WAMC c/o 2028 1st time applicant low GPA

[Hopefulishvet]

Hey guys!

I’m 24 years old, looking to apply to vet school. I graduated in 2022 with a degree in biology. My grades are pretty bad, in between university strikes (no class for long periods of time), my grandmother dying, Hurricane maria and earthquakes… it’s been hard.

So far I’m planning on applying to Ross (for obvious reasons), Florida (I was born there, not sure they take that into consideration for residency), Mississippi, Kansas, LSU, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin and wherever they offer grade replacement or holistic approaches to admissions (suggestions WELCOME)


Undergrad:
University of Puerto Rico
Cumulative: 3.15
Last 45 (56): 3.11

Vet experience:
800+ hours at a mass spay neuter clinic
100hrs shelter vet shadowing
Currently shadowing, should have more hours by application date.

Animal experience:
Animal shelter volunteer: 1000+ hrs
Lifetime pet ownership
Pet sitting: 1,300hrs
I am still currently volunteering at the shelters so I should have a lot more hours by application time

Research experience:
400hrs genetics, year long investigation at my home institution
400hrs summer research experience in genetics

Other employment:
1000+ hours bartending
600+ hours waitressing
4,000+ hours customer service/sales/manufacturing

Other relevant experience:
Member of prevet club: 5 years
Secretary of an animal rescue organization: 1 year
Member of 2 animal rescue organizations: 5 years
Independent dog rescue: 3 years

Plan for improvement:
Starting a year long associates in veterinary technology in august.
Volunteering at animal shelter with veterinarian
Hoping to find a job as a biologist in a laboratory

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[flotus]

Good research and outside employment!
Typically when someone has a deficit in one area, to have a good chance you need to be stellar in another area. You know where your weakness is.

Here are some of my suggestions;

More diverse experience with vets. Maybe an internship (something unique but NOT one of the ones you pay for), large animal experience, mobile clinic. Try to get experience at more than just one or two places.

More volunteering unrelated to vet med.

Center your application around something (I centered mine around wanting to help communities who were disadvantaged, and every single category had something to do with it. Worked at a low income clinic, volunteered for people with disabilities, did research in HIV work). That theme showed them what I was passionate about.

Apply smart. Don’t apply to schools that are super competitive like Colorado, Wisconsin, or LSU. You will waste your money. My gpa was 3.7 and I was cut from LSU. Only too 150 gpa from OOS are moved to file review. Wisco only takes 34 students and average OOS gpa is like a 3.9. For reference, I was offered an OOS spot at 5 schools and didn’t even get on Wisconsin’s waitlist lol. Colorado — I didn’t apply here because I knew I wouldn’t get in. Most applicants of any college. Very competitive.

Does your GPA have an upward trend? Schools want to see that.

I wouldn’t recommend a 1 yr associates, that’s a lower level than your bachelors. If you are worried about academically impressing/proving you can handle rigor in vet school, opt for a 1 yr masters program. If you start in the fall, you’d be applying to vet school in the fall too. You wouldn’t have grades yet for them to factor in so keep that in mind. They’d have no proof of how well you were doing in the program, so it might be best to wait a cycle to apply if you are banking on grade improvement.

Plenty of people with lower GPAs get into vet school - so don’t feel like you need to give up your dream you can do it. You just have to work a little harder in external areas to make yourself “marketable” to schools

 

[Georgethecat]

Agree with everything that Flotus said above. Another thing to consider, does Puerto Rico have contracts with any stateside schools that would allow you IS consideration and tuition rates? Definitely apply smart. Don't apply to the schools with limited OSS seats and high average gpa's.

Agree that your best bet would be to do either a 1 years masters degree that focuses on upper level science courses that will show you can handle the rigor of vet school OR do a self guided post bac program where you pick the courses you take. You could either repeat courses you didn't do so well in or just take more upper level science courses. This would allow you to significantly raise your last 45 gpa. Personally, I'd apply to a limited number of schools that you fit the profile for AND work on improving your last 45 gpa and experiences to prepare for the next cycle.

Best of luck!

 

[dancingvet_loading]

If you are looking for a 1 year Master Program, I HIGHLY recommend looking into LMU’s Veterinary Biomedical Science Program as it’s essentially a bridge program to the vet school. You take 2 classes with first year vet students (Anatomy and Parasitology). It really helped me and many other students get seen by not only LMUCVM, but other vet schools! Master of Veterinary Biomedical Science here is the link to look into it. If you have any questions, feel free to message me. I also had EXTREMELY low Gpa and science gpa and this program really helped me.

 

[Hopefulishvet]

Good research and outside employment!
Typically when someone has a deficit in one area, to have a good chance you need to be stellar in another area. You know where your weakness is.

Here are some of my suggestions;

More diverse experience with vets. Maybe an internship (something unique but NOT one of the ones you pay for), large animal experience, mobile clinic. Try to get experience at more than just one or two places.

More volunteering unrelated to vet med.

Center your application around something (I centered mine around wanting to help communities who were disadvantaged, and every single category had something to do with it. Worked at a low income clinic, volunteered for people with disabilities, did research in HIV work). That theme showed them what I was passionate about.

Apply smart. Don’t apply to schools that are super competitive like Colorado, Wisconsin, or LSU. You will waste your money. My gpa was 3.7 and I was cut from LSU. Only too 150 gpa from OOS are moved to file review. Wisco only takes 34 students and average OOS gpa is like a 3.9. For reference, I was offered an OOS spot at 5 schools and didn’t even get on Wisconsin’s waitlist lol. Colorado — I didn’t apply here because I knew I wouldn’t get in. Most applicants of any college. Very competitive.

Does your GPA have an upward trend? Schools want to see that.

I wouldn’t recommend a 1 yr associates, that’s a lower level than your bachelors. If you are worried about academically impressing/proving you can handle rigor in vet school, opt for a 1 yr masters program. If you start in the fall, you’d be applying to vet school in the fall too. You wouldn’t have grades yet for them to factor in so keep that in mind. They’d have no proof of how well you were doing in the program, so it might be best to wait a cycle to apply if you are banking on grade improvement.

Plenty of people with lower GPAs get into vet school - so don’t feel like you need to give up your dream you can do it. You just have to work a little harder in external areas to make yourself “marketable” to schools

Thanks for the tips!

My gpa is definitely an upward trend, when I started undergrad was the year Hurricane maria hit (had no power for a year 😬) so I started off terribly, and got it together by the end at least 😅

I was considering Wisconsin even though they have few OOS seats, because I had a summer research opportunity with them and thought the letter of recommendation from that PI mat hold some weight for me them? Also that they offered grade replacement for repeated classes.

The main issue being in Puerto Rico for vet experience is that we can only really get as “diverse” as horses lol. I’m looking into volunteering at the horse rescue though

 

[Hopefulishvet]

Agree with everything that Flotus said above. Another thing to consider, does Puerto Rico have contracts with any stateside schools that would allow you IS consideration and tuition rates? Definitely apply smart. Don't apply to the schools with limited OSS seats and high average gpa's.

Agree that your best bet would be to do either a 1 years masters degree that focuses on upper level science courses that will show you can handle the rigor of vet school OR do a self guided post bac program where you pick the courses you take. You could either repeat courses you didn't do so well in or just take more upper level science courses. This would allow you to significantly raise your last 45 gpa. Personally, I'd apply to a limited number of schools that you fit the profile for AND work on improving your last 45 gpa and experiences to prepare for the next cycle.

Best of luck!

I’ll have to look into seeing if there are any stateside contracts! To my knowledge there’s only Ross, which is more so an agreement to admit x amount of students from our university system. But the price tag on Ross is… painful

 

[flotus]

Thanks for the tips!

My gpa is definitely an upward trend, when I started undergrad was the year Hurricane maria hit (had no power for a year 😬) so I started off terribly, and got it together by the end at least 😅

I was considering Wisconsin even though they have few OOS seats, because I had a summer research opportunity with them and thought the letter of recommendation from that PI mat hold some weight for me them? Also that they offered grade replacement for repeated classes.

The main issue being in Puerto Rico for vet experience is that we can only really get as “diverse” as horses lol. I’m looking into volunteering at the horse rescue though

If you are able to travel to the U.S. perhaps you could look into an internship with a zoo, wildlife rescue, or even APHIS/USDA.

Unfortunately, I don’t think your research/letter will hold much weight at UW. I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that they make me HUGE GPA cutoffs where they won’t even screen your application unless you have a higher GPA (or so I have been told). However, I could totally be wrong and if you feel comfortable applying there - go for it! There are no interviews, so if you shine there, that also holds you back.

You’re very welcome for the feedback and I hope it helps. It’s great your GPA has an upward trend.

 

[supershorty]

Good research and outside employment!
Typically when someone has a deficit in one area, to have a good chance you need to be stellar in another area. You know where your weakness is.

Here are some of my suggestions;

More diverse experience with vets. Maybe an internship (something unique but NOT one of the ones you pay for), large animal experience, mobile clinic. Try to get experience at more than just one or two places.

More volunteering unrelated to vet med.

Center your application around something (I centered mine around wanting to help communities who were disadvantaged, and every single category had something to do with it. Worked at a low income clinic, volunteered for people with disabilities, did research in HIV work). That theme showed them what I was passionate about.

Apply smart. Don’t apply to schools that are super competitive like Colorado, Wisconsin, or LSU. You will waste your money. My gpa was 3.7 and I was cut from LSU. Only too 150 gpa from OOS are moved to file review. Wisco only takes 34 students and average OOS gpa is like a 3.9. For reference, I was offered an OOS spot at 5 schools and didn’t even get on Wisconsin’s waitlist lol. Colorado — I didn’t apply here because I knew I wouldn’t get in. Most applicants of any college. Very competitive.

Does your GPA have an upward trend? Schools want to see that.

I wouldn’t recommend a 1 yr associates, that’s a lower level than your bachelors. If you are worried about academically impressing/proving you can handle rigor in vet school, opt for a 1 yr masters program. If you start in the fall, you’d be applying to vet school in the fall too. You wouldn’t have grades yet for them to factor in so keep that in mind. They’d have no proof of how well you were doing in the program, so it might be best to wait a cycle to apply if you are banking on grade improvement.

Plenty of people with lower GPAs get into vet school - so don’t feel like you need to give up your dream you can do it. You just have to work a little harder in external areas to make yourself “marketable” to schools

This is all really great advice, so I'm mainly just going to retweet it.

The other thing you should consider, OP, is to bring your grades up through repeating courses where you did poorly (look into where you want to apply and see what their policies are; some schools average retakes vs replacing the previous grade); this will cost you less than doing a master's, probably, but I agree with flotus here on not doing an associate's. That's just going to be throwing your money away.

I also second the advice not to apply to CSU, Wisconsin, and LSU. You'll need to get your last 45 up fairly substantially (which you'll be able to do through a master's or post-bacc or whatever you end up doing) and then focus on schools that emphasize that, which would be schools like KSU, Michigan State, UMN, ISU. I wouldn't encourage you to apply to the programs that are exceptionally competitive for OOS seats (CSU, NCSU, etc.) because you're going to be throwing your money away.