WAMC: Second time applicant

[Kirb]

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Hello! I'm 21 M and graduated with my Biology degree this past December. My IS is VA.

For some context, I applied for the first time this past cycle and unfortunately I got rejected from Mizzou (post-interview) today, concluding the cycle for me. I was put on the interview waitlist and never got off for VAMD and Penn. I was rejected without interview by Ohio, Rowan, Cornell, CSU, and WSU. I was personally surprised by being put on the interview waitlist at VAMD, as my stats were above average for the school, so it's possible my supplemental writings or my situational judgement test score held me back. Once I do a file review with them I should get more insight. Otherwise, I feel I am a fairly average-slightly below average applicant. Any advice to improve my application? Or is it just a situation where I should redo supplementals? I also could have applied a bit smarter. Next cycle I'll avoid applying to Cornell and add LSU, maybe KSU.


cGPA: 3.63 (3.62 when I applied, so basically unchanged)
Science GPA: 3.55 (3.81 for VAMD, they only look at classes picked to fill prereqs)
Last 45: 3.8 (3.7 when I applied)

Veterinary Hours:
Small animal GP vet assistant: 500 hours and continues to increase (300 when I applied)
Feline clinic vet assistant: 500 hours (300 when I applied)
Equine ride-along: 240 hours
Large animal ride along: 40 hours
Small animal ER shadowing: 40 hours
Small animal GP shadowing: 20 hours

Animal Experience:
Kennel technician (small animal, exotics, and the occasional pot-bellied pig): 250 hours
Associate at an aquarium store: 150 hours

Research Experience:
Research assistant in a zebrafish lab: 210 hours

Extracurriculars:
Volunteering with org to plant native plants: 30 hours
Volunteer tutor for high school students: 30 hours
Dancer for College Cultural Show: 60 hours
Super Smash Bros. Club: 60 hours

 

[stinkyfreddy]

honestly I feel like youre pretty great! Maybe add some hours overall in vet experience would help you . I wouldn't say theres something holding you back from the stats shared here. It most likely has to do with your application essays overall. I would suggest having a few people review your essays and for you to re-do them if they could use some work. I am open to review essays for you. reach out to me!!

I say this because i had the same GPAs (kind of) as you, and not even half of the hours you've had on other animals that are not dogs and cats., and I did get in to some schools you mentioned here in my 2nd cycle. All I did was improve my essays and it went well!! try it out!

 

[Kirb]

honestly I feel like youre pretty great! Maybe add some hours overall in vet experience would help you . I wouldn't say theres something holding you back from the stats shared here. It most likely has to do with your application essays overall. I would suggest having a few people review your essays and for you to re-do them if they could use some work. I am open to review essays for you. reach out to me!!

I say this because i had the same GPAs (kind of) as you, and not even half of the hours you've had on other animals that are not dogs and cats., and I did get in to some schools you mentioned here in my 2nd cycle. All I did was improve my essays and it went well!! try it out!

Thank you so much for the response! I'll likely take you up on your offer for essay review once I start working on those. I suspect my main essay was at least decent since Mizzou was the only school where I got to the interview stage while also being the only one to have no supplemental essays. I had a good amount of people review it over months while my supplementals were minimally or just straight up not revised by others, which was a big misstep on my part.

 

[battie]

Also review with your letters of recommendation. In hindsight, my letters were probably part of what held me back. They weren't bad letters. They just weren't great

 

[stinkyfreddy]

Also review with your letters of recommendation. In hindsight, my letters were probably part of what held me back. They weren't bad letters. They just weren't great

mg yes totally agree. I had 5 letters total my first cycle; 2 of which werent great (could've been better) so I changed it up. I submitted 4 this time and it worked for the better so definitely give this some thought

 

[Kirb]

May I ask how you guys found out certain letters weren't great? Was it from a file review? I'm definitely thinking about how I'll change up who I ask to write a recommendation this coming cycle.

 

[stinkyfreddy]

May I ask how you guys found out certain letters weren't great? Was it from a file review? I'm definitely thinking about how I'll change up who I ask to write a recommendation this coming cycle.

no! usually file reviews dont give out that type of info. I just figured because I had this one professor/Principal investigator who literally wrote like less than a page for me for another app and he let me read it and I initially thought it couldve been better. so I eliminated that one. feel free to chat w me to get more info on that

 

[vampyrica]

May I ask how you guys found out certain letters weren't great? Was it from a file review? I'm definitely thinking about how I'll change up who I ask to write a recommendation this coming cycle.

apparently i wasn’t supposed to know this, but one of the schools i had a file review with told me flat out that one of my LOR was very poor and reflected negatively on me. i was mortifiedddddd.

soooo you never know!

 

[Kirb]

apparently i wasn’t supposed to know this, but one of the schools i had a file review with told me flat out that one of my LOR was very poor and reflected negatively on me. i was mortifiedddddd.

soooo you never know!

Oh god... the fact that the recommender agreed to write the LOR just to write one that bad is messed up. I don't think any of mine were bad per se but in hindsight there's one I wouldn't be surprised if it was just kind of 'ok' and not great.

 

[supershorty]

i had a file review with told me flat out that one of my LOR was very poor and reflected negatively on me.

It makes me so upset to hear things like this. I wish people would just have the integrity to decline to write one if they feel that way. I'm sorry that happened to you.