interview as part of our review process. Interviews will begin in late January and continue through the middle of February. Applicants will be notified by e-mail as to their interview status and possible interview dates and times in early January."

I don't think they have specific dates released yet! But it looks like they give you a choice of dates and times for your interview.
 
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Does anyone know when invites or rejections will be released?
 
For a number of years now interviews have been held on basically the same weeks, with offers going out within a week after interviews are completed.

That could change, of course, but if you want to go off the past .... you could hunt for older threads to see when things were done.
 
Just got an interview invitation via email!!!! OOS!!
 
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Me too :)
 
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Rejected (via email) today. Good luck to everyone who gets an interview!
 
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