WAMC, second time applicant, school list

[dzmn]

Hi everyone. I applied this past cycle and didn’t get in. I’m 22 years old, I have a Chem bachelors and am currently working as a vet assistant.

All my GPAs are 4.0

GRE: don’t plan on taking it

Past cycle I was rejected by UF, Purdue, Colorado and Michigan without interview or waitlist. I was waitlisted at Mississippi and Cornell.


Veterinary experience by september 2022: Small animal clinic- 272 volunteer hours and then 3,100 employed as a vet assistant

Animal experience: 900 hours as a volunteer vet assistant at a dog and cat shelter and helping with adoptions

Employment experience: 1000 hours in the outreach department of an NSF-funded research program

Awards/scholarships:
Dean’s list
Award for highest academic index in my program at graduation
CPR certification

I’d like to hear recommendations on which schools I should apply to, seeing that I don’t have a ton of varied experience. Which schools favor GPA over experience?

I’m still undecided on what to do for the next four months to strengthen my application. My boss at the clinic recommended I do a master’s degree, but if I started one in the fall would that make much of an impact on this application cycle? And since I don’t need a GPA boost I’m not sure if getting a master’s is the right move for me. Another option would be to try getting hours at a farm animal shelter. It’s far from where I live so I don’t think I would be able to get more than 70 hours before September.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[BlackCatsRuleTheWorld]

Hey! Lots of questions... Do you have an in state school? Have you done file reviews? Are you confident in your essays and your LORs?

I would recommend getting more varied experiences, inside or outside of vet med. Are the experiences you listed the only things on your application or just your top 5? Were you ever a camp counselor? Restaurant job? Even if it's not vet med related it adds a lot of value to your application.

As far as schools that are more focused on GPA, I think UF, Cornell, Tufts, Washington State, Mizzou, and then Texas A&M and NC State but those 2 have a very small amount of OOS seats.

I don't think a master's will have an impact on this app cycle, and it sounds like your academic background is strong and with a 4.0 gpa. I don't think that's where your application was lacking. To me it sounds like there was a "red flag" somewhere that weakened your application and figuring out what it could have been will give you a much better chance to improve your chances for this cycle.

 

[snuggs114]

I would start with file reviews! I agree with BlackCats- seems like you have a red flag somewhere in your application. File reviews might help you figure that out.

I'm not sure a masters would help you a ton. If you are interested in going that route, I am currently doing a one year masters at Kansas State through the vet school- we start in the summer and finish in the spring. You get a guaranteed interview if you apply to KState. Even as an out of state student, I think you would stand a good chance with your GPAs if you interview well.

Your extracurricular activities seem to be lacking- include anything and everything you can. Vet schools like to see that you are a person outside of vet med.

 

[dzmn]

Hey! Lots of questions... Do you have an in state school? Have you done file reviews? Are you confident in your essays and your LORs?

I would recommend getting more varied experiences, inside or outside of vet med. Are the experiences you listed the only things on your application or just your top 5? Were you ever a camp counselor? Restaurant job? Even if it's not vet med related it adds a lot of value to your application.

As far as schools that are more focused on GPA, I think UF, Cornell, Tufts, Washington State, Mizzou, and then Texas A&M and NC State but those 2 have a very small amount of OOS seats.

I don't think a master's will have an impact on this app cycle, and it sounds like your academic background is strong and with a 4.0 gpa. I don't think that's where your application was lacking. To me it sounds like there was a "red flag" somewhere that weakened your application and figuring out what it could have been will give you a much better chance to improve your chances for this cycle.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. My IS would be UF. I do have a few other smaller experiences like tutoring and the pre vet club. And then some very short experiences like one day spayaton events. Sooo not a ton of experience. I decided I wanted to study vet around november 2019 and then applied on november 2021, so I only had two years of vet and animal experience. Maybe this was a red flag to them?

Almost none of the schools I applied to do file reviews. Not confident in my essays as I didn’t have a ton of time to do them while I was still in college so they were a bit rushed. I have three really good LORs and a backup.

 

[dzmn]

Hey! Lots of questions... Do you have an in state school? Have you done file reviews? Are you confident in your essays and your LORs?

I would recommend getting more varied experiences, inside or outside of vet med. Are the experiences you listed the only things on your application or just your top 5? Were you ever a camp counselor? Restaurant job? Even if it's not vet med related it adds a lot of value to your application.

As far as schools that are more focused on GPA, I think UF, Cornell, Tufts, Washington State, Mizzou, and then Texas A&M and NC State but those 2 have a very small amount of OOS seats.

I don't think a master's will have an impact on this app cycle, and it sounds like your academic background is strong and with a 4.0 gpa. I don't think that's where your application was lacking. To me it sounds like there was a "red flag" somewhere that weakened your application and figuring out what it could have been will give you a much better chance to improve your chances for this cycle.

Also, do you know which schools are very holistic and don’t care much about GPA? Since it’s one of my strengths, I think I maybe should avoid these schools.

 

[dzmn]

I would start with file reviews! I agree with BlackCats- seems like you have a red flag somewhere in your application. File reviews might help you figure that out.

I'm not sure a masters would help you a ton. If you are interested in going that route, I am currently doing a one year masters at Kansas State through the vet school- we start in the summer and finish in the spring. You get a guaranteed interview if you apply to KState. Even as an out of state student, I think you would stand a good chance with your GPAs if you interview well.

Your extracurricular activities seem to be lacking- include anything and everything you can. Vet schools like to see that you are a person outside of vet med.

Thank you so much for replying!! Only two schools said that they would review my file later on in May or June.

I did add some smaller experiences in my last app like pre vet club and tutoring but I don’t have a ton more experience than what I included in my first message. I’m thinking of volunteering at a large animal shelter but I probably won’t get that many hours in by September cus it’s an hour drive and I work most days of the week. I’m thinking I may get 70 hours tops. I’m trying to see what other opportunities to volunteer there are closer to home but I’m not having much luck

 

[max_wildlife]

As far as schools that are more focused on GPA, I think UF, Cornell, Tufts, Washington State, Mizzou, and then Texas A&M and NC State but those 2 have a very small amount of OOS seats.

re: the tufts suggestion - i was recently chatting with one of the admissions ladies about policy, and she told me they're trying to change up the class a bit recently and be more holistic. so i'm not totally sure about tufts & gpa. with an upcoming curriculum redesign, if it turns out you're interested in them it might be worth to reach out to admissions and see what they're more focused on lately. don't get me wrong, i'm kind of odd for having gotten in with a lower gpa in my class - like i don't think a 4.0 will hurt you - but can't hurt to ask.

 

[dzmn]

re: the tufts suggestion - i was recently chatting with one of the admissions ladies about policy, and she told me they're trying to change up the class a bit recently and be more holistic. so i'm not totally sure about tufts & gpa. with an upcoming curriculum redesign, if it turns out you're interested in them it might be worth to reach out to admissions and see what they're more focused on lately. don't get me wrong, i'm kind of odd for having gotten in with a lower gpa in my class - like i don't think a 4.0 will hurt you - but can't hurt to ask.

Are there people in your class that got in without a ton of experience? Or much diversity in experience?

 

[max_wildlife]

Are there people in your class that got in without a ton of experience? Or much diversity in experience?

I'm not sure, but I can ask around. To be totally transparent, I am the opposite. pretty sure I got in for being holistic - seven years older than most of my classmates, arts + wildlife biology background, lvt, master's, lower gpa. very little gp. I do know a good number of people that had only large or small animal experience. And I'd say more of my class is straight out of undergrad than I expected, but I suspect that might be more common than I anticipated.

 

[dzmn]

I'm not sure, but I can ask around. To be totally transparent, I am the opposite. pretty sure I got in for being holistic - seven years older than most of my classmates, arts + wildlife biology background, lvt, master's, lower gpa. very little gp. I do know a good number of people that had only large or small animal experience. And I'd say more of my class is straight out of undergrad than I expected, but I suspect that might be more common than I anticipated.

Oh that’s good to hear. It seems like most schools expect you to have large animal experience and that’s hard to find where I live.

 

[WonderingStudent]

You do have enough veterinary hours but (as others have said) diversity can be helpful for your application(ie small animal specialties, exotics, large animal). Other than that it sounds like you need to start working on your personal essay and supplementals. Make sure to leave time so that you can have multiple other people proofread it and give you feedback. I don't see too much benefit in getting a Masters when your GPA is already good unless you need certain classes to meet prereqs for more schools (which you can just take as a post-bacc). I would possibly take Michigan off your list if you want a school that focuses on GPA since I believe that once you get above their GPA cut off they don't look at GPA anymore for admissions purposes. I would look into UC Davis as I know that OOS stats average around a 3.9-4.0 GPA for admission but I'm not well versed in their admissions process. In general, making a list of schools that you have the prereqs for and looking into the admissions process can be helpful so you can see where suits your application best.

 

[dzmn]

You do have enough veterinary hours but (as others have said) diversity can be helpful for your application(ie small animal specialties, exotics, large animal). Other than that it sounds like you need to start working on your personal essay and supplementals. Make sure to leave time so that you can have multiple other people proofread it and give you feedback. I don't see too much benefit in getting a Masters when your GPA is already good unless you need certain classes to meet prereqs for more schools (which you can just take as a post-bacc). I would possibly take Michigan off your list if you want a school that focuses on GPA since I believe that once you get above their GPA cut off they don't look at GPA anymore for admissions purposes. I would look into UC Davis as I know that OOS stats average around a 3.9-4.0 GPA for admission but I'm not well versed in their admissions process. In general, making a list of schools that you have the prereqs for and looking into the admissions process can be helpful so you can see where suits your application best.

Thank you so much!! I didn’t know that about Michigan and UC Davis. I’ll focus on getting more experience and improving my essays

 

[WonderingStudent]

Thank you so much!! I didn’t know that about Michigan and UC Davis. I’ll focus on getting more experience and improving my essays

If someone knows more about Michigan’s admissions process then correct me if I’m wrong. I’m going based on what ive seen mentioned on SDN