WAMC Junior Applicant

[yurio7617]

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Hi everyone. I'm applying to vet school this fall as a junior in undergrad. I am currently attending Virginia Tech. I plan on applying to VMCVM (in state) and tOSU (oos). For context: I am only applying to those two schools as they are the only ones near me that do not require physics. I have W'd out of physics twice because I would've gotten D's, and that would've looked bad. I also W'd out of a microbiology course and instead took it over the summer at community college for the same reason.
My stats are:
Cgpa: 3.71
Science gpa: 3.73
Last 45 gpa: 3.74
Volunteer hours: 200 (150 with church and 50 with local lifesaving and rescue squad)
Veterinary hours: 1050 (1000 as a vet assistant in mixed gp and 50 shadowing at small gp)
Animal hours: 575 (500 as kennel assistant, 25 in animal handling practice program mostly large animals, 50 as a Dairy Farm student worker)
Research hours: 175 (25 with project on boredom in broiler chickens and 150 with project on postmortem metabolism in swine)
Extracurriculars: pre vet club, squirrel watching club, Blacksburg community orchestra, science living learning community Peer Mentor, NHS in high school, vp of chess club in HS, county orchestra in HS
Other jobs: Hostess, insider at Papa John's
Awards: deans list x3
LORs: hoping to secure one from a veterinarian in small gp where I shadowed, Ochem professor, English professor, and possibly 1st lieutenant of the lifesaving and rescue squad I joined.

Overall, I feel like a very average applicant and that I won't get in this cycle because of that. Any advice on how to make myself stand out? Especially if it comes to reapplying next year? Should I even apply this year? Thank you in advance!

 

[Vetkitkat]

Hi! I was an applicant who was blessed with two acceptances this year and was also an incoming junior when I submitted my application. I don't have much advice for how to make yourself stand out other than to continue to focus on your grades, cultivate relationships with your LOR writers and really develop your explanation behind pursuing this path. But I think you should definitely apply this year! There's always a possibility you may have to apply again but if you have spare money to spend on applying now I say go for it. You can get accustomed with the application process plus I think you have fairly good stats and well-rounded experiences across the board. Worst case scenario you don't get accepted and would be able to use what you learned from this cycle in strengthening your application for next cycle. Would you be taking physics this year (would it be considered "in progress" on your application) or do you have other prerequisites you were going to take instead?

 

[yurio7617]

Would you be taking physics this year (would it be considered "in progress" on your application) or do you have other prerequisites you were going to take instead?

I do not plan on taking physics at all. I tried it at cc and failed twice. It's absolutely horrible for my mental health and makes me feel really stupid because I just don't understand. I even had a tutor and engineering major friends trying to help me and I still couldn't do it. This year I plan on taking other prerequisites like biochem and genetics.

 

[pp9]

I do not plan on taking physics at all. I tried it at cc and failed twice. It's absolutely horrible for my mental health and makes me feel really stupid because I just don't understand. I even had a tutor and engineering major friends trying to help me and I still couldn't do it. This year I plan on taking other prerequisites like biochem and genetics.

If they are trying to use the failing physics credits to meet the gen science requirements, you wouldn't meet the basic requirement of all pre-req courses having at least a C/C-, so would probably end up as an auto-rejection.

I would be sure that you have enough credits aside from the physics course(s) to meet the pre-req general science requirements for these schools. Idk how this would work, truly, so I would be communicating with them and seeing how they would approach it - they may or may not allow you to pick and choose what courses they look at to satisfy those credit requirements?

 

[yurio7617]

If they are trying to use the failing physics credits to meet the gen science requirements, you wouldn't meet the basic requirement of all pre-req courses having at least a C/C-, so would probably end up as an auto-rejection.

I would be sure that you have enough credits aside from the physics course(s) to meet the pre-req general science requirements for these schools. Idk how this would work, truly, so I would be communicating with them and seeing how they would approach it - they may or may not allow you to pick and choose what courses they look at to satisfy those credit requirements?

I misspoke. Technically the grades are Ws so I dont think they would use them. However I am pretty sure I satisfy the credit requirements with my other animal science classes and other science courses that aren't required.