Same Ole' Story Different Guy

[Adambuff]

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So basically I am/was a High School drop out. Note that I dropped out with a great GPA please. Then I proceeded to work full time for two years before returning to college. I really did not want to do the whole college thing I just felt obligated after I got my GED, which I aced by the way, i know such an accomplishment.
So long story short after one and a half years of screwing around there I was with a 2.0 GPA and no direction. Mind you I was working two jobs most off all this. So i took a year break, now fast forward to last month back in school at a local Community College where I am beginning to get the prereqs for Vet school. I have only taken one science course which was gen chem 1 which I made a D in because I dropped it to late because i was being lazy. Anyways now 2 months in this semester of actually trying i have two A's in Biology 101 and College Algebra(pre req now for gen chem.) I know that I am smart and capable when I apply myself. I want to know If you all thing there is even a chance for me? I have been a Vet Tech for 3 years and have over 5500 hours of experience in small animal. I am a head tech and very very in the know as far as Veterinary Medicine. I have a great chance by the time I get all my prereqs to have a <3.5 Science GPA but the cumulative is gonna be tough to get much about 2.9-3.0. Im willing to fail at getting in as I know its realistically going to happen one or more times. So in essence I just want some opinions on where I stand. So far I am interested in LSU-VMR-LSU-UGA. Hit me with your best shot I guess.

 

[kernel]

So basically I am/was a High School drop out. Note that I dropped out with a great GPA please. Then I proceeded to work full time for two years before returning to college. I really did not want to do the whole college thing I just felt obligated after I got my GED, which I aced by the way, i know such an accomplishment.
So long story short after one and a half years of screwing around there I was with a 2.0 GPA and no direction. Mind you I was working two jobs most off all this. So i took a year break, now fast forward to last month back in school at a local Community College where I am beginning to get the prereqs for Vet school. I have only taken one science course which was gen chem 1 which I made a D in because I dropped it to late because i was being lazy. Anyways now 2 months in this semester of actually trying i have two A's in Biology 101 and College Algebra(pre req now for gen chem.) I know that I am smart and capable when I apply myself. I want to know If you all thing there is even a chance for me? I have been a Vet Tech for 3 years and have over 5500 hours of experience in small animal. I am a head tech and very very in the know as far as Veterinary Medicine. I have a great chance by the time I get all my prereqs to have a <3.5 Science GPA but the cumulative is gonna be tough to get much about 2.9-3.0. Im willing to fail at getting in as I know its realistically going to happen one or more times. So in essence I just want some opinions on where I stand. So far I am interested in LSU-VMR-LSU-UGA. Hit me with your best shot I guess.

Welcome.

If you can do exceptionally well in your pre-reqs from this point forward, I think you'll have a decent shot. Adcomms don't care about your high school GPA, unfortunately. You're really going to need to pull through to make up for your poor grades in your first college level courses.

Where are you a resident? I'd like to point out that UGA only accepts 1-2 OOS students per year.

 

[Adambuff]

South Carolina. I dont care where I go honestly as long as its a US school. VMR is my top choice but Ill go anywhere.

 

[bbeventer]

First off welcome to the forums

Secondly, admissions into vet school sometimes feels like monkeys throwing darts at a dart board. No one can say with certainty what they are looking for. There are some schools like KSU that look heavily at last 45 credit, GRE and experience. My only concern that you would have to clarify with absolute certainty in a personal statement is your commitment. From your history it appears that you will quite when times get tough, and vet school is nothing but tough.

 

[Jess Monster]

Secondly, admissions into vet school sometimes feels like monkeys throwing darts at a dart board.

... blind monkeys

 

[Emiloo4]

First off welcome to the forums

Secondly, admissions into vet school sometimes feels like monkeys throwing darts at a dart board. No one can say with certainty what they are looking for. There are some schools like KSU that look heavily at last 45 credit, GRE and experience. My only concern that you would have to clarify with absolute certainty in a personal statement is your commitment. From your history it appears that you will quite when times get tough, and vet school is nothing but tough.

This is exactly my thoughts. Vet school is... well...rough. And a lot of people dislike vet school once they're there. ( ) Only you can answer this for yourself, but are you going to get lazy and give up each time it gets hard/boring/irrelevant/etc? Because its hard 17 times a day, starting day 1. This isn't a criticism, just something you really need to think about for your personal sake. Don't waste your time and insane amounts of money if you can't be 12586% committed. Even the most committed don't make it.

 

[Emiloo4]

... blind monkeys

👍

 

[Adambuff]

Well I didn't quit because college was tuff to be honest, I picked a bad and busy time to go back, this time I made sure my life was squared away before giving it another go. I told myself if I didn't make an A in all my vet prereqs I would not apply. So that's where I'm at now.

 

[Virginger]

If you do well in all of your following coursework, and get your GPA up past a 3.5 for all three GPA calculations you probably going to be fine. If I were you, trolling the Successful Applicant Stat threads will give you some insight as to what schools are looking for this year. Things may change from year to year, but it will give you ideas as to where to set you goals.

Do you have other veterinary experience beside SA? If not I would consider exploring other fields and adding more variety. I think there is a small trend where students struggle a little more with getting admitted when they dont have ultra-stellar GPAs (like >3.85) and have a limited variety of experience. Depth is not necessarily evaluated by all programs, or with any greater preference than variety.

Also, when I was a student at MSU my profs harked on us not referring to ourselves as Techs because it implies CVT or LVT. I have a similar amount of experience, and I still wont address my previous work experience on paper as tech-ing because it takes one person to read it and disagree with your title ... then killing that app.

 

[Adambuff]

Well I guess Vet Assisting would be politically correct. As far as attaining a 3.5gpa that is impossible to do for me right now as far as cumulative GPA goes. My science GPA however I can definitely achieve a 3.5

 

[that redhead]

Personally, I think you're a ways away from deciding whether or not you should apply.

First, while it's certainly encouraging that you can do well in class when you put in the effort, you haven't even finished your first, lower level pre-reqs yet. The courses only get harder and more tedious as you progress. If you can manage to get As and Bs in those tougher courses (organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, etc), then I would start to consider applying to vet school. I would also make sure that you can commit yourself 110% to these courses, even when you feel like they have nothing to do with your goal of vet med. (I think we've all wondered what the heck organic chemistry has to do with being a veterinarian; it's about how you power through those why-am-I-here moments that matters.)

Second, your experience in small animal practice will definitely help your application. However, as another poster mentioned, I would look into other opportunities, either full time or in your spare time, to diversify your experience. Large animal, zoo/exotics, wildlife, shelter, research/lab, etc are all areas to consider gaining experience in.

Most importantly, it IS possible to overcome a low cumulative GPA and get into vet school. There are definitely some of those people on this forum, myself included. I think if you can do really well in your pre-requisite courses (as well as strengthen the rest of your application) you will do a lot to show that your previous academic history is not representative of the student you've become. Good luck

 

[Virginger]

If you think you can get at least a couple categories up to a good point, then if you apply strategically I think you would have a good chance then. Not all schools calculate GPAs the same way or look at all of the scores for the initial selection process... so being smart about applications is good way to increase your odds.

I was in a position where I had to be very strategic about my applications because a couple of my scores would knock me out of consideration immediately at a few schools. I think if you were 110% sure that you want to become a veterinarian... then i think you can do it 🙂 but its not going to be easy. The good news is that it sounds like you have only taken a handful of courses, so you will have a MUCH easier time then me to bring up your GPAs.

[personally] I think getting your science GPA up there would have a huge impact, even if you overall is only okay (and i say this having an "okay" GPA too)... and a lot of schools use it as a major part of their initial selection. For example Kansas State looks at a composite of Sci GPA and GRE... do well in both of those, then you would probably have an interview invite. However, some programs like tufts, will only look at the cumulative GPA, GRE, and critically read your application (no science or last 45.)