WAMC Cornell? Any advice?

[futuredvm99]

Hi! I am a 21 year old first time applicant from NJ! I will have a BS in Bio prior to the start of Veterinary school. I am applying to various schools this cycle but my dream is Cornell!
Applying to: Cornell, Penn, Auburn, U of Illinois, Wisconsin, LIU, Tufts, Purdue, Ohio State, Midwestern, UC Davis, U of Tennessee (lots, I know)

Cumulative GPA: 3.93
science GPA: 3.95
last 45: 3.95

Any degrees achieved: BS Biology expected May 2021

GRE results: taking it in a week!

Veterinary Experience:
1,500 hours as assistant in 24 hour Emergency specialty hospital
500 hours as triage nurse at same hospital
taught a 5 hour assistant course on veterinary exotics (supervised by a DVM)

Animal Experience:
intern at zoo (100 hours)
equine experience such as learning bandaging, tpr and etc with a professor (100 hr)

Research Experience:
just accepted into an epidemiology lab in march but was postponed due to COVID expecting to start sometime this or next month

Awards/scholarships:
Deans List every semester
Presidents list 4 semesters

Extracurriculars:
traveling and personally caring for/vetting stray dogs/cats in less developed parts of the world
pet sitting
caring for/keeping my own aviary

Employment:
over 10,000 hours at a family business, practically grew up here

Letter of Recommendations:
4 emergency DVM
2 professors

Any advice on anything I can do over these next few months to heighten my chances, particularly at Cornell? Any of these schools not worth applying to based on my stats?

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[Georgethecat]

Your grades are excellent and you have a lot of hours at the emergency clinic. Only weakness that stands out is diversity of experience. Any chance you could shadow, even if it's just for a couple of days, with a large animal vet or traditional small animal practice?

As far as your school list goes, geographically it encompasses east to west coast. I'd focus on the schools that would be the most affordable. Right off the bat I'd drop Midwestern ($407k) and LIU ($$$$ and potentially a hot mess based on what's been posted).

In terms of affordability they rank as follows according to VIN: Purdue ($248k), UC Davis ($265k), Auburn ($293k), Illinois ($299k), Ohio ($305k), Cornell ($308k), Tenn ($320k), Wisco ($322k), Tufts ($343k), and Penn ($395k). I'd focus on the least expensive schools or schools that are known to offer OOS students scholarship money. This many applications is going to cost a lot of money, so I'd try to narrow it down some. Look at how many OOS seats each school has, how expensive would it be to move there, cost of living, travel cost to go home for holidays etc.

There are several current Cornell peeps on SDN. @MOOSEygoosey @jaboo

Best of luck!

 

[JJ Bittenbinder]

Hi! Georgethecat gives great advice here. I just wanted to add that I’ll be attending Cornell in the fall OOS. Although the school is very expensive they did give me a $12k need based scholarship which was more money than my in state would give me. I’ve also heard Penn gives out of state scholarships, and I read here that Ohio state gave a $50k one I think? Tufts financial aid was lackluster (that was my in state). I was also accepted to Wisconsin and Georgia but they did not give me any aid other than loans.

I hope this is helpful! I just went through the process so if you have any questions I’m happy to answer them if I can.