VMCAS Questions and Rants c/o 2029

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Does anyone know what's up with the probationary period on the UK schools? I'm worried about applying there and spending all this money and suddenly they aren't AVMA accredited anymore upon graduation and won't be qualified to take the NAVLE. 😕
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Shiloh47 said:
Does anyone know what's up with the probationary period on the UK schools? I'm worried about applying there and spending all this money and suddenly they aren't AVMA accredited anymore upon graduation and won't be qualified to take the NAVLE. 😕
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That's not how accreditation works and many US schools are also under probation or have been recently.

Schools are placed under probation when they have a deficiency in a COE standard. They are given 2ish years (@MixedAnimals77 can correct me if I'm wrong) to resolve those deficiencies. Then they are re-evaluated. If the COE appreciates improvements, the schools can be given more time; or if the COE doesn't appreciate improvements, then they're transitioned to terminal accreditation I believe.

Regardless, any student at any AVMA school graduates as an AVMA accredited veterinarian as long as they pass the NAVLE, even if you are the last veterinarian who graduated from that school
 
Yeah so international accredition works a slight bit different and I am not yet familiar with the nuances yet. How long a school gets to fix things depends if a major (impacts student learning) vs minor (less student learning implications) deficiency and if theyre making adequate proscess. However as far as generally speaking if you are accepted to a school under probationary status then you are guaranteed to sit for navle. It is when a school is put on terminal status that they are no longer allowed to admit students that will be elgible for navle sitting. Terminal status basically ends a schools ability to operate in the US because of how things are set up here. However a termination of avma accreditation for an international school has less implications if you will as they often have other standards to meet within their country of origination and in Europe European standards. I'd have to double check for intl schools but you should still be elgible to sit for navle if admitted under the school if they're accredited with a deficiency status even if they fail to correct it. (Schools often strive to correct these issues so I'd worry minimally). You can always email the accreditation body or the school if you're super worried about it.
 
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I am planning to make a video for one of the Tuft's essay prompt's and I am writing a script right now. The prompt is:

"What is your passion outside of veterinary medicine? Tell us about a topic or idea that excites you. How does this passion speak to who you are? (Please do not use an animal, veterinary, or science theme.)"

I love sewing historical costume and studying history in general. When I was a child, I was diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia. History, and eventually sewing historical costumes, was the only thing that reliably held my attention. It taught me many things, such as resilience and hard work, helping me to overcome my disabilities. This is really want I want to write about, but now I am concerned because the prompt also says:

"This section is not meant to replace the "Explanation Statement" section of the VMCAS application. Please use that section to tell us about any extenuating circumstances or hardships you have experienced."

I am not turning it into a sob story, but I have overcome a lot of difficulties in my life and this hobby was the tool that took center stage in that. It helped me become the person I am today. Do you think this is unwise to write about? Will they consider this "extenuating circumstances"? I am only putting in 2-3 sentences about my diagnoses, the rest is about my passion for the subject.
 
Erin Hanger said:
"This section is not meant to replace the "Explanation Statement" section of the VMCAS application. Please use that section to tell us about any extenuating circumstances or hardships you have experienced."

I am not turning it into a sob story, but I have overcome a lot of difficulties in my life and this hobby was the tool that took center stage in that. It helped me become the person I am today. Do you think this is unwise to write about? Will they consider this "extenuating circumstances"? I am only putting in 2-3 sentences about my diagnoses, the rest is about my passion for the subject.
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I wouldn’t consider this extenuating circumstances where it needs to be in an explanation statement instead. That section is more for things like “my mom died during junior year of undergrad and it affected my grades and I repeated this class and then got an A afterwards” or any other type of situation where grades were affected during a semester/year for some reason and you learned XYZ skills to prevent that from happening in the future and have done successfully since then
 
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renacuaja said:
I didn't have space for to fit humor the way I wanted to in my PS but I had it littered all over my supplemental essays.

I'm happy to look it over if you want 🙂
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Hello! Sorry for the super late reply, I have been gone at a military training! Would you still be willing to look my PS over? I just finished my first draft finally!
 
Hello! Second time applicant here. Last cycle for my experiences I wrote out small paragraphs, but I have heard some people say that bullet points are better/more efficient. Any insight on this would be great, thanks!
 
FutureDrMP said:
Hello! Second time applicant here. Last cycle for my experiences I wrote out small paragraphs, but I have heard some people say that bullet points are better/more efficient. Any insight on this would be great, thanks!
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Doesn’t matter, just be consistent with whatever you choose.
 
Do schools use ai trackers to check applications?? I use grammarly to edit certain words and phrases to sound more professional and I know that grammarly can pick up AI detection.
 
jreissatia said:
Do schools use ai trackers to check applications?? I use grammarly to edit certain words and phrases to sound more professional and I know that grammarly can pick up AI detection.
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I don't know, and I don't know that they would openly say whether or not AI is used. Better to be safe and do the editing yourself, the old-fashioned way.
 
Anybody have experience with UNE? I am registering for their online Medical Biochemistry course, but I am also seeing that they offer a Biochemistry course. I have seen a few examples of people taking the Medical Biochemistry course for their vet school prerequisites, but I can't find any information on the Biochemistry course.
 
when filling out pre-reqs for some of the bio ones it says bio + lab minimum 4 credits. My college had the lab included in the class and does not have a seperate lab class and it was only 3 credits. is that okay?
 
kotarose said:
when filling out pre-reqs for some of the bio ones it says bio + lab minimum 4 credits. My college had the lab included in the class and does not have a seperate lab class and it was only 3 credits. is that okay?
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Best to contact the school directly.
 
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kotarose said:
when filling out pre-reqs for some of the bio ones it says bio + lab minimum 4 credits. My college had the lab included in the class and does not have a seperate lab class and it was only 3 credits. is that okay?
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Contact the school individually. They’re the only ones who can decide if it fits. Email a syllabus if you can as well.
 
I sent my official transcripts to VMCAS through Parchment about a month ago; on Parchment's website, it says that my transcripts were successfully received. However, when I go into the "Colleges Attended" section on my application, VMCAS says that my official transcript is "Not Yet Received". Why is it saying this? I paid $7 to send it, I don't want to reorder :/
 
catsandsnakes said:
I sent my official transcripts to VMCAS through Parchment about a month ago; on Parchment's website, it says that my transcripts were successfully received. However, when I go into the "Colleges Attended" section on my application, VMCAS says that my official transcript is "Not Yet Received". Why is it saying this? I paid $7 to send it, I don't want to reorder :/
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Did you use the tracking ID VMCAS gives you to order transcripts? Either way I would reach out to VMCAS to see if they can find them before you reorder. They will hopefully be able to help you.
 
I currently work in a small animal clinic as a vet assistant and have lots of hours. I have other animal experience with small animals and horses.

I recently got a job offer as animal care tech, working in a research facility with rodents, where the role mostly includes moving mice to clean cages and then some technical work like blood draws, euthanasia’s and ear tagging. The only downside is I would have to quit my current job and cannot continue working with other animals. I am also unsure how often a vet will be present in the area I will be working in at the facility.

I’m really interested in working at the research facility but I also don’t want to jeopardize my chances of getting into vet school. Does any one know if this will still be a good experience to have for vet school or if I should continue to get more hours/experience at the general practice clinic I currently work at? I don’t really have any small/large animal research experience.
I will be applying for vet schools in the UK and Ireland through VMCAS.
Any advice will help as I need to make decision quick.

Thank you
 
DogtorAsh said:
Did you use the tracking ID VMCAS gives you to order transcripts? Either way I would reach out to VMCAS to see if they can find them before you reorder. They will hopefully be able to help you.
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I am fairly certain I used the tracking number. I emailed VMCAS and they said they cannot locate the transcripts if they were sent a month ago 🙁 so time to reorder I suppose
 
anyone know if you do the academic update, do you have to resend every transcript or just the one from the course you updated?
 
I think I know the answer to this, but do I need to re-order transcripts from a school if they are unchanged from last year's order? It's my CC from a few years back.
Thank you!
 
BunnyFluffy said:
I think I know the answer to this, but do I need to re-order transcripts from a school if they are unchanged from last year's order? It's my CC from a few years back.
Thank you!
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Yes
 
I submitted my VMCAS a few weeks ago. I earned a new certification and remembered that we are allowed to enter new experiences even after submitting. I knew that we could not edit anything that was included in the application after submitting it, but thought we could enter new experiences and edit them like when entering the original information.

I was entering the information and got distracted so I hit save and planned to come back and edit it a few minutes later. I learned the hard way when adding new experiences you get one entry then are locked out of editing.

I'm posting just to let others know that you can't edit a new entry as you did in the past, so be careful if you add new material! Also, has anyone had any luck with asking VMCAS to fix something like this? The entry looks terrible and I feel like I just ruined my application.

I didn't click "update my application" on the main page, but I think the information gets added anyway...
 
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ChihuahuaWarrior said:
I submitted my VMCAS a few weeks ago. I earned a new certification and remembered that we are allowed to enter new experiences even after submitting. I knew that we could not edit anything that was included in the application after submitting it, but thought we could enter new experiences and edit them like when entering the original information.

I was entering the information and got distracted so I hit save and planned to come back and edit it a few minutes later. I learned the hard way when adding new experiences you get one entry then are locked out of editing.

I'm posting just to let others know that you can't edit a new entry as you did in the past, so be careful if you add new material! Also, has anyone had any luck with asking VMCAS to fix something like this? The entry looks terrible and I feel like I just ruined my application.

I didn't click "update my application" on the main page, but I think the information gets added anyway...
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Since it's before the deadline they should be able to help you out! I would 100% call their helpline though instead of waiting on a response through email. I had an issue last year and talking over the phone got it resolved soooo much quicker than waiting on email responses.

edit to add because i forgot: at the end of the day though, I don't think 1 bad experience entry would ruin your application, so don't stress too much! but this is why you submitted early so now you have this time to fix and tweak when stuff like this happens! 🙂
 
DogtorAsh said:
Since it's before the deadline they should be able to help you out! I would 100% call their helpline though instead of waiting on a response through email. I had an issue last year and talking over the phone got it resolved soooo much quicker than waiting on email responses.

edit to add because i forgot: at the end of the day though, I don't think 1 bad experience entry would ruin your application, so don't stress too much! but this is why you submitted early so now you have this time to fix and tweak when stuff like this happens! 🙂
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Thanks for taking the time to write this. It made me feel a lot better. According to their chat customer service, since my application is verified there is nothing they can do. I'll try calling and update here in case it helps other students. It was the worst time for my dog to have to go out and I figure I'll just click save and come back to it.
 
ChihuahuaWarrior said:
I submitted my VMCAS a few weeks ago. I earned a new certification and remembered that we are allowed to enter new experiences even after submitting. I knew that we could not edit anything that was included in the application after submitting it, but thought we could enter new experiences and edit them like when entering the original information.

I was entering the information and got distracted so I hit save and planned to come back and edit it a few minutes later. I learned the hard way when adding new experiences you get one entry then are locked out of editing.

I'm posting just to let others know that you can't edit a new entry as you did in the past, so be careful if you add new material! Also, has anyone had any luck with asking VMCAS to fix something like this? The entry looks terrible and I feel like I just ruined my application.

I didn't click "update my application" on the main page, but I think the information gets added anyway...
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Hi, I did this once and they just recommend that I make a new one and put the title as "Correction: ...." or "Updated: ..." at the front. Whether you choose to do that or just leave it alone, I would not worry about it too much. You are definitely not the only one that has done this and I don't think it will make a big impact on your app at all. 🙂
 
leoa said:
Hi, I did this once and they just recommend that I make a new one and put the title as "Correction: ...." or "Updated: ..." at the front. Whether you choose to do that or just leave it alone, I would not worry about it too much. You are definitely not the only one that has done this and I don't think it will make a big impact on your app at all. 🙂
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You're so nice! Thank you for this. I called and that's exactly what they told me. I'm not sure I want to draw a lot of attention to it as I probably think it's far worse than it may look to admissions. Live and learn!
 
for one of the schools im applying to it wants 2 LOR from professors, I graduated from undergrad 5 years ago and only every kept in touch with one of them who is wrtting a LOR for me. should i reach out to the school and see if they will take 2 vets?
 
kotarose said:
for one of the schools im applying to it wants 2 LOR from professors, I graduated from undergrad 5 years ago and only every kept in touch with one of them who is wrtting a LOR for me. should i reach out to the school and see if they will take 2 vets?
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In general, their requirements are their requirements for a reason. So while there’s really no harm in asking, it’s probably very unlikely they’ll make an exception. If they made one for you then they’d need to make one for everyone and then it’s essentially no longer a requirement.
 
Can we submit our application to get verified even if LORs are currently not in??
 
Question about inputting experiences if anyone has thoughts; for something that includes mixed experience, should I put separate entries for each kind of experience? Or put it down as whatever the majority of the experience was? For example, I worked in a lab as a chemistry assistant, so the majority of it would fall under "Employment (not animal related)", but for 1 week there were lab birds I helped take care of and necropsy, but this was only maybe a dozen hours of the whole job. So should I put the entire thing as "Employment" and just mention the birds in the description, or do one entry for the employment hours, and a second one for those dozen or so hours with the birds? Thanks!
 
J&F_Vet said:
Question about inputting experiences if anyone has thoughts; for something that includes mixed experience, should I put separate entries for each kind of experience? Or put it down as whatever the majority of the experience was? For example, I worked in a lab as a chemistry assistant, so the majority of it would fall under "Employment (not animal related)", but for 1 week there were lab birds I helped take care of and necropsy, but this was only maybe a dozen hours of the whole job. So should I put the entire thing as "Employment" and just mention the birds in the description, or do one entry for the employment hours, and a second one for those dozen or so hours with the birds? Thanks!
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I would lump those all together if they were all associated with the one position.
 
I just applied to two schools! (Washington State & Prince Edward Island, anyone else?). So nerve-wracking...today was the last day before my fee waivers ran out. Here's to hoping those LORs come in!!! :whistle:
 
How long is verification taking for y'all? I see on Facebook over a week for others and still no verification yet. I submitted last cycle within the same 2 days I did this cycle. Last time I was verified within hours and this time I'm going on quite a few days.
 
re0289 said:
How long is verification taking for y'all? I see on Facebook over a week for others and still no verification yet. I submitted last cycle within the same 2 days I did this cycle. Last time I was verified within hours and this time I'm going on quite a few days.
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About 10 days for me
 
Helpppp. Okay so for VMCAS calculations I know that Animal Science classes are used for that science GPA, but does this mean all animal science courses? I was an animal science major so I took quite a few and just want to make sure I'm getting an accurate GPA!
 
for the kansas resume that they want, should it include my non animal experience too? also how far back should I include on the resume?
 
Hi all, I am a bit unsure of what are of practice i wanna go into (gp vs specialty vs shelter etc). should i indicate this in my applications? or avoid that? i am worried of coming off as unsure of my career goals.
 
amm1 said:
Hi all, I am a bit unsure of what are of practice i wanna go into (gp vs specialty vs shelter etc). should i indicate this in my applications? or avoid that? i am worried of coming off as unsure of my career goals.
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Most people don't know what they want to do for sure before going to school. And then the whole point of school is to show you the world and all your options. So don't overthink this.
 
battie said:
Most people don't know what they want to do for sure before going to school.
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And then 50%* of the ones who do end up changing their plan while in school anyway.

*This number not based on any hard data**.
** 37% of statistics are made up.
 
kotarose said:
for the kansas resume that they want, should it include my non animal experience too? also how far back should I include on the resume?
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hello! For my resume, I went about as far back as my experiences in the VMCAS. Major events from senior year of HS all the way to present day. I included mostly animal experiences. However, I think it is super important to put as much down as you're comfortable with. If you had non-animal related jobs in customer service, food industry, hospitality, lab technician, you can highlight the major skills you developed ie: serving a client, phone etiquette, time management, aseptic technique, or anything that will really help you in as a future veterinarian.
 
I have a feeling that the person who is writing my fourth LOR is not going to finish in time. However, I am applying to Cornell and they have us list out the people whose LORs we want them to read. Will it look bad if I submit my Cornell application and the person doesn't end up finishing the LOR?
 
catsandsnakes said:
I have a feeling that the person who is writing my fourth LOR is not going to finish in time. However, I am applying to Cornell and they have us list out the people whose LORs we want them to read. Will it look bad if I submit my Cornell application and the person doesn't end up finishing the LOR?
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If you're concerned about them not finishing your LOR, touch base and ask how things are going. You can ultimately remove them from your application entirely if you think it will be a problem
 
I know it is super early, but does anyone have a tentative timeline for when schools start sending out interview invites/decisions? Since each school is different
 
primefox said:
I know it is super early, but does anyone have a tentative timeline for when schools start sending out interview invites/decisions? Since each school is different
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Anywhere from Sept/Oct to Feb
 
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