Schools that do GPA cut offs?

[champagneproblem]

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Hi,

I know some schools have a minimum GPA requirement -- I don't mean that. I know for instance Minnesota and Illinois do their first round of cuts solely based on GPA, and I was wondering what other schools do this?

Thanks so much.

 

[juggling-zebra0831]

Hi,

I know some schools have a minimum GPA requirement -- I don't mean that. I know for instance Minnesota and Illinois do their first round of cuts solely based on GPA, and I was wondering what other schools do this?

Thanks so much.

North Carolina State University (NCSU) has a cut-off of 3.4 GPA for OOS for every category (overall, pre-req, last 45 credit hours). They also count every class you have ever taken into their calculations (i.e., even those withdrawn, retaken, failed, etc.) My app got thrown out without any further consideration (i.e., they did not even yet consider supplemental essays) because I did not meet their pre-req GPA requirement 🙃 . Illinois threw my application out the prior cycle; lol I thought I had a chance based on their average accepted GPA range listed online and later found out the only way to move onto phase 2 is to have GPA that falls in top % of applicant pool (those GPA's of course vary every year with applicant pool itself).

I would use VMSAR and cross compare school websites if not reach out to admissions directly for breakdown of their GPA calculations. Also don't rely on VMCAS calculations alone. Not every school uses VMCAS GPA's when they go to consider your application.

 

[battie]

Hi,

I know some schools have a minimum GPA requirement -- I don't mean that. I know for instance Minnesota and Illinois do their first round of cuts solely based on GPA, and I was wondering what other schools do this?

Thanks so much.

There is probably a bit of this happening at every school, especially with the recent decreases in NAVLE scores. Not all cut offs are published and many may be dependent on the individual class of applicants. Based on the current cut offs I'm seeing anecdotally, I would not have been accepted to Illinois like I was ten years ago.

 

[indysadventures]

Hi,

I know some schools have a minimum GPA requirement -- I don't mean that. I know for instance Minnesota and Illinois do their first round of cuts solely based on GPA, and I was wondering what other schools do this?

Thanks so much.

From what I’m aware, while Minnesota does have a high average GPA that they use as a general cut off, it’s not super cut and dry - there are some below who received interviews and got in, and some above who did not receive interviews. Unless this recently changed, they also only consider prerequisite GPA and last 45, they do not consider cumulative.

So, I’d say if you’re really far below the averages posted last year (I believe they were around 3.75 and 3.80) and you don’t have a lot of experience to balance it out, you may want to remove them from your list. Their admissions office is really helpful, though, so if you're interested in the program and reach out with questions you can schedule a personalized meeting to discuss your application. They’d be able to give you a better understanding of a competitive application.

 

[Cats4Lyfe]

There is probably a bit of this happening at every school, especially with the recent decreases in NAVLE scores. Not all cut offs are published and many may be dependent on the individual class of applicants. Based on the current cut offs I'm seeing anecdotally, I would not have been accepted to Illinois like I was ten years ago.

I am curious, what do the current cutoffs for Illinois appear to be? I have talked to many a vet (even some only a few years out of school) who look at today's stats and say they would not have been accepted if they applied today. It's unfortunate because schools miss out on a lot of good people that way, but there are only so many ways to narrow the pool and to ensure that students do well in vet school academically.

 

[Tech_Penguin]

I heard Penn has an unofficial cutoff that changes year to year based on the applicant pool

 

[TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo]

WCVM in Saskatchewan decides who interviews by GPA (or at least they used to). Admission GPA got put in a chart and they went from highest down until interview slots were filled.

 

[pp9]

I am curious, what do the current cutoffs for Illinois appear to be? I have talked to many a vet (even some only a few years out of school) who look at today's stats and say they would not have been accepted if they applied today. It's unfortunate because schools miss out on a lot of good people that way, but there are only so many ways to narrow the pool and to ensure that students do well in vet school academically.

Huge guess on my part based off no actual info and gut feels alone, but I would estimate 3.4-3.5ish range, which isn't a huge ask for vet school admissions honestly. The average GPAs for admitted students are higher, sure, but that doesn't mean that the initial cutoff is that high necessarily.

If anyone can chime in on this, it may help (or may not) - but does UofI still only send out the first wave of rejections after phase I and II are done? That's how they did it in the good ol' days, and it made it hard (impossible?) to determine who actually made it through the academic eval in phase I vs. got cut. Illinois won't tell you 'sorry, you didn't make it past phase I (or II)' but timing of rejection waves could hint towards that.

 

[JaynaAli]

According to what OkState told alumni at a conference, they have historically made a list ranked by GPA, then they take the top proportion of those [whatever number admissions deems appropriate; maybe like the top 60-70% for in state, or a smaller percent for OOS] to interview. The bottom of the list doesn’t get interviewed. So there’s not a set GPA cutoff that determines if you will or won’t get an interview, but you’re compared to others and initial cuts are made based upon GPA and it’s going to be above the minimums.

Or that was at least the process for in-state historically…not sure if they’re changing anything now that they’re planning to start interviewing OOS again.

 

[pp9]

So there’s not a set GPA cutoff that determines if you will or won’t get an interview, but you’re compared to others and initial cuts are made based upon GPA and it’s going to be above the minimums.

Yeah this is a good thing to point out because I think probably more schools do it this way, but we just keep saying 'GPA cut off.'

 

[juggling-zebra0831]

If anyone can chime in on this, it may help (or may not) - but does UofI still only send out the first wave of rejections after phase I and II are done? That's how they did it in the good ol' days, and it made it hard (impossible?) to determine who actually made it through the academic eval in phase I vs. got cut. Illinois won't tell you 'sorry, you didn't make it past phase I (or II)' but timing of rejection waves could hint towards that.

When I applied last cycle (2024-2025), first wave of rejections was sent after phase I (got an email that said as much lol) and can only guess a second wave followed phase II (never advanced that far in admissions process). Phase I was strictly academic evaluation; they cut people proportionally like @JaynaAli described. I was caught off guard because their average accepted stats posted online were like 3.6-3.7 and even though I met that I was still cut. From what I remember from that cycle there were people with >3.7 too that got cut. I think it really just is a luck of the draw on whether you advance since applicant pool GPA range varies so widely year from year. It was one of the reasons I didn't bother putting forward another app this cycle to Illinois since felt like too much of a gamble. Hopefully people from this cycle can chime in with their own experiences too.

 

[pp9]

When I applied last cycle (2024-2025), first wave of rejections was sent after phase I (got an email that said as much lol) and can only guess a second wave followed phase II (never advanced that far in admissions process). Phase I was strictly academic evaluation; they cut people proportionally like @JaynaAli described. I was caught off guard because their average accepted stats posted online were like 3.6-3.7 and even though I met that I was still cut. From what I remember from that cycle there were people with >3.7 too that got cut. I think it really just is a luck of the draw on whether you advance since applicant pool GPA range varies so widely year from year. It was one of the reasons I didn't bother putting forward another app this cycle to Illinois since felt like too much of a gamble. Hopefully people from this cycle can chime in with their own experiences too.

Well, afaik, the only data Illinois is sharing on admitted students is the following:

"The competitive applicant at our college in recent years has had:

• An average Cumulative GPA of 3.74
• An average Science GPA of 3.68"

So they aren't actually sharing c/o ___ data, just saying this is where they have been over the recent years. So it's very possible this past year their standard was even higher. We don't know. With the general upward movement of GPAs, the numbers above might not be reflective of that just yet. And just to point out that Illinois still considers the GRE (optionally) so that is something some students may be doing to add to their chances for that school.

 

[battie]

I am curious, what do the current cutoffs for Illinois appear to be? I have talked to many a vet (even some only a few years out of school) who look at today's stats and say they would not have been accepted if they applied today. It's unfortunate because schools miss out on a lot of good people that way, but there are only so many ways to narrow the pool and to ensure that students do well in vet school academically.

I think it's around 3.5, but it's nebulous. Not everyone with a 3.7 will get passed on while some with a 3.4 will. But for the *average* applicant, the cut off seems to be there.

I had a 3.3 cGPA with comparable GPAs otherwise. Andi graduated in 2021. You have to remember though that even recent grads were applying 4-8 years ago, and *a lot* has changed. So even someone who just graduated was applying under different circumstances than you are. We didn't have these NAVLE worries on the same level when they were applying.

Huge guess on my part based off no actual info and gut feels alone, but I would estimate 3.4-3.5ish range, which isn't a huge ask for vet school admissions honestly. The average GPAs for admitted students are higher, sure, but that doesn't mean that the initial cutoff is that high necessarily.

If anyone can chime in on this, it may help (or may not) - but does UofI still only send out the first wave of rejections after phase I and II are done? That's how they did it in the good ol' days, and it made it hard (impossible?) to determine who actually made it through the academic eval in phase I vs. got cut. Illinois won't tell you 'sorry, you didn't make it past phase I (or II)' but timing of rejection waves could hint towards that.

I definitely received an email letting me know I passed phase 1 when I was applying for class of 2020.

 

[katiemcat]

UF has an internal GPA cut. The admissions director just changed so the process has changed a bit. Historically they took the average applicant GPA and cut everyone below that. Apparently this year they made exceptions for 15 people with “extraordinary” experiences and allowed them to interview. Not all of those people got in, but they got a shot, which I thought was cool.

 

[cats98msu93]

This isn't concerning GPA cutoffs but published average GPAs. For schools that replace rather than average whether it is prereqs, cumulative, or last 3 semesters/ 45 hours, do we know if their published average GPAs are based on their calculations or VMCAS calcs?

 

[pp9]

This isn't concerning GPA cutoffs but published average GPAs. For schools that replace rather than average whether it is prereqs, cumulative, or last 3 semesters/ 45 hours, do we know if their published average GPAs are based on their calculations or VMCAS calcs?

I would think the schools' calcs, because afaik VMCAS doesn't do any of the averaging/replacing for each school. VMCAS is a one size fits all. It basically collects all of the data and organizes it, and then the schools go on to pick it apart/recalculate according to their admissions process.

 

[cats98msu93]

I would think the schools' calcs, because afaik VMCAS doesn't do any of the averaging/replacing for each school. VMCAS is a one size fits all. It basically collects all of the data and organizes it, and then the schools go on to pick it apart/recalculate according to their admissions process.

That was my assumption as well, but thank you for the input.

 

[miriam1216]

From what I’m aware, while Minnesota does have a high average GPA that they use as a general cut off, it’s not super cut and dry - there are some below who received interviews and got in, and some above who did not receive interviews. Unless this recently changed, they also only consider prerequisite GPA and last 45, they do not consider cumulative.

So, I’d say if you’re really far below the averages posted last year (I believe they were around 3.75 and 3.80) and you don’t have a lot of experience to balance it out, you may want to remove them from your list. Their admissions office is really helpful, though, so if you're interested in the program and reach out with questions you can schedule a personalized meeting to discuss your application. They’d be able to give you a better understanding of a competitive application.

I asked them to evaluate my GPA (pre-application) and their office gave me an honest eval, that I had a less-than-optimal chance based on GPA. I really appreciated their honesty and decided not to apply.

 

[indysadventures]

I asked them to evaluate my GPA (pre-application) and their office gave me an honest eval, that I had a less-than-optimal chance based on GPA. I really appreciated their honesty and decided not to apply.

I’m glad to hear they were helpful! I had UCD staff tell me something similar, though mine was about the amount of pending prerequisites that I’d have at time of application. They told me that due to having one too many, I’d likely be screened early. So I didn’t apply, and I’m glad that I had someone give me some honest information.

Best of luck!