Vet School Grades

[WhtsThFrequency]

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Not all residencies require internships first. It tends to be more common for surgery, internal medicine, etc. But specialties (and programs within specialties) differ a lot.

TBH I don't know much about emergency medicine - maybe someone else here does? I tried to stay away from ICU, I don't have the nerves for that 🙂

 

[chris03333]

I have mixed feelings about this statement. To some extent, it is true. Many internships/residencies in the match (especially academic programs) use GPA (and some GRE) as an easy cutoff, and 3.5 is a generally recognized target to be a "competitive" applicant. However, you can definitely still match with lower, or if you're going into a smaller field (lab animal, ophtho, path, zoo), it is FAR more likely that your connections are going to speak louder than your grades. With those specialties, everyone knows everyone, and if you've got someone strong gunning for you and solid experiences in the field, you've got a good shot even if your GPA isn't your strongest attribute. (My GPA is certainly less than 3.5, and I'm very happy about where I ended up.)

That said, if you're going into private practice and have NO intention of doing an internship, C (+ NAVLE) = DVM. The job search levels the playing field - practice owners are definitely going to be more interested in who plays nicely with clients, staff, and other associates than who lived inside their textbooks and asked the most questions in class for 4 years.

Oh... and happy St. Patty's Day!

I would say that it is true for academic internships. Beyond that, residency programs look for a much more rounded set of things that can balance out GPA. If you rock your internship, and get really good letters of rec, depending on the specialty you may need to do a second internship.....There are many many more factors for residencies.

 

[DVMorBust]

I would say that it is true for academic internships. Beyond that, residency programs look for a much more rounded set of things that can balance out GPA. If you rock your internship, and get really good letters of rec, depending on the specialty you may need to do a second internship.....There are many many more factors for residencies.

Yep. Having talked to a lot of people involved in the residency process (for clinical residencies), it's a lot more about who you know and what you've done than how you did in your first-year courses. The also mentioned caring more about things like your surgery courses and later work applying the medicine (e.g. letters from doctors from clinical rotations/etc.) than how you did in Freshman Find The Nerve That Looks Exactly Like An Artery or Reintroduction To The Horrors of Biochemistry.

Not that those subjects aren't important, because they are - but they didn't seem to be hesitant about an applicant that might not have been strong first year that went on to show they figured it out later.

Moral of story: Don't Freak Out!