VMCAS is up!

[VelcroSky]

VMCAS is up! Good luck and happy applying to everyone.

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[Pigsfoot]

i'm scared!

 

[AuburnPreVet]

Good luck to all of you applying this year.
You'll do fine - don't give yourself an ucler worrying about the application process.

 

[Pigsfoot]

wait-i dont see it. i am still seeing the '2007 application is officially closed' page. where is it?!?!

 

[silverelf]

wait-i dont see it. i am still seeing the '2007 application is officially closed' page. where is it?!?!

try deleting your cookies and reopening the browser

 

[Pigsfoot]

dang cookies.

 

[VelcroSky]

dang cookies.

What's wrong with cookies?

 

[cubs11]

good luck to those applying this year. i'll be there next year (hopefully). i'm envious of those who are starting vet school this fall and those who will be accepted this round!

 

[bakaduin]

This will be my first time applying! Ive only typed in my name on the application and Im already nervous!

 

[Truth74]

Here we go. I've got all sorts of essays to write about my experiences. This should be interesting.
I'm sending in my transcript requests right now.
I love the U's online transcript service.

 

[StealthDog]

The best advice I got for my VMCAS- the first thing you start and the last thing you finish should be your personal statement! Mine changed about 20 times before I was happy with it. Don't put it off til the last minute!

Good luck all

 

[Emio]

HA! good luck!!

it ain't that bad

 

[Moonpaw]

I was waiting like a nervous wreck for the whole of my junior year, and then in March/April I fell in love (with a band), and it totally took my mind off of applying to vet school. Seriously--YouTube is amazing for wasting time.

Until now. And I've gone right back to being that nervous wreck. I know I should just take it easy and try to work on my personal statement first, but I have NO IDEA what I should write. Everything I've tried so far just sounds lame.

 

[AuburnPreVet]

About that personal statement:

I first made a list of things that I hoped to "show" in my personal statement. Once you know what you want to say, just start drafting stuff. Once you' ve got some thoughts spelled out you can decide how you want to organize things so that it has a uniform/flowing nature. Once I got that far, I just kept rearranging/editing over & over & over....

I think the 'key' thing is to show the points you want to make, rather than saying them directly. At least for me, it worked out sounding much better & I think it made more of an impact on readers.

I read a few of my friends personal statements (they were applying as well) and everyone really has their own approach... find what you think will work for you. Make yourself shine while being truthful.

Once you have a really good draft have a few vets/professors edit for content, and an english major (or the career services people at your school) edit for grammar, etc.

 

[twosoakers]

wow. good luck to all of you. i just got an email from western telling me i need to borrow 60k in loans for the year. arrrggh!!! be happy you're putting it off another year.

 

[cyrille104]

You all have plenty of time to get your apps in and even more time before your interviews...don't be nervous and take it slow. As a side note, even though I'm sure you'll all do well, having a backup plan that you'll be happy with makes the whole year a LOT easier to deal with mentally. Good luck to everyone, I hope to see you next year

 

[anc84]

first thing i did was fill in all the easy stuff like personal information and then my past courses. it made me a lot less nervous for later because i felt like i had some of the sections complete and all that stuff is just flat out information and not stuff that involves any thought- also, that can be time consuming, so when i was putting off the other sections to the end, i was glad that i had the data entry stuff completed earlier.

for the personal statement, the hardest part for me was getting over "tooting my own horn" but once i did, it didn't take me long at all- i just said what i really felt and mentioned all my amazing experiences. i didn't even change it much- i mostly just had to cut down the length.

anyway, good luck to all of you!

if you do fill everything out early, don't forget to add any experiences that you have this summer. as another thread mentioned, i think michigan is the only school with rolling admissions, so don't worry about submitting it pretty late. i didn't have the courage to click submit until 2 or 3 days before the deadline. if the server had been down, i never would have forgiven myself, so you might want to submit a little earlier than that. i had no problems though

 

[JumptheMoon]

I think the 'key' thing is to show the points you want to make, rather than saying them directly. At least for me, it worked out sounding much better & I think it made more of an impact on readers.

Definitely! For instance, say that Person A walks up to you and declares, "I am a hero!" Person B doesn't say a word, but runs into a burning building to save someone. Which person earns more respect from you? (obviously an exaggerated example, but you get the point.)

So think to yourself "I am dedicated," but instead of saying that in your personal statement, tell a story or experience that SHOWS your dedication and let your readers see it for themselves.

Also, I agree with anc - filling in the basic information right away (and I don't even mean the experience sections, just the really basic info - name, address, parents' occupations, etc.) gives you a sense of accomplishment! Keeps the freak-outs at bay, knowing that you at least have something done already while you toil away at the personal statement

 

[VelcroSky]

Hey I just noticed that the personal statement section on the VMCAS application has a new limit this year. It says to limit to it to 600 words. I believe last year it was 5000 characters. I went right up to the limit last year and ended up with over 900 words and that was after massive trimming. So it looks like we have to cram all our thoughts into even less space this year!

 

[philomycus]

dear god....here I go again...

do we have to re-send transcripts & GRE scores to each school every year??

BTW, my undergrad institution has been left off this year...Univ. of West FL. It was there last year. Guess i need to make a phone call monday. So much for recovering from my trip....

 

[ShelterGirl]

do we have to re-send transcripts & GRE scores to each school every year??

Yes ... yes we do, which seems inane. Maybe there's some school out there that retains records, but I haven't found one.

When will we get to see photos from your trip??

 

[CookieBear]

Yes ... yes we do, which seems inane. Maybe there's some school out there that retains records, but I haven't found one.

Err, they're not on VMCAS, but I think I recall Tufts as giving the option of re-using previously submitted eLORS (letters of recommendation, for any newbies reading) on their online site. I.E., it provided a 'pull down' menu for the applicant to re-choose previous, old eLORs to re-use for the new application.

As far as VMCAS... I think it's the same hoops to jump through again, unfortunately. I know it sucks.

 

[philomycus]

I don't mind remailing transcripts, its the $$ part that sucks.

As soon as I get all my pics loaded into one spot, I'll let ya'll know. I got to scuba with sea lions!!

 

[twosoakers]

AWESOME!!!

As soon as I get all my pics loaded into one spot, I'll let ya'll know. I got to scuba with sea lions!!

 

[twosoakers]

last night i dreamt that tufts called me for a last-minute interview, and the first thing i wanted to do was race here and tell everyone.

$#%^ tufts.

 

[pressmom]

My personal statement was around 150 words and I still go into three schools. I paniced after I sent when I found out how long some other people's were. So I guess what I want to say is that it matters how well you say what you want them to know, rather than how long it is. Trust me, you can get it all in.

 

[sofficat]

As far as VMCAS... I think it's the same hoops to jump through again, unfortunately. I know it sucks.

i got accepted this year and i'm STILL jumping thru hoops... it seems like everytime I accomplish a task, the school (or whatever) screws it up. ah!