Naive Dad

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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chickenfarmer

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My daughter is a biology/pre-vet major at the university I work at. She will be applying next summer to vet school. My question is: Are your GRE scores part of that VMCAS application? Also, do all schools require a supplement application or is that something that is requested from the school at a later date, dependent upon your main application.

Sorry, one more: She plans on applying to about 15 schools, both US and some international. Is this a good idea? She knows which schools accept most OOS and just wants to stack the odds. We know the cost of this idea - $$$
Thanks.
 
chickenfarmer said:
My daughter is a biology/pre-vet major at the university I work at. She will be applying next summer to vet school. My question is: Are your GRE scores part of that VMCAS application? Also, do all schools require a supplement application or is that something that is requested from the school at a later date, dependent upon your main application.

Sorry, one more: She plans on applying to about 15 schools, both US and some international. Is this a good idea? She knows which schools accept most OOS and just wants to stack the odds. We know the cost of this idea - $$$
Thanks.
Click to expand...

1) Yes, your GRE scores are part of the application.
2) Not all schools require a supplemental. Check with each school.
3) That's hard to answer. If you/she don't mind the cost, and if she is willing to go just about anywhere, then sure - why not apply? You don't HURT your chances, anyway.

That said, my personal take on it is that if you're good enough to get accepted at one, you probably don't need 15 applications to get picked. Put differently, I would guess there's really not that much difference between applying at 3-5 schools and applying at 15 schools when it comes to getting one acceptance. But I don't have access to the numbers to actually support that conclusion.

I dunno. Schools have different strengths. I always wonder if people who shotgun out applications have really thought through what school's approach/style/strengths/etc would fit them best.
 
These are questions you should ask your daughter. If she doesn't know, she needs to find out. While it is appreciated that you want to help and participate in your daughter's application, ultimately she is responsible for the research and completion of the process. There are several threads on how many schools to apply to, how vmcas works, and about supplementals. Please use the search function to do your own research.
 
Yes, GRE scores are part of the VMCAS application. You usually have them mailed to the school, and can request the mailing either when you test or after you get your scores in the mail.

Supplementals vary by school. Most have supplementals but not all schools do - she can check each school's website to see if they've got one or not. The vast majority of schools have you fill out the supplemental (found online or sent through email after receiving her VMCAS application) and submit it for review, but a handful send out supplementals after an initial review of the VMCAS. Unfortunately, she'll have to go to each school's website to figure out what their supplemental situation is.

It's not a bad idea to apply broadly - I think I applied to 8 schools total- but take into account not just OOS seats but what the school may like to see more/how they weight things. If she's got a really well-rounded application - good numbers, good experience, good eLORs and such, she can probably trim that list down. A lot of people on here say that they regret applying to only a few schools; I'm of the opinion that it can't hurt to apply broadly, so long as you know the cost involved and are able to juggle potentially conflicting interviews, travel, etc.

I think the best thing for her to do is to research the schools she's selected closely and figure out their specific requirements, re: supplemental, application criteria, etc.
 
Go get your daughter, sit her down in front of the computer, and have her do some research. She needs to make an account here (or browse anonymously, at least). She needs to look at the web pages for each school and see how they evaluate applicants, what materials they require, and what sort of timeline they expect. She needs to do some cost comparison for these schools because it ranges from $80k to $250k as an OOS student (approximately) and if she has an in state option, she really needs to look into that as her first choice if there is a considerable cost difference.

Basically - she needs to be responsible for making sure that she has everything figured out and for deciding where to apply and why.

You are obviously being a good dad and you want to help her out (and helping her out some is fine), but this is something you can't (and shouldn't) do for her. 🙂
 
Thanks. I should have mentioned that she is a member of this site has several hundred hours logged for vet hours, etc, participated in a RAVS trip to south dakota this year. She's extremely on target. The information I requested was for me. Thank you for the information.
 
chickenfarmer said:
Thanks. I should have mentioned that she is a member of this site has several hundred hours logged for vet hours, etc, participated in a RAVS trip to south dakota this year. She's extremely on target. The information I requested was for me. Thank you for the information.
Click to expand...

Was it the Lower Brule trip early in summer? If so - we met, and she's totally got it together.

And that picture to the left is NOT me.
 
chickenfarmer said:
My daughter is a biology/pre-vet major at the university I work at. She will be applying next summer to vet school. My question is: Are your GRE scores part of that VMCAS application? Also, do all schools require a supplement application or is that something that is requested from the school at a later date, dependent upon your main application.

Sorry, one more: She plans on applying to about 15 schools, both US and some international. Is this a good idea? She knows which schools accept most OOS and just wants to stack the odds. We know the cost of this idea - $$$
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Applying to 15 schools is quite a bit. Not unmanageable but be prepared for it to be extremely $$$... I think I easily spent over $3,000 last year applying to 7 schools and going on 3 interviews and that is probably a low estimate. Also, be prepared to have conflicting interview times and there are quite a few schools that will not change interview times around so she could very well have to pick and choose which schools to interview at. Also, do not apply to schools just to "stack the odds", really have your daughter research the schools and the area around the schools and have her be certain that she can see herself being at that school/living in that area for 4+ years (trust me, I have run into issues moving out of the country that I didn't even think about and it has made these first few weeks very difficult, so just be prepared). Just really have her do her research, you don't want to spend the time and $$ applying to a school and then realizing that you would never actually attend that school, don't apply just to get in because you will be miserable if you can not enjoy the school/area.
 
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