Pre vet courses - university of Colorado

[peehdee]

Hello there,

Does anyone have experience with university of Colorado pre vet program? I looked on their website and seems to be linked with pre med students.

I am writing for a friend, who is non traditional. Graduated college in Mid 90s with bio major.

1) Would it be too late ( in mid feb), to apply for post bac or just pre vet courses to take gre this fall/next spring for application in the fall of 2013?
2) at this point, is it more likely that application should be submitted for 2014?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers!

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[Chebanse]

I am a non-trad that attended the University of Colorado Denver for part of my vet prereqs. have an art degree and then did some post bac pre-vet courses while I lived in Chicago, then transferred to UCD when I relocated to Colorado. There is plenty of time to apply to CU (Denver or Boulder) for the fall. I believe that they list their application deadlines on their website. For post bac, your friend will not need to take the GREs. The application process is just like applying as an undergrad transfer student. Your friend will just have to fill out the application and send in college transcripts. Letters of recommendation are not even required.

As for the program, it is not really "pre-vet." it is biology or pre-med. It is only pre-vet in as much as the individual tailors it as such... at least at UCD. There are not many (if any depending on the semester) animal focused classes. ***However*** since your friend is a post bac student, already has a bio degree, and does not necessarily need another degree, the classes he/she takes will be retakes on classes that need to be refreshed, specific classes that will fulfill prerequisites for vet school, and maybe a few upper division classes to make your friend a competitive candidate. CU is great for this. They have a very strong bio program and they have some great research opportunities to top it off.

I hope this helps. I am happy to answer any other questions or at least try to point you in the right direction.

 

[peehdee]

hey thanks for the excellent reply.

i didn't realize university of colorado denver had post bacc program.

do you have link for their site? i've looked around the web site but seems to not be an easy find.

are you going to be a student at colorado state this coming fall?

 

[finnerma]

I wasn't really sure if you were asking should your friend apply to vet school in 2013 or for post-bacc in 2013?

If you mean post-bacc, that will be no problem. I'm a nontrad currently finishing prereqs for vet school at UC Denver.

Your friend's best bet is to apply as if he/she is seeking a second degree, only because that gets a better registration time that way and he/she won't miss out on classes. There is not really a post-bacc program in the traditional sense, you sort of have to tailor your courses to the vet schools you want to apply to (because the prereqs vary somewhat between schools) and you do a lot of the planning yourself.

There are not a lot of prevet resources at UCD in my experience, but if your friend does his/her research, its not a big deal. The classes are the same and they do have a strong science program. They also offer most prereqs at times that are convenient to nontrads who are working and going to school which is nice. If your friend needs to take animal science courses as well, there are a lot of great online options for that and it doesn't seem like the vet schools mind that those courses were taken online. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[peehdee]

thanks for the reply.

do you know anything about the university of colorado at boulder pre-med program?

how do you like living in denver?

and she would be applying for post-bacc/pre-med program this coming fall (2012) hoping to apply to vet school in 2013.

I wasn't really sure if you were asking should your friend apply to vet school in 2013 or for post-bacc in 2013?

If you mean post-bacc, that will be no problem. I'm a nontrad currently finishing prereqs for vet school at UC Denver.

Your friend's best bet is to apply as if he/she is seeking a second degree, only because that gets a better registration time that way and he/she won't miss out on classes. There is not really a post-bacc program in the traditional sense, you sort of have to tailor your courses to the vet schools you want to apply to (because the prereqs vary somewhat between schools) and you do a lot of the planning yourself.

There are not a lot of prevet resources at UCD in my experience, but if your friend does his/her research, its not a big deal. The classes are the same and they do have a strong science program. They also offer most prereqs at times that are convenient to nontrads who are working and going to school which is nice. If your friend needs to take animal science courses as well, there are a lot of great online options for that and it doesn't seem like the vet schools mind that those courses were taken online. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[LovePolydactyls]

Sorry for the late response- I've actually been a lurker on SDN for a while but thought it might be time to actually become a member so I can help with this question...

I started all my post-bacc stuff at CU-Boulder before they had the official "post-bacc program." I am about a semester ahead of the first class to go through that program- from what I've seen, it might be better if your friend doesn't enroll in the program but instead just picks and chooses the courses she needs. As both chebanse and finnerma pointed out, finding a "pre-vet" curriculum per se' is difficult, as many vet schools have different requirements and CU isn't as animal science focused as other schools.

However, CU-Boulder does have a Pre-Vet Club with several non-trads in it (with lots of opportunity to become an officer and gain leadership experience) as well as an excellent pre-vet advisor (Elisa Cripps).

If your friend can tolerate being surrounded by undergrads, I think CU-Boulder might have more resources for her than CU-Denver.

As mentioned above, applying as a degree-seeking student will help with registration, etc. Then she can just leave the school once she has finished her pre-reqs... that's what I did, and it really, really helps.

 

[finnerma]

thanks for the reply.

do you know anything about the university of colorado at boulder pre-med program?

how do you like living in denver?

and she would be applying for post-bacc/pre-med program this coming fall (2012) hoping to apply to vet school in 2013.

Polydactals info on the CU Boulder program is spot on. Depending on whether or not your friend needs to work while she is doing prereqs, in addition to getting vet experience, will determine whether or not CU Boulder will work for her. They are not very working non-trad friendly, certainly not as much as CU Denver is. The CU Boulder advising office does have very helpful interview and personal statement workshops.

CU Denver also has a pre vet club but I honestly haven't joined, not really my thing and I don't have a lot of extra time with working full time and trying to get vet experience at the same time. They seem to do a lot of cool events though. The health professions advisers at CU Denver have a really good reputation. I have not utilized them either because I knew exactly what I needed to do and took care of it myself.

I did my undergrad at CU Boulder so I've lived in both Denver and Boulder and they are both great places to live. Getting vet experience in Denver has been very easy because there are so many low cost clinics, etc. that are in need of volunteers. Its definitely easier than if your friend were in Fort Collins, much less competition from other pre-vets. The pre-med scene is pretty crazy and difficult though lol.

 

[Chebanse]

Sorry I am so late on my response. I have not had access to a regular computer for the better part of last week. I have been using my phone which is not conducive to providing links and such. I cannot comment on Boulder, as I only know about it through hearsay. As finnerma mentioned, however, they are not quite as non-trad friendly. I agree completely with everyone else that has posted about enrolling as a degree seeking student. It means that you get preference on class selections based on how many credit hours you have. That would mean that with a degree, your friend should get the maximum 90 hour transfer which would give them senior status for registration. To apply as a degree seeking student, your friend would just apply as a transfer student.

I chose to go to Denver rather than Boulder because I am a non-trad and their class times and attitude are really helpful to non-trads. There are a lot of older returning students on campus. There are also a lot of opportunities for work/volunteering around Denver (as finnerma also mentioned), and they have great research opportunities (ironically I got involved with a lab up at CSU and make a monster of a commute until I move up to FC this spring before I start vet school). I already knew exactly which classes I needed to take and UCD was really well geared toward autonomy which I like a lot.

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/CLAS/Departments/biology/Programs/BachelorScience/Admissions/Pages/HowtoApply.aspx

 

[peehdee]

Thanks for the comments. Very much appreciate them. 🙂

I may PM you guys if you don't mind.