VMCAS Questions and Rants c/o 2030

[futurefishdr]

Some advice on last 45 credit hours?
So my overall GPA is a 3.6, science is 3.7 and I’m taking some science classes right now
However, my last 45 is less than what I’d like it to be, sitting at around 3.3 right now assuming I get all A’s this semester (which will be very difficult)
All because of a calc 2 class I took two semesters back where the prof basically failed the whole class, without this D id be at 3.6
I thought about taking summer courses before I apply to help try kick that D off my grade but I’d have to take 3 to do it

Thoughts?

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[battie]

So if I wanted to apply to a college that required statistics as a pre-req, I would have to include a statistics course in my planned courses...and then take it before matriculation if accepted?

Pretty much. You absolutely have to have it planned to be considered. There was a student who applied to Illinois within the last few years who did not have a prerequisite included in their already taken or their planned courses. They were denied for not having the course any where on their application.

I thought about taking summer courses before I apply to help try kick that D off my grade but I’d have to take 3 to do it

This is essentially the only thing you can do. You have to get that grade out of your last 45 for it to stop affecting your 45 GPA. Only you know whether or not you'd be able to handle 3 summer courses though.

 

[PixelPenguinz]

is it important to have diverse animal experience or just vet experience for admissions? I have no equine and farm animal, (vet/animal) hours. I was just planning to shadow vets in my area for fifty hours each to check off those boxes. But do I also have to worry about only having small animal and lab animal, animal hours (w/o a vet)?

And does lab animal get lumped with the zoo/exotics category?

 

[fauna]

is it important to have diverse animal experience or just vet experience for admissions? I have no equine and farm animal, (vet/animal) hours. I was just planning to shadow vets in my area for fifty hours each to check off those boxes. But do I also have to worry about only having small animal and lab animal, animal hours (w/o a vet)?

And does lab animal get lumped with the zoo/exotics category?

I hear mixed things about this, and the advice I have been told has definitely shifted over the years.
More recently, the general consensus I have heard is that your experience should reflect your interests above all else. Essentially, don’t go in saying you want to be an ER vet when you have never set foot in an ER.
If you have no desire to be a large animal vet, lacking the large animal hours is not going to be the one thing that holds you back.
However, I still think it is appreciated when you have diverse experience! Especially delving into large animal because it’s a less common interest but regardless, it is going to be a big part of your schooling. I think it has the potential to give you an edge and I also think outside of applications, getting variety is really good for your personal growth. I don’t know if it’s the Moooost important thing to admissions, I am not saying it would be this huge advantage, but it has the potential to give you some edge in some cases. I think different schools value experience diversity on different levels so maybe check in with advisors at your top schools. For my top interests, it doesn’t seem that important, at least for right now. Back when I was 13 and first looking into how to get into vet school, everyone told me that you HAVE to get experience in everything (everything being small, large, and exotics) That was ten years ago lol. I did have one current student at UF tell me that he did a tiny bit of shadowing at an equine center and felt like that may have pushed him over the edge to getting the interview! Who knows!
Personally, I don’t have any large animal experience. An LSU advisor pretty much told me not to worry about it. I have a pretty good variety within small animal medicine and I also did quite a bit at a pretty reputable zoo. I felt like for my own personal journey, some random large animal experience shadowing on a farm isn’t going to do that much for me on paper. For me, there have been other strategies I am going for. That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be ANYONES strategy.

 

[JaynaAli]

is it important to have diverse animal experience or just vet experience for admissions? I have no equine and farm animal, (vet/animal) hours. I was just planning to shadow vets in my area for fifty hours each to check off those boxes. But do I also have to worry about only having small animal and lab animal, animal hours (w/o a vet)?

And does lab animal get lumped with the zoo/exotics category?

It’s most important to have experience period, but diversity is also desired when possible. To some extent, I think this varies from situation to situation. An average person who wants to go in to small animal medicine can probably get in with only small animal experience. It’s probably more common than not, tbh. But if all other things are equal, it’ll be a benefit to someone’s app to have gotten wider experiences and that may be what pushes someone over the edge into an acceptance. I think everyone needs experience in GP/small animal, full stop. For people who say that want to do exotics/zoo or large animal And even specialty med to some extent, we’d obviously want to see that they’ve experienced that setting, but they also really need experience in small animal because fact is, many of those people start with all the hopes in the world, but many end up in small animal med either because (for zoo med) it’s difficult to get a residency or (esp for lg animal) the pay and lifestyle are so much better some people are forced to switch. So we’d want those groups to be sure they’ve experienced those settings and still want to be a vet if that was what they had to do. Is it “unfair”? Perhaps but honestly it’s for the applicants best interests. If you’re not interested in equine/large animal, I still think it would benefit an app, but only if you can have a good attitude about it. Not saying you wouldn’t, OP, but it’s a lot of work to have a shadow and slows everything down, so if you’re just going to be a warm body with absolutely no interest in what’s going on, save the vet the stress and don’t do it. Also, if you have literally no exposure to large animals and don’t know “rules” to being around them, be upfront about that because there’s a safety risk to consider too.

Nonvet animal experience is pretty much never equal to vet experience to admissions, imo. I am not on an admissions committee but I view animal experience as nice to see but not that meaningful in the grand scheme of things. 20 hours of volunteering at a farm shoveling poo or whatever probably isn’t going to do much for an app either way. More substantial experiences can show background, passions, volunteerism, etc and may be more beneficial. But you can usually tell when someone tried to just do something to check a box vs something they enjoyed and did out of interest.

 

[_rae_]

is it important to have diverse animal experience or just vet experience for admissions? I have no equine and farm animal, (vet/animal) hours. I was just planning to shadow vets in my area for fifty hours each to check off those boxes. But do I also have to worry about only having small animal and lab animal, animal hours (w/o a vet)?

And does lab animal get lumped with the zoo/exotics category?

So my vet experience was pretty pigeonholed. I shadowed my local small town vet for about 50 hours one summer, and then I had 4000+ hrs in oncology from working through my gap years. It was exclusively small animal with a whisper of exotics. I got a little bit of everything from that job because I worked in a large teaching/specialty hospital and picked up shifts in other specialties, but I didn't necessarily highlight that.

My animal experience was where I focused my diversity. I had experience in a shelter environment, a wildlife rehab, an aquarium, a stable, and an Audubon. The aquarium and audubon had dedicated vets, but I was not involved in the medical care as much. I did get to observe a few procedures. I was really bummed because I had been accepted into an accredited zoo internship the summer between my junior and senior, except that summer was 2020 and it never happened.

Lab animal is its own thing. I thought VMCAS had a research/lab category in their vet experiences but it's been a minute since I've looked at it.

Nonvet animal experience is pretty much never equal to vet experience to admissions, imo. I am not on an admissions committee but I view animal experience as nice to see but not that meaningful in the grand scheme of things. 20 hours of volunteering at a farm shoveling poo or whatever probably isn’t going to do much for an app either way. More substantial experiences can show background, passions, volunteerism, etc and may be more beneficial.

I'm going to disagree just a little bit here (sorry JaynaAli!). All of my experiences were volunteer based except the wildlife rehab and the stable (those were more shadowing), so it definitely falls into the volunteerism category, but I got asked a ton about my experiences at the aquarium and the Audubon in my interviews by UPEI and UMN. Tufts briefly touched on it but had other things they focused on more.

 

[JaynaAli]

I'm going to disagree just a little bit here (sorry JaynaAli!). All of my experiences were volunteer based except the wildlife rehab and the stable (those were more shadowing), so it definitely falls into the volunteerism category, but I got asked a ton about my experiences at the aquarium and the Audubon in my interviews by UPEI and UMN. Tufts briefly touched on it but had other things they focused on more.

Disagree away! I wasn’t saying volunteerism is bad or not worth it, I more meant that you can’t overcome a lack of vet experience by just having tons of animal experience. Both have importance in showing you’re a well rounded person and that’s what I was trying to say when I said more substantial experiences can show passions and volunteerism and whatnot. But only one really shows you know the challenges of the industry. Those things can be cool experiences and make your app stand out for sure. But I’ll also stand by my comments that you can often tell when someone really wants to do those things and enjoyed it vs just doing them minimally to check a box for diversity.

 

[_rae_]

Disagree away! I wasn’t saying volunteerism is bad or not worth it, I more meant that you can’t overcome a lack of vet experience by just having tons of animal experience. Both have importance in showing you’re a well rounded person and that’s what I was trying to say when I said more substantial experiences can show passions and volunteerism and whatnot. But only one really shows you know the challenges of the industry. Those things can be cool experiences and make your app stand out for sure. But I’ll also stand by my comments that you can often tell when someone really wants to do those things and enjoyed it vs just doing them minimally to check a box for diversity.

Ah, I definitely missed the last line in the last post. I fully agree with that. Did I enjoy my time at the aquarium? Yes and no, and I was honest about that. I talked about the work being cool, I liked the people, I liked the animals, but it showed me that I was not interested in aquatics or marine life. Definitely recommend doing cool animal experiences because they're cool and not because you feel like you have to.

My philosophy is approach everything as a learning experience. Try it, and if you don't like it, you learned that you didn't like it. If you do like it, you learned a cool thing about yourself and now have knowledge you didn't before.

 

[PixelPenguinz]

Thanks! I was referring to a rubric I heard about from tOSU where you get points if you have at least fifty hours in four plus categories. For equine shadowing, I could frame it like I’m interested in X specialty, which occasionally treats horses, so that is why I decided to do that.

And I don’t think my hours are lacking (one thousand small animal GP, one hundred shadowing four different specialists, four thousand in research). But I can move some clinical research hours to vet hours (vet supervision of hospital patients).

 

[oweue]

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Does anyone know if a biostatistics course fulfills the statistics requirement at WSU or other schools that require statistics? I emailed WSU about it, just for them to say "Our program does not offer course or transcript evaluations." How do I go about confirming it would be okay?

I’ve used my biostats course for all places and never had a problem. the only problem I’ve had is with courses with odd names. I took an anatomy class called the human organism and multiple places I had to appeal and send the syllabus

 

[futurefishdr]

Question about in progress/planned courses.
Say I put on my vmcas application that I’m planning to take a course (not a required prerequisite) but then when the semester comes, that course isn’t available and I have to take a different one and by that point, my vmcas app is submitted. Will I be able to go back and change it? Will they care that it isn’t what I said I’d be taking at the time of applying or does it not matter as much bc its not a prerequisite course.

I only ask bc my uni only offers certain classes in only spring or only fall or odd/even years only and sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’ll offer them for upcoming semesters so I can only guess based on previous years.

 

[JaynaAli]

Question about in progress/planned courses.
Say I put on my vmcas application that I’m planning to take a course (not a required prerequisite) but then when the semester comes, that course isn’t available and I have to take a different one and by that point, my vmcas app is submitted. Will I be able to go back and change it? Will they care that it isn’t what I said I’d be taking at the time of applying or does it not matter as much bc its not a prerequisite course.

I only ask bc my uni only offers certain classes in only spring or only fall or odd/even years only and sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’ll offer them for upcoming semesters so I can only guess based on previous years.

You can’t change anything after you submit, but if it’s not a prereq they’ll almost certainly not care.

 

[PixelPenguinz]

I'm thinking about doing a 1-year master's program since it's the same department as what I want to do my PhD in. In the next cycle, my projected sGPA will be 3.85-3.9 range (last-45 units GPA will be higher most likely), which my IS option said would most likely get me an interview (assuming everything else in my application is fine). However, if I take additional summer classes, I could get it to the 3.9-3.95 range, but I'd have to give up my master's since there's an overlap between the end/start dates. So would a high 3.8 (3.75 cPGA) vs a low 3.9 (3.85 cGPA) sGPA make a difference for OOS schools in the bigger picture?

 

[futurefishdr]

Stressing about extracurriculars. I spent a lot of time in community college and working so I never had time to do any EC. I transferred to uni last semester and I’m noticing so many of my classmates in clubs and being part of events. I joined a club but they haven’t been very active and don’t have regular meetings. I’m considering joining the pre-vet club but I’m not sure if this will help applications since I’ve heard they like to see applicants broaden their horizons outside of veterinary stuff.

(This is also the first semester in my 6 years that I haven’t worked so I could focus on school.)

I’m set to start volunteering as a lab assistant in about two weeks but I’m anxious that it won’t be enough for my apps :/ otherwise I have a lot of experience working with animals and under veterinarians (also hobbies like art, martial arts, snorkeling and baking) but I’ve also seen people get rejected just because they don’t have enough volunteer hours.

It doesn’t help that I’m finding other pre-vet students in my classes applying this cycle who are doing all these events and clubs

TLDR: won’t have that many volunteer/club hours by the time I apply bc I was busy working to survive and I’m worried it’ll negatively impact my applications

 

[battie]

So would a high 3.8 (3.75 cPGA) vs a low 3.9 (3.85 cGPA) sGPA make a difference for OOS schools in the bigger picture?

Unlikely

TLDR: won’t have that many volunteer/club hours by the time I apply bc I was busy working to survive and I’m worried it’ll negatively impact my applications

It's a do the best you can with what you have situation. Use the explanation statement to address this deficit. And see if there are any other clubs you'd like to join besides science. I was super active in RLA to the point where I talked about it almost exclusively in interviews.

 

[katiemcat]

Stressing about extracurriculars. I spent a lot of time in community college and working so I never had time to do any EC. I transferred to uni last semester and I’m noticing so many of my classmates in clubs and being part of events. I joined a club but they haven’t been very active and don’t have regular meetings. I’m considering joining the pre-vet club but I’m not sure if this will help applications since I’ve heard they like to see applicants broaden their horizons outside of veterinary stuff.

(This is also the first semester in my 6 years that I haven’t worked so I could focus on school.)

I’m set to start volunteering as a lab assistant in about two weeks but I’m anxious that it won’t be enough for my apps :/ otherwise I have a lot of experience working with animals and under veterinarians (also hobbies like art, martial arts, snorkeling and baking) but I’ve also seen people get rejected just because they don’t have enough volunteer hours.

It doesn’t help that I’m finding other pre-vet students in my classes applying this cycle who are doing all these events and clubs

TLDR: won’t have that many volunteer/club hours by the time I apply bc I was busy working to survive and I’m worried it’ll negatively impact my applications

To be honest, I don't know how much clubs boost an application unless you have a leadership position, so I wouldn't worry about that. You can also show leadership capabilities in other parts of your application. In regards to volunteering I do think it's important to give back to your community personally. Shelters/rescues are always happy to have PRN volunteers to walk dogs and help with feline enrichment! This could be an easy way to get some hours with a heavy schedule. But like you said this doesn't have to be vet med related!

But as always quality > quantity. Do things that you truly enjoy / are meaningful rather than trying to check boxes 🙂

 

[pp9]

I'm thinking about doing a 1-year master's program since it's the same department as what I want to do my PhD in. In the next cycle, my projected sGPA will be 3.85-3.9 range (last-45 units GPA will be higher most likely), which my IS option said would most likely get me an interview (assuming everything else in my application is fine). However, if I take additional summer classes, I could get it to the 3.9-3.95 range, but I'd have to give up my master's since there's an overlap between the end/start dates. So would a high 3.8 (3.75 cPGA) vs a low 3.9 (3.85 cGPA) sGPA make a difference for OOS schools in the bigger picture?

Unlikely

I agree with battie here. Your stats are already high, there is a point of diminishing returns. I would look at the other parts of your application.

I know you've changed your name since you started posting with this account, but idr if you've ever posted a full WAMC post at any point? Could be worth it so we can give more opinions with more info.

 

[graceless27]

Hey gang! 2nd cycle applicant here. I was wondering if anyone knew what schools offer grade replacement, or recalculate your GPA to get rid of the +/- scale (or both)? I know Mississippi does but am interested to learn about any others!

 

[PixelPenguinz]

I can post on the WAMC thread. I guess I should also ask if dual degree admissions prefer a MS vs full time research

 

[graceless27]

Ive got kind of a silly/weird question about entering my experience hours. I've been working full time at my clinic since June, but have been working some winter breaks and summers at the same place, so for each segment separated by a major time block over been putting in separate experiences. This was useful because as I kept coming back I would gain new responsibility, and we started seeing exotics at some point in the middle, so on newer periods I have them checked off, but on older ones I don't.

However, our vet that sees exotics has suddenly left, so we've actually lost that entire client base (which is so sad I loved seeing them). My question is should I split up my hours between June 2024-this week and what I earn onwards to more accurately reflect my species hours, or should I just leave it all in one?

 

[KK5820]

Ive got kind of a silly/weird question about entering my experience hours. I've been working full time at my clinic since June, but have been working some winter breaks and summers at the same place, so for each segment separated by a major time block over been putting in separate experiences. This was useful because as I kept coming back I would gain new responsibility, and we started seeing exotics at some point in the middle, so on newer periods I have them checked off, but on older ones I don't.

However, our vet that sees exotics has suddenly left, so we've actually lost that entire client base (which is so sad I loved seeing them). My question is should I split up my hours between June 2024-this week and what I earn onwards to more accurately reflect my species hours, or should I just leave it all in one?

I worked at a place that was small animal/exotic and just separated it into its own section in my experiences. The more detailed, the better IMO

 

[futurefishdr]

I’m struggling to find an answer for this and vmcas support is being unhelpful.
So where I live, we have a community college district that basically encompasses 4 different campuses. If you’re enrolled at 1, you’re enrolled in all 4 and can enroll in courses at any of the campuses. They also don’t do joint district transcripts.
I took a class at one of the campuses a few years ago and considered taking classes at the other ones but ultimately didn’t.
Do I submit transcripts for all 4 or just the 1? I was technically enrolled in the other 3 campuses but I don’t want to just submit 3 empty transcripts. But I also don’t want that to end up coming back to bite me later.

When I asked vmcas they said report all campuses separately then report all courses under appropriate campuses and get individual transcripts even though I clarified two different times that I didn’t take classes at all of them 🙄

 

[vampyrica]

I’m struggling to find an answer for this and vmcas support is being unhelpful.
So where I live, we have a community college district that basically encompasses 4 different campuses. If you’re enrolled at 1, you’re enrolled in all 4 and can enroll in courses at any of the campuses. They also don’t do joint district transcripts.
I took a class at one of the campuses a few years ago and considered taking classes at the other ones but ultimately didn’t.
Do I submit transcripts for all 4 or just the 1? I was technically enrolled in the other 3 campuses but I don’t want to just submit 3 empty transcripts. But I also don’t want that to end up coming back to bite me later.

When I asked vmcas they said report all campuses separately then report all courses under appropriate campuses and get individual transcripts even though I clarified two different times that I didn’t take classes at all of them 🙄

If you got transcripts for the other campuses, they would be empty? If that's the case, then I would just put the one campus that will reflect the class and grade.

 

[BlackLabLover_]

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

 

[battie]

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

I put swim team from high school, but it probably didn't matter cause I didn't continue into college.

Everything you did in college should be on there.

 

[katiemcat]

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

I personally did not put any non-animal related experiences from high school unless they continued into college at the advice of my IS. My non-animal experiences included TAing, volunteering, and non-animal related jobs 🙂

 

[mw1356]

I personally did not put any non-animal related experiences from high school unless they continued into college at the advice of my IS.

I actually did the opposite lol, added a bunch of high school sports experiences at the advice of my IS (Tufts).

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

I would definitely prioritize putting in college experiences (and post-grad if you have them), but if you have something to say about your high school experiences, I don't think it hurts to put them in. I mentioned teamwork and leadership/being a team captain in the explanation sections for my high school sports.

 

[JaynaAli]

My recommendation would be to put anything and let the schools decide what, if any, weight they apply to those experiences. People don’t get rejected for having too many experiences. Be realistic about hours and don’t inflate them, but I don’t see any downside to including anything you think may be beneficial.

 

[sassysamoyed]

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

I put my high school swim hours for my junior and senior years because I was taking college credits at the time, and that was advised per WSU guidelines. I also had a pretty crazy amount (over 2k), so I felt it helped to explain my lack of vet hours during that period of my life. I would say that any extracurriculars done while earning college credit (even in high school) may be listed.

 

[KK5820]

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

I put everything🤷‍♀️ couldn’t tell you if it helped, but I had gone so far to include choir from HS lol

 

[indysadventures]

What are some things that yall have included in your experiences section? Would non animal related extracurriculars from highschool be admissible to place in the section? Like being on my high school swim team or experiences like that? Or clubs within college?

Just echoing everyone else, I erred on the side of more , and if they didn’t care, better than not including it. I included any significant activities from HS on, I didn’t include adult independent hobbies (like reading, writing, gardening) but did talk about them in essays if given the chance. I did include any more structured adult hobbies, like soccer and violin.

It’s not a bad idea to give yourself as many characters as possible to help adcoms get to know you. Just make sure the entries are impactful and focused on what you learned/took away from the experience.

 

[fauna]

My recommendation would be to put anything and let the schools decide what, if any, weight they apply to those experiences. People don’t get rejected for having too many experiences. Be realistic about hours and don’t inflate them, but I don’t see any downside to including anything you think may be beneficial.

even the small, random stuff can be a point of connection for someone on the admissions board. i think part of the reason i landed a pretty competitive internship because i put that i was head of yearbook committee (so lame lmao) and the girl who interviewed me was also into yearbook in highschool! it gave us something to talk about

 

[longisland12grady465]

Hey everyone! This is my youtube channel link below. My channel is all about pre vet studies and tips to get into veterinary school.

VetSteps

Hey everyone, my name is Tim, and welcome to Vet Steps! This channel is to share my testimony in the field of veterinary medicine and share helpful information for high school and pre-veterinary students!

youtube.com

 

[madrigal01]

I have been fortunate enough to attend several veterinary conferences, which means that I've earned about 100 CE hours between them, on various topics in vetmed (mostly wildlife/exotic as that's where my interests lie currently.) How would someone go about adding that to the experience section? I'm leaning towards extracurricular but it was "associated with animal-related activities" and many of the presenters were veterinarians themselves. Thank you for any advice!

 

[mw1356]

I have been fortunate enough to attend several veterinary conferences, which means that I've earned about 100 CE hours between them, on various topics in vetmed (mostly wildlife/exotic as that's where my interests lie currently.) How would someone go about adding that to the experience section? I'm leaning towards extracurricular but it was "associated with animal-related activities" and many of the presenters were veterinarians themselves. Thank you for any advice!

I personally put the conferences I went to (APVMA and AFA) under extracurriculars

 

[i<3animals]

Hi everyone,
This has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I was accepted into Midwestern University — my only acceptance — and it truly felt like the right fit. I’ve visited Arizona every summer for years and always imagined myself living there. My mom has even thought about moving there too, so it felt like everything was lining up.
But after meeting with a financial advisor and breaking down the numbers, I just couldn’t commit to nearly $500,000 in debt (excluding interest). As much as I want to pursue veterinary medicine, I need to protect my future self, too.
I’m planning to reapply this cycle — I’m not walking away from this dream — but I’d really appreciate any advice on reapplying, picking schools more strategically, or even just how to stay emotionally grounded through all of this.
Thanks for listening — it means more than you know.

 

[battie]

Hi everyone,
This has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I was accepted into Midwestern University — my only acceptance — and it truly felt like the right fit. I’ve visited Arizona every summer for years and always imagined myself living there. My mom has even thought about moving there too, so it felt like everything was lining up.
But after meeting with a financial advisor and breaking down the numbers, I just couldn’t commit to nearly $500,000 in debt (excluding interest). As much as I want to pursue veterinary medicine, I need to protect my future self, too.
I’m planning to reapply this cycle — I’m not walking away from this dream — but I’d really appreciate any advice on reapplying, picking schools more strategically, or even just how to stay emotionally grounded through all of this.
Thanks for listening — it means more than you know.

1. There are no words for making this decision that can alleviate whatever feelings you have. But I support your decision. And if Midwestern didn't ask why you declined, I would make it explicitly clear cost was the primary factor. These schools need to know that cost matters, particularly since student loans are in flux now.

2. Did you make a WAMC thread? That will help us the most in guiding you.

 

[JaynaAli]

Hi everyone,
This has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I was accepted into Midwestern University — my only acceptance — and it truly felt like the right fit. I’ve visited Arizona every summer for years and always imagined myself living there. My mom has even thought about moving there too, so it felt like everything was lining up.
But after meeting with a financial advisor and breaking down the numbers, I just couldn’t commit to nearly $500,000 in debt (excluding interest). As much as I want to pursue veterinary medicine, I need to protect my future self, too.
I’m planning to reapply this cycle — I’m not walking away from this dream — but I’d really appreciate any advice on reapplying, picking schools more strategically, or even just how to stay emotionally grounded through all of this.
Thanks for listening — it means more than you know.

It’s a hard decision, but one more people should probably make. Looking out for your future and being critical about the realities is very smart and mature. I agree with bats that posting in WAMC might help us give more specific recommendations but I’d recommend deciding what you CAN justify spending and being sure to stay within those parameters.

 

[mnnatio]

Could anyone share a copy of their excel spreadsheets that you use to count your hours? I’m currently using VetSetGo to do my animal/vet hours but I want to try to switch to a spreadsheet. Or if anyone uses something different i’m open to that too! Thanks!

 

[sassysamoyed]

Could anyone share a copy of their excel spreadsheets that you use to count your hours? I’m currently using VetSetGo to do my animal/vet hours but I want to try to switch to a spreadsheet. Or if anyone uses something different i’m open to that too! Thanks!

I made a very simple spreadsheet in Google Sheets that worked fine. I had columns for the date, number of hours, and clinic name. Make sure to write down the contact info for the doctor that you’re working/shadowing under and you’ll be set for the VMCAS.