Should I Apply to UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine for Fall 2026 or wait until Fall 2027

[natureisforevermylife]

I am a California resident, I went to a California community college for 2 years(4.0 GPA and 2 associate’s degrees in biology and natural science). I transferred to UC Davis as a biological sciences major Fall 2024, I am now set to graduate this summer with a projected 3.75 UC Davis GPA, 3.87 Science GPA(UC Davis and community college), 3.81 Most recent 45 sem/68 quarter units(UC Davis and community college).

I have worked at a vet clinic since my freshman year of college, worked 30 hours a week during school and 40 hours a week during breaks while in community college, went down to 10 hours a week when I transfered to Davis and now have ~3,000 hours of veterinary experience. This experience has been with cats and dogs in general practice. I also have some shadowing experience reptiles, birds, and small mammals in general practice from working at a separate vet clinic last summer that occasionally worked with these animals(~30 hours). I also have shadowing experience with dermatology for cats and dogs since a veterinary dermatologist was hired around 10 months ago at my veterinary clinic a couple days a week(~30 hrs). I intake patients, gather history from clients, discharge patients, monitor during surgeries(dental, spay/neuter, foreign body explorations, etc.), place ceph catheters, draw blood, preform cystocentesis, run bloodwork and urinalysis, position patients for x-rays and take x-rays, maintain sterilization equipment, etc.

The only research experience I have is from senior year of high school(Nature Area foot-bait camera Study to figure out diversity of wildlife in the area). I have had a lot of trouble finding research positions in Davis(30+ applications and emails), someone finally reached out to me this past week and has set up a time to interview me for a volunteer position in a veterinary research lab at UC Davis for this summer so fingers crossed.

I feel like I do not have diverse enough experience to apply to UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and they are my dream college and the most affordable option for me.

I was hoping some may have advice on if I should apply to UC Davis for Fall 2026 or if I should wait to apply for Fall 2027 since the deadline for Fall 2026 applications is September 15th 2025. Does UC Davis hold it against you if you applied once and have been rejected?

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[pp9]

What are my Chances? WAMC Veterinary There is a format here for posts like this - the mods will probably bump your post over there, so if you can follow that format and give us as much info as possible it will help.

Vet schools don't ding multi-cycle applicants, so don't worry about that.

You have decent stats and experience, so I'd say it's worth a shot. UC Davis is a 'dream school' for a lottt of people so keeping your options open would be a good thing. Vet school admissions are really competitive (I think we are around <8% of applicants being admitted right now? and that's across the board, not just UC Davis) so I would consider picking a few other schools to apply to. There are some schools that let you change to IS tuition after the first year which helps with affordability.

 

[natureisforevermylife]

What are my Chances? WAMC Veterinary There is a format here for posts like this - the mods will probably bump your post over there, so if you can follow that format and give us as much info as possible it will help.

Vet schools don't ding multi-cycle applicants, so don't worry about that.

You have decent stats and experience, so I'd say it's worth a shot. UC Davis is a 'dream school' for a lottt of people so keeping your options open would be a good thing. Vet school admissions are really competitive (I think we are around <8% of applicants being admitted right now? and that's across the board, not just UC Davis) so I would consider picking a few other schools to apply to. There are some schools that let you change to IS tuition after the first year which helps with affordability.

Thank you for your response! I was thinking of applying to 1-2 schools this cycle and if I don’t get in I wanted to take an additional gap year to get more experience in a variety of areas(alike wildlife and zoo veterinary care) and then apply to 5-8 school, I didn’t know that about IS tuition so I’ll look into schools that allow that! I will post on the forum you suggested, thank you!

 

[pp9]

Thank you for your response! I was thinking of applying to 1-2 schools this cycle and if I don’t get in I wanted to take an additional gap year to get more experience in a variety of areas(alike wildlife and zoo veterinary care) and then apply to 5-8 school, I didn’t know that about IS tuition so I’ll look into schools that allow that! I will post on the forum you suggested, thank you!

Zoo vet here - you've picked two of the hardest areas to find quality veterinary hours in, just FYI! Increasing the variety of your veterinary hours is never a bad thing, but don't forget to consider shelter medicine, equine, food animal, etc.

 

[natureisforevermylife]

Zoo vet here - you've picked two of the hardest areas to find quality veterinary hours in, just FYI! Increasing the variety of your veterinary hours is never a bad thing, but don't forget to consider shelter medicine, equine, food animal, etc.

That is definitely true! I’ve always had a soft spot for Wildlife and zoo animals so that’s where I wanted to get additional hours in and there is a really well-known wildlife rehab center near me that takes interns that get to work some hours with the veterinarians. I will definitely look into shelter, equine, and food animals!