Soon to be first time applicant

[Cole_H34]

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Hello! I am a 23M FL resident in my 4th year of undergrad. I currently have a 2.75 unweighted GPA (although I’m not done yet and I have potential to raise my unweighted GPA to a 3.17), and currently an overall GPA of 3.02.

I have just recently found a love for vet medicine and want to apply for next year’s cycle.

I have taken almost all of the required and recommended prerequisite courses, but obviously have next to no experience/shadowing hours or anything. I’m pretty much at the very beginning stages of this journey, especially compared to everyone else I’ve seen on here. I’m hoping to start working in a vet clinic soon and am planning to find volunteer hours around town for experience.

I was hoping to get some advice on what I should start focusing on to get the highest chances of getting into a school. Also, it would be awesome if anyone has any suggestions on what schools might be best for me. Thanks!

 

[JaynaAli]

Honestly, I don’t think you’ll be ready to apply this next cycle. Your GPA is well below average for accepted student stats (and below the cutoff for many schools) and you need a minimum of several hundred hours of vet experience to be competitive. Average accepted student stats are something like 3.7-3.8 and a couple thousand hours, though obviously people have more and less and GPA will range too. If you’re sure you want to pursue vet med, take a couple years to get a variety of experiences in the field and work to improve your GPA if possible, whether that is retaking classes or whatever. But I can’t imagine you’d realistically be able to turn a current 2.75 or 3.02 or whatever and no experience into something actually competitive in the 8 months or so before apps are due. With work and time you can probably get to a more competitive place, but I wouldn’t waste time and money at this stage until you’re in a more competitive place. Spend a bunch of time reading the most recent applicant threads, other WAMC threads, and learning from others on here. Learn how each school you’re interested in counts their GPAs so you know exactly where you stand and apply smartly when the time comes in another year or two. I’m not trying to discourage you completely, just adjust the trajectory a bit so you aren’t wasting money with a less than competitive app.

 

[vampyrica]

Hi! I agree with Jayna that you are not ready to apply this coming cycle. I applied twice as a low GPA applicant and got in on my second try to my top choice -- HOWEVER, I had dipped my toes in different aspects of vet med and research. I'm not saying my application was perfect by any means. It's possible to apply as a low GPA applicant and get in, but it is very hard and it doesn't typically happen on the first try.

Which classes brought down your GPA? You say you completed your pre-requisites for the schools, what is your pre-req GPA looking like? Additionally, you ask for advice on which schools to apply to, have you looked at schools already? Pre-requisites are similar across the board but some schools require classes like Medical Terminology (VMCVM), Cellular Biology (CSU), 8 credits of Orgo (Midwestern), etc. What courses have you completed? What does your Last 45 GPA look like? Each school weighs these GPA's differently. Some consider them all, some consider 1 or 2.

Although you have no veterinary or animal experience, do you have research, employement, volunteer or club involvement? What have you done in your 4 years of undergrad? All these things would need to be added to your application.

 

[Cole_H34]

Honestly, I don’t think you’ll be ready to apply this next cycle. Your GPA is well below average for accepted student stats (and below the cutoff for many schools) and you need a minimum of several hundred hours of vet experience to be competitive. Average accepted student stats are something like 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and a couple thousand hours, though obviously people have more and less and GPA will range too. If you’re sure you want to pursue vet med, take a couple years to get a variety of experiences in the field and work to improve your GPA if possible, whether that is retaking classes or whatever. But I can’t imagine you’d realistically be able to turn a current 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or [emoji[emoji[emoji638][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji[emoji638][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]]]][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji[emoji638][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]]]].[emoji[emoji638][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]]][emoji[emoji638][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji637]]][emoji[emoji638][emoji639][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji640]]]] or whatever and no experience into something actually competitive in the 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months or so before apps are due. With work and time you can probably get to a more competitive place, but I wouldn’t waste time and money at this stage until you’re in a more competitive place. Spend a bunch of time reading the most recent applicant threads, other WAMC threads, and learning from others on here. Learn how each school you’re interested in counts their GPAs so you know exactly where you stand and apply smartly when the time comes in another year or two. I’m not trying to discourage you completely, just adjust the trajectory a bit so you aren’t wasting money with a less than competitive app.

Okay, thanks for the help!

 

[supershorty]

Hello! I am a 23M FL resident in my 4th year of undergrad. I currently have a 2.75 unweighted GPA (although I’m not done yet and I have potential to raise my unweighted GPA to a 3.17), and currently an overall GPA of 3.02.

I have just recently found a love for vet medicine and want to apply for next year’s cycle.

I have taken almost all of the required and recommended prerequisite courses, but obviously have next to no experience/shadowing hours or anything. I’m pretty much at the very beginning stages of this journey, especially compared to everyone else I’ve seen on here. I’m hoping to start working in a vet clinic soon and am planning to find volunteer hours around town for experience.

I was hoping to get some advice on what I should start focusing on to get the highest chances of getting into a school. Also, it would be awesome if anyone has any suggestions on what schools might be best for me. Thanks!

Do not apply next cycle. I would recommend that you not apply for several years to give yourself time to make your application competitive.

I'm sorry to be blunt, but you'll be throwing away your money if you apply now. You need much more time, experience, and to get your GPAs up, because you currently will not be a competitive applicant.

That doesn't mean that you will never be a competitive applicant, but you need to do the following things:

• Get LOTS of varied experience. You say you "just recently" found a love for vet med - it's very easy to have a starry-eyed view when you don't have experience in the field. You need to be shadowing in small animal clinics, large animal clinics, equine, etc. Experience in 1 area alone, like small animal GP, is not enough. You have to see different aspects of the field and know what you're saying you want to get into.
• Figure out what study methods work for you and then prove it with your grades. Whatever you're doing right now is not sufficient. There's no one right way to study, it's variable by the person, so you'll have to try different things and see what sticks. Veterinary school is a fast-paced huge volume of information. Spend the next couple of years finding how your brain processes and retains information and get your GPAs up.
• I don't know if UF offers this, but it would be worth contacting their admissions department at some point to see if they do any sort of application review/advice. If they offer that, it can help you to target your application, but understand that they may not do that.

You've got a lot of work ahead of you if this is what you want to do, but work hard, work smart, and keep asking questions of people in the field to get guidance as you go. Good luck!

 

[applepie002233]

Hi, I applied for the first time in the most recent cycle as someone who also ~recently decided to go down this route (Fall 2023 is when I committed), and thus had a below-average # of vet hours. It probably sucks to hear this, but I agree that taking a gap year may be best for you. In order to reach the required vet hours you need to even be able to apply (~300 hrs for a lot of schools), you’re probably going to need the year to explore the vet field and gain enough experience and connections to really find what you love, what motivates you, and have a strong DVM rec letter. By all means, you can still apply this cycle, but be prepared to review school requirements very carefully, because unfortunately many schools will throw out applications if you are below their GPA cutoff; applying to these will be throwing money & time away. Best of luck, and this journey is very possible if you have the patience and motivation! Rooting for you!