WAMC Second Time Applicant

[fluffysheep]

Hello! I am 22 years old, female, in-state for Illinois. My goal is to be a production animal or potentially mixed animal vet. I applied only to my in-state (Illinois) this past cycle and was surprised to not even interview. I'm worried that there's something really missing from my application, so I'd appreciate any help you guys can give! My veterinary experience hours are estimates for what they will likely be by September 15 since I currently work at a mixed practice as a full-time veterinary assistant. If anyone has any schools in particular that they think I'd have a good shot at, please let me know!


Applying to: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Purdue, Kansas, Dublin, Ross

Cumulative GPA: 3.69
Science GPA: ~3.48
Last 45: 3.89

Any degrees achieved: Bachelor’s of Animal Science May 2021
Courses Left: Currently taking biochem

GRE results: Q/V/W: N/A

Veterinary Experience:

• SA 3200 hours at a SA clinic & my current mixed practice
• LA 200 hours experience from the same mixed practice

Animal Experience:

• 50 hours swine research lab studying PRRSV
• 200 hours beef cattle internship (calving & processing, administering medications, running through chute, etc.)
• 100 hours equine reproduction intern (stallion collection, semen processing & evaluation, mare insemination, foaling & foal watch)
• 32 hours sheep class TA (teaching handling, basic info & tools to undergrads)
• 32 hours various coursework with dairy & beef cattle, horses, chickens
• 800 Small animal as a kennel attendant at SA clinic
• 120 hours on a small, organic farm caring for sheep, goats, chickens, and one pig.

Research Experience:

• N/A

Awards/scholarships:

• Dean’s List 2x

Extracurriculars:

• D2 Women’s Rugby for 2 years, captain for 1 semester
• Community college Chemistry & STEM club 2 years
• Community college Biology club founder & secretary for 1 year
• UIUC Academic Quadrathalon Participant
• Weight lifting, running, being outdoors

Employment:

• N/A

Thanks to anyone who replies!

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[deleted1130743]

I'm... fairly shocked to read that you weren't at least offered an interview, either, especially given that Illinois is your IS school. Your stats are overall pretty decent; the GPAs are all good, and you've got a wealth of experience in several different areas. You also have an extremely evident upward trend in grades, which is fantastic.

I have two theories that may potentially explain your unsuccessful cycle. First, is there a chance at all that you may have had a lukewarm (or even downright poor) eLOR submitted, or maybe that your personal statement might not have been as strong as it could have been? I've heard a few unfortunate anecdotes about weak eLORs more or less trashing otherwise stellar applicants' prospects. Those non-academic aspects to your application can be the final deciding factor between you and another student with a similar profile, and eLORs in particular seem to be given a lot of consideration. When asking evaluators for eLORs, make sure that you inquire directly if they can write you a strong positive recommendation.

The second major possibility, and the more probable one, is that this cycle quite simply might have been hypercompetitive, even for IS admissions at Illinois. Sadly, there's not much you can do about this; with each year that passes, increasingly more people apply and those people have progressively better stats on average. When I applied to vet school back in 2015-2016, I got into 3/4 schools with a ~3.2 cumulative GPA---granted, I ensured that I applied to schools where that lower cumulative GPA wouldn't factor majorly into decisions and where my particular application profile matched up well with what the individual schools were looking for---and I can't help but reflect upon how I probably would not have had that kind of success if I were applying today.

The only real suggestion that I have for improving your application as it stands now is to see if you might be able to hop onto a project with someone at your institution to accrue some research experience. That's the only major section you appear to not have any experience in and schools, as a whole, do seem to really value applicants who have been exposed to research and/or have a publication or major project under their belt. It's not necessary, by and large, but it could be the final push your application needs. Obviously, do your best in your remaining biochemistry course, as well.

Peering over the schools you mentioned targeting on your second round, the only one I have personal experience with is ISU. I do think that that school could be a good option for you given your stats. The only caution I'd give is that they have a unique method of calculating the science GPA, which has led to many applicants having a much lower science GPA at ISU than at other schools; it may be prudent to calculate what your science GPA would be at the school by using the Course Requirements page (courses used in the science GPA calculation are denoted with a red asterisk) before you decide for sure whether or not to apply there. Fair warning, chemistry courses comprise the bulk of that science GPA. With your ~3.5 science GPA listed above, it's feasible that your ISU science GPA could also be at or around that same number... or it could be lower, even drastically lower, depending upon how exactly those grades are distributed. But I'd say if you have a solid 3.2 or higher for that ISU science GPA, then it may be a great option for your second application cycle.

 

[fluffysheep]

Thank you for the reply! I'm relieved to hear that you were also surprised I didn't interview at my IS because I was concerned that I had overlooked something important. It has certainly been much more competitive recently from what I've seen of those getting accepted. I'm going to have much stronger eLORs this cycle, with two of them coming from veterinarians that I work with closely doing both small and large animal work. I'm hoping that this can really boost my application, especially since Illinois seems to value ability over strict grades. I'll re-evaluate my essay and have more people read it to see if there are any major issues with that as well.

Unfortunately, I do not live anywhere near civilization, let alone near a college to work on any research projects, but I appreciate the advice! I transferred from junior college in fall 2019, so it was difficult to find any research projects to join during the pandemic with all of the chaos that brought.

ISU is my #2 choice of school, so I'm glad to hear you think I have a shot! I used the link you sent, and my science GPA is still a 3.5 by ISU's standards as well, so I definitely think that I'll be applying there this coming cycle. Do you have any other advice on ISU or their program? I think that I just really needed to hear that my application was as solid as I perceived it, but I will continue working on it like you've suggested.

 

[battie]

At what point did Illinois cut you out (prior to phase 1, prior to phase 2, or prior to phase 3)?

 

[fluffysheep]

At what point did Illinois cut you out (prior to phase 1, prior to phase 2, or prior to phase 3)?

I made it past phase 1 and was cut in phase 2. I'm guessing that means it was potentially related to my essay or eLORs unless the other applicants just had way more experience than I did, which sounds possible with the competitive applicants this past cycle.

 

[battie]

If you can get a meeting with ASA after April 15, I would recommend it. See if you can get clarification on those subjective components. You're overall not too shaby numbers wise as far as experience goes. I would be inclined to think it could be a written problem (essays, letters, experience descriptions) versus an hours issue.