Alrighty, here goes! I hope this'll help both current and future SDNers out there. Seriously, this professional school network has been one of the best resources for me. Still can't believe I'm gonna be a vet!
23, Male, Tennessee resident
First-time applicant
B.S. in Animal Sciences (Science Option), Spanish Minor
Graduated Fall 2013 With Distinction from Penn State (We Are…)
Applied: Glasgow, Missouri, Ohio State, Iowa State, Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin
Interview Offers: Glasgow, Missouri, Ohio State, Iowa State, Tennessee, Minnesota, Illinois
Declined Interviews: Glasgow, Minnesota
Wait-Listed: Iowa State
Rejected: None
Accepted: Ohio State, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois
Attending: Wisconsin
Cumulative GPA: 3.79 - 3.80
Pre-Req GPA: 3.63 - 3.70 (depending on the school)
Last 45 GPA: 3.70 range
GRE: 154 V (62%), 146 Q (25% <-- FAIL
), 5 AW (93%)
Veterinary Experience:
· Banfield Pet Hospital – 2.5 years volunteering mostly on weekends and holiday breaks (sophomore year to senior year of high school); mostly dogs and cats, but occasionally exotics (i.e. birds, ferrets, miscellaneous pocket pets)
· Carothers Parkway Veterinary Clinic – 7 weeks full-time the summer before college; only dogs and cats
· University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital – 1 week full-time, part of the Veterinary Summer Experience Program (VSEP, basically I spent 7 weeks working at Carothers Parkway, and a week at UTK doing clinical rotations with fourth-year students; I also had to present a case study from the clinic I worked at); clinical rotations were mostly with dogs and cats, but got some large animal (i.e. cattle, goat, llama) experience here too
Animal Experience:
· Pet ownership for 11 years – owned a Labrador retriever, several types of tropical fish, and a cockatiel
· Saddle Up Therapeutic Riding Center – counselor and horse handler at two summer camps for children with physical or mental disabilities (35 hours a week during the summer)
· Great Day of Service – my high school senior service project was volunteering at Owl’s Hill Nature Sanctuary with rehabilitated owls (about 8 hours)
· Classroom experience (pretty much all 4.5 years of college) – a lot of my animal science classes involved animal handling, mostly with small mammals like mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, etc. but occasionally got to handle dairy cattle, beef cattle, and poultry; my school also has a deer research facility that I got to visit a few times (slightly random); one of my favorite classes was wildlife behavior because I got to do a group project on the foraging behavior of backyard birds
· Nittany Greyhounds – one-week full-time externship with retired racing greyhounds and trying to find homes for them; the place was also a kennel for boarding dogs
· University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – my first research study (see below) on beef cattle nutrition; microchip insertion, blood collection, rumen fluid sampling, moving cattle in and out of the shoots, feeding the designated diets for each set of cows, assisting with occasional biopsies, and of course…picking up poop
· The Ohio State University – my second research study (see below) on mucosal immunology in pigs; feeding, weighing, blood collection, taking temperatures, injecting appropriate doses of Telazol (sedative) to each pig prior to slaughter (the research involved analyzing lung tissue samples, so it was kinda necessary)
· Canine Border Patrol Center in Front Royal, VA – a day trip to observe the training and veterinary care that goes into preparing dogs for border patrol work
Research Experience:
· University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – nine weeks of full-time research on beef cattle nutrition to find a cost-effective alternative for corn in their diets
· The Ohio State University – nine weeks of full-time research on mucosal immunology in pigs to test the effectiveness of 8 nanoparticle-entrapped vaccines against the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus (I think this research also made news, which was kinda cool)
Side note…the research program I did was called the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), which was through the Big Ten Conference. It allows college students from across the country to gain research experience while getting a taste of graduate and professional education; the program also requires students to do research writing and presentations on the projects they helped with over the course of the summer
Employment:
· Lafferty Law Firm – part-time Spanish translator for a summer (maybe 10-20 hours a week?)
Extracurriculars:
· Governor’s School for International Studies (GSIS) at the University of Memphis
· Model United Nations (MUN)
· Youth Legislature (or Youth in Government, YIG) – my senior year resolution was on protecting honeybee populations from the excessive use of harmful pesticides
· RHS Link Crew – basically helping with new student orientations for incoming high school freshmen
· Black and Red high school newspaper staff
· Spanish National Honor Society (Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica)
· National Honor Society
· Pre-Vet Club – gained a lot of animal experience through community volunteering (i.e. pet meet-and-greets for the elderly at retirement homes, pet healthcare seminars for local area middle school students); served on a leadership panel to advise underclassmen on how to prepare for vet school
· Penn State Dance Marathon (THON) – raising money through the Four Diamonds Fund to research a cure for pediatric cancer; a lot of the money also goes toward each child’s cancer treatments and medical coverage for families
· Four-week study abroad in Mexico through the Spanish for Agricultural Sciences Program
· Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) – served as a co-leader of Media Team (I got to make videos through programs like iMovie) and a discipleship leader to provide one-on-one mentorship to an underclassman
· Residence Life Link Crew – basically helping incoming freshmen move in and get acclimated with life in college (similar to what I did in high school, but in college and on a much larger scale)
Honors and Awards:
· Max Hardin Fromm Scholarship
· Penn State Endowed Scholarship
· Bunton-Waller Fellowship
· President’s Freshman Award
· Dean’s List every semester of college
· AgSciences Facts Cover Photo
· American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) Scholastic Achievement Award two years in a row
· Outstanding Poster Award from the University of Illinois Summer Research Symposium
· Certificate of Achievement for my research at Ohio State University
eLORS:
· Three professors I got to know very well through classes, all of whom have DVMs
· My research supervisor at Ohio State, who also has a DVM
Personal Statement / Uniqueness Essays:
I organized my personal statement in kind of a story format. I began with a recent conversation I had with a friend about his dog with a sudden case of vomiting. Leading up to the time I applied for vet school, people often asked me questions about their pets, and I tried to give my best answer for each case. Diagnosing each situation allowed me to reflect on my longstanding passion for veterinary medicine since age three. From then on, I highlighted the experiences (some of the ones listed above) in my life that were most influential to my development as an aspiring vet. I also acknowledged that I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am now without the many individuals who have shaped my path along the way. In terms of uniqueness (specifically for Wisconsin), I highlighted my cultural blend of American and Nigerian heritage and how that shapes the way I think about myself, as well as the world around me. I also acknowledged that I am an African-American male, and people of my cultural background make up an underrepresented portion of the veterinary field. I described how my life mirrored that of a Wisconsin vet school alum of the same heritage (Dr. Ramard Wright, DVM), and how my cultural background further motivates me to fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a vet.
Other Thoughts:
I thought my GRE scores would be a huge hindrance in my application. After looking at applicant stats from previous years, I got pretty discouraged with mine. For those who don’t have the best GRE scores, there is still hope – especially if a school counts the GRE for a small part of the admissions process. I think my GPA and diversity of veterinary, animal, and research experience really helped my chances. In talking with admissions committee members, they often touched on those aspects of my application. I never expected to get as many interview offers as I did, and I never thought I would decline any of them. Interview questions posted on SDN were the best way to practice. All of my interviews were fairly laid back and conversational, so I felt a lot less pressure - even if I didn’t feel I did my best (no interview will be completely perfect, so don’t stress about it). I’m not sure if many people have mentioned this before, but now that I think about it…writing skills are crucial – especially for schools that don’t interview. Admissions committee members get their first impression of you as a person from how you write. It’s especially important to convey why you’re passionate about vet medicine, your understanding of what vets do, and what sets you apart from other applicants. Getting writing feedback from people you know in vet school, your recommendation writers, and family is a huge help.
haha!!!! 
