WAMC - Newer to vet school, lower GPA...

[clairebolster18]

I am a non-traditional applicant (23-yr old) with a degree in biological sciences focusing in ecology and evolution from the University of Maryland and a minor in hydrology. My original plan was to go into a marine science field, but after working at the National Aquarium in Baltimore for multiple years I have decided that I wanted to continue to work with animals and become an aquarist, and my most recent job at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center with the mentorship of the vet there has made me really want to pursue veterinary medicine with hopes to go into exotics (but also wanted to work with shelter medicine since exotics is obviously really competitive). I plan on applying to Virginia-Maryland (my instate), Florida (my dream), Illinois, Wisconsin, and Tennessee. My GPA is lower but it has an increasing upward trend all throughout undergrad, however a lot of chem classes and some bios do not have the best grades (commonly Cs/low Bs). I will be taking biochem this fall since that was not required for my major and retaking chem2 (and probably orgo2 in the spring) to help boost my GPA and get my grades in those classes better. I’m super nervous as I feel i’m not a competitive applicant, and with a lower GPA it makes me more nervous about applying this round.

Cumulative GPA: 3.4 (3.37)

Science GPA: 3.22

Last 45 credits GPA: 3.5

Research Experience:
-100 hours of ecosystem research to co-write a published paper on Freshwater Salinization Syndrome
- 75 hours of ethogram recording behaviors of FW species of fish within exhibit to watch inter and intraspecies specific interactions

Veterinary Experience:

• 900 hours+ of working in Sea Turtle Hospital doing rehab care, about 300-350 are specific days doing veterinary procedures
• about 60 hrs volunteering in a MD humane society, currently reaching out to SA vets in my area to shadow so hopefully about 150-300 hours by end of this year
• ~50-75 hours shadowing vet at National Aquarium in Baltimore (have to calculate all- animals include FW/SW fish, sharks, stingrays, snakes, turtles, lizards, etc)
  
  Animal Experience
• 300 hours in Australia/Amazon River Forest exhibit animals (fish, lizards, stingrays, turtles, etc) - hands on training program at NA for stingrays was created by me and implemented
• 900+ hours with sea turtles, freshwater turtles, diamondback terrapins, gopher tortoises, raptors, shorebirds, and occasional mammals (but rare due to permits)
• pet sitting (200+ hours dogs/cats etc)
• 
  employment:
• USSF Certified Referee (1.5 years - registered MD and GA)
• Intramural Sports Supervisor (2 years)
• Intramural Sports Referee (3 years)
• Hostess at restaurant (6 months)
• nanny for 2.5 yr old and 8 month old (3 months)
• Georgia Sea Turtle Center - AmeriCorps Husbandry Member (current term 6 months, adding a 12 month hopefully)
  
  Volunteering:
• 600 hours as a exhibit guide at National Aquarium
• 60 hours (or more, calculating out still) as a board member of a soccer referee association in MD
• 50 hours volunteering as a tutor for scholars program in college
• 50 hours as peer mentor in College
• 100 hours volunteering for through my sorority

Achievements:

• Deans list 5 semesters
• UMD - College Park Scholars Program Citation (earned 2018)
• Published co-author from a class project turned publication

Extracurriculars

• Played lacrosse for 14 years, club for 4
• Member of Sigma Kappa sorority, holding Green Terp member recognition every semester
• Exec Board for Recreation / Sports department at UMD
• Exec Board for Cru at UMD

My current letters of rec are from a professor and my current vet I am working with Dr. Norton from the GSTC - I would also love some advice on who to get the third from! My most recent employer would also be from the GSTC and I don't know if it would make sense to have two letters from the same place, though one would be from the now director and one from the head veterinarian, so I would love some advice there!
I would appreciate any and all advice! I am working to get my SA hours up, and am genuinely worried about my GPA, but hoping that I can boost it with the classes I will be taking in the fall. Thanks!

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[BigCats]

Hey! I’m starting at UF this fall so can speak a bit about that You have awesome experiences which definitely support your career goals and will be great for essays and interviews. One thing I will caution you about is that last year, UF set some sort of hidden GPA limit below which they didn’t even look at your application. If you look at last year’s UF application thread, you can see a lot of people talking about how they got interviews the year before and then got rejected without even going through review that year- it was pretty unexpected and a lot of people were upset. I’m not sure if they’re planning to change it this year after that backlash, but I would just prepare yourself for the possibility that they might not even make it to all of your cool experiences :/ Might be worth reaching out to the pre-vet advisor there- not sure if she still does it, but she used to do advising appointments for pre-vet students both in-person at UF and virtual at any other school where you could discuss your application and talk about ways to improve it and present yourself in the best light. I met up with her a few times over the years and got some good feedback- definitely recommend if you can.

I didn't apply to any of your other schools, but I would make sure to look and see if any of them do grade replacement (aka if you had a C originally and get an A on your retake, they only look at the A) as opposed to averaging (ex. your C and A become a B) if you're considering retaking some chemistry courses. If all of your schools average the grades, it might be better worth it to take a different course that also counts towards your science GPA that you haven't taken before. For instance, if you retake a C and get a B+, that's definitely a great improvement, but that's not really going to edge your GPA up much higher, whereas if you take a class that isn't so much of a weedout and get an A, that will boost your GPA more. I think your plans look good overall- I don't really think it matters to have two LORs from the same place, as long as they're both strong letters and can speak to different aspects about you! And getting some small animal GP experience just to slap it on your application before you submit it would be good, even just a day or two of shadowing so they can see that you've tried it. If you can get even a day or two of equine or large animal shadowing on there too, that would be good- I only had two days of equine experience on my app, which was enough to show that I'd at least tried it. Overall, your experiences look great and you have some great non-veterinary experiences that really help round you out too! Good luck with your cycle and feel free to PM me if you have questions about UF

 

[battie]

For Illinois, if you can get beyond phase 1, you should have a decent chance of getting to phase 3. Clarify with ASA on whether or not they do grade replacement or average. If you submit the GRE to them, they'll lower the weight of the GPAs. But only submit if you get higher than the average GRE score on the admitted students statistics page; don't want to add any negatives to your phase 1 stuff that you don't need.

 

[clairebolster18]

Hey! I’m starting at UF this fall so can speak a bit about that You have awesome experiences which definitely support your career goals and will be great for essays and interviews. One thing I will caution you about is that last year, UF set some sort of hidden GPA limit below which they didn’t even look at your application. If you look at last year’s UF application thread, you can see a lot of people talking about how they got interviews the year before and then got rejected without even going through review that year- it was pretty unexpected and a lot of people were upset. I’m not sure if they’re planning to change it this year after that backlash, but I would just prepare yourself for the possibility that they might not even make it to all of your cool experiences :/ Might be worth reaching out to the pre-vet advisor there- not sure if she still does it, but she used to do advising appointments for pre-vet students both in-person at UF and virtual at any other school where you could discuss your application and talk about ways to improve it and present yourself in the best light. I met up with her a few times over the years and got some good feedback- definitely recommend if you can.

I didn't apply to any of your other schools, but I would make sure to look and see if any of them do grade replacement (aka if you had a C originally and get an A on your retake, they only look at the A) as opposed to averaging (ex. your C and A become a B) if you're considering retaking some chemistry courses. If all of your schools average the grades, it might be better worth it to take a different course that also counts towards your science GPA that you haven't taken before. For instance, if you retake a C and get a B+, that's definitely a great improvement, but that's not really going to edge your GPA up much higher, whereas if you take a class that isn't so much of a weedout and get an A, that will boost your GPA more. I think your plans look good overall- I don't really think it matters to have two LORs from the same place, as long as they're both strong letters and can speak to different aspects about you! And getting some small animal GP experience just to slap it on your application before you submit it would be good, even just a day or two of shadowing so they can see that you've tried it. If you can get even a day or two of equine or large animal shadowing on there too, that would be good- I only had two days of equine experience on my app, which was enough to show that I'd at least tried it. Overall, your experiences look great and you have some great non-veterinary experiences that really help round you out too! Good luck with your cycle and feel free to PM me if you have questions about UF

Hey there! I actually did have a question with grading (and I guess with VMCAS in general) - i will be taking biochem this fall like I say, since this is a prereq but I haven't taken it, how do i input that into the VMCAS app? Thanks!

 

[BigCats]

Hey there! I actually did have a question with grading (and I guess with VMCAS in general) - i will be taking biochem this fall like I say, since this is a prereq but I haven't taken it, how do i input that into the VMCAS app? Thanks!

I believe you input it under Fall 2021 and list it as “in progress”, then it won’t make you put a grade yet. That way you can still show schools you’re going to be taking the course by assigning it to their prereqs. Some schools will request updated transcripts after the fall semester, while others will take updated transcripts after the spring semester.