My typical advice for that essay is, if you are going to bring up a contribution that veterinarians make, pair it with specifics about how you plan to embody that contribution. It is asking both questions to get at your knowledge and understanding of the field in addition to getting to know more about you that might not be obvious from other parts of your application.
I think you’re fine because your experience and goals are in line with One Health! I imagine she meant it more towards those that talk about One Health solely in that essay/ nowhere else in their experiences or essays.@EngrSC that's a bummer about OneHealth. My experience and goals are in line with OneHealth and I've introduced many non-veterinary, biomedical folks to OneHealth (read: "talked at many disinterested...folks about OneHealth"). Is just throwing out the buzzword without back-up the main issue, or should I likely focus on another contribution entirely? (I was debating between a few different directions for that essay)
. I don’t know what university I’ll be taking physics and org chem at this Winter, so I’m putting them with my undergraduate university for now. My understanding is admissions committees don’t care if your final transcript doesn’t match planned courses as long as you do all the prerequisites you said you would. I changed my status at my undergraduate university to “still attending” on the add institutions page, but the transcript entry page still won’t let me add a Winter 2021 semester. Does anyone know the fix for this, or should I suck it up and ask VMCAS?
Did you change the semester end for your still attending? I think I vaguely remember that being my problem. I had it as the semester I actually stopped instead of the semester I was potentially going to take a class.Having some difficulty with transcript entry for planned courses
When I choose “still attending” the end semester disappears. When I try to change first the end semester, then choose “still attending”, then save, I get the error “You indicated that you are no longer attending this college. Please verify the start and end dates.“
Definitely email vmcas and see if they can help you outWhen I choose “still attending” the end semester disappears. When I try to change first the end semester, then choose “still attending”, then save, I get the error “You indicated that you are no longer attending this college. Please verify the start and end dates.“
When I choose “still attending” the end semester disappears. When I try to change first the end semester, then choose “still attending”, then save, I get the error “You indicated that you are no longer attending this college. Please verify the start and end dates.“
VMCAS manually resolved it within a couple hours of emailing them. It's really awesome how responsive and helpful their service team is!
Great! Yeah, they really are super on top of things, I've always gotten excellent turnaround time on any requests from them!
It's really up to you, if your essays are already strong and they didn't give you and critiques on them, you're fine to leave them as is unless there is anything you want to add.
I may be wrong but I’d consider it current, especially because you might well be back to it by the time the application deadline rolls around. If you’re worried and have the space you can make a note in the description but I don’t think it’s really necessary, since listing the number of weeks separately from the start/end date already lets you account for breaks.
If you are expecting to come back to the job, you should definitely list it as a current experience.
Definitely contact the vmcas help desk if you haven’t
This may or may not be correct, but I listed them separately for the institution where I took them. I had the same issue that my undergrad only listed them as transfer credit, while I did actually receive grades for them. I did not receive any note to fix this or that this was incorrect, and they were all accepted & verified.
Is your last 45 credit GPA strong? If yes, Minnesota, K-State, and Iowa State (if your prereq GPA is strong based on how they calculate it). If you have some unique experiences then Michigan, Purdue, and LMU seem to look at applicants holistically based on my n=1 experience. Also have people read your essays (if you haven’t already) so you know they’re stronger than previous application cycles. And pick letter writers that you feel confident will write kicka$$ letters.
(Off topic but I love your profile picture.)
Is there a super pressing reason to not skip this application cycle and apply next year once you have a higher GPA? I only ask because this was something recommended to me when I was considering applying strategically - if you're less than 5 years out of undergrad, I would say to wait. If you're over 30 (like me!), that's another story. As someone who applied last year when I probably should have waited for this cycle, don't apply until you are putting forward your absolute BEST application!
Vet school will still be there next year, I promise! Glad I could be helpful! There’s absolutely nothing stopping you from taking this year to work on some stellar grades that can count towards a much higher last-45 credit GPA, even if it doesn’t make much of a difference in your overall GPA. A number of schools, as outlined above, will weigh that quite heavily, and you can make a big difference with just a few classes. And if you’re feeling burnt out now, taking the pressure off for this year might be a blessing for your mental health!
eLORs don’t have to be in by the time you submit your application. Your recommenders just have to make sure to complete it by Sept 15!
You need the general vmcas app and ONE school supplemental complete to submit. That’ll get you in line for transcript verification and then you can submit other school supplemental apps through vmcas at a later date when you finish them. When I was applying, some schools didn’t really have much in their supplemental app so those ones would be good to submit first if you’re applying to any that basically have no VMCAS supplemental.
AH! I see! and one thing I haven't understood completely is the transcript verification process. I have already submitted my official transcripts to VMCAS. Is this just comparing how I entered my coursework compared to the official transcripts? Also, do they allow you to edit this if there are errors?
Yep, they basically just compare things and make sure they’re entered properly and then calculate a whole SLEW of different GPAs. The individual schools don’t get copies of your actual transcripts so vmcas has to make sure they match up. If there are really minor things they’ll probably fix it themselves but major things will be kicked back to you to fix, which is why they recommend submitting a good while before the deadline just to be safe that you’ll have time to fix errors. If you entered everything exactly how it appears on your transcripts, you shouldn’t have a problem with verification.
Not until February/March
I wouldn't go this route - it may read as "this is the first time i've ever experience real rejection", no matter how well you write it. I agree with batsenecal, I feel like there are much better things to write this about. Write about a difficult class or job, or experiencing loss. Remember, the important part is how you OVERCAME it or learned from it, not the hardship itself. The rest of your essays are going to be very vet-med specific, make this one where you branch out!
You mail it directly to VMCAS. Transcript Verification
Are you helping actually give vaccines and such or restraining animals? Or are you doing just paperwork/checking people in?
You can, but not indefinitely. I added a new job after VMCAS closed in September, but when I checked back later that option had been taken down.
Contact vmcas and see what they want you to do. If it’s not listed as a specific class on your transcript it’s going to be harder.
