WAMC - 2nd Time Applicant

[gregor5]

So this past cycle I was waitlisted at a school. There's not a very high chance I get off but we'll see what happens. Regardless, I'm planning to reapply again this cycle. Only one school I applied to offered file reviews and the counselor said my application was good but that I needed to present it better without giving too many specifics (My personal statement played a part in this I think). I'm wondering if anyone can offer any advice. Last cycle I applied to Minnesota, Cornell, Penn and Colorado. I was rejected from all except Minnesota where I'm high on the waitlist. I'm planning to reapply to Cornell and Penn but unsure about the other two. Maybe a better school list would help me too.


Traditional biochem graduate. 22 NY resident M.
GPA: 3.86
Science/Pre-Req GPA: 3.90
Last 45 GPA: 3.96

Vet Experience:
~150 hours speciality shadowing
~50 hours shelter medicine vet assistant (feline)
~70 hours GP shadowing
~60 hours feline-only clinic shadowing (now about 90)
~50 hours large animal vet assistant (mostly equine but with food animals here and there; about 150 hours now).
~200 hours GP reception (now about 400)
~60 hours GP assistant (now about 120)
~New: 60 hours GP assistant at new practice (hoping to add close to 600 hours by the time I submit my application)

Animal Experience:
~100 hours animal care internship at a zoo
~20 hours shelter animal care (feline)
~50 hours raising kitten litter (didn't include this as an activity but worked it in as a narrative on my personal statement.

Research:
~30 hours in a chem lab.

Non-Veterinary Employment:
~1100 hours as a hotel front desk agent
~1000 hours as a medical standardized patient

Extracurriculars:
Undergraduate TA for bio lecture
Bio club president
Environmental club vice president
pre-vet club member

Awards:
Dean’s List every semester
Scholarship my school offered

LORs:
3 vets last cycle and 1 professor.

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[supershorty]

Your hours and GPAs are fine and would be competitive at most programs. I suspect the issue lies in either your personal statement/supplemental essays, your LORs, or both. How well do you know your letter writers? Did you have people look over your essays?

 

[DogtorAsh]

I agree with what supershorty said, and I also wanted to ask if you were outright rejected from those other schools or did you get interviews anywhere else besides UMN (I think pennvet has interviews right?). In addition to looking over you essays, see if you can get a mock interview scheduled somewhere with someone who knows nothing about you. Your stats look really good, it might just be about selling yourself better! In both your interviews, your essays, etc. I think a common mistake I made early on when I was applying was not having clear consistent points in my essays and interviews. I would pull up random interview questions through google or even through SDN's vet school question banks and just ask them to yourself and make sure you can think of a few situations in your life that apply. These can be from ANYTHING. Initially I think I was so focused on trying to tie in vet med that I forgot that I have a lot of experience and examples to answer behavioral questions from jobs/hobbies/etc that have nothing to do with vet med. They seem to really appreciate the variety.

For personal statements I would make sure you are writing something memorable in some way. Another common mistake I saw/have also made in the past was writing about something I wanted to do but having no basis or experience in that regard. It can be hard for them to read that I want to be a large animal vet for example, but then I have like 20 hrs shadowing a large animal vet--this creates a bit of a dissonance for the application committee because then it raises questions as to whether I know enough about the field to go into it (which can make it a weak personal statement over another applicant if they're splitting hairs). This was the first year that I switched up my personal statement and discussed my love for vet med and how that was reborn working at a specialty hospital and how currently working outside of vet med has recommitted my love for vet med and that I want to get back by any means necessary. The fact I work in corporate america right now was brought up multipleeeee times and they really wanted to hear my take on it and how that's changed me as a person.

I wish you the best of luck!

 

[gregor5]

Your hours and GPAs are fine and would be competitive at most programs. I suspect the issue lies in either your personal statement/supplemental essays, your LORs, or both. How well do you know your letter writers? Did you have people look over your essays?

I think this was one of my main issues. I'm only sure that at least one of my letters was glowing but that's about it. I didn't know my vets or professor that well because most of my experiences were low hours across multiple clinics. They were probably acceptable hence my Minnesota waitlist but could have been better. I had people look over my essays but I couldn't find a consensus so I went with a well-written final draft that in hindsight should have focused more on a specific interest I had in veterinary medicine (I didn't feel I had the experience in any single aspect of the field to settle on a choice).

 

[gregor5]

I agree with what supershorty said, and I also wanted to ask if you were outright rejected from those other schools or did you get interviews anywhere else besides UMN (I think pennvet has interviews right?). In addition to looking over you essays, see if you can get a mock interview scheduled somewhere with someone who knows nothing about you. Your stats look really good, it might just be about selling yourself better! In both your interviews, your essays, etc. I think a common mistake I made early on when I was applying was not having clear consistent points in my essays and interviews. I would pull up random interview questions through google or even through SDN's vet school question banks and just ask them to yourself and make sure you can think of a few situations in your life that apply. These can be from ANYTHING. Initially I think I was so focused on trying to tie in vet med that I forgot that I have a lot of experience and examples to answer behavioral questions from jobs/hobbies/etc that have nothing to do with vet med. They seem to really appreciate the variety.

For personal statements I would make sure you are writing something memorable in some way. Another common mistake I saw/have also made in the past was writing about something I wanted to do but having no basis or experience in that regard. It can be hard for them to read that I want to be a large animal vet for example, but then I have like 20 hrs shadowing a large animal vet--this creates a bit of a dissonance for the application committee because then it raises questions as to whether I know enough about the field to go into it (which can make it a weak personal statement over another applicant if they're splitting hairs). This was the first year that I switched up my personal statement and discussed my love for vet med and how that was reborn working at a specialty hospital and how currently working outside of vet med has recommitted my love for vet med and that I want to get back by any means necessary. The fact I work in corporate america right now was brought up multipleeeee times and they really wanted to hear my take on it and how that's changed me as a person.

I wish you the best of luck!

Cornell and Colorado don't interview and I wasn't waitlisted. I was waitlisted for an interview at Penn but didn't get pulled off. Minnesota was my only interview and even though it could have gone better it wasn't terrible and got waitlisted so that's what made me think that something in my written application is off.

Thank you this was all very helpful!

 

[supershorty]

I think this was one of my main issues. I'm only sure that at least one of my letters was glowing but that's about it. I didn't know my vets or professor that well because most of my experiences were low hours across multiple clinics. They were probably acceptable hence my Minnesota waitlist but could have been better. I had people look over my essays but I couldn't find a consensus so I went with a well-written final draft that in hindsight should have focused more on a specific interest I had in veterinary medicine (I didn't feel I had the experience in any single aspect of the field to settle on a choice).

I'd be willing to bet that at least some of the issue is exactly this. If people don't know you well, the best they really can do is write a generic "gregor5 works hard and would be a good addition to the veterinary profession," - and those letters read very differently than ones written by someone you have a good, solid relationship with. It's tough because it's emphasized to get a variety of experiences (and applicants should, of course), but when you have limited time, getting a wide variety of exposure to the field makes it much more challenging to be at a clinic long enough to make that really solid impression that leads to a good letter. It sounds like you're going to have a more long-term relationship with one of your clinics, so that will help some if you can get a letter from there. The other thing I'd recommend, if you didn't do this before, is when you ask someone to be a reference for you, include asking if they are willing to be a strong positive reference, and send them your CV/resume/personal statement in case they need that extra info about you.

 

[supershorty]

The personal statement is likely also a contributing factor. Are any of the people who read it over for you DVMs or people who might otherwise have some insight into the admissions process?

We do have some people on this forum who have volunteered their time to look over personal statements, so that's another thing you could consider pursuing should you end up reapplying.