WAMC - 1st Time Non-trad Applicant

[KayJoJo]

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Hi all! I am applying to my in-state at Iowa this first cycle. Should I not be accepted, I will be branching out to schools nearby on my second cycle, such as Mizzou, as well. I am a non-traditional student, in my junior year of undergrad with 4 prerequisites that are progress but will be completed by Spring 2027. My stats are listed below. Please let me know what you think my chances are. I have already submitted, but can still add experiences to do this summer/fall.

VMCAS calculated cGPA: 3.68
Science GPA: 3.79

Veterinary hours, small animal GP: 2,441 (there is no ER within 1.5 hrs of me)
Equine hours: 4,965
Small Animal hours: 2,240
Non-animal related employment as a licensed cosmetologist: 8,425
Extracurricular hours: 1,726

- 4.0 semester GPA for the last 3 semesters; upward trend 🙂

Thanks!

 

[dew5]

Average to above average GPAs here.

Having ER experience in place of GP experience will not make or break your application. What matters is having diverse hours/experiences. It would seem that all of your veterinary hours are small animal?

There is only so much you can do with the time left before the application deadline, but I would recommend getting some additional veterinary experience outside of small animal if possible (equine, livestock, etc.).

ISU is a land-grant institution and professes a commitment to serving agriculture, food animal production, and rural communities. That generally means they place meaningful value on large animal experience, but not because applicants are expected to be exclusively interested in large animal medicine. Gaining experience in other areas of vet med would, however, likely give you an advantage over applicants that have experience in only one area.

As it stands, you have a strong amount of veterinary and non-veterinary hours. I’d consider you a fairly competitive applicant but it is difficult to predict how successful you will be when applying to only one school. I understand the logic behind it of course and fully support applying to your in-state, especially given the current loan situation.