Pre-vet newbie help!

[hlee393]

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Hello, everyone !
I am currently a 3rd year undergrad who recently have decided to go toward this field...
anddd im quite lost..
long story short, I was non-science major (industrial design) and have determined to jump in!
I honestly didn't maintain my GPA high, especially science courses. I only focused on my previous major classes when I was stuck in a studio.

So, I thought I would ask to get some clarification?
What are personal statements and what do I write about?

I have volunteered at a research lab studying atherosclerosis dealing with mice, which experience does that count as? (some have said animal, and some have said vet)
Does interning at a zoo/aquarium count as a vet exp or animal exp?

In case, you don't get accepted anywhere; have you reapplied the following year? or have you done or taken other roads?

 

[CanHardlyWait]

Hello, everyone !
I am currently a 3rd year undergrad who recently have decided to go toward this field...
anddd im quite lost..
long story short, I was non-science major (industrial design) and have determined to jump in!
I honestly didn't maintain my GPA high, especially science courses. I only focused on my previous major classes when I was stuck in a studio.

So, I thought I would ask to get some clarification?
What are personal statements and what do I write about?

I have volunteered at a research lab studying atherosclerosis dealing with mice, which experience does that count as? (some have said animal, and some have said vet)
Does interning at a zoo/aquarium count as a vet exp or animal exp?

In case, you don't get accepted anywhere; have you reapplied the following year? or have you done or taken other roads?

Hi and welcome! I'm never first to respond, so don't worry if my info sucks, someone more experienced will be along shortly

Pretty sure both lab animal and zoo work would be considered animal experience, unless you are working with a vet who is overseeing the care of the animals. Both are good to have but for most schools it is required to have experience working or shadowing under a vet to apply to vet school. You're also going to need letters of recommendation from at least 1 vet-some schools require more.

Regarding personal statements, I think people generally write about why they want to be a vet, experiences that led them to pursue vet med, traits that they possess that will lead to success as a vet, what kind of vet med they want to pursue and why. I'm a non traditional student, so I wrote about that and what I feel I would bring to the veterinary community that differs from traditional students, as a result of my unusual path to vet med.

As for your GPA, well, a high one helps. I think you'll be hard pressed to find successful applicants with lower than a 3.0, and frankly that is even considered low. You can compensate for a lower GPA with an awesome GRE score and tons of experience with awesome letters of recommendations.

There's a thread called Plan B on here, I'd check that out for what people are planning to do if they don't get in this cycle. If I hadn't gotten in when I applied I was going to keep working as a tech, retake the GRE (cuz my score was low, really low) and re-apply. Thankfully I didn't have to, I hated the GRE.

Good luck.I hope this helps.

 

[labrat219]

Hello, everyone !
I am currently a 3rd year undergrad who recently have decided to go toward this field...
anddd im quite lost..
long story short, I was non-science major (industrial design) and have determined to jump in!
I honestly didn't maintain my GPA high, especially science courses. I only focused on my previous major classes when I was stuck in a studio.

So, I thought I would ask to get some clarification?
What are personal statements and what do I write about?

I have volunteered at a research lab studying atherosclerosis dealing with mice, which experience does that count as? (some have said animal, and some have said vet)
Does interning at a zoo/aquarium count as a vet exp or animal exp?

In case, you don't get accepted anywhere; have you reapplied the following year? or have you done or taken other roads?

I'm just a pre-vet too but having gone through the cycle twice and also having classmates who are in vet school now I can give you a little bit of info.

To determine whether your experience was vet or animal, you need to find out if what you did was supervised by a veterinarian. If yes, vet, if no, animal. For your atherosclerosis study, if it is being funded by a federal organization like the NIH, then in my opinion would be counted as vet, because all federally funded research on animals is overseen by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee which includes a lab animal vet. If there is no vet overseeing the research then it would be counted as animal.

I haven't worked in a zoo or aquarium (I wish I had found an opportunity though, that is awesome) but I figure it depends on the nature of what you did there. If you were being supervised by a veterinarian then it can go under vet, otherwise it would go under animal.

I applied once a couple years ago and didn't get in, so I went and got a Master's degree in lab animal science to learn more about lab animal medicine and improve my application the next time around. I also got a job as a lab animal tech and got to know so many different DVMs and learn so many more aspects of vet med, you wouldn't believe it. There are definitely roads you can take if you don't get in.

For your personal statement, you want to write about why you want to be a veterinarian and what makes you a good candidate for a job. It's interesting that you went from industrial design to wanting to be a vet, what made you change your mind? If you start your personal statement answering that question, I guarantee you will have the whole thing done before you know it and you'll actually have to trim some out because it's too long!

Regarding GPA, what admissions is looking for there is can you handle the intense workload that vet school gives you? If your GPA is low, then the school may be concerned that you will have trouble passing your vet school classes. However, there are other ways to prove that you can handle it like getting an awesome GRE score or even taking the MCAT and getting an awesome score (easier said than done) if the school you're applying to allows it. You can also pursue an advanced degree like a Master's or a post-bacc certificate to improve your grades. What you should do is go to the website of each vet school you want to apply to and find the average GPA of last year's admitted class. If you are above it, great, if you are below then you will need to think of ways to make up for it.

You will also need to make sure you have all of the pre-requisite classes because each vet school has their own. For example, some schools require Animal Nutrition while others don't. You definitely don't want to go through all the hard work of applying only to find out that you're missing a pre-req.

Hope that helps and good luck!

edit: CanHardlyWait is totally right, especially about letters of recommendation. I forgot to mention those!

 

[OwlandPussycat]

Hello, everyone !
I am currently a 3rd year undergrad who recently have decided to go toward this field...
anddd im quite lost..
long story short, I was non-science major (industrial design) and have determined to jump in!
I honestly didn't maintain my GPA high, especially science courses. I only focused on my previous major classes when I was stuck in a studio.

So, I thought I would ask to get some clarification?
What are personal statements and what do I write about?

I have volunteered at a research lab studying atherosclerosis dealing with mice, which experience does that count as? (some have said animal, and some have said vet)
Does interning at a zoo/aquarium count as a vet exp or animal exp?

In case, you don't get accepted anywhere; have you reapplied the following year? or have you done or taken other roads?

To add to what others have said....

GPA is pretty important, but since you said that you've recently switched majors, it sounds like you still have to take a lot of the vet school prereqs. If that's the case, then you can use those classes to bring your GPA up! And as another used said, a low-ish (think low 3's) GPA can be somewhat compensated for by things like high GRE scores, lots of experience hours, a great essay, strong letters of recommendation, etc.

Also, this SDN forum is an awesome resource. For any question that you could possibly have, there is at least one thread in which it has been discussed ad nauseum. You can use the search bar to find useful threads on pretty much every aspect of getting into (and through) vet school.