WAMC? 2nd time applicant, Masters student

[channie]

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Hello! Just wanted to hop on and get a feel for what y'all think my chances are as I’m nervously awaiting the post-application period.

My grades were a HEAVY factor in getting rejected the first time around. I understand my undergrad and science GPA is going to be a deterrent to many places, probably even some that I applied to, but hey a girl can dream. That being said, after file reviews it was recommended I raise my GPA and I did this by getting my Masters degree.

Currently I am in a Masters of Veterinary Public Health program. I do not meet the prerequisite requirements for my in state school, so I am OOS everywhere. My “prerequisite GPA” also varies by schools and their requirements.

Undergrad GPA: 3.00
Graduate GPA: 3.96
Science GPA: 3.09
Last 45: 3.46

I have ~5,000 hours of veterinary experience as I have worked as a small animal tech for the past 3 years, and I also have ~200 hours of equine vet experience. I am confident in my clinical skills, as I am able to do things like intubation and collect cystos as just a tech (not certified). Several hours of animal experience as well. I did not have many EC activities in undergrad besides my sorority, but now I serve as President of a Student Advisory Board in my masters program.

My LORs are very strong. 1 from a GP DVM owner that I worked with for 3 years, and 2 other vets from that same practice who I worked with for the same amount of time. I have 1 from my masters advisor who is also a DVM, and 1 from a professor of a few of my masters courses.

Since my masters is focused in public health, I have really tailored my personal statement and goals to becoming a public health vet that wants to work in underserved areas. This was another area of my first application that was weak, as I didn’t really have a true passion at that time. I tried to apply to schools that had a similar area of focus. I applied to:
-Iowa State
-Arizona
-Midwestern
-Washington State
-Oregon State
-UC Davis (crap shoot)
-Tufts (also crap shoot but strong public health focus)
-Western
-Georgia (my undergrad school)
-Illinois
-Cornell (another crap shoot, again part of my public health grab)
-Auburn
-Wisconsin

TIA for any opinions or feedback for next year if I don’t get in anywhere this round 🙂

 

[battie]

Have you contacted these schools to make sure they take graduate grades into account?

 

[channie]

Have you contacted these schools to make sure they take graduate grades into account?

I haven’t…I did a lot of research into all the schools and their GPA requirements etc. but didn’t see anything about not accepting grad GPA

 

[battie]

I haven’t…I did a lot of research into all the schools and their GPA requirements etc. but didn’t see anything about not accepting grad GPA

Some schools didn't accept graduate classes toward GPA when I was applying a decade ago. So I always bring it up as something for people to double check.

 

[pp9]

I do not meet the prerequisite requirements for my in state school, so I am OOS everywhere.

I think this is the third post I've seen mention this recently. What prereq(s) are you missing? Is your IS a public school?

I'm just curious, honestly. Unless the school is private, I imagine taking a few more classes to be eligible for your IS will lead to you saving 10's of thousands (or more...) in debt.

More geared towards your actual questions: You're going to want to focus on schools that put more weight on last 45 GPAs, and those that take grad GPAs into account. As for which schools fit that bill...that's where the leg work comes in. If you aren't getting a clear answer on their websites, an email would be the next step.

ETA: For example, you have Illinois on your list. They only look at your cumulative and science GPA. They do use graduate level coursework (Special Considerations - Veterinary Medicine at Illinois) to some degree. So it's up to you to figure out if your course work would be accepted, and how much it would improve your stats. Now rinse/repeat for every single school you have on your list.

 

[JaynaAli]

I’m curious…do you actually want to do public health as a career? I ask because this post reads like “I wanted to go to vet school but my grades were bad, so I did a masters. And because my masters was in public health, I wrote my PS about public health.” But it doesn’t really say what you want to do…I’m not really getting *enthusiasm* for public health in the way you wrote this post, almost like you’re just taking that approach because it makes the most logical sense. I’m not saying that’s wrong or bad, plus you may not have been trying to convey enthusiasm in a random forum post, but I just thought I’d bring up how this came off to me so you can be aware and make sure that your writings on the app are truly conveying what you want them to and don’t have subtle undertones that can be misconstrued, whether you meant them that way or not.

Also I agree with the others that you need to know exactly what the schools you apply to use for their gpa calculations. Hopefully they include it, but the school I went to (which is not on your list) only looked at pre-req gpa when I went through a long time ago. It varies so just know what happens at places you apply to and don’t waste money applying to places you won’t be competitive at.

My other comments are that you’ve chosen some of the most expensive schools on your list. Make sure you know the cost and have a plan for the debt. Public health may be an easier field to make work with PSLF or whatever, but it also doesn’t sound super lucrative either and some of these schools cost between 350k and 450k to attend, which is astronomical. Just be aware of the debt you’d be signing up for. Taking whatever prereq you need and going to your instate UGA would be like 165k total cost of attendance, which is light years different than the 425k cost of Midwestern.

Edit: idk why I thought you said your instate was uga. Must have mixed you up with someone else. Sorry. So ignore that part but the point stands.

 

[channie]

I think this is the third post I've seen mention this recently. What prereq(s) are you missing? Is your IS a public school?

Well my in state school is Utah State, so technically I can’t apply to it yet, and their pre-req GPA requirement is a 3.1. I have a 3.0 with the courses they require. I’ve looked into taking classes (was going to this semester), but they don’t offer any of the pre-reqs in the fall. I would have to retake in the spring, but they don’t know when the application is going to open, and it will be a short application window. So there is a chance I retake a course, and am not able to apply before the semester is over. They will reject my application if I apply with the GPA I have now. I had to do a lot of back and forth with their admissions team…it’s been a mess.

 

[channie]

I’m curious…do you actually want to do public health as a career? I ask because this post reads like “I wanted to go to vet school but my grades were bad, so I did a masters. And because my masters was in public health, I wrote my PS about public health.” But it doesn’t really say what you want to do…I’m not really getting *enthusiasm* for public health in the way you wrote this post, almost like you’re just taking that approach because it makes the most logical sense. I’m not saying that’s wrong or bad, plus you may not have been trying to convey enthusiasm in a random forum post, but I just thought I’d bring up how this came off to me so you can be aware and make sure that your writings on the app are truly conveying what you want them to and don’t have subtle undertones that can be misconstrued, whether you meant them that way or not.

Also I agree with the others that you need to know exactly what the schools you apply to use for their gpa calculations. Hopefully they include it, but the school I went to (which is not on your list) only looked at pre-req gpa when I went through a long time ago. It varies so just know what happens at places you apply to and don’t waste money applying to places you won’t be competitive at.

My other comments are that you’ve chosen some of the most expensive schools on your list. Make sure you know the cost and have a plan for the debt. Public health may be an easier field to make work with PSLF or whatever, but it also doesn’t sound super lucrative either and some of these schools cost between 350k and 450k to attend, which is astronomical. Just be aware of the debt you’d be signing up for. Taking whatever prereq you need and going to your instate UGA would be like 165k total cost of attendance, which is light years different than the 425k cost of Midwestern.

Yah it’s kinda hard to convey what my passion is in this post haha. My focus of everything has been that my passion is combining my experience in public health and vet med to bring vet care to underserved communities.

To sum up a gist: I wrote about how getting rejected from vet school the first time around allowed me to open a new door to a field of vet medicine that I didn’t know about before, and how I want to utilize this new area to provide affordable vet care. I spent a lot of time on my essays with writing centers and things like that, it’s one aspect of the application I feel confident on.

Also UGA isn’t my in state, it was just where I went for undergrad as an OOS student. I am from Utah!

 

[JaynaAli]

Yah it’s kinda hard to convey what my passion is in this post haha. My focus of everything has been that my passion is combining my experience in public health and vet med to bring vet care to underserved communities.

To sum up a gist: I wrote about how getting rejected from vet school the first time around allowed me to open a new door to a field of vet medicine that I didn’t know about before, and how I want to utilize this new area to provide affordable vet care. I spent a lot of time on my essays with writing centers and things like that, it’s one aspect of the application I feel confident on.

Also UGA isn’t my in state, it was just where I went for undergrad as an OOS student. I am from Utah!

Good! I assumed you probably had a plan, but just thought I’d make sure.

 

[Kodiak-Bear]

Should you not get in this cycle, I would not recommend reapplying to UC Davis. As an OOS student you need to have nearly a 4.0 to even be considered for an interview as it it not a holistic process for out of state students.

Edit: I would also say this about Wisconsin. I am a double alum and applied OOS twice and the stats you need are ridiculous and the 32 seat to over 1500 application ratio of OOS students is really crazy. I applied as a resident this cycle. Best of luck!