WAMC c/o 2028 - looking for advice

[hanbun]

Hi! I’m a 22yo female pre-vet TX resident. I completed my BS in Biomedical Science with a pre-vet focus at Texas A&M University (College Station) in Fall 2021 (graduated a semester early). After taking the spring semester off to job search and a brief stint working full-time for the pre-clinical skills team of A&M’s vet school, I ended up entering a non-thesis biomedical science MS for pre-professional students in Summer 2022.

I have given TMDSAS a shot once before - I only applied to Texas A&M for 2022 entry. I hope to broaden my net this time with VMCAS, but I’m still not totally sure how to pick the schools I’d have a best shot with. All I know for sure is that my top choice is A&M (admittedly mostly because of location). I’m still researching other schools (does anyone have any resources in this forum?).

It's been over a year since I last applied since I wanted more time to make noticeable improvements to my application and I'm trying to decide whether I've improved enough to warrant applying this cycle or whether I should wait another year.

Career Interests - I was always most strongly drawn to small animal medicine, but I discovered an interest in vector-borne disease and public health through my undergraduate studies, so I have begun to consider a future career in veterinary public health after vet school. I also have some interest in pursuing a specialty after school - maybe surgery - but I figure that’s something I’ll more strongly consider once I have the opportunity to learn more about these specialties in vet school.

GPA - Undergraduate Totals
Cumulative GPA: 3.568
Science GPA(?): 3.51
Last 45: 3.68

GPA - Graduate Totals (so far)
Cumulative GPA (not including undergrad): 3.36
Cumulative GPA (including undergrad): 3.55
Science GPA (not including undergrad): 3.30
Science GPA (including undergrad): 3.49
Last 45 (including undergrad): 3.56

*my MS program is a total of 30 credit hours

Degrees:
Masters of Science in Biomedical Science, May 2022 – December 2023
Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science, pre-vet, December 2021
Honors: cum laude (GPA: 3.6/4.0)
Certificate of Public Health Entomology, September 2021


GRE results:
Q 166 (84th percentile) / V 164 (94th percentile) / W 4.0 (54th percentile) - Jan 2022

*the one and only time I took the GRE, I didn’t really spend much time studying - if I wanted to retake it, I think I could improve scores significantly with a little more studying, but since so few vet schools require a GRE score, I don’t think this would be the best use of my time.

Veterinary Experience:
- private small animal general practitioner clinic - ~150h shadowing
- animal specialty hospital - ~36h shadowing

**(above is the only vet exp I had last time I applied)

- chain veterinary clinic - ~23h shadowing
- whitetail deer breeding facility - ~7h hands-on veterinary exp
- privately owned livestock herd - ~9h hands-on veterinary exp
- (planned) international veterinary volunteer trip in Peru - ~56h
- (planned) veterinary shadowing/hands-on exp with various clinics (small animal hospital, large animal, sea animal, private practice) through Chulalongkorn Uni in Thailand - ~250h
- some of my work in the pre-clinical skills team (below) could be considered vet exp

Animal Experience:
- various local fostering programs ~480h cumulative - fostering dogs and kittens, in-shelter foster liaison and cat handler/caretaker
- wildlife rehabilitation group ~160h cumulative - volunteered in two animal care/rehabilitation programs and worked as an unpaid intern over the course of a summer

**(unfortunately this section did not significantly improve since the last app)

Research Experience:
- ~5.5 hours setting Sherman and Tomahawk traps to collect small mammals and take samples of blood, parasite load (fleas and ticks), etc
- (planned) - I’m participating in a class oriented towards vector-borne disease research this spring- that’s how I got ~5.5 hours of in-field research experience. I’m expecting several more hours of research experience through this semester as we have overnight sampling trips planned about once a month.
- (planned) - ~30 hours of research experience through an elephant research study abroad program in Thailand (this summer)

**(I didn't have any research exp last time I applied)

Awards/Scholarships:
- National Merit Scholarship Finalist 2018
- National Merit Recognition Scholarship (awarded by Texas A&M) 2018
- President’s Endowed Scholarship (awarded by Texas A&M) 2018

Other/Extracurricular:
- worked ~3y as a private online math tutor for high school level math
- member of Texas A&M TKD Team for ~3-4y; served 1y as a social officer
- as an undergrad, I served as an ‘unofficial’ histology lab TA in a stacked (undergrad and grad) level course

Employment:
- full-time then (currently) student worker with pre-clinical skills team of A&M’s vet school - ~600+ hours (probably going to guesstimate how many hours veterinary-supervised experience I got from this job - much of it was supervised by vet techs or involved directly handling/maintaining vet equipment and vet education equipment)
- part-time with a private small animal general practitioner practice - ~55+ hours so far, probably around ~275+ hours by the end of this semester - hands-on exp filling prescriptions, preparing vaccines, assisting in spay and neuter surgeries

**(all new since I last applied)

Concerns:
A lot of my awards/scholarships and animal experience is a bit outdated since I’ve been focusing mostly on accumulating veterinary experience since my first rejection. When I first applied, I had about 200 hours veterinary experience, so it was a huge weakness in my application. Most of my activities planned from now to the end of this year are still oriented towards strengthening veterinary experience.

I took on this MS program mostly in an attempt to access more pre-vet advising resources and raise my GPA, but I’m concerned that my GPA actually went down - there was a serious medical emergency within my immediate family last semester, and I definitely fumbled. I plan to address it in my personal statement or extenuating circumstances essays.

Also, stupid questions - I’m also not sure how to accurately count my GPA for the last 45 hours and Science? I don’t know which courses would fall under science, and my MS program is only 30 hours in total - so for the last 45 hours, would I consider the MS and undergrad programs? Does cumulative count undergrad AND grad, or would I provide them separately(?) I wasn’t sure whether electives (ex: one health and entomology type courses not considered core classes or basic sciences) would fall under a Science GPA - if they’re excluded, I think mine may drop as low as 3.2.

I think my undergrad GPA was not awful, but I figured that’s a weakness I can work on until I graduate this Fall 2023 - hopefully just aiming to show solid improvement.

Future Plan:
For the rest of the spring semester, I am going to continue working part time with both the private small animal practice and the pre-clinical skills team. As soon as the semester ends, I’ll be attending a volunteer trip to Peru, then traveling to Thailand to spend the rest of my summer shadowing and participating in a short research program while I work on my application. If I enter this cycle (if I have a prayer of making it in), then my app will be submitted as soon as I’m back from Thailand. I’ll resume work with the pre-clinical skills team and seek either shadowing or employment in a small or large animal practice. Since I’ll likely be wrapping up my program this Fall 2023, I’ll probably pivot to working/volunteering full-time in the spring depending on how my application goes.

Thank you anyone who's read this far! I'm a wordy person by nature and I know that I left... a block of text... but any honest input or advice is very, very, very appreciated.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[WonderingStudent]

Employment
- part-time with a private small animal general practitioner practice - ~55+ hours so far, probably around ~275+ hours by the end of this semester - hands-on exp filling prescriptions, preparing vaccines, assisting in spay and neuter surgeries

Are you counting this in your veterinary hours?

Concerns:
Also, stupid questions - I’m also not sure how to accurately count my GPA for the last 45 hours and Science? I don’t know which courses would fall under science, and my MS program is only 30 hours in total - so for the last 45 hours, would I consider the MS and undergrad programs? Does cumulative count undergrad AND grad, or would I provide them separately(?) I wasn’t sure whether electives (ex: one health and entomology type courses not considered core classes or basic sciences) would fall under a Science GPA - if they’re excluded, I think mine may drop as low as 3.2.

Most students find that their VMCAS GPA is different from what they calculated (most likely them counting different courses than expected). Do your best to estimate what courses would fall into that would count toward Science GPA (ie Animal Science, Biology, Chem, Physics) just to give yourself a sense of where your GPA is at. I'm unsure regarding the electives you listed if those would count. Cumulative GPA looks at ALL your grades (college + post bacc + graduate program). It might say somewhere in the GPA calculation for VMCAS the separate GPAs for undergrad and graduate program but your cumulative would be all of your grades in total. Most likely last 45 would also include the undergrad courses if MS does not cover the last 45.

 

[RazzJazz]

My biggest advise is to try your best to reach 600 vet experience hours before you submit your application! The way TAMU allocates points they award max vet experience points for 600 hours and then after that point they allocate the remainder to other portions of the application which are weighed less heavily. So while it's not impossible to get in with less than 600 hours I strongly believe most applicants reach this point. I know it's difficult especially in College Station where the job market is rough. I would talk to your preclinical supervisor at your job to see what % of hours from that position can be designated as veterinary experience.

Last 45 hr GPA would be calculated by the 'last three' semesters (more due to grad school) totalling a min of 45 hours. Both VMCAS and TMDSAS included my graduate coursework in my last 45 hrs calculation to my knowledge. So if you've taken say 18 hrs of graduate coursework across two semesters you would then check your undergrad semesters for the remaining 27 (ex. Two 15 hr semesters). TAMU and Tech use BCPM and the TMDSAS application guide/handbook has a list of all courses which will be included in this (not just what it gives you on your PCR).

Keep those grades up and good luck!

 

[hanbun]

Are you counting this in your veterinary hours?

Yes, absolutely! I decided to list under employment since it was veterinary experience that I accrued through paid employment, and the rest I listed under vet exp is unpaid volunteer experience or shadowing. I'm not sure if paid/unpaid makes any real difference, but I do seem to remember TMDSAS would ask.

Most students find that their VMCAS GPA is different from what they calculated (most likely them counting different courses than expected). Do your best to estimate what courses would fall into that would count toward Science GPA (ie Animal Science, Biology, Chem, Physics) just to give yourself a sense of where your GPA is at. I'm unsure regarding the electives you listed if those would count. Cumulative GPA looks at ALL your grades (college + post bacc + graduate program). It might say somewhere in the GPA calculation for VMCAS the separate GPAs for undergrad and graduate program but your cumulative would be all of your grades in total. Most likely last 45 would also include the undergrad courses if MS does not cover the last 45.

Thank you for this! It seems I'll have to give my Science GPA another shot with a more strict definition.

I would talk to your preclinical supervisor at your job to see what % of hours from that position can be designated as veterinary experience.

Thank you! I definitely heard about the 600 hour cap too - I specifically planned my future vet exp plan on that number, so I think I should hit at least 600 by the end of the summer. The trouble with the preclinical (PCS) job is that I've asked more than once about the % breakdown and I've never gotten a real answer - it kind of seems like it'll be up to me to estimate what % of the job time involves vet exp. Even though I consider it great experience in terms of vet med (I get to set up for surgeries, manage autoclave, maintain anesthesia machines), not much of it is technically vet-supervised, so I don't know how much of it I can actually call vet exp. I was going to aim to hit as much of the 600 hours with real, indisputable vet exp, then supplement it with a percentage from the PCS job as needed.