WAMC? first-time applicant, non-trad

[tasfiah]

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[pp9]

Your GPA may very well hold you back, unfortunately. When retaking courses, it's not ideal to get the same (or worse, if applicable) grade. Where exactly are you in your retakes? What other classes have pulled your GPA down this much? It gets hard to assess things without asking you for a full list of all courses/grades (and I'm not asking you to do that), but your GPAs have only budged a little so I'm just trying to understand where you're at.

What schools are you considering? Most seem to have internal cutoffs that change from year to year, and lately have seemed to be pretty high. Some schools may read the full application before making cuts, which might spare people with exceptional experience/certain backgrounds, others may cut before looking.

 

[tasfiah]

Your GPA may very well hold you back, unfortunately. When retaking courses, it's not ideal to get the same (or worse, if applicable) grade. Where exactly are you in your retakes? What other classes have pulled your GPA down this much? It gets hard to assess things without asking you for a full list of all courses/grades (and I'm not asking you to do that), but your GPAs have only budged a little so I'm just trying to understand where you're at.

What schools are you considering? Most seem to have internal cutoffs that change from year to year, and lately have seemed to be pretty high. Some schools may read the full application before making cuts, which might spare people with exceptional experience/certain backgrounds, others may cut before looking.

I had a rough adjustment into college courses my freshmen year, I went to high school in the South Bronx which did not prepare me for college at all. I got 3 Cs (one in chem 1) and a D in pre calc which is pulling my GPA down so much. After that, I didn’t get anything lower than a B (overwhelmingly As) until Covid when I took Bio 1 online during the summer and did terrible, the online format was just tough for me given my home situation and the intensity of a summer course didn’t help. I retook it in person and got an A. Since I’ve been doing my pre-reqs I got a C in bio 2 (4.5 credits) i overloaded myself that semester by taking chem 2 (4 credits) and gen chem lab (3credits). I don’t know why I thought I could handle that while working 40 hours overnight every week and all the personal responsibilities I had. I got a C in orgo but retook that for a B. The rest of my prereqs i got all As and Bs in, except for genetics (4credits) which I got a C in, I took that the same semester as biochem which was again pushing myself too far. There’s a trend of my grades being much higher in semesters when I took one course vs ones when i pushed myself too far and tried to do multiple.

As for the schools, I’m honestly not comfortable going down south for 4 years being a POC in the political climate we’re in. I’m sure the students themselves will be fine, but given how overwhelmingly white this field is and the culture of the states themselves, it’s just really not something I want to do to myself and actually something I’ve been told not to do by other POC vets I know. I know this limits my options but diversity is important to me and I would rather apply multiple cycles for schools in blue states.

My dream school would be Penn and my IS is Cornell, both of which I know won’t be easy with my grades

 

[JaynaAli]

I agree with PP…I don’t think it’s impossible to get an acceptance, but you’ll likely have an uphill battle with those GPAs. Your experiences seem good, but ideally a school would like to see someone with a lower GPA having a strong last 45 to show an upward trend and ability to handle higher level coursework, and you don’t really have that…your last 45 is actually worse than your cumulative.

It sounds like you’re a go-getter and really trying, and I’m not trying to discourage you. But be sure your explanation statement also focuses on what you’ve learned/how you’ve changed and your prior issues won’t be an issue anymore. This may be completely untrue, but hearing an explanation of “I signed myself up for too much and I have family obligations so I did poorly” coupled with continued below average last 45 GPA make me wonder what’s going to prevent you from having these same issues in veterinary school. Not saying you would or would not because how would I know, but it might makes an admissions committee hesitant about you, so be sure to address that in an explanation statement.

While I wouldn’t want you attending somewhere unsafe, I think you need to research all schools and apply to places you have the best chances, regardless of geography. If you decide to limit yourself geographically that’s totally fine and your prerogative, but you may just not have high enough grades to be competitive at many schools, as unfortunate as that is. Figure out what schools replace vs average retakes, calculate out your GPAs for the various schools using their criteria, and apply only to places where you meet minimums and have a realistic chance.

Also, Penn is extremely expensive (and Cornell is not much better), and with the current unknown future of student loans, I would seriously caution you to look at costs and consider what loan repayment would be under proposed and even current regulations. I personally wouldn’t be willing to pay the exorbitant costs of some of these most expensive programs, especially if there’s a limit to the amount a student can borrow imposed in upcoming years.

 

[tasfiah]

I agree with PP…I don’t think it’s impossible to get an acceptance, but you’ll likely have an uphill battle with those GPAs. Your experiences seem good, but ideally a school would like to see someone with a lower GPA having a strong last 45 to show an upward trend and ability to handle higher level coursework, and you don’t really have that…your last 45 is actually worse than your cumulative.

It sounds like you’re a go-getter and really trying, and I’m not trying to discourage you. But be sure your explanation statement also focuses on what you’ve learned/how you’ve changed and your prior issues won’t be an issue anymore. This may be completely untrue, but hearing an explanation of “I signed myself up for too much and I have family obligations so I did poorly” coupled with continued below average last 45 GPA make me wonder what’s going to prevent you from having these same issues in veterinary school. Not saying you would or would not because how would I know, but it might makes an admissions committee hesitant about you, so be sure to address that in an explanation statement.

While I wouldn’t want you attending somewhere unsafe, I think you need to research all schools and apply to places you have the best chances, regardless of geography. If you decide to limit yourself geographically that’s totally fine and your prerogative, but you may just not have high enough grades to be competitive at many schools, as unfortunate as that is. Figure out what schools replace vs average retakes, calculate out your GPAs for the various schools using their criteria, and apply only to places where you meet minimums and have a realistic chance.

Also, Penn is extremely expensive (and Cornell is not much better), and with the current unknown future of student loans, I would seriously caution you to look at costs and consider what loan repayment would be under proposed and even current regulations. I personally wouldn’t be willing to pay the exorbitant costs of some of these most expensive programs, especially if there’s a limit to the amount a student can borrow imposed in upcoming years.

Yeah I should mention in my statement that my fathers been in remission since the beginning of the year (so he’s working again) and my sister just graduated college which takes the load off me, so I’d be able to fully devote myself to my education. I would hope that schools see that when I can give my classes my undivided attention like in most of my undergrad, my grades are pretty pristine. It’s super frustrating that out of the 11 classes I’ve taken for my post bacc, those 2 C’s dropped my last 45 so much. I know it’s on me for putting too much on my plate at once, but hindsight is 20/20. All the other classes (physics, biochem, microbiology, orgo 1 + lab, chem 2 +lab, anatomy, and my bio 1 retake) are all As and Bs.

However if graduate plus loans are canceled, vet school in general wouldn’t be an option for me anymore. So that is something I’ve been keeping an eye on.

Also, hearing multiple POC tell me not to go down South has honestly really dissuaded me. I will look further into all my options, but as of now I am applying to other holistic school like Illinois, Virginia, and Minnesota.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[mw1356]

I will look further into all my options, but as of now I am applying to other holistic school like Illinois, Virginia, and Minnesota.

Just something to keep in mind, some schools are holistic only after you meet an internal GPA cutoff. Illinois’ round 1 of admissions only looks at academics and, IIRC, they were rejecting applicants last cycle round 1 even with 3.5+ GPAs.

If you haven’t looked into it yet, I’d check out Colorado State! They get a ton of applicants but it seems like their process is much less grade focused.

 

[pp9]

I had a rough adjustment into college courses my freshmen year, I went to high school in the South Bronx which did not prepare me for college at all. I got 3 Cs (one in chem 1) and a D in pre calc which is pulling my GPA down so much. After that, I didn’t get anything lower than a B (overwhelmingly As) until Covid when I took Bio 1 online during the summer and did terrible, the online format was just tough for me given my home situation and the intensity of a summer course didn’t help. I retook it in person and got an A. Since I’ve been doing my pre-reqs I got a C in bio 2 (4.5 credits) i overloaded myself that semester by taking chem 2 (4 credits) and gen chem lab (3credits). I don’t know why I thought I could handle that while working 40 hours overnight every week and all the personal responsibilities I had. I got a C in orgo but retook that for a B. The rest of my prereqs i got all As and Bs in, except for genetics (4credits) which I got a C in, I took that the same semester as biochem which was again pushing myself too far. There’s a trend of my grades being much higher in semesters when I took one course vs ones when i pushed myself too far and tried to do multiple.

As for the schools, I’m honestly not comfortable going down south for 4 years being a POC in the political climate we’re in. I’m sure the students themselves will be fine, but given how overwhelmingly white this field is and the culture of the states themselves, it’s just really not something I want to do to myself and actually something I’ve been told not to do by other POC vets I know. I know this limits my options but diversity is important to me and I would rather apply multiple cycles for schools in blue states.

My dream school would be Penn and my IS is Cornell, both of which I know won’t be easy with my grades

Gotcha, for some reason I thought you had repeated multiple courses already and the GPAs weren't really budging.

Yeah I should mention in my statement that my fathers been in remission since the beginning of the year (so he’s working again) and my sister just graduated college which takes the load off me, so I’d be able to fully devote myself to my education. I would hope that schools see that when I can give my classes my undivided attention like in most of my undergrad, my grades are pretty pristine. It’s super frustrating that out of the 11 classes I’ve taken for my post bacc, those 2 C’s dropped my last 45 so much. I know it’s on me for putting too much on my plate at once, but hindsight is 20/20. All the other classes (physics, biochem, microbiology, orgo 1 + lab, chem 2 +lab, anatomy, and my bio 1 retake) are all As and Bs.

However if graduate plus loans are canceled, vet school in general wouldn’t be an option for me anymore. So that is something I’ve been keeping an eye on.

Also, hearing multiple POC tell me not to go down South has honestly really dissuaded me. I will look further into all my options, but as of now I am applying to other holistic school like Illinois, Virginia, and Minnesota.

Again, without having transcripts in front of me/knowing your school's grading scale, it's hard to track what's going on...but two C's alone didn't drop your GPA that low, right? I'm just trying to connect the dots.

There is no harm in applying to see what happens other than expense, but either way, I think you will need to continue repeating classes. You'll also want to focus on schools that take the most recent attempt at a class, rather than schools that average attempts (off the top of my head, I don't know who does what...you'll need to research your schools and possibly contact them).

Diversity is absolutely a challenge in vet med...probably 70%+ of most vet school classes will be white females regardless of location. I never want to diminish anyone's concerns or make light of them, but Jayna is right that you are seriously limiting your prospects here.

Illinois is my alma mater and I am most familiar with their admissions. They give you the option to 'delete' one semester of courses, or anything older than 6 years - this might help you a lot, but keep in mind that you will need to have repeated any prereqs that would be deleted in those circumstances even if you already got a good grade. You also have to petition the school to do this. Illinois also averages grades across attempts at the course, which won't be as impactful as a school that takes the most recent attempt. So something to consider. Other schools allow for various forms of grade deletion, but it's usually for older coursework.

People with low GPAs have to really know their schools, and often break out the calculators, to determine where their best odds are. A lot of applying success is based on school choice. If I were in your shoes, I would be looking at the admissions process/considerations for nearly every school to determine where I should be applying.

 

[_rae_]

Yeah I should mention in my statement that my fathers been in remission since the beginning of the year (so he’s working again) and my sister just graduated college which takes the load off me, so I’d be able to fully devote myself to my education. I would hope that schools see that when I can give my classes my undivided attention like in most of my undergrad, my grades are pretty pristine. It’s super frustrating that out of the 11 classes I’ve taken for my post bacc, those 2 C’s dropped my last 45 so much. I know it’s on me for putting too much on my plate at once, but hindsight is 20/20. All the other classes (physics, biochem, microbiology, orgo 1 + lab, chem 2 +lab, anatomy, and my bio 1 retake) are all As and Bs.

However if graduate plus loans are canceled, vet school in general wouldn’t be an option for me anymore. So that is something I’ve been keeping an eye on.

Also, hearing multiple POC tell me not to go down South has honestly really dissuaded me. I will look further into all my options, but as of now I am applying to other holistic school like Illinois, Virginia, and Minnesota.

Thank you for the advice!

Minnesota is definitely more holistic, but again, I would potentially caution against it. I had a 3.64 overall with a 3.64 last 45. I got in during the 2023-2024 cycle, but many with higher GPAs than me did not in 2024-2025. GPA isn't everything and there could have been other red flags, but these were people cut in the first round review. Paired with the proposed 5.5% tuition increase President Cunningham is putting out for all in state and out of state students, I worry about the cost. I'm a pretty thrifty person, I went into school with a couple thousand dollars, I have a part time job, I'm working over the summer, I live with my spouse and they pay for things like my healthcare and car insurance, and I still took out $84k my first year (that was with a $15,000 scholarship too).

All that is to say, you've dealt with a lot the past few years. Struggling with school, struggling with your job, struggling with your family, all of those things wear on you. If I can gently suggest waiting a year I would. Give yourself a break from the grind. You're clearly dedicated and doing the work, it's okay to slow down and let it take a little longer. I took three years off from school and while that was super not the plan, it was invaluable to my growth as an individual, and was really the reason I was able to get into school. If you can afford to, retake your lowest classes one at a time so you have less on your plate: one in fall, one in spring, one in summer. I think Michigan does grade replacement, meaning they don't include your lowest grade in a course in your GPA calculation, and may be worth looking at in the future. It would be worth looking at what other schools offer that.