Need Help Improving Application

[Iowaapplicant97]

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I was recently denied admission from Iowa State (my IS) this cycle and would really appreciate some advice on how to improve my application for next cycle, especially since as of now they will not be doing reviews on unsuccessful applicants. I will also try to apply to more schools next cycle, but I am not sure which ones, so advice on that would be beneficial as well.

Cumulative GPA: 3.58
science GPA: - 3.64 (O chem is the only prerequisite I have a B, the rest are A's and A-'s. Would retaking O chem be beneficial it could potentially raise this to 3.75?)
last 45: 3.44 (400/500 level histology, physiology, and advanced cellular biology are dragging this down)

Any degrees achieved
-BS in biology

Veterinary Experience:
- SA- 300 hours shadowing/volunteering at a small animal veterinary clinic (Currently at 700 hours)
- LA- 100 hours shadowing/volunteering at a large animal veterinary clinic (Currently at 200 hours)
- Zoo Animal- 50 hours observing a variety of procedures performed on zoo animals
- Board certified orthopedic surgeon shadowing- 10 hours (currently 30 hours)

Animal Experience:
- 500 hours as an avian/reptile animal care intern at a zoo

Research Experience:
-1000 hours as a lab tech collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data for the research and development department for a drug, grooming, and cosmetic manufacturing company (Not sure if this is considered research? The research and development lead had a masters in chemistry)
-50 hours doing a research project on African Spurred Tortoise behavior, I presented a poster of my findings to the zoo staff and other interns.

Awards/scholarships:
- Dean’s list multiple time
- NHS in high school
- Academic and athletic all conference in college
- Football scholarship

Extracurriculars:
- Played football in college
- Raised money for the Iowa Shriners Hospital
- Involved in volunteering for the local community throughout undergrad, everything from snow removal to giving speeches to elementary students to assisting in the supervision of a football camp for children with special needs
- Judged multiple middle school science fairs

Non Animal Employment:
-400 hours as a field inspector for Syngenta
-800 hours as a detasseler eventually becoming a detasseling supervisor in my last season

LORs:
-Zoo supervisor
-Advisor who is a PhD professor that earned his degree from Iowa State
-Coach
(I was not able to get a LOR from a veterinarian this cycle which is probably the primary reason my application was denied, although it is not a requirement for Iowa State. I should be able to get a few veterinarian LORs this next cycle, should I ask them what they will write about me beforehand?)

Essays:
My traits that I provided examples for were critical thinking, leadership/teamwork, aptitude in biology and biologic processes, ability to simplify and elaborate on complex scientific topics, and my strong interest with solving cases.
(Any essay tips would also be great)


(I have also gotten a job offer to work at a bovine IVF company, would a vet school look favorably at this experience, even if it is only lab work or would I need to work with the staff veterinarians?)
Also what types of opportunities should I volunteer for to stand out as an applicant?

 

[TabbyCat2]

Hey! The first time I applied I only applied to my IS and was denied. This past cycle I applied to 4 schools and got 2 acceptances (one being my IS), 1 waitlist, and 1 rejection. The ONLY thing I changed in my application was gaining ~1000 SA veterinary hours and significantly improving my essays/LOR’s. In my opinion, I think gaining veterinary hours is huge, and I would highly highly recommend trying to get a job in a clinic as opposed to the bovine IVF. Although that is a really unique experience, veterinary hours will strengthen your LOR’s and will strengthen your essays.

Edit: I also wanted to add an essay tip and a little bit of personal experience. The first time I applied (with no vet tech employment, just shadowing vet hours) my attributes essay was similar to yours. After getting a job as a tech and working closely with veterinarians and forming personal relationships with them, I began to see what attributes truly matter. A lot of your attributes equate to intelligence, which is important! But what I’ve seen separate the amazing veterinarians I work with from just the good ones isn’t intelligence or knowledge. It’s their integrity, and honesty, and ability to form meaningful relationships and stay steadfast in their work just to name a few examples. That’s just an example of how my essays changed tremendously from one cycle to the next because of employment experience in a vet clinic. I was also able to use personal examples of everything which strengthened my essays and I hope made them stand out. Just another reason why I would highly recommend getting a job as an assistant/tech.

 

[Lupin21]

Yeah, I would want to see a veterinary LOR. I recommend having people read over your essays this application cycle to really see if that was another cause. We have a thread with volunteers every year of willing veterinary students and vets who will evaluate them for you. Hasn't gone up yet, but I suppose we should get on that. haha

 

[Iowaapplicant97]

Hey! The first time I applied I only applied to my IS and was denied. This past cycle I applied to 4 schools and got 2 acceptances (one being my IS), 1 waitlist, and 1 rejection. The ONLY thing I changed in my application was gaining ~1000 SA veterinary hours and significantly improving my essays/LOR’s. In my opinion, I think gaining veterinary hours is huge, and I would highly highly recommend trying to get a job in a clinic as opposed to the bovine IVF. Although that is a really unique experience, veterinary hours will strengthen your LOR’s and will strengthen your essays.

Edit: I also wanted to add an essay tip and a little bit of personal experience. The first time I applied (with no vet tech employment, just shadowing vet hours) my attributes essay was similar to yours. After getting a job as a tech and working closely with veterinarians and forming personal relationships with them, I began to see what attributes truly matter. A lot of your attributes equate to intelligence, which is important! But what I’ve seen separate the amazing veterinarians I work with from just the good ones isn’t intelligence or knowledge. It’s their integrity, and honesty, and ability to form meaningful relationships and stay steadfast in their work just to name a few examples. That’s just an example of how my essays changed tremendously from one cycle to the next because of employment experience in a vet clinic. I was also able to use personal examples of everything which strengthened my essays and I hope made them stand out. Just another reason why I would highly recommend getting a job as an assistant/tech.

Thank you so much for your help! I will for sure try and get an assistant position. The essay tip was great and I will look to make my essays more well rounded next cycle. Also when you were rejected from your IS did you schedule an appointment with one of the committee members to try and get advice and feedback? And how did you decide on what OOS schools to apply?

 

[Iowaapplicant97]

Yeah, I would want to see a veterinary LOR. I recommend having people read over your essays this application cycle to really see if that was another cause. We have a thread with volunteers every year of willing veterinary students and vets who will evaluate them for you. Hasn't gone up yet, but I suppose we should get on that. haha

Thank you for your advice! I will be on the lookout for that thread.

 

[battie]

Would retaking O chem be beneficial

I would not retake a B for any class. Not worth your time and effort. Overall, your grades are pretty decent. If you have any classes left, definitely try to get the A as any Bs will drag your GPAs downward.

-Zoo supervisor

I was not able to get a LOR from a veterinarian this cycle which is probably the primary reason my application was denied, although it is not a requirement for Iowa State. I should be able to get a few veterinarian LORs this next cycle, should I ask them what they will write about me beforehand?

This is definitely a big deal and I agree that this is probably a big reason for your rejection. For Iowa and any school you decide to add to your list, you'll want a LOR from a vet, regardless of if its stated as a requirement or not. When you are asking these veterinarians for a letter, you'll want to ask for a strong letter of recommendation. Have a real discussion with the veterinarian in question about what you and they feel are strong characteristics that make you an ideal candidate to join the profession with specific examples as to why.

I'll also note that the zoo supervisor only really interacted with you for 50 hours (based on your experiences section). Realistically, that's only a week's worth of interaction. Its also possible that while this recommendation letter wasn't bad, it also is likely it wasn't great either. You'll want people who have known you an extended period of time in a great professional and/or personal capacity write these letters.

Any essay tips would also be great

Rather than focusing on a large, broad group of traits, focus on a few with very specific examples. They also don't have to be vet med related. A lot of my stuff was based on the experiences I had outside of veterinary medicine.

would a vet school look favorably at this experience, even if it is only lab work or would I need to work with the staff veterinarians?

This could be a great experience! If you could go in and ask if you could hang out with the staff veterinarians on slow or off times, that may be a great way to get your foot in the door.

Also what types of opportunities should I volunteer for to stand out as an applicant?

Whatever you like to do. There's no single group of experiences that make one candidate any more desirable than the other. I've noticed that a lot of the people in my vet med class did things that they found enjoyable or that they were passionate about. Then when they wrote about those experiences or events in essays or spoke about them in interviews, their passion really shined. So do things you think would be fun or interesting.

I'll also echo everyone on having someone read through your essays. I feel like if you improve your LOR situation and have a good writing style, you'll get some love.

As far as adding to your school list, it depends on a couple factors:
1. Prerequisites you do/don't have is a good place to start. Don't apply to places where you don't meet their requirements.
2. Places that have high out of state acceptance numbers. These would be schools with high out of state seats. So places like Oregon, Georgia, and Texas A&M would not necessarily fit the bill as they have very few out of state seats. You could try, but you would have to go in with the realization that your chances may be low at these schools.
3. Places that hold grades in very high regard or have GPA cut offs. You meet all the GPA cutoffs that I know of. But there are places like Davis where their out of state accepted stats have GPAs in the 3.9s. That's a huge hurdle to jump.
4. Cater your list to your strengths. Think interviewing would be your greatest strength? Apply to schools that consider interviews a big piece of their admissions algorithm as an example.

I thik you'd have a decent shot at Illinois, for what its worth. Your stats are in line with ours and we have a pretty balanced admissions process. It's also closish to home for you.

 

[TabbyCat2]

Thank you so much for your help! I will for sure try and get an assistant position. The essay tip was great and I will look to make my essays more well rounded next cycle. Also when you were rejected from your IS did you schedule an appointment with one of the committee members to try and get advice and feedback? And how did you decide on what OOS schools to apply?

I didn’t schedule an appointment with someone, but I did do the school’s rejected applicant zoom webinar that answered a lot of my questions. And I researched every school I was interested and I had the requirements for and narrowed it down from there. I choose 2 OOS schools that I felt like my values matched up with there’s and I could see myself at (UofA and CSU, my other acceptance and waitlist) and then another random OOS school I fulfilled requirements for (happened to be Mizzou, I was rejected - I was attracted to Missouri because of the IS tuition after the first year). I think it’s so important to apply smart! See what the schools value and how they look at applicants, and see how that fits with your gpa, experiences, etc.

 

[Iowaapplicant97]

I would not retake a B for any class. Not worth your time and effort. Overall, your grades are pretty decent. If you have any classes left, definitely try to get the A as any Bs will drag your GPAs downward.


This is definitely a big deal and I agree that this is probably a big reason for your rejection. For Iowa and any school you decide to add to your list, you'll want a LOR from a vet, regardless of if its stated as a requirement or not. When you are asking these veterinarians for a letter, you'll want to ask for a strong letter of recommendation. Have a real discussion with the veterinarian in question about what you and they feel are strong characteristics that make you an ideal candidate to join the profession with specific examples as to why.

I'll also note that the zoo supervisor only really interacted with you for 50 hours (based on your experiences section). Realistically, that's only a week's worth of interaction. Its also possible that while this recommendation letter wasn't bad, it also is likely it wasn't great either. You'll want people who have known you an extended period of time in a great professional and/or personal capacity write these letters.

Rather than focusing on a large, broad group of traits, focus on a few with very specific examples. They also don't have to be vet med related. A lot of my stuff was based on the experiences I had outside of veterinary medicine.

This could be a great experience! If you could go in and ask if you could hang out with the staff veterinarians on slow or off times, that may be a great way to get your foot in the door.

Whatever you like to do. There's no single group of experiences that make one candidate any more desirable than the other. I've noticed that a lot of the people in my vet med class did things that they found enjoyable or that they were passionate about. Then when they wrote about those experiences or events in essays or spoke about them in interviews, their passion really shined. So do things you think would be fun or interesting.

I'll also echo everyone on having someone read through your essays. I feel like if you improve your LOR situation and have a good writing style, you'll get some love.

As far as adding to your school list, it depends on a couple factors:
1. Prerequisites you do/don't have is a good place to start. Don't apply to places where you don't meet their requirements.
2. Places that have high out of state acceptance numbers. These would be schools with high out of state seats. So places like Oregon, Georgia, and Texas A&M would not necessarily fit the bill as they have very few out of state seats. You could try, but you would have to go in with the realization that your chances may be low at these schools.
3. Places that hold grades in very high regard or have GPA cut offs. You meet all the GPA cutoffs that I know of. But there are places like Davis where their out of state accepted stats have GPAs in the 3.9s. That's a huge hurdle to jump.
4. Cater your list to your strengths. Think interviewing would be your greatest strength? Apply to schools that consider interviews a big piece of their admissions algorithm as an example.

I thik you'd have a decent shot at Illinois, for what its worth. Your stats are in line with ours and we have a pretty balanced admissions process. It's also closish to home for you.

I really appreciate you taking the time to reply to all of my concerns! I am fairly confident all my LOR's were very strong. The 50 hours were the veterinary hours I got at the zoo, the animal care internship was 500 hours of animal experience, so the zoo supervisor knew me pretty well and he gave me a perfect score on the zoo review at the end of the internship. Should I use the same LOR writers from this last cycle and add a couple veterinarians, or should I get all new LOR's?

 

[Iowaapplicant97]

I didn’t schedule an appointment with someone, but I did do the school’s rejected applicant zoom webinar that answered a lot of my questions. And I researched every school I was interested and I had the requirements for and narrowed it down from there. I choose 2 OOS schools that I felt like my values matched up with there’s and I could see myself at (UofA and CSU, my other acceptance and waitlist) and then another random OOS school I fulfilled requirements for (happened to be Mizzou, I was rejected - I was attracted to Missouri because of the IS tuition after the first year). I think it’s so important to apply smart! See what the schools value and how they look at applicants, and see how that fits with your gpa, experiences, etc.

What were the specific values you were looking for in schools? I know you said a great veterinarian has integrity, is honest, and has the ability to form meaningful relationships, are those the values you are referring to?