Prospect UIUC Student... Questions!

[PartySizedMack]

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Hi there everybody! :^)
I'm new to the SDN by account, but I've been reading around as a guest for quite a while!

Anyways, I had a couple of questions regarding getting into UIUC's vet school program. I am not the strongest academic student (if all goes well, my applying GPA for them will be ~3.33) but I have a large amount of really diverse experience that I hope will be able to carry me through (I have with-vet experience in GP, emergency, rehab, alt med, vaccines, shelter; and non-vet experience in equine, dairy, reptiles, and I taught a class of internal animal anatomy for undergrads)
I know everything about the GPA cutoff, don't worry! BUT I am in-state and speaking with in-state grads, I've heard them get in with a 3.25 at the lowest.
I just wanted to hear from other in-state peoples of all of this! I'm a chronic catastrophizer so having real people's experiences (that aren't the ridiculously pessimistic people on reddit....) would be wonderful :^) thank you!

 

[soupshark]

Hi, current 2nd year IS student here. There's of course no way to predict what the applicant pool will look like when you apply, but I can tell you the most recent trends as of late. For my class, the average GPA was a 3.81 and I'm guessing the cut off was somewhere in the 3.5-3.6 area. I don't know the cut off, but that's my approximation based on the average. On the website it says that the average GPA in recent years is a 3.74.

It's possible the IS cut off is lower than the OOS cut off due to less IS applicants, but that's not guaranteed. Illinois is not a holistic school so they look at only GPA during phase I, and then GPA is no longer considered after that. So you can have the most amazing experiences, essays, and eLORS, but if you are below the cut-off they won't be looked at.

Our GPA standards have been steadily increasing over time, and I believe my class had the highest historical average GPA ever at IL. Given this, I won't discourage you from applying to your IS since that would be ideal for likely multiple reasons, especially tuition, but I want to give you accurate advice/information so you can have realistic expectations moving forward.

How far into undergrad are you? And what is your science GPA? If you still have time left in school before applying, you can still bring your GPA up. Your science GPA should be close to your cumulative (the website says avg sGPA of 3.68) to be competitive. I'd recommend retaking classes that you got Cs or lower in to increase your chances.

 

[JaynaAli]

The UCIC website clearly lays out their selection criteria.
Source

Phase 1 is purely a ranking based upon GPAs +/- GRE and nothing else, then they take those who passed Phase 1 to review the whole app in phase 2, and some of those make it to an interview section. It’s not really possible to predict where you’d fall with a GPA of 3.3 since they’d be comparing you to other applicants and they don’t say how many move on to phase 2. That may be high enough to get you to phase 2 where they review your full app, stop factoring in GPA and see your experiences and stuff, but if your cohort of applicants has a higher GPA trend, it’s possible that your GPA leads to you being cut in phase 1 and the rest of your app is never evaluated. It’s just impossible to predict because you don’t know what your fellow applicants look like comparatively.