Seeking Advice From OVC Students/Future Students

[Menorquin]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey there,

I am currently in my first year of the Animal Bio program at Guelph and to make it really short my first year hasn't gone as planned. My exams from the fall semester were deferred until now and I had to drop the winter semester and will have to take the courses again come next year. My grades from the fall will not be the greatest - mid to high 70s are what I could pull off.

My main question is if the OVC takes any interest in your overall GPA? I've only seen that they count only the last 2 semesters and the prereqs. I am also wondering what I could do in terms of strengthening my application over the next 4-5 years as I may not attain that 4.0 GPA I've been told I pretty much need to be accepted into the OVC.

If anyone could potentially help calm my nerves a little, I'd be very appreciative!

Thank you so much. ^.^

 

[SocialStigma]

I'm a 4th year OVC student!

OVC does not look at your cumulative GPA at all, only the prereq GPA and the GPA of your last 2 full time semesters will be considered. You also definitely don't need a 4.0 GPA to get in, but a competitive admission average would be ~85% (for both prereqs and last 2 full time semesters).

I would start with identifying the reasons why you didn't do that well in first year..too much partying? poor time management skills? skipped too many classes? All of those can be remedied and if you buckle down then you can really pull your GPA back up. Or was it because of medical or personal reasons? If you did study hard and are still having trouble keeping up then I would take a look at your study methods, get a tutor, make sure you ask for help/clarification in courses you're struggling with, etc.

Bottom line is, GPA is the #1 thing that OVC will look at. Only the top ~200 applicants receive an interview invite and 80% of that comes from your GPA (the other 20% from your MCAT score). They don't look at your reference letters or experience until after the interview. I would focus really hard on making sure your prereq and last 2 full time semesters GPA are solid so that you improve your chances of acceptance. But poor first year marks won't hurt you, I got a C+ in 2nd year organic chemistry and still got into OVC 🙂.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions about OVC.