WAMC c/o 2028 2nd application cycle

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anxiousanimallover

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22 y/o female, CO resident, second-time applicant



Cumulative GPA: 3.92
Science GPA: 3.93
Last 45 GPA: 3.91



Degree: B.S. Chemistry Pre-Health emphasis.



Schools: Colorado State (only for sure one), Thinking about maybe Penn, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and Florida. Im open to recommendations based upon my stats lol.



Applied to Cornell, NCSU, Texas A&M all rejected, waitlisted at CSU (unlikely enough people will drop their instate seats), and waiting to hear from Florida (my hopes aren't high because I was late to the interview due to time change things).



Vet Experience: I will have close to 6,000 of experience by the time of applying. Close to 3,000 part time vet assistant work at a small animal general practice and over 3,000 full time work surgical assistant work at a specialty small animal hospital scrubbing in on procedures.



Animal Experience: 35 hours volunteering at a horse rescue, 320 hours working at a doggy day care, 200ish hours volunteering at a local small animal rescue. I would say 50-100 hours dog sitting as well.



Research: Absolutely nothing, I was traumatized my freshman year by a TA that was really mean. Im already graduated and I was looking into Gap year research and I can't find ANYTHING in colorado in my area. Is this a deal breaker for admissions?



Employment: 2500ish hours gymnastics coaching, 500 hours supermarket checker



Volunteer: Above in my animal experience, horse and small animal rescue.



Extracurriculars: Skiing, baking, gymnastics, weight lifting, pre-health club, chemistry club.



Achievements/Awards: Bars and Vault state champion for gymnastics, Science and National honor society, Gymnastics team captain, High school valedictorian, Merit scholarships all 3 years, science scholarships 2/3 years, chemistry Academic scholar, Outstanding achievement in physical chemistry, Summa cum laude latin honors, and recently coach of the month.



A lot of the gymnastics stuff is from highschool, which is mentioned that I can add.

Definitely very defeated the past few weeks after rejections, but Im looking at it as another year of growth. Im gonna apply to an exotic internship at the denver zoo and take maybe take and extracurricular ceramics class. Other than maybe research that I am unable to find (reaching out to nearby university to maybe volunteer on my day ozff).

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Have you been able to have an application review from the schools that you applied to?
 
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Your GPA is good. You have more than enough vet hours with some diversity in type of practice (assuming you want to go into SA practice). If for example you said in your application that your goal is to become a cardiologist, it may be a red flag that you have not had vet experience with a cardiologist. Research is definitely not a necessity and you don’t need to feel pressured into doing research to gain admission if that is not something you are interested in/enjoy. I always would suggest delving into understanding the school’s you are applying to’s admissions process which can give insight into what schools may be best for your application (ie X school looking at Science GPA only). Additionally looking at the amount of OOS seats that schools have - at least I have the sense that NCSU has a ton of applicants with few OOS spots.
 
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Your GPA is good. You have more than enough vet hours with some diversity in type of practice (assuming you want to go into SA practice). If for example you said in your application that your goal is to become a cardiologist, it may be a red flag that you have not had vet experience with a cardiologist. Research is definitely not a necessity and you don’t need to feel pressured into doing research to gain admission if that is not something you are interested in/enjoy. I always would suggest delving into understanding the school’s you are applying to’s admissions process which can give insight into what schools may be best for your application (ie X school looking at Science GPA only). Additionally looking at the amount of OOS seats that schools have - at least I have the sense that NCSU has a ton of applicants with few OOS spots.
Agreed, I hadn't done a lot of research when I applied the first time and I realized I threw a few hundred down the drain with NCSU
 
Maybe consider trying to diversify your vet experience a bit more. I know that can be hard if you’re working a full time job, but even if you could shadow an equine vet or something similar a couple times a month, I think it would be worth it.
 
Your vet hours, gpa, outside experience and extracurriculars are all great. I’m wondering if maybe your rejections came from your essays or LORs? What did you write about? Are you sure your LORs are solid?

Plenty of people get accepted with no research. I wouldn’t be too worried about it, but definitely would be cool to get in a gap year. Any volunteer work outside of vet med would also look nice.
 
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Your vet hours, gpa, outside experience and extracurriculars are all great. I’m wondering if maybe your rejections came from your essays or LORs? What did you write about? Are you sure your LORs are solid?

Plenty of people get accepted with no research. I wouldn’t be too worried about it, but definitely would be cool to get in a gap year. Any volunteer work outside of vet med would also look nice.
the writing portion is definitely a good point and Im really not sure about my LORs I thought they were people I could trust but they also didn't do them till last minute.
 
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Maybe consider trying to diversify your vet experience a bit more. I know that can be hard if you’re working a full time job, but even if you could shadow an equine vet or something similar a couple times a month, I think it would be worth it.
Okay for sure!! I definitely will see if that's a possibility, Im trying to see if I can't get some exotics experience as well.
 
the writing portion is definitely a good point and Im really not sure about my LORs I thought they were people I could trust but they also didn't do them till last minute.
If you need someone to look over essays, you can shoot me a message. :)

Good luck!
 
If you want a second set of eyes, I’d be happy to give feedback on essays as well!
 
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I would politely and professionally ask for a file review from the schools you were rejected from. To be honest, on paper, your stats look rock solid. I would be concerned that there could be a red flag somewhere in your application? Might be worth having a file review to see if there are any obvious things that could be an issue on your app that you could significantly improve on, especially things that we don’t see like LOR or essays/interviews. Good luck!

Also, something that sometimes falls through the cracks but is important- have you made sure you met all the course requirements for the schools you applied to?
 
I would politely and professionally ask for a file review from the schools you were rejected from. To be honest, on paper, your stats look rock solid. I would be concerned that there could be a red flag somewhere in your application? Might be worth having a file review to see if there are any obvious things that could be an issue on your app that you could significantly improve on, especially things that we don’t see like LOR or essays/interviews. Good luck!

Also, something that sometimes falls through the cracks but is important- have you made sure you met all the course requirements for the schools you applied to?
Thank you!! First thing I did with all the schools I thought about applying to was course requirements :) I believe that file review is going to be really beneficial and Im excited to see where I need to focus on improvement. All of my friends and colleagues couldn't understand why I hadn't gotten a seat either based upon how I look on paper.
 
Thank you!! First thing I did with all the schools I thought about applying to was course requirements :) I believe that file review is going to be really beneficial and Im excited to see where I need to focus on improvement. All of my friends and colleagues couldn't understand why I hadn't gotten a seat either based upon how I look on paper.
Hi. I do think you need to broaden where you apply based on a second look at the schools you applied to. Good luck!
 
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