WAMC 2nd time applicant school list

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Katkenobi13

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Hi all! I am planning to apply to vet school for a second time this cycle. I am currently waitlisted at Western U but I am preparing to reapply in case I don’t get pulled from the waitlist. I wanted to get some feedback on areas to improve as well as add any additional schools I hadn’t applied to during the previous cycle. I listed my updated stats as of the time of this post not necessarily what I applied with last cycle.

24 y/o Female California Resident, 2nd time applicant

Degrees:
B.S in Animal Biology 2020 (UC Davis)

GPAs:
Cumulative: ~3.36
Science GPA: ~3.2
Last 45 or 68: 3.75
Took more science classes at my local CC and greatly improved the last 45 units compared to last cycle, I am financially unable to do a masters or postbac right now to try to improve the science GPA :/

GRE:
Verbal: 142
Quant: 150
(planning to retake during the summer)

Vet Experience:
~3,000+hrs exotic, wildlife, small animal practice as vet assistant
97hrs large animal/ equine hospital volunteer
322hrs small animal only clinics/ shelters intern
Anticipated 320hrs Vet Assistant Intern at Aquarium of the Pacific (Summer Internship)

Animal Experience:
270hrs taking care of poultry used for research
442 hrs wildlife rehabilitation internship
680hrs kennel tech at a boarding facility

Research Experience:
315 hrs conducted senior thesis research on Newcastle disease outbreaks and creating epidemiological models with a graduate student, presented research at 2 conferences

Extracurriculars: (done during or after undergrad)
High School Pre-vet Mentor
Social media Coordinator for veterinary student-run clinic
Sorority New Recruit Mentor/ Member
Women in Science and Engineering Mentor
Fundraising Officer for veterinary student-run clinic
Animal Careers Peer Advisor

eLORs:
1 research vet from senior thesis (UCD Alum)
1 exotic/GP vet from current job (UCD Alum)
1 Vet tech from wildlife internship

Currently, I am interested in wildlife, zoo, and exotic medicine as well as potentially getting an MPH or something of the equivalent while in vet school. My top schools would be UC Davis (dream school) or WesternU because of the in-state tuition and closeness to home but I am open to suggestions. The last cycle I also applied to Midwestern (waitlisted), Oregon, and Colorado without really knowing much about the admissions process and based mainly on proximity to California, but definitely open to other schools. Thank you in advance for the help! :)

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Does the schools you are applying to require the GRE? It wouldn't be worth it to spend time studying and pay extra money for an exam that many schools are moving away from.

You have a good amount of diversity in your vet experience, especially in exotics which you are interested in pursuing. Your last 45 GPA shows that you have been improving your GPA. If you haven't, definitely get file reviews from the schools you applied to since they will have the best insight into what they are looking for. Colorado does get a ton of out-of-state (OOS) applications and from what I've heard it is very competitive to get into. So if you are trying to limit the total number of schools you are applying to and have another school that you're more likely to gain acceptance to, it might be best to not apply to Colorado. Make sure that your LORs are strong and check out the SDN thread where vet students/vets review Personal essays if you want to get some feedback on that portion of your app.

For every school you are applying to I would look into the application process so you can decide what they value most and how you stack up. Possibly look into schools that mainly use last 45 GPA, are more holistic in their admissions decisions or ones where once you meet the GPA requirement then you go to the next stage in the admissions and it no longer matters - I believe Michigan might be one of those schools but I'm not 100%. I'm unsure how your stats match up with UC Davis as an instate - I know that GPA and GRE scores have to be very high for OOS but as IS you have more leeway. I would look into how you compare to other IS students who were accepted to UC Davis by looking at the IS class stats online and the Accepted Students SDN thread. AAVMC has this great chart giving basic information regarding schools: Admitted Student Statistics - AAVMC.
 
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