Successful Master's Students

[Raimes]

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Since I'm a pessimist.. and I guess I always will be I'm planning for next year.

I'll have my masters completed by December of this year, I was wondering what schools cared about your masters (gave interviews, accepted). My undergrad GPA sucks, and to be honest having a 3.6 in grad school isn't all that great either.

I am going to try to make a list of schools I want to apply to, and I already know that Iowa is off that list because they don't count graduate grades in their cumulative.

So what schools did you have success with having a masters?

 

[JollyBlueJay4]

Hi Raimes!
Completing my MS this year at Purdue. I got wait-listed / semi rejected from Kansas, interviews at Minnesota, Purdue, Glasgow, accepted at Edinburgh, and waiting to hear from Wisconsin!

Similar boat to you, 3.1 GPA undergraduate, 3.9 GPA graduate. All of my pre-req GPAs are barely above 3.0, science GPA lousy, but graduate school shows I can, actually, get an A!

Hope this helps! Lemme know if there's anything else I can do for ya!

 

[annemal22]

I think a masters looks good to most schools. But I don't know that it is looked at more highly by some schools over others. I can tell you two schools that don't look at your graduate coursework when it comes to GPA- Kansas and Iowa. They only look at undergraduate coursework.

 

[princesspeaches]

Still waiting to see if it helped me be a successful applicant. I'm getting my MS from Washington this June. I only applied to three vet schools, so far I've been rejected from WSU (OOS) and am still waiting on Wisconsin and Michigan State.

I'm hoping it improves my application this year! I'm doing a thesis based MS, so I have TONS of research experience now.

I think getting an MS will have been worthwhile for me either way--I'm not going into debt for it (I have an RA appointment, I'm not making tons of money but I've got health care and tuition covered), and I am qualified for a lot more jobs. I'd only recommend it if working in a lab/research is something you'd want to do if vet school didn't work out, though.

 

[Raimes]

Thanks guys! Masters only look good if you do well though, I would assume.. my gpa is extremely low for a grad program.

 

[bruin33]

I've just completed a MS degree at UCLA and have a boatload of research experience upon completion of the degree, of which I had very little as an undergraduate. While conducting my research and writing my thesis, I was also able to cozy up to the veterinarians on the campus, which helped with seeing the research side of vet medicine as well as helping out in the letter of recommendation department. It has been a great experience academically as well as just helping me mature -- though I have yet to see if this experience will translate any better to getting in to vet schools. This application cycle should give me an answer. Hopefully a good one!

 

[favhrnstr]

I got my master's last year, and this was my first application cycle. I applied to 3 schools (VMRCVM [my IS], OSU, and Penn); I got interviews at all three and so far an acceptance at OSU. (My other interviews are the next 2 weeks.) That said, you need to do well in your graduate courses (REALLY well if, like me, your earlier grades aren't awesome). I used my graduate work to prove that I could handle a courseload of upper-level science classes.

Ultimately the schools want to answer two questions in the application process:
(1) Can you handle the schooling?
(2) Will you be a good colleague in the profession?

The academic portions of applying seek to answer the first question; make sure your answer is a resounding "yes!"

 

[JollyBlueJay4]

3.6 isn't that bad at all!! And it's great to show you improved from your undergrad GPA! Stress the rise in GPA over time curve! That'll be sure to get some sort of attention!

O, I forgot to mention, no to NCSU too. They have a minimum GPA cut off for pre-req courses that, if you don't make it, there's no exceptions... Jerks...

 

[nyanko]

3.6 isn't that bad at all!! And it's great to show you improved from your undergrad GPA! Stress the rise in GPA over time curve! That'll be sure to get some sort of attention!

Eh, for a thesis based Masters a 3.6 is going to be somewhere in the middle of the pack. It's not BAD but I think if one's trying to make up for undergrad GPA issues with it, it might be problematic.

Graduate courses are totally different from undergrad ones, which I'm sure you know from experience. My experience with vet school courses is that they are more like undergraduate ones, at least for the first two years at most schools.

I think like others have said, the biggest draw to having completed a thesis MS is that you can see a challenging task that requires a good deal of independent thought and determination through to its completion. Any boost you get to the "numbers" portion of the application is likely to be minimal. So I'd say that schools that do a little less of the OMGNUMBERS!!!! screening before they even look at the rest of the app would be more likely to put any weight on the graduate degree.

I think my MS played a pretty big role in my being accepted here at UC Davis, but I don't think it had to do with my GPA in the program (3.91) as much as the letters of recommendation and being able to really intelligently discuss my research and issues in my field with a good deal of depth at the interview and in my PS. I think I got through the "numbers" screening by virtue of 1) being in-state and 2) the fact that UCD considers GPA and GRE equally.

 

[JollyBlueJay4]

Oh noooo nyanko!!!! I'll admit I know very little how vet school courses are taught and was kind of hoping they'd be more like my graduate classes... Don't tell me that I have to go back to all those horribly annoying homework assignments!!!!!! I really like this '3 exams in a class, each = 33% of your grade' deal I got going now!

 

[nyanko]

Oh no, it's definitely (at least the curricula I'm familiar with) exams = grade. Though actually, that's how my undergraduate school was too. What I'm referring to is the nature of the material and the way that it is largely taught.

My graduate school courses had a large emphasis on conceptual understanding and integration of the material. I didn't really need to memorize things that could be looked up somewhere, and just had to be able to integrate ideas and synthesize and express my own ideas on the topics. For my vet school courses so far, there are more details that we are asked about on exams that I feel like could be easily referenced. Basically I guess what I'm getting at is that in my own experience, grad school courses = more depth, more conceptualization while vet school courses = more breadth, more memorization.

 

[RaiderTXgirl]

Just thought I would add that Texas A&M DOES look at MS courses. I was waitlisted there last year, and the advice during my file review was to enter a MS program (I chose Biology non-thesis) to take more upper level science courses as a way to boost my GPA (overall, science, and last 45 hour GPAs).

Just interviewed there today, so hopefully it helped and I'll get in this year! (I have a 3.1 undergrad cumulative GPA, but a 4.0 so far in the MS) 🙂

 

[RaiderTXgirl]

...grad school courses = more depth, more conceptualization while vet school courses = more breadth, more memorization.

I have been told the same thing myself, so that's probably a good way to put it.

 

[Raimes]

Thank you guys for all your information! Unfortunately it seems my Masters grades aren't really that great compared to everyone else.

But good luck everyone in your future endeavors.

 

[Tiempo]

Thank you guys for all your information! Unfortunately it seems my Masters grades aren't really that great compared to everyone else.

But good luck everyone in your future endeavors.

Hey Raimes, chin up! My story isn't great, but I am in vet school currently, so...

It's funny, but I didn't realize that grad courses were typically considered to be 'easier' GPA-wise until posting here, because my grad courses certainly weren't! 😉 Unfortunately, that meant I ended up with a grad school GPA that was about the same as my undergrad GPA, and vet schools looking at that likely thought it should have been significantly higher.

I applied to Missouri, Colorado, Penn, Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Edinburgh, and Michigan, and I think that's it. Accepted to Edinburgh. Oh, also applied to Ross and SGU - accepted to Ross, declined interview at SGU after accepting Edinburgh. I can't recall for sure, but Edinburgh might look at your Masters GPA in addition to your undergrad GPA, and will likely consider you for the five year program if not the 4 year based on GPA. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more about it!

 

[rosyreef]

I think it all depends on the school to which you are planning to apply. It wouldn't hurt to find out their minimum and average GPA requirements, as well as whether or not they include graduate-level courses into those calculations. I know of at least two people who applied to veterinary school as graduate students; only their undergraduate grades were considered and it didn't work out so well. Personally, I think graduate coursework should be included, but I would check with a school before applying.

 

[Raimes]

Tiempo, thank you for input. I doubt I will end up like I did in undergrad, but you are right though graduate course are difficult! I am in a non-thesis program so all I am doing is taking classes. Unfortunately it is not feasible for me to leave the states, so it's USA or bust.

I have a few months to research so I will have to take a look at the different schools, thanks rosyreef.