Nothing too special... but I got into schools, so it must have been good enough.
BA in Biology from Dartmouth
GPA: 3.56 (w/ academic citation in Microbiology - pretty rare)
Last 45 hours: 3.83
Science GPA: ~3.7
GREs: Q 800, V 620
Experience:
SA Clinic: ~300hrs when I applied. I have more now. I have been lucky to be working there at a time when they were short on techs (not lucky for them, I suppose), so I get a lot of hands on experience and pretty much act as a tech. (I also put these on the VMCAS in such a way that many schools read it as ~100 hours because I split it up among the 3 vets I worked with. Oops)
LA: Many 1000s of hours working as an assistant farm manager, trainer, instructor, camp counselor, trail guide, and farm hand at a few farms. Farms mostly had horses, but some cows, llamas, goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs as well. I've been riding and showing for about 16 years, and I have owned 2 of my own horses. I also have been volunteering at a therapeutic riding center nearly as long as I have been riding. I also do some farm sitting.
SA: Extensive pet sitting. I'm the main pet sitting reference from the clinic I work at so I get a lot of geriatric, sick, and medicated pets. I also have the wonderful job of whelping out nearly every litter that is born at the farm I work at back home. I *swear* they plan it so that they're due when I'm home, haha.
Other Work:
-Color genetic consultant: I consult with many horse and dog breeders as to the genetics of their animals and what potential crosses may produce. I've been doing this since high school. There is a much lower demand now that the knowledge of color genetics is more widely known. I have also worked with people concerning OLWS and HYPP.
-Computer science TA
-Genetics study group leader and tutor
-Curves coach in high school (the women's gym - SO much fun! haha)
Extracurriculars:
In lots of groups with the college, but my main one is that I play rugby. I'm on a D1 team and have been on the starting team since sophomore year. I've been the fundraising chair, equipment manager, web designer, and am now the president and treasurer. We're not varisty in order to maintain some freedoms, but that means I pretty much run a small business.
LORs: Vet, professor, and volunteer coordinator from the farm I volunteered and worked at. The owner (and vet) of the clinic I work at also sent in a paper LOR, but a lot of schools don't look at those.
I also wrote in an explanation statement about my GPA because my grades dipped into the B range for a year. That was the year my mom got diagnosed with 3 kinds of cancer and my sister died. So yeah, kinda rough and my academics suffered. I hope the schools have taken that into consideration.
Applications:
Applied: CSU, Cornell, Minnesota, Michigan, VMRCVM, Wisconsin, Illinois, Penn
Accepted: Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan (w/o interview, woo!)
Waitlisted: VMRCVM, Wisconsin
Rejected: CSU, Cornell
Upcoming interview: Penn
I'm still really crossing my fingers for Penn because my fiance got a great offer from their electrical engineering PhD program.
Good luck to everyone that's still waiting! Hopefully we'll be getting good news!
