I have blatantly, unabashedly, and unapologetically stolen this post from
@battie and modified it as I saw fit for the second year in a row.
The cycle has opened for the class of 2030 and below is the obligatory unsolicited advice post that is necessary every year. These points are based on the most common questions that seem to roll around every year.
1. Consider yourself rejected until you receive an acceptance. As such, do not stop working on your application after you hit submit. Continue to gain hours, improve or maintain those grades, and do everything you would do before turning it in.
- It is an urban myth most veterinary students take multiple cycles for acceptance. The AAVMC reports that approximately 65-70% of incoming first year veterinary students are first time applicants. Make your application count.
- That being said, if it takes you more than one cycle, you are very much not alone!
2. You don't have to turn in your app right meow. There is no advantage to turning your application in early for the vast majority of schools. So turn it in when it's ready.
3. Updates are school-dependent. So ask them. Be aware you will likely get a generic answer with vague timelines.
4. Personal pets are worth limited hours (again, school-dependent). Be realistic about how many hours you assign for pet ownership.
5. Prerequisites are prerequisites. If a school doesn't require it, don't feel you have to take it. If a school does require, 99% of people will need to take it at 99% of schools 99% of the time. The majority of schools will not forgive/replace a prerequisite for the majority of applicants. The only way you'll know is if you email schools about your specific situation.
- Do not be surprised if you're rejected from a school due to prerequisites not being met if you haven't taken it and have not listed it as planned. How do the schools know you'll have it done otherwise?
6. GPA cut offs are a thing. If you submit below a published GPA cut off, you just made a donation to the school.
7. There will be radio silence for extended periods of time. Mentally prepare yourself to not hear from anyone for months at a time.
- This is a serious point. You will not get updates willy nilly. There are thousands of you and only dozens of admissions committee members per school. Check old threads for basic timelines.
8. You need to submit a transcript from every higher education institution you attended. Community college while also in high school? Add to VMCAS and submit. Junior college 3 years ago before a gap year? Submit. 7 colleges cause you had to move a bunch? Submit.
9. Provisional accreditation doesn't matter for the baby schools. As long as you pass the NAVLE and graduate, the AVMA will recognize your degree and you'll be a veterinarian. Deficient accreditation in the older schools also doesn't really matter. Every school has lapsed in some sort of accreditation standard at some point. They get x amount of time to resolve it and the resolution generally only benefits students. However,
terminal accreditation does matter, as that only is applied to programs that have failed to resolve major deficiencies, such as unacceptable NAVLE pass rates. Strongly consider whether you want to take the risk of never being able to be a practicing veterinarian, while carrying the student debt of one, before applying to an unaccredited or terminally accredited program.
10. Only apply to schools where you would 1) be willing/able to travel to for interviews and 2) would actually go if accepted. Actually sit down and think about what you would do if you were accepted to every school. As a (common) example, don't apply to the island schools just because of their reputation for being "easier" to get into; actually consider what it would mean to move to an island nation and those pros and cons.
- Every year, a portion of students gain an acceptance and a subsequent level of stress of actually realizing they will have to move to said place. If the coasts, Midwest, cold, hot, rural, big city, whatever difference from where you live that may actually be a challenge for you would be, don't apply to those schools. Don't waste your money/time.
11. Changing residency status by moving states: triple check the rules and get the exact requirements in writing from the university. Not the CVM or SVM. From the actual department at the university that controls residency status. The vet school doesn't determine that at all. Assume the worst: you would have to move a year prior to the *submission* of your application. Cause then, if you in fact don't have to be there until a year before *matriculation*, you're covered.
- You can assume someone has moved to such-and-such state to change residency. It just makes sense with how many people apply and attend vet school. Whether or not they're on SDN is hit or miss because there are really probably <100 active members on with probably 50% changing out year over year as people move on. So assume it's possible, it's been done, and, most importantly, *do the research yourself to find out the rules*. Every state is different and rules can change yearly due to state legislation.
12. No one single minutiae detail is likely to tank your application with exception of potentially legality aspects or an obvious (to the application committee) "red flag" . One C, or even one F, will likely not be the death knell of your application if you're overall well rounded. Only 15 hours of cow experience will not get you tossed in the garbage can.
- Focusing on these minutiae outside of the context of your overall application is not good for your mental health. If you have the thought of "Will X thing hurt my chances?" take a minute to consider the literally over 100,000 veterinarians practicing right now and think of the chances that some of them may have had a similar experience. If the answer is, "I guess this circumstance isn't all that unique to me," then chances are that thing won't tank your application.
13. No one can tell you the chances of being pulled from the wait-list. It changes every year for every school.
14. Have people read your personal statement. Have them give you feedback beyond "this is good." Take advantage of resources online to prepare for interviews - there are loads of resources out there for both MMI and behavioral interviews. Preparation shows and makes the interview go better for both you and the people conducting it.
