WAMC... 3rd Year Undergrad Student with extremely low GPA

[FutureOTMax]

Hey all,
Just wanted to see what my chances looked like... I have an awful GPA (mostly due to a horrific first year of college), but am still hoping I have a chance due to decent extracurriculars that I hope to build upon. If the GPA is what is the major factor in tanking my app, is there any suggestions on how to improve? (Besides from the obvious, as since my first year I haven't had lower than a 3.0 GPA, but in that first year I had a 1.5 and 2.4 GPA in back-to-back semesters and it absolutely destroyed my ability to significantly improve it). As well as this, my first year I struggled through the deaths of two people who were extremely close to me, so I'm hoping I can try to allude to that in explaining my poor performance year 1 in my vet school application. I am also currently trying to familiarize myself with all of the veterinary terminology as well as take notes of observations at work to use in my responses to questions on my potential applications, and am mainly looking at schools who put an emphasis on the last credits taken (such as MSU, which is my dream school). I have around a 3.2.-3.3 GPA in my last 45 credits taken, which is still astronomically low, but is steadily improving even despite the pandemic. Thanks in advance for the feedback!

State From: NJ
URM: No
Year in school: 3rd year
Undergrad Degree: BS Biology (General)
Cumulative GPA: 2.91
Science GPA: 2.44
GRE Scores: Not taken yet (due to COVID-19)
Research Experience: None
Clinical Experience: 1,602.02 hrs of small animal vet assistant experience, none with a large animal practice as of now
Animal Care experience: 62hrs Animal Care Volunteer at the Philly Zoo
Other extracurriculars: 3 years involvement in a Service-Learning Program, which helped with outreaches and fundraisers for Soles 4 Soles, the American Red Cross and countless others. Volunteered as an ESL conversation partner for 25+ hours a semester for my 3 years in college. Before COVID-19 restrictions I had two internships lined up, one at a wildlife rehabilitation clinic, and another at a wolf sanctuary (for animal care experience), and hope to restart those internships once the restrictions let up. Regular volunteer through church young adult outreaches and through Virtua Hospital Network's various holiday programs.

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[WonderingStudent]

Hey all,
Just wanted to see what my chances looked like... I have an awful GPA (mostly due to a horrific first year of college), but am still hoping I have a chance due to decent extracurriculars that I hope to build upon. If the GPA is what is the major factor in tanking my app, is there any suggestions on how to improve? (Besides from the obvious, as since my first year I haven't had lower than a 3.0 GPA, but in that first year I had a 1.5 and 2.4 GPA in back-to-back semesters and it absolutely destroyed my ability to significantly improve it). As well as this, my first year I struggled through the deaths of two people who were extremely close to me, so I'm hoping I can try to allude to that in explaining my poor performance year 1 in my vet school application. I am also currently trying to familiarize myself with all of the veterinary terminology as well as take notes of observations at work to use in my responses to questions on my potential applications, and am mainly looking at schools who put an emphasis on the last credits taken (such as MSU, which is my dream school). I have around a 3.2.-3.3 GPA in my last 45 credits taken, which is still astronomically low, but is steadily improving even despite the pandemic. Thanks in advance for the feedback!

State From: NJ
URM: No
Year in school: 3rd year
Undergrad Degree: BS Biology (General)
Cumulative GPA: 2.91
Science GPA: 2.44
GRE Scores: Not taken yet (due to COVID-19)
Research Experience: None
Clinical Experience: 1,602.02 hrs of small animal vet assistant experience, none with a large animal practice as of now
Animal Care experience: 62hrs Animal Care Volunteer at the Philly Zoo
Other extracurriculars: 3 years involvement in a Service-Learning Program, which helped with outreaches and fundraisers for Soles 4 Soles, the American Red Cross and countless others. Volunteered as an ESL conversation partner for 25+ hours a semester for my 3 years in college. Before COVID-19 restrictions I had two internships lined up, one at a wildlife rehabilitation clinic, and another at a wolf sanctuary (for animal care experience), and hope to restart those internships once the restrictions let up. Regular volunteer through church young adult outreaches and through Virtua Hospital Network's various holiday programs.

Most schools have a minimum GPA that they use as a cut off which I have found to be ~3.0 GPA for schools to consider your application for admission. From MSUs website, it looks like they have a cGPA cutoff of 3.0. If you can, retaking some prerequisite science courses that you did poorly in to increase your science GPA and get some more distance from your poor grades 1st year it would definitely improve your application. Also diversifying your veterinary experience outside of the Small Animal or into a different Small Animal specialty would help as well!

 

[Lupin21]

Agree. Especially your science GPA is going to be missing the cut off for most schools. You'll need to get that up with upper levels to have a chance.

 

[TabbyCat2]

Hey! I usually don’t post on these, but Michigan State is my IS school (that‘s the school I’m assuming you’re talking about 😁), and I do know that they require a minimum of a 3.0 science GPA and last 3 semester GPA. The nice thing about MSU is that once you meet that minimum GPA, it isn’t really considered. I am also 99% sure that MSU is one of the schools that does total grade replacement, so I would recommend retaking some of the classes you did poorly in to see if that could bring up your science GPA. I feel like that would be easier than taking more science classes to try to slowly boost your GPA that way. Another thing to consider is that MSU requires at least a 2.0 in all required science courses, so if you have below that in any required classes, you will have to retake to apply. I feel like your reason for doing poorly your first year is compelling enough, that that combined with high grades when retaking those courses would really improve your application. MSU also loves to see very well-rounded applicants and they want to see that you’ve learned and grown from your experiences. You could use that to your advantage in your explanation statement (I know this because I was denied last year and attended their rejected applicant webinar).

Edit: I would also try to gain more experience, especially with large animals! But since your GPA is what is keeping you from actually applying, I would make that my main focus this year.

 

[EngrSC]

I graduated undergrad with a sub-3.0 (though in an unrelated field) and worked hard as a post-bacc student to bring my cGPA up to a 3.0 because that’s required for most schools. Being a low-GPAer, the rest of your application needs to be solid ... diverse veterinary experiences, killer letters of recommendation, something that sets you apart, etc. You also need to show that you are capable of being successful academically because there’s no way around it in vet school and the volume of material is significantly higher than in undergrad classes. Use your last year of undergrad to buckle down and do really well to help your GPAs. And as others have suggested, retake prereqs and/or take additional upper level sciences to bring up your cGPA.

There are also a few schools that will allow you to petition to have your first year of undergrad grades dropped for compelling reasons (which you may have). Illinois has this option for sure but I vaguely remember seeing it elsewhere as well.

Good luck!