Nontraditional with low GPA at Ivy - Need Advice

[morningside]

Hey everyone, to make a long story short, I am nontraditional (27 yrs) and have a low gpa right now at an ivy, where I'm an undergrad. My science GPA is 2.72 at the moment, and have a cumulative of 3.2. I want to go to vet school, but with my scores I realize that I might not be able to. However I do think that I can increase the science GPA, and I am a minority. I want to do large animal vet; my family has a ranch and I've had lots of hands on experience with livestock. What's more, I'm male and hispanic. Do I have any chance whatsoever? I'm really nervous that I won't get in anywhere; that I'll have wasted my time and money; and that I'll be 30 with no job and useless. What should I do!??

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[david594]

If your still in undergrad start off by retaking the sciences you got C`s in and kicking butt in the remainder of your classes.

I graduated with less than a 3.0 cumulative GPA in 2007 from a good institute and have already been accepted to 1 US school this cycle. So its definitely not a lost cause.

 

[Truth74]

Hey everyone, to make a long story short, I am nontraditional (27 yrs) and have a low gpa right now at an ivy, where I'm an undergrad. My science GPA is 2.72 at the moment, and have a cumulative of 3.2. I want to go to vet school, but with my scores I realize that I might not be able to. However I do think that I can increase the science GPA, and I am a minority. I want to do large animal vet; my family has a ranch and I've had lots of hands on experience with livestock. What's more, I'm male and hispanic. Do I have any chance whatsoever? I'm really nervous that I won't get in anywhere; that I'll have wasted my time and money; and that I'll be 30 with no job and useless. What should I do!??

Hey there! non-trad minority, right here.
Do you have any vet experience, yet? Experience (both varied and deep) can go a long way to make you stand out.

It is possible to get in to vet school with a low gpa if the trend is upward during you last 45-60 hrs. I agree with David about retaking the lower courses before you graduate. Once you graduate, it's harder to get into those classes.

Have you looked at the schools to see which ones may be a bit more ... forgiving?
I know Illinois (shameless plug) looks at the GPA/GRE and if you make that cut, they don't look at it again. The final decision is made based on the interview and statements. There are other schools that are like that, but I am not familiar with them.

 

[Electrophile]

Hey everyone, to make a long story short, I am nontraditional (27 yrs) and have a low gpa right now at an ivy, where I'm an undergrad. My science GPA is 2.72 at the moment, and have a cumulative of 3.2. I want to go to vet school, but with my scores I realize that I might not be able to. However I do think that I can increase the science GPA, and I am a minority. I want to do large animal vet; my family has a ranch and I've had lots of hands on experience with livestock. What's more, I'm male and hispanic. Do I have any chance whatsoever? I'm really nervous that I won't get in anywhere; that I'll have wasted my time and money; and that I'll be 30 with no job and useless. What should I do!??

I think the best advice I got as a pre-vet was from a vet school professor who was good friends with my faculty adviser from grad school. He said that if you want to go to vet school, but don't have a super stellar GPA (as I did not), don't be:

1) white
2) female
3) small animal

I was pretty much all three, but what I did was I did a good bit of shadowing with a rural mixed practice vet and it actually kinda grew on me, so now I'm much more open to being mixed practice in a more agricultural area than just small animal. Perhaps not solely large animal way out in the sticks, but there are still lots of places where you can be half an hour from a big city where people still have hobby farms and small family farms, which appeals to me. The adcoms all know of the huge large animal vet shortage and one of the vets I shadowed said you could effectively be the dumbest SOB in the surrounding 3 counties, but say you want to do swine or poultry medicine and they'd say "C'mon in!" I don't quite know if it's that desperate, but they are definitely looking for those kinds of folks. Are you bilingual as well? That would be extremely marketable.

I think if you have a strong GRE, finish with a strong GPA in your upper level science classes (which I found "easier" than the lower level, less interesting ones), and get a broad amount of both vet and non-vet animal experience for good LORs, I think you'll be just fine. Good luck!

 

[robeezy08]

He said that if you want to go to vet school, but don't have a super stellar GPA (as I did not), don't be:

1) white
2) female
3) small animal


...LOL

 

[Pandacinny]

I think the best advice I got as a pre-vet was from a vet school professor who was good friends with my faculty adviser from grad school. He said that if you want to go to vet school, but don't have a super stellar GPA (as I did not), don't be:

1) white
2) female
3) small animal

Ugh, this sounds just like me! I'm hoping my interest and experience in lab animal will make me stand out some, but I don't know if it'll be enough.

Question: Do you guys think that experience with farm animals in a laboratory setting "counts" as large/farm animal experience, or is it just lab experience?

 

[nyanko]

Ugh, this sounds just like me! I'm hoping my interest and experience in lab animal will make me stand out some, but I don't know if it'll be enough.

Question: Do you guys think that experience with farm animals in a laboratory setting "counts" as large/farm animal experience, or is it just lab experience?

Probably depends on the person or committee reviewing your application. Basically it sort of seems to me like what you mark down the experience as in VMCAS doesn't really matter as long as it's close enough, and that the people reviewing the app are going to classify it how they see it anyway. Just make sure you write a good, clear explanation of your duties.

 

[BeeBee82]

Also, something to keep in mind is that a lot of schools will not look at you repeat/delete grades and only look at your original grades. So if your planning on repeat deleting courses make sure to do some research on the schools that will look at you newer grades. Also, there are other options such as a masters. If you do well in a masters program you can prove to the adcoms that you can handle grad. course loads. You could also get a second B.S., maybe in a related field to cut down on the amount of extra courses and boost your GPA.
best of luck!

 

[david594]

Also, something to keep in mind is that a lot of schools will not look at you repeat/delete grades and only look at your original grades. So if your planning on repeat deleting courses make sure to do some research on the schools that will look at you newer grades. Also, there are other options such as a masters. If you do well in a masters program you can prove to the adcoms that you can handle grad. course loads. You could also get a second B.S., maybe in a related field to cut down on the amount of extra courses and boost your GPA.
best of luck!

Any specific examples of schools where you know this is true? I am pretty sure the norm is for schools to average the grades of repeated courses, cant think of any off hand that only look at the original grades.

A more common issue would be that some schools don't consider grad work when they are computing your GPA. So while a masters may help show you can handle the work, it does nothing to get past their first round cuts made on numbers only.

 

[nyanko]

A lot of schools won't actually permit you to get a second BS in a field that's too related to your prior degree. Most also have requirements for the second BS that you have been in that major/at that university for 60 credits or whatever, so either way it'll take like 2 more years and half a degree's worth of credits to get a second one.

 

[david594]

A lot of schools won't actually permit you to get a second BS in a field that's too related to your prior degree. Most also have requirements for the second BS that you have been in that major/at that university for 60 credits or whatever, so either way it'll take like 2 more years and half a degree's worth of credits to get a second one.

But who says you ever actually need to finish that second degree? Where I am they require 45 credits to be taken at their school before they will issue you a degree. But since being accepted at Ohio, I am dropping out.

Second bachelors is a great option for a student who has already graduated to go back to school to complete remaining pre-requisites.

 

[nyanko]

Yeah I was going to mention that, that you don't actually need to finish the degree. But my comment was more in response to BeeBee's, about getting a second degree, where they actually mentioned finishing it.

At UCF, the requirement was definitely 60 hours there, and 45 in the department of the major. And if you had, say, a Biology BS, they wouldn't allow you to declare a second major in Molecular Biology and Microbiology. I remember that one pretty clearly.

 

[DVMorBust]

But who says you ever actually need to finish that second degree? Where I am they require 45 credits to be taken at their school before they will issue you a degree. But since being accepted at Ohio, I am dropping out.

Second bachelors is a great option for a student who has already graduated to go back to school to complete remaining pre-requisites.

Seconded! That's what I did. I won't finish my BS in Biology, but seeking a 2nd degree helped a TON, not just in the UG GPA issue, but also in getting in to classes...special students at our school get the bottom of the barrel for class selection, and I may not have been able to get in to some of the 'everyone needs to take these' science courses.

 

[jop21]

In regards to mourningside, all hope is definitely not lost. I would reccomned you try to bring up your GPA by whatever options you may find. Also, remember to prepare for the standardized tests required by vet school (GRE, Biology GRE).

However, no matter what I would really reccomend looking on getting some veterniary experience. You said that your family had livestock, but does that include any specific medical expiernce. My point being that being riased around livestock and have expiernce in large animal husbandry is important, but actually working in a large animal veterinary clinic or with a vet making house calls would really add to your application. If you lack this type of expierence I would start looking for jobs and/or shadowing oppurtunites like these.