WAMC- 2nd time applicant, avg-low GPA

[strawberryshortsnake]

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Hi everyone! I'm a 2nd time applicant applying to CSU (pipe dream), Iowa, LIU, midwestern, rowan, tufts, glasgow, minnesota and virginia maryland. Last cycle, I only received the SJT invite from VM and no interview invites at all lol. I am a CT resident so no in-state school for me. My GPA could be stronger, but my experience is good. I would also love feedback on the schools I chose. I prefer to avoid Southern schools if possible. I know CSU and tufts are pretty far reaches, but I love both of the programs.

overall GPA: 3.48
science GPA: 3.4
last 45 gpa: 3.51 (but if I take a 5-week accelerated course and get an A, it would become a 3.64 knocking out a very unfortunate D+)
Bachelors of Science in Animal Science

My weak point of my GPA is chemistry. I received a C in gen chem 1, a C+ in gen chem 2, a C in orgo 1, and then a d+ in orgo 2 followed by a B- in orgo 2 after a retake. The outlier in this situation is my A+ in biochemistry. I am utilizing the explanation statement and noting my ADHD diagnosis senior year of undergrad and proper medication significantly improved my motivation and study methods (when I got the B- and A+).


vet hours: 2914 (majority in gp, some in equine)
animal hours: 4460 (majority dairy)
research: 485 (animal welfare research assistant and summer research intern studying dairy cow bunching)
employment: 3368 (worked multiple part-time jobs throughout college)
extracurriculars: ~500 (president of pre-vet club, involved in theatre and honor societies in high school)
volunteer: 266

Thank you!

 

[cardamom23]

CSU is pretty “holistic” so you’ll be able to get evaluated on the same playing field as everyone else. They don’t look at GPA. They look at your course history and your overall story. Leveraging the explanation statement is smart and retaking classes as you see fit is great too. Good luck!

 

[JaynaAli]

I would also love feedback on the schools I chose.

Some of the schools you chose have extremely high cost of attendance (in excess of 400k) particularly Midwestern, Minnesota, and Tufts. I know if you don’t have an in-state that makes things more tough, but have you truly looked into what repayment will look like for these programs with the new student loan changes? You’ll be limited to 200k of federal loans and need private loans for the remainder, and the costs to repay private loans and also repay your federal loans could potentially be difficult. Private loans don’t get income based repayment options and you’d still have to be making payments on your federal loan balance too. I’m not necessarily saying not to apply to those schools (though I would not be willing to pay this price), but be sure you’ve educated yourself on how much your payments might be BEFORE you apply to such expensive places. VIN has some nice repayment estimators like their 40 schools in 60 days feature that will factor in the need for both federal and private loans to give you an idea of what you’ll have to pay and if that’s doable on the average salary.

 

[strawberryshortsnake]

Some of the schools you chose have extremely high cost of attendance (in excess of 400k) particularly Midwestern, Minnesota, and Tufts. I know if you don’t have an in-state that makes things more tough, but have you truly looked into what repayment will look like for these programs with the new student loan changes? You’ll be limited to 200k of federal loans and need private loans for the remainder, and the costs to repay private loans and also repay your federal loans could potentially be difficult. Private loans don’t get income based repayment options and you’d still have to be making payments on your federal loan balance too. I’m not necessarily saying not to apply to those schools (though I would not be willing to pay this price), but be sure you’ve educated yourself on how much your payments might be BEFORE you apply to such expensive places. VIN has some nice repayment estimators like their 40 schools in 60 days feature that will factor in the need for both federal and private loans to give you an idea of what you’ll have to pay and if that’s doable on the average salary.

Thank you for that. I’ve been so focused on finding holistic schools/programs I’m interested in that I really haven’t been focused on tuition costs. I’ll definitely take a look at VIN!

 

[indysadventures]

Seconding the information about cost. Minnesota is wonderful but they continue to up their tuition, and with the new loan rules I can’t in good faith say to apply without that warning. The school that gets you to a DVM at the cheapest cost is the school for you.

Also, as an OOS candidate, I’d also suggest you reconsider Minnesota. It may not be worth your time, the last two application cycles, the OOS GPA cutoffs have been high (~3.8+). I’m not sure you’ll see any success and it may just be a waste of an application. If you can, you could reach out to the admin folks at UMN, they’re pretty lovely and very honest and helpful when it comes to discussing competitiveness.