WAMC OOS everywhere

[HorseObsessed]

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Hi Y'all
My top choices are TAMU, UC Davis, and UF. I applied to 18 schools this cycle and am wondering WAMC/ what to improve if I don't get in since I'm OOS everywhere.

GPA: 3.94 overall/ 3.96 science/ 4.0 last 45

Animal Hours: 10,000+, mostly equine, some canine, plus was a zookeeper for endangered species
Vet Hours: 2400
-1700 equine
-500 small animal
-80 lab animal
-10 zoo animal
-40 food animal
Non-animal employment: 6500 hours, including some small leadership roles-- gardener, children's birthday party leader, cashier, lead student gardener
Volunteer: only 150 hours
Research: 1700 hours, mostly in infectious disease

LORs from two vets, my PI, my boss in my student leadership role, and a science professor

What I am doing in my gap year: Working as a research assistant in an infectious disease lab, tutoring high schoolers.

Tell me if it is worth it do do these things or if I don't need to bother: Take time off work to try to shadow in specialty practice, cut hours at work back so I can volunteer more.

I know my chances are relatively good but am looking for advice on if it's worth it to take time out of work (meaning I don't get paid) to add on to my application.

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

 

[JaynaAli]

You never know what’ll happen and not having an in-state makes things inherently harder, but on paper those stats should be really competitive. IMO, if you don’t get in with stats like that I’d probably recommend you focus heavily on rewriting essays and maybe finding different LOR writers. Experience in specialty medicine or more volunteerism certainly wouldn’t hurt, but I don’t think they’re going to significantly move the needle when you’ve already got 2400 hours of vet experience in five different fields, research experience, and 100+ volunteerism hours already.

Are you a traditional applicant? You mentioned a gap year and didn’t talk about a career/plan change along the way so I assumed so, but I bring it up because all your reported hours added together seem very high for a traditional applicant. I’m not saying you’re lying or saying it can’t possibly be true, but you’re reporting 20,600 hours across your various activities which is almost 10 years of full time work (assuming 40 hours per week) potentially on top of school. Those are doable numbers especially if you’re a horse person who has been doing horses since you were a young child or if you’re on older applicant who has been out in the workforce for a while, but definitely made me raise my eyebrows a little since it is more than an average traditional applicant. Seems like a lot to fit in to your day if you’re a traditional student with only one gap year.

 

[HorseObsessed]

You never know what’ll happen and not having an in-state makes things inherently harder, but on paper those stats should be really competitive. IMO, if you don’t get in with stats like that I’d probably recommend you focus heavily on rewriting essays and maybe finding different LOR writers. Experience in specialty medicine or more volunteerism certainly wouldn’t hurt, but I don’t think they’re going to significantly move the needle when you’ve already got 2400 hours of vet experience in five different fields, research experience, and 100+ volunteerism hours already.

Are you a traditional applicant? You mentioned a gap year and didn’t talk about a career/plan change along the way so I assumed so, but I bring it up because all your reported hours added together seem very high for a traditional applicant. I’m not saying you’re lying or saying it can’t possibly be true, but you’re reporting 20,600 hours across your various activities which is almost 10 years of full time work (assuming 40 hours per week) potentially on top of school. Those are doable numbers especially if you’re a horse person who has been doing horses since you were a young child or if you’re on older applicant who has been out in the workforce for a while, but definitely made me raise my eyebrows a little since it is more than an average traditional applicant. Seems like a lot to fit in to your day if you’re a traditional student with only one gap year.

Thank you for your input! I appreciate you saying I won't push the needle, because I'm enjoying my free time these days-- I know my hours sound insane, but I have in fact been putting in these hours for the past 10 years. I am a traditional applicant.
-I have been riding, both my horse and others', since I was a kid. on VMCAS, I counted 15 hours a week since I started high school, so 9 years. Seems silly, but they say to put in everything high school and later.
-I was responsible for paying for said horse, and we lived in a suburb in high school and now I live in a city, so I have had to pay for board. I started working when I was 14, and it was 20 hours/week in high school, 60-70 over every summer for the last 9 years, and 25-30 hrs/ week in college.
-I took a gap year after high school (2 jobs, 50-60 hours/week) and did my senior year part time and worked full time.
-I am now taking a gap year and working only 35-40 hours a week and finally figuring out how to handle having free time, lol.
I hope it doesn't sound suspicious to admissions committees. A lot of those hours (probably about 7000) were hobby hours riding and grooming for fun, but the rest were working my butt off so much that I didn't have a shred of social life til I was 22.

 

[pp9]

Did you apply to all of the schools that allow for residency change? With those stats, I would definitely be striving to get into one of those.

 

[HorseObsessed]

Did you apply to all of the schools that allow for residency change? With those stats, I would definitely be striving to get into one of those.

I applied to NCSU, UC Davis, and Ohio State. Are there others?
I'll be basing my decision on where I go both off finances and where my support system is. Support system is a pretty important qualifier for me as I am disabled and mentally ill and had a tough time with my out of state move for college!

 

[pp9]

I applied to NCSU, UC Davis, and Ohio State. Are there others?
I'll be basing my decision on where I go both off finances and where my support system is. Support system is a pretty important qualifier for me as I am disabled and mentally ill and had a tough time with my out of state move for college!

Missouri and Washington are the only other two! With your stats I would guess you'll have luck and choices this cycle though, so don't sweat about these other two unless you do find yourself needing to apply again. Totally get wanting the support system though.

 

[katiemcat]

With your current application I think you have an excellent shot at UF. I don't think you need to make any changes with your current job unless you want to 🙂