WAMC - 1st time applicant

[beaknot]

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20 F Texas resident, Non-trad (?) First time applicant


Looking to Apply in 2027-28





Interested in: Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arizona State CVM, Missouri CVM, Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, really anywhere lol, but especially A of U!!





Degree: Biology with pre-vet concentration, Philosophy minor (71/120 hrs done)





GPA: Currently 3.5, TBD





Veterinary Experience:

• Nonprofit spay/neuter in Mexico) (239 hrs)
• Mobile vet: vaccines/spay and neuter (303 hrs)
• Military Veterinary Treatment Facility (small animal/military working dogs) (68tango-animal care spc) since MAR 2025 to now
• Exotics and small animal clinic (15 hrs, just started last wk)
• Humane Society: TNR, spayneuter, vaccine clinics (60 hrs)
• Animal Shelter (Spayathons, vaccine clinics) (42 hrs)
• County Animal Control & Shelter (spay neuter clinics) (10 hrs)

Animal Experience:

• Animal Grooming Salon: dogs & cats, worked as bather (Feb 2024-Aug 2024, working on getting exact hrs down)

Awards & Scholarships:

• High School scholarship awarded by local school district (10 people elected out of entire school district)
• AP Scholar Award

• Army Good Conduct Medal (TBD by my third yr in service)
• Military Outstanding Volunteer Medal (TBD, need to reach 500 vol hrs to submit for recognition)

Extracurriculars:

• First 4 (enlisted military organization) (volunteered at many different events, running for council currently)
• Children's book (for mexican vet nonprofit) (wrote & illustrated children's book to educate children in remote regions of Mexico where nonprofit does most of their work) publishing+releasing by AUG 2026
• Mexican vet nonprofit - social media mgmt, fundraising, volunteer mgmt, inventory (hard to quantify hrs, but I can definitely quantify impact- money raised, volunteers trained, followers reached etc)

Research:

• Mexican spay.neuter nonprofit data project (??) (collected and analyzed data from spay/neuter clinics) I have literal YEARS of data, I just need to analyze and put it all together. TBD

LOR’s:

• Mexican Nonprofit Vet ( known since I was 15)
• Philosophy professor (knows the literal innermost workings of my mind, I’ve received a lot of praise from him on my work)
• NCO (from army vet clinic, has seen me grow both personally & professionally/work under stress)
• Humane society manager (strong relationship, has seen my work ethic and ability to handle stress/multitasking)

Potential backups

• Grooming salon boss (work ethic, character- started working at 16)
• Exotic/small animal vet (newer clinic I started working at- still working on building relationship)

Personal Statement:


Mexican vet nonprofit- talk about rural access to medicine + lack of diversity in the field





Concerns/Questions:

• GPA (still working on it)
• Diversity in experience (lacking in LA & research)
• Timeline (getting out of military in AUG 2028, wanting to have application done by MAR/MAY 2027??)
• When to ask for LOR’s?
• GI bill (mainly concerned with which schools I should be targeting that are veteran ‘friendly’)
• How to incorporate military experience? (TDY, STX, Competitions, Summits, day-to-day clinic operations, Training, Boards, etc.)
• How to quantify my experience working at the military vet clinic?
• Should I consolidate all of my shelter work into one experience? I’ve volunteered at three different ones doing pretty much the same thing, how would that look like on VMCAS?
• Interested in animal experience programs (Loop Abroad, etc);any recs? Should I divert my focus elsewhere instead? Maybe pick up shifts at vet ER? Try out local wildlife rehab?
• Personal statement (Can I make it stronger? Any services/programs that can review and help me improve it?)

Also to clarify, when I refer to Mexican nonprofit/mexican nonprofit vet; It is an American DVM with a nonprofit (based in the US) that does veterinary work in Mexico





I know a lot of the things here are TBD/still in the works but,

• Overall: What can I improve? Add? Remove? Clarify? Focus on? Watch out for?

TYIA!

 

[Sparker]

GPA- Your GPA is okay, a little below average, most likely below average as an out-of-state applicant. If you are able to boost this in any way, you should do so. What about your science/prereq and last 45 GPAs (though it might be early to calculate your last 45)?

Vet Experience- You should definitely diversify your experience. Right now, you only have small animal. Working at a SA and exotics clinic is a step in the right direction, but some large animal hours (preferably at least 100) would definitely help. If you can't work under a LA vet, even just working with large animals in a non-clinical setting is better than nothing and will show that you at least have some experience with large animals.

Research- If you have years of data collection, you should be good on research hours. So as long as you're able to analyze the data and produce some results (even if they aren't published), you should be good. Do you have a rough estimate of your research hours as of right now? Is this an official project run by the nonprofit or just something you are doing? I don't know the nature of this research, but if you aren't able to analyze the data for any reason, I might not consider this to be research at all. As in, if the data wasn't collected for the intent of research publication, and you don't take any steps towards publication (such as analysis), I wouldn't count it as research hours. But that's just bc I don't know the nature of the research, and you may totally disagree with that.

Timeline- Are you wanting to start vet school in August/September 2028, right after you get out of the military? If yes, you need to pay close attention to dates; some schools start their orientation in early-mid August, so you need to be aware of the date you will get out of the military and how much time you will need to move and be settled before orientation. If you start in Fall 2028, you will start applying in January of 2027, submitting the application in September of 2027.

LORs- You should try to ask for your recommendations whenever your application cycle opens. At a minimum, you want to give your recommenders 2 months before the recs are due.

Shelter work- I would keep these as separate experiences, because they will each have a different location and supervisor.

Animal experience- This is kinda up to you and your finances. Loop abroad is one of the most popular pre-vet travel experiences, and from what I've seen, it has good reviews. So, if you really want to travel out of the country and have the money to spare (a couple thousand dollars at least, I think), then you can. If you don't have the money or time, volunteering at a wildlife rehab or working in a different clinical setting are both great options to diversify your experiences. I would almost lean towards doing one of those instead, since they can be more consistent roles (like once or twice a week for a longer period of time) rather than just a 1-2 week trip. But it's really up to you and the experiences you want. All of them will look good on your application.

Personal Essay- I think this is a great base for your essay. Just be able to seamlessly include other things as well- like your military experience. The big thing with personal statements is to make sure you have multiple people read over them. I would suggest a vet or someone in the vet field, someone who knows you academically, someone who knows you personally, and someone who doesn't know you (either someone on SDN or at your university/local writing center or library). I would not pay for any service that offers advice/help, imo it is a waste of money.

General- Do your research: look at the application requirements and financial situation of each school you want to apply to. Make sure you have all the prereqs/clinical hours/GPA needed to make it past the first round of cut offs at the schools you apply to. Make sure the cost of attendance at a school isn't too high for your budget, and look at schools where you can switch to in-state residency if finances are a consideration.