WAMC - Mid GPA, Mid Hours, 1st time applicant

[doodlebugz]

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Hello! I am a 22 year old from Florida, and I just graduated and am applying this cycle (so I am taking a gap year).

Any help would be appreciated, I know I need to apply to holistic schools, but having trouble choosing which ones to apply to.

Cumulative GPA: 3.55
science GPA: 3.21
last 45: 3.75

Any degrees achieved: Bachelors of Science in Chemistry, emphasis on Biochemistry, and a minor in Health Disparities

GRE results: N/A

Veterinary Experience:
- 250 GP/exotic clinic
- 500 shelter medicine (TNRs and electives surgeries shadowed)
- 25 equine

Animal Experience:
- 500 equine, goat, pigs, and chickens (worked on a ranch that helped teach student with disabilities, autism, ADHD, etc. how to ride and learn to care for animals)
- 75 working with bats and tortoises (bat conservatory)
- 30 ICU at the University Animal Hospital
-100 GP kennel assistant
-100 hours for fostering cats
-300 Pet sitter (seems like a lot but ive been doing for probably 6 years now, ever since I could drive on my own for various people even staying in their houses with the pets)

Research Experience:
-80 hours studying E. coli found in a variety of soil samples in Florida, helping to find new strands or developed.
-90 hours of studying and classifying food desert data for a research company in Gainesville
*had to do presentations for both

Awards/scholarships:
- Cum Laude
- Deans List
- Diversity and Veterinary Medicine Certificate from Purdue
- Florida Bright Futures Scholar Award

Extracurriculars:
- Kappa Delta Sorority- lots of volunteer and philanthropy work (Girl Scouts of America and Prevent child abuse in America), also served on a philanthropy board for a semester
- Women Building Women mentoring program- mentored low income middle school girls for 3 years once a week.
- Breast Friends Forever - helped raise money to support efforts to fight breast cancer
- Pre-Vet club for a year
- High School: 4 years varsity lacrosse, lacrosse captain for 2, 4 years student class government vice president, girl scouts (bronze award),


Employment:
- Worked as a nanny for years, one summer it was my sole income and I worked full time for a family, then continued to help them 2-3 days a week so I could work vet hours as well.
- Wedding Helper: hard to give this one a title, I helped the wedding coordinator with SO many different things from running errands, to setting up place settings, to cleaning up after the wedding.

I am just lost of where I should apply/not waste my time as I know there are internal cut offs. Here is the list I have so far, which is far too much for me to afford so it would be nice to have some help narrowing down this list.

- Iowa State
- LIU
- LSU
- Midwestern
- Mississippi
- Oklahoma State
- University of Arizona
- UF (my in state - so this is a def)
- Minnesota (heard there was a high internal GPA cut off?)
- Missouri
- Virginia-Maryland
- Western

 

[purrlywhites]

I didn’t apply to like half the ones you did, but as someone who got into LIU and on the waitlist for Western, I would really think about if you would actually go there. They are so expensive and I ended up rejecting LIU after rethinking my decision of how much debt I’d be in. If you’re paying for school alone, cost might help you narrow down schools. Also, ISU and LSU are pretty holistic imo, and your last 45 GPA is good

 

[doodlebugz]

I didn’t apply to like half the ones you did, but as someone who got into LIU and on the waitlist for Western, I would really think about if you would actually go there. They are so expensive and I ended up rejecting LIU after rethinking my decision of how much debt I’d be in. If you’re paying for school alone, cost might help you narrow down schools. Also, ISU and LSU are pretty holistic imo, and your last 45 GPA is good

Great thanks, yeah I agree about LIU being so expensive. ISU was kind of a definite to me and I have family close to there. I was a little worried about LSU and my GPAs, but I also heard some positive things and its closer to me!

 

[pp9]

We can't know the internal cutoffs from year to year, and often don't know how they are calculated. We can suggest schools, but whether or not you'd make the cutoffs is up in the air.

My thoughts: Looking at your stats, I'd focus on schools that take the last 45 into account. The tricky part is that usually schools either look at all 3 GPAs, or look at science and either the cGPA or the last 45. Your science might pull you down a bit, and you don't have a ton of experience hours to help offset that as you progress through the evaluation process. Your cGPA and last 45 are probably fine, but possibly not high enough to balance a lower science GPA. So keep that in mind as you continue to choose your schools.

Schools I'd consider looking into further: Michigan State, Ohio (mostly because their academic eval makes up the lowest % of their decision process, but you still have to be competitive enough to get an interview), maybe TAMU? Off the top of my head.

Every school's grading system is different so I always ask - what is the combo of grades looking like to get you a 3.2 in your science? Mostly B's with a couple of A's, some C's with As/Bs, other?

 

[indysadventures]

Minnesota considers Last 45 and Prerequisite GPA, so I’d look at what your prerequisite GPA would look like before deciding.

Your last 45 is reasonably competitive, but I think you’d be on the borderline for consideration for an interview depending upon what your prerequisite GPA looks like (and depending upon your essays and other submissions, of course). I think their averages were both about 3.8 this past year. You can schedule a personalized appt with the UMN admissions staff as well, they can give you better personalized answers.

I agree about considering Ohio State and Michigan State.

 

[doodlebugz]

Minnesota considers Last 45 and Prerequisite GPA, so I’d look at what your prerequisite GPA would look like before deciding.

Your last 45 is reasonably competitive, but I think you’d be on the borderline for consideration for an interview depending upon what your prerequisite GPA looks like (and depending upon your essays and other submissions, of course). I think their averages were both about 3.8 this past year. You can schedule a personalized appt with the UMN admissions staff as well, they can give you better personalized answers.

I agree about considering Ohio State and Michigan State.

Ok thanks! I cannot apply for Michigan state because this cycle physiology is a science pre req and they require all of the science pre read done before applying :/

Additionally, Ohio requires public speaking credits which I would just take but in addition to paying for the physiology course it’s so much extra $$$ to spend on 1 class just to apply to just Ohio…

They were originally on my list but due to the class dilemma I cannot apply (same goes for KSU)

 

[doodlebugz]

We can't know the internal cutoffs from year to year, and often don't know how they are calculated. We can suggest schools, but whether or not you'd make the cutoffs is up in the air.

My thoughts: Looking at your stats, I'd focus on schools that take the last 45 into account. The tricky part is that usually schools either look at all 3 GPAs, or look at science and either the cGPA or the last 45. Your science might pull you down a bit, and you don't have a ton of experience hours to help offset that as you progress through the evaluation process. Your cGPA and last 45 are probably fine, but possibly not high enough to balance a lower science GPA. So keep that in mind as you continue to choose your schools.

Schools I'd consider looking into further: Michigan State, Ohio (mostly because their academic eval makes up the lowest % of their decision process, but you still have to be competitive enough to get an interview), maybe TAMU? Off the top of my head.

Every school's grading system is different so I always ask - what is the combo of grades looking like to get you a 3.2 in your science? Mostly B's with a couple of A's, some C's with As/Bs, other?

I have gotten 2 Cs in orgo 2 and calc 2, and then the rest is As/Bs!