Nontraditional applicant chances for ‘25 matriculation

[Megan Upton]

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I would love to hear from some current and/or past vet students what my chances are of getting in this cycle. I know comparison is a thief of joy and hope but if you want to include your stats that is fine. For background I did 6 years in the military with extensive leadership roles and managed a multi million dollar program for the air forces nuke base. I did large animal for the last two years of my enlistment and got 200+ hours. This year I got small, exotic, and zoo totaling about 200 hours as well. There sadly aren’t any opportunities for research where I’m located of any sorts. I will have my B.S. Animal Science in March then Physics 2 and organic chemistry 2 the next week (they will be complete in April). My science and current GPA is 3.83, and my last 45 is 3.88. My LORs are from two vets and a military supervisor who saw me grow through my entire enlistment. My personal statement was strong and revised by a vet and two english tutors. I would really appreciate it if i could some get opinions on my chances this cycle.

I have to hear from Minnesota, LSU, Mizzou, UofTK, Ohio, NC state, UW-Mads, and CSU left.

 

[JaynaAli]

Your GPA is decent and they’ll probably like the military experience, but 400 hours is actually quite low for experience, especially if I’m understanding you correctly and only 200 of it was in private/non-military practice. I think you’ve got a fair chance but your app would be stronger with significantly more vet experience. Luckily more experience is an easier thing to “fix” than something like GPA issues should you need to apply again.

 

[Megan Upton]

Your GPA is decent and they’ll probably like the military experience, but 400 hours is actually quite low for experience, especially if I’m understanding you correctly and only 200 of it was in private/non-military practice. I think you’ve got a fair chance but your app would be stronger with significantly more vet experience. Luckily more experience is an easier thing to “fix” than something like GPA issues should you need to apply again.

200 was with a local large animal vet and was so low due to my 60+ hours I worked a week while earning them. I made sure to include that in my explanation statement. Does that not have any weight to it? Would love your opinion, I haven’t met any prior military vet students so I have nothing to go off of.

 

[JaynaAli]

200 was with a local large animal vet and was so low due to my 60+ hours I worked a week while earning them. I made sure to include that in my explanation statement. Does that not have any weight to it? Would love your opinion, I haven’t met any prior military vet students so I have nothing to go off of.

Oh I thought you were saying it was like experience within military vet med. Which has weight and is very valid experience, but from what I know from classmates serving as veterinarians in the military can be a very different environment than traditional GP with clients. I was worried that you may not have enough “civilian” experience with laypeople clients to understand what you’re getting into. If all 400 hours are in traditional practice, the hours don’t concern me quite as much, but I do still think you’re below average on hours since many, many of your other applicants will have hours in the thousands.