WAMC - 2nd time reapplicant looking for advice

[kelizolson]

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Hello! This was my first time applying this past cycle and it is looking like I am going to have to reapply! Honestly a very hard pill to swallow but vet school is my biggest goal in life so I just need to try again. I am looking for some genuine advice on how to improve my application for next cycle.

I am 23F. I am from Illinois. This past cycle I applied to: Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue and Colorado State. For the next coming cycle: I am planning on applying to Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, Iowa, Mizzou, Ohio State, possibly Tennessee again. I would like to stay in the Midwest. I am interested in small animal GP and ER.
For the 2024-2025, these were my results:
Illinois - Interviewed, waiting to hear back
Wisconsin - Waitlisted, #77
Tennessee - Interviewed, rejected
Michigan State - Rejected because they did not accept my biochemistry credit
Purdue - Interviewed, Waitlisted
Colorado State - Waitlisted

Cumulative GPA: 3.98
ccGPA: 4.00
uniGPA: 3.97
science GPA: 3.97

Any degrees achieved: Associate in Science w/ Highest Honors (c/o 2021), Bachelors in Biology, graduated Summa Cum Laude (c/o Fall 2023)

GRE results: did not take

Veterinary Experience:
- Vet Assistant/Receptionist at small animal GP: 1500 hours, I work full time here. I have been there a year now.
- Kennel Assistant at small animal ER: 850 hours, I work here twice a month. I have been there for almost 2 years.
- Shadowed a large animal vet for two days: 16 hours

Animal Experience:
-Pet Care Technician at canine/feline boarding facility for one summer: 260 hours
-Pet Sitter for neighbors and family since 2016: 1700+ hours

Research Experience:
-Assisted in a research lab for 1.5 years working with soil isolates, maybe 290 hours or so . I never published or presented again.

Awards/scholarships:
-Academic awards for my good grades while being a full-time student athlete
-Dean's List or President List every semester at both my community college and university
-Athletic scholarship for bowling at my university
-Biology Senior Award for Fall 2023 when I graduated
-Biology Transfer student grant
-Couple of different scholarships at my community college

Extracurriculars:
-Collegiate bowling team member at my 2 year cc the entire time
-Collegiate bowling team member at my 4 year uni for 2.5 years
-Currently bowl league as an adult but included it all the way back to 2015 because I've been doing leagues since I was in high school
-Bowled competitively all four years of high school on my high school women's team
-Member of a biology transfer club that eventually got a bee apiary placed on our campus
-Member of my honor society at my community college
-Member of the biology honor society at my university
-Help run a local and statewide squishmallow facebook group, have also helped plan several squishmallow meet ups for my local community

Employment:
-Snack bar cook/cashier at two different bowling alleys: 1.5 years
-Front count worker at bowling alley: 5 months
-Concession stand worker at a local baseball stadium: 2 summers
-Student lab prep worker for the biology department at my university: 1.5 years
-Babysitter for ~1.5 years

Volunteer:
-camp attendant at a girls science camp for one summer at my university
-concession stand worker at a local hockey center to fundraise money for my bowling team
-concession stand worker at my high school to fundraise money for my old high school team, did this as an alumni
-helped a few years in a row at a 5K walk for autism with my bowling team
-social media ambassador for the bee apiary to fundraise money for the project and get campus support
-some other volunteer things I did with my old bowling team

I think some weak points of my application are these:
-Not enough varied vet experience: I barely have any large animal experience and no exotic experience.
-No long-term volunteer experience: Most of my volunteer experience is stuff that I did with my bowling team once or twice. I never really did any volunteer experience by myself or any experience repeatedly by myself.
-issues with my interviews: I don't think I interviewed well. I'll be honest I don't think I prepared very well. I felt most of my interviews I got so nervous and rambled. I also think I didn't have strong enough examples for the behavioral questions. During my interview prep, I would brainstorm examples of different common behavioral questions but I definitely struggled to come up with strong examples. I know I have strong examples somewhere stored in my memory because I have lived a variety of lives but my mind constantly would come up blank. I also think I did not elaborate well at all.
-not strong enough essays: I am not a good writer! I struggled a lot with every essay I wrote this cycle. I met with a grad school counselor several times over the summer from my university. I did not really have anyone besides the counselor or close friends/family read my essays. I think that was a mistake on my end by not having people who have no connection to me at all review my essays.

What recommendations or advice do you have? I know that I am on the right track because I was offered interviews and waitlisted but there is something missing.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time read all of this and reply!!

 

[CeeGee14]

I’m not sure if you’ve done this yet, but there are wonderful folks here on SDN that will peer review your personal statement for you! I found this website too late-I had already submitted my whole application-so I never did get the chance to get my PS reviewed, but it can’t hurt!

For my interviews, the only question I really prepared for was the classic, “tell us about yourself and why you chose this school.” Everything else I just winged it. It’s ok to take some time to think before answering a question and I found that I don’t do well following a scripted answer.

You’ve got still Illinois to hear back from, so hang in there!