WAMC- 3rd year applicant, mid experiences

[swagdawg]

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Hello everyone! I am a North Carolina resident and this will be my third vet school application cycle. I have an interest in public health but am keeping an open mind to all possibilities (minus equine lol). I have received interview invites with Virginia-Maryland and University of Tennessee my last two cycles (but ultimately was rejected) and was waitlisted OOS for UGA this past cycle. I know I should diversify my experiences a bit more and I need to improve my interviews, but I’m not sure if I could do more such as apply strategically to other schools or something. Aside from the aforementioned schools, I also applied to NC State (IS) and UF. Anyway here are my stats:

Cumulative GPA: 3.85
Science GPA: not entirely sure but definitely around 3.80
Last 45: 3.85

Degrees:
•BS in Animal Science
•BS in Laboratory Animal Science

Veterinary Experience:
•3,500 hours between two small animal GP clinics as vet assistant
•~25 hours job shadowing a SA physical rehab vet

Animal Experience:
•<50 hours farm animal experience (mostly cattle)
•~120 hours lab animal experience
•160 hours equine husbandry
•75 hours volunteering at local animal shelter
•40 hours from marine biology/conservation lab/fieldwork (not really sure if this completely counts as animal since I was dealing with dead animals and plankton mostly but I don’t know where else to put it haha)

Research Experience:
•630 hours from two-summer internship (lowering methane emissions in cattle), second summer was more of a leadership/TA position
•~20 hours as research assistant doing work similar to research proposal from internship

LORs:
•GP vet at current hospital I work at (known her for 3 years)
•PhD- research internship mentor and also professor
•PhD- scholarship coordinator, led all professional development meetings and events I was required to go to for full-ride scholarship

Awards/Scholarships:
•Full-ride academic scholarship for all of undergrad
•Two other small scholarships
•Honors College
•Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society
•Chancellor’s List every semester except for last semester
•Dean’s List for last semester

Extracurriculars:
•MANRRS all four years of undergrad (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences)
•MANRRS E-board for two academic years
•Pre-Vet Club all four years of undergrad
•Took Beekeeping classes (not for academic credit) (I completely forgot to add this on my application this past cycle silly me)

Employment:
•1600 hours total, ~400 hours as a lifeguard and ~1200 hours as lab assistant at Idexx

I’m trying to get exotic animal/vet experience and am reallyyy trying to get large animal veterinary experience but I also don’t want to quit my job as a vet assistant because I need money and my job is teaching me technical skills currently. Once I obtain these skills, I plan on moving to an ER or some sort of specialist vet to see if I like it there. Also have no idea how I got waitlisted for UGA OOS but completely rejected from NCSU IS but here we are haha. Would appreciate recommendations for other vet schools to apply to. I’m thinking of applying to some out of country this time around, since my coworkers who also struggled with getting in this past cycle found luck abroad.

One last thing- should I add high school experiences aside from employment and animal/vet experiences? I was track and cross country captain and was involved in various organizations and honors societies back then but I didn’t add this on my VMCAS application.

 

[applepie002233]

Absolutely add your high school experiences (assuming within past 10 years).
Your stats look good. I honestly think the thing that will help you the most will be applying to more schools. They really don’t have enough seats for all of the qualified applicants, and I don’t think your rejections are because of your application per se. If you apply to more schools, you are much more likely to find a seat somewhere. Fingers crossed that this is your year!

 

[swagdawg]

Absolutely add your high school experiences (assuming within past 10 years).
Your stats look good. I honestly think the thing that will help you the most will be applying to more schools. They really don’t have enough seats for all of the qualified applicants, and I don’t think your rejections are because of your application per se. If you apply to more schools, you are much more likely to find a seat somewhere. Fingers crossed that this is your year!

Oh mannn ok I definitely will this cycle. And thank you, I will do my research on other schools 🫡

 

[Doctor Ham]

Not listing experiences from high school are not why you haven't been accepted. You can add them, but....that doesn't really get looked at.

Your vet experience is very limited - that's a lot of hours, but it just tells me that you have a good understanding of that one clinic, not the profession as a whole. Despite that, your numbers are strong enough to suggest that there is something else lacking in your application. You should consider having someone objective read your essays, and make sure you are confident in what your LORs say.

 

[Georgethecat]

Make sure that you are having your personal statement/essays reviewed, consider using SDN readers.

Have you done file reviews? Are you sure that your LOR's are strong?

Definitely try and get some large animal hours. It can be a week of shadowing this summer before you submit your applications. At least it shows you made an effort and have some exposure.

 

[indysadventures]

OP, I agree with others stating that your omission of HS experiences is not the reason that your previous applications haven’t been successful. If I were you, I’d be taking a hard look at the qualitative aspects of your application - your essays, experience descriptions, and LORs specifically.

I am a current SDN reader and I’d be happy to review your materials. It’s likely that your written submissions either miss the mark - maybe your essays don’t answer the prompts, fail to showcase your personality, and/or have a red flag you’re not detecting.

I’m sorry if I missed this, but did you do an application review with VMCVM? Because once you reach their interview, decisions are entirely based on interview performance. Considering it’s a ethics-based MMI, I’d consider that maybe your foundation of medical ethics may need a bit more development or nuanced approaches. Depending on the focus of your essays, something like this could impact their quality, as well.