Supplemental Applications 2010

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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Bearby said:
My progress:

PS - done
eLORs - submitted

Planning on hitting the submit button on the VMCAS probably tomorrow or Monday.

Supplementals:

The only two I haven't completed are Illinios and AVC, but AVC's isn't due until November 1st.

However, I haven't sent my transcripts out to anyone yet. They're all in addressed envelopes just waiting to be sent but I haven't had an opportunity to go to the post office. Also, I don't have pictures of myself to send to the schools that want pictures. I was going to try and dig up my senior portraits because that's the most recent one I have.
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Oh good. I used my senior picture too. Was hoping it wasn't too old
 
twelvetigers said:
Auburn requires one.

I just colored my hair pink so... I'll be using an older one of me I guess!
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I know that we're supposed to be like anonymous kinda on these things but I really want to see your pink hair!
 
GUYS.

For Ohio, did you list out the skills and/or challenges? Like, did you explain each one briefly, or did you say "the blah blah most important blah are A, B, C, D and E." OR, did you like, use bullets?

I just need to know it won't seem lazy if I do bullets or something.
 
TT, I did a bulleted list of the 5 skills/challenges, then answered the questions about the specific things they ask you to talk about (strength/weakness, challenge) whatever.
 
Okay, I wanted to ask a question about Iowa's supplemental. How are most people structuring their answers? Did you put Iowa has this, this, and this that are unique and I will contribute this, that, and something else to your class? Or did you try to make a story out of it? I think I'm sometimes too objective in my writing (it's been a struggle making my personal statement personal) and I'm wondering if that is acceptable for these questions?
 
goldielocks137 said:
Okay, I wanted to ask a question about Iowa's supplemental. How are most people structuring their answers? Did you put Iowa has this, this, and this that are unique and I will contribute this, that, and something else to your class? Or did you try to make a story out of it? I think I'm sometimes too objective in my writing (it's been a struggle making my personal statement personal) and I'm wondering if that is acceptable for these questions?
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I am doing (did? not submitted yet) the first question a like you described but ended up with 2 paragraphs where I went into a bit more explanation of why the things that I thought were unique that they could offer me were important to me personally.

I am doing the second one as sort of a mini personal statement type thing (but trying to not repeat myself), talking about qualities I have to offer that will hopefully make me unique. With that said, this essay is the one keeping me from submitting because as discussed in another thread, I don't feel terribly unique at the moment! We have up to 3000 characters, so I am thinking they want something pretty well developed.
 
Whyevernot, did you explain why the skill was important before talking about how you demonstrated it, or did you just go right to the point since they didn't exactly ask?
 
Ok for Ohio's supplemental, for the handling experience question I have done work with rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, rats, hamsters, mice, gerbils, sugar gliders, and pot-bellied pigs. Should I put all of those in one category or should I list each species seperately?
 
Dang! Can you be a bit more broad, like... "rodents"? Or if the handling was the same for the little ones, just list those and then put that for ALL of them you restrained for this,that whatever...
 
twelvetigers said:
Dang! Can you be a bit more broad, like... "rodents"? Or if the handling was the same for the little ones, just list those and then put that for ALL of them you restrained for this,that whatever...
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Thanks I like the second idea. I would love to say rodent but that excludes quite a few of the little critters...too bad there isn't a one or two word phrase that includes all of them.
 
DVMDream said:
Thanks I like the second idea. I would love to say rodent but that excludes quite a few of the little critters...too bad there isn't a one or two word phrase that includes all of them.
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You could put rodents to encompass most of them and then sugar gliders and pot-bellied pigs separately
 
DVMDream said:
Unfortunately, rabbits and ferrets are not part of the rodent family either.
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Dammit ferrets and rabbits! I'd like to think that if I would have thought about that for two seconds I would have realized that...but we'll never know
 
goldielocks137 said:
Dammit ferrets and rabbits! I'd like to think that if I would have thought about that for two seconds I would have realized that...but we'll never know
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Lol..its late; I will give you that. The vet I worked with who saw all of these critters would get so mad when people called a ferret a rodent...it was actually kind of funny.
 
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twelvetigers said:
Whyevernot, did you explain why the skill was important before talking about how you demonstrated it, or did you just go right to the point since they didn't exactly ask?
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Nope - they didn't ask for an explanation, and since there's only 500 words I didn't explain. Although for the skills essay I ended up touching on most of them anyways as I answered the question, in terms of how they contribute to my main skill or how they are useful in addressing my weakest one.
 
Oregon State's supplemental wasn't too bad. I am currently working on Western. In between studying for mammalogy and biochemistry.
 
DVMDream said:
Lol..its late; I will give you that. The vet I worked with who saw all of these critters would get so mad when people called a ferret a rodent...it was actually kind of funny.
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On the UI supp I grouped on these as rodents... do you think I should list out rabbits, ferrets, and sugar gliders then? I didn't want to get to wordy...?
 
Just say like... "Rodents, ferrets, rabbits, and sugar gliders: restrained this, did that"

I don't think it makes a huge difference, but I do think they would find it annoying if you listed each of them separately and then repeated yourself a lot. At least for these little critters.
 
OK, I am DETERMINED to finish Ohio's supplemental tonight. I finished the integrity essay (which I could have sworn would be my last one; it actually turned out pretty well for me) and I'm wrapping up the one about animal's I'm proficient in handling. I feel like it's too...short? I don't know, I guess I thought my equine section would take up a TON of space (there's really not a whole lot I'm NOT comfortable doing with horses) and it ended up not "looking" like a lot. I don't know if I was too general or what? I'm judging this by the word count-we've got 500 spaces words and mine's feeling like it's going to be just over 100...anyone else's like this?
 
twelvetigers said:
Mine is 156 words and I felt I was very thorough. It's just a list. If someone has 500 words to say, well... that would be pretty crazy. Or very redundant.
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Awesome, thank you =) Just my paranoia setting in then, I guess 😳
 
I am finishing/finalizing my NCSU essays, and plan to have a good working copy of Iowa's and Auburn's essays by tonight, will hopefully finalize those tomorrow, and will hopefully submit VMCAS tonight (am finally satisfied with PS). I cannot wait until Friday at noon, so my life can return to a state of somewhat normal. Aaaahhhhh!!!!
 
Almost done! All of my materials have been sent via snail mail to their respective schools except AVC since they don't require it all quite as early. I also have to finalize my Illinois essay and then I'm pretty much done! yay! I must admit, at first giving all the envelopes to the lady at the post office made me more stressed, but now it's out of my hands.
 
Yeah, but Auburn says it doesn't have to be in their office until the 15th. From their website:

"The supplemental application is now available and and should be submitted when your VMCAS application is submitted by October 1st and received by Auburn no later than October 15th, 2010."

Not that that means we can overnight it on the 14th, but I was planning on sending it out Friday
 
goldielocks137 said:
Okay, I wanted to ask a question about Iowa's supplemental. How are most people structuring their answers? Did you put Iowa has this, this, and this that are unique and I will contribute this, that, and something else to your class? Or did you try to make a story out of it? I think I'm sometimes too objective in my writing (it's been a struggle making my personal statement personal) and I'm wondering if that is acceptable for these questions?
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I tried to make mine a bit more on the personal side. I did say "Iowa has X, Y and Z" but related it to myself on a more personal level and WHY those things attracted me. For the second one, it was (as mentioned above) kind of like a mini-PS with as little repetition as I could manage, but not a story really. The second one was so hard for me to do because I felt like whatever I wrote I had already expounded upon in my PS and I was worried it would be too redundant. But I managed to spin it a little so it wasn't exactly copy/paste.
 
I have done absolutely EVERYTHING for EVERYONE except that stupid Illinois essay. I can't for the life of me think of anything, last year's essay was way easier...
 
BirdieDoctor said:
I have done absolutely EVERYTHING for EVERYONE except that stupid Illinois essay. I can't for the life of me think of anything, last year's essay was way easier...
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That essay is the reason why I decided not to apply to Illinois. It was originally on my list, but got scratched earlier this week. I just thought it would be better to put more work into my other essays, which are of schools that I really want to go to, rather than Illinois, which was the "last" school on my list. Nothing against Illinois, I just simply ran out of time 😳
 
EllieGirl89 said:
OK, I am DETERMINED to finish Ohio's supplemental tonight.
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I'll hold you to that if you hold me to it😀! I am determined to submit both Iowa and Ohio tonight... which is exactly why I just got home, and am on SDN.

I fear I am approaching the point of saying heck with it, just submit SOMETHING and be done! I have drafts of everything already, but I am not thrilled with any of it!

I have to work until 8:30 tomorrow night, getting home around 9... so pretty sure I won't have time to finish anything tomorrow. How on earth did I become such a wicked procrastinator?

VMCAS is done, and I have now officially applied to 6 schools... just 3 more to go!

:bang:Also, since I don't want to start a new thread (and I don't think there is a WSU thread yet) and maybe someone will see this question here... I sent all my transcripts in a big envelope to WSU last week and their fantastic portal page shows that they got 9 out of 11 of them. I counted and recounted to make sure everyone was getting all 11 before I sealed the envelopes, so I am wondering if this is worth a phone call at this point, sending replacements, or just waiting to see if they turn up? No idea how they could have lost just 2 of them!
 
Thanks redhead and gone2dogs for answering my question about Iowa supplemental!
 
twelvetigers said:
Just say like... "Rodents, ferrets, rabbits, and sugar gliders: restrained this, did that"

I don't think it makes a huge difference, but I do think they would find it annoying if you listed each of them separately and then repeated yourself a lot. At least for these little critters.
Click to expand...

I did hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, gerbils: restrained blah, blah, blah.

Rabbits, sugar gliders and ferrets: restrained blah, blah, blah.

I think that shows what I have done without being to annoying. At least I hope.
 
DVMDream said:
I did hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, gerbils: restrained blah, blah, blah.

Rabbits, sugar gliders and ferrets: restrained blah, blah, blah.

I think that shows what I have done without being to annoying. At least I hope.
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I love how my animal handling skills for each species includes, without fail, restraining them. In fact I'm pretty sure that's how most peoples' will be-makes us sound like a bunch of big meanie-heads.
 
Ohio supp #2: it asks for you to briefly discuss the consequences you might need to be prepared for as a result of your plan. For my "plan" the only consequence I can think of would be for it to be rejected. What kind of crazy plans do they think we're coming up with? Anyone else find that part deeply troubling? I feel like I'm missing something😕
 
Just submitted Colorado :soexcited: Now I have UI to finish up, VMCAS is pretty much done but I am hoping one more person will review my PS for me... it still feels a bit... Eh.
 
Well, for like their example: balancing family and work life, you would say that you would take vacations, make time, blah blah I dunno I didn't use that, but you know what I mean. Then the consequence would be having to cut back on work, or having to make less overtime, etc. SO if you picked something that doesn't fit that format, well, that's difficult...
 
Jakesmom said:
Ohio supp #2: it asks for you to briefly discuss the consequences you might need to be prepared for as a result of your plan. For my "plan" the only consequence I can think of would be for it to be rejected. What kind of crazy plans do they think we're coming up with? Anyone else find that part deeply troubling? I feel like I'm missing something😕
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I would just mention the consequences that you could see as a result of following your plan. I don't know what that plan is, but if your plan was actually accepted and put into effect what consequence could their be?

So they mention the economy. Maybe your plan includes allowing clients to be placed on a payment plan for bills over $350. You require half down of the estimated cost before they can but put on the payment plan. If the client ends up not paying or having insufficient funds then you would have to either send them to collections or write off their bill. This could either bring you business because you are willing to do these payment arrangements and in a perfect world all of these clients would eventually pay you. Or this could be detrimental to your business as you would end up having to send clients to collections or write off bills. More than likely you will get somewhat of a balance between the number of people that screw you over and the number of people that actually pay their bill. So you would have to be prepared to address what you would if these payment plans were starting to cause you to lose money, etc, etc.
 
Alright, I'm giving up on my supplemental for the night. I've done the animal handling question, the non-biomedical challenges question, and the integrity question. That just leaves the human/animal medicine question and the emotional intelligence qualities of a veterinarian. Tomorrow afternoon I will submit the VMCAS after printing myself a copy, then I will come home and finish the supplemental and submit it, then return to having some semblance of a normal existence for the next couple of months.
 
Thanks!! I had my mind stuck in one gear and couldn't get it out of neutral! I see exactly what you are talking about. See, the problem I chose to make a plan for was managing student debt, which basically amounted to several plans revolving around creating more informed and aware students. No real consequences, other than my ideas would get shot down by the university.
 
Perhaps adding a more personal approach, like how YOU would reduce YOUR student debt - you can still mention how university programs could be very helpful, but that leaves room to talk about your consequences rather than the program's?
 
twelvetigers said:
Perhaps adding a more personal approach, like how YOU would reduce YOUR student debt - you can still mention how university programs could be very helpful, but that leaves room to talk about your consequences rather than the program's?
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This. I took the debt approach as well, but made it apply strictly to me and what I expect my experience to be.
 
Did anyone else have trouble writing the supplemental essay for Florida on how we'll add to the diversity of the class?
I submitted my vmcas a week ago, but for some reason this essay was way more challenging than my Ps. Even though I felt like I had a lot of topics I should mention, I had trouble making it seem cohesive...
 
Tonkamoo said:
Did anyone else have trouble writing the supplemental essay for Florida on how we'll add to the diversity of the class?
I submitted my vmcas a week ago, but for some reason this essay was way more challenging than my Ps. Even though I felt like I had a lot of topics I should mention, I had trouble making it seem cohesive...
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Well, I was just realizing today how much of a disaster it has the potential to be, LOL. I need to call because I used the address give on one of the forms, rather than the address given on the website in the directions. I realized this after it was sent, of course. It's supposed to arrive by 3pm tomorrow, so I need to give them a head-up, I guess.

BUT, was just thinking about my essay a few minutes ago. As a way to talk a bit about challenges I've had, I thought it good to use the example that at the moment two of my three children were sick with a virus, that this mean my third child and I would likely be sick soon (I also threw in there that my husband is currently deployed...used all this to lead into dealing with family and marine corps over the years). But I just realized that I probably will give the adcoms the heebies about me being sick and my sick germs being all over everything. LOL. Awesome.

In general, I thought that the most difficult part for me was keeping the length down. That and I didn't give myself a lot of time to write it. But given the fact I had just done a rundown of all my activities and delved back into my childhood a bit as I took a walk down memory lane, it wasn't hard for me to talk about diversity and the things that make me unique. It was hard to include what I thought was important AND keep it all on the one page.

Question for you: when you open that PDF, is that one set up so that you can type into it like the others? It was not for me, so I assume it's the same for you. I copied everything into Word and typed it up there.
 
Mama, ... haha it's weird to call someone that, sorry 🙂 ... I would be more worried that the adcoms would wonder how you would handle VET SCHOOL with all that stuff going on. It's fair to mention it, but make dang sure you talk about how damn awesome you are at handling it.

For my complaint... yesterday, I didn't have a clear response to the showed integrity part of the question, and now my response is 400 words!! Now I have to trim it down and make room for the 'failed to' part, but it's kind of a story so I'm not sure what to trim. Argh.
 
twelvetigers said:
Mama, ... haha it's weird to call someone that, sorry 🙂 ... I would be more worried that the adcoms would wonder how you would handle VET SCHOOL with all that stuff going on. It's fair to mention it, but make dang sure you talk about how damn awesome you are at handling it.
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Ya, I've thought pretty seriously about changing my user name, LOL. I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I created my account.

With a supportive husband who is willing to trade places with me and be the primary parent while I go to vet school and a nanny (hopefully a family member...maybe just a family member in addition to the nanny--we've been lucky in the past with his because of having such a large family), it will be less difficult than it sounds.

I will admit that I'm having my doubts about the essay as a whole. But I refuse to go back and read it after it's already been submitted. There's no reason to worry about it now. I have another GRE to take (I know it's too late for UF, but it isn't for other schools) and the application for Tufts to worry about. And classes. So...time to stop wasting time. 😉
 
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