WAMC- low GPA, advice on school list?

[horses7946]

21 y/o female, senior in undergrad (not graduating this year though), Iowa resident

Cumulative GPA: 3.15
science GPA: 3.2-3.3 ish (depends on school)
last 45: 3.35

Any degrees achieved: none

GRE results: not taken

Veterinary Experience:
-700 hours small animal veterinary assistant
-currently a small animal veterinary assistant/kennel attendant at a different practice, have not calculated hours yet but should be well over 700
-10 hours volunteering in foal ICU
-currently overnight worker at Equine ICU, should end up with about 200 ish hours

Animal Experience:
-1000+ hours at horse farm, feeding, general handling, etc
-50 ish hours pet sitting- not for a friend/family member though. Answered a help wanted ad

Research Experience:
-15 hours volunteering in veterinary research on bull calves

Extracurriculars:
-Pre-vet club
-Students helping rescue animals club
-Women's lacrosse club
-5 weeks volunteering for Appalachia service project (high school)
-1 week volunteering for Common Ground relief (college)

Employment:
-Currently a waitress- 1 year
-Custodial staff at sports arena- 1 year
-Dining room attendant at college dining hall- 1 year
-High school- dietary aide at retirement home

My main concern is my GPA. I am definitely looking for schools that do holistic admissions/don't weight grades as heavily. So far, here are the schools I am considering: ISU (in-state), Arizona, LIU, Illinois, Mississippi State, LMU, KSU, maybe Michigan and/or Minnesota? Does anyone have any advice on this?

Also- I am really interested in equine med. I know this would put me in a minority, since it is not super common compared to small/mixed animal. Will it help my application to make this clear in my essays? I wasn't sure if schools would see this as a plus.

Lastly, I am currently not actually an Iowa resident but I am working towards gaining in-state residency. I was kind of curious as to whether or not schools will be able to see that I changed my residency status and if it will affect my application, seeing as the reason I am doing it is to apply to ISU as an in-stater. Not sure if this is a valid concern or not, lol.

Your help is much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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[moony22]

I think you should also consider looking at SGU or Ross as well, more for a backup. They are both very holistic and consider applicants that don't have a strong GPA that a state school may be looking for. I know people that have gotten into both that are well-rounded, like you, and didn't have the best GPA (I'm talking below 3.0). I am in the same boat as you applying this cycle and my only concern is GPA. I am most likely applying to Ross, SGU, Tuskegee, Arizona, Washington, and Minnesota. You might have more of an advantage if you mention how you are interested in equines since there is a shortage.

 

[WonderingStudent]

I don't know too much about the individual schools you listed but I would research the admissions processes for each as at least I know for Illinois they set a higher minimum GPA for applying but then set a minimum GPA every year depending on the pool of applicants they get (thus if you do not fall above this then you are cut at Phase 1 of Illinois' application process). This GPA is not something posted prior to applying especially since it is something they decide on when reviewing applications. It may be useful looking through the accepted students' SDN thread to see if you can get a sense of the possible GPA cutoff (I don't know if they release this information afterward - they might).

 

[that redhead]

What does your GPA trend look like? If you have a strong last 45 hours Minnesota and Kansas are both options. If your grades are generally weak overall, you may consider taking an extra year to repeat prerequisites and add some upper level science courses to prove you have the ability to handle the rigors of vet school.

While it’s fine to want to do equine med, that alone won’t give you any application boost.