WAMC - Sophomore, low gpa

[dawn_vet_med]

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I am a Mizzou undergraduate in Animal Sciences looking to apply my senior year. I really want to get into my instate, Missouri.

I currently have a 3.51 cGPA (after my first semester of sophomore year). This is my biggest concern. I'm planning to have it at least a 3.6-3.65 by the time I apply to vet school.

Vet Experience:
600 hrs. working as a small animal critical care assistant
200 hrs. working as a vet assistant at a spay neuter clinic
40 hrs. shadowing GP
50 hrs. shadowing an equine vet
Planning on getting some food animal exposure, as well as exotics

Animal Experience:
600 hrs. as a kennel tech
100s of hours volunteering at an equine therapeutic riding center
Some hours volunteering at a raptor rehab (feeding/cleaning)
Some calving experience
Riding experience

Extracurriculars:
Pre-vet club
Dairy Club
Equestrian club (secretary)
Some clubs in hs and a co-leader of one

Work:
Barista (? hours) at two places

Awards:
Honestly not much (would have to look back on it)
Published six times in my highschools magazine (nationally recognized)

Research:
10 hrs aiding in farrowing for colostrum experiment
Planning to shadow a ruminant nutritionist and applying for a monogastric nutrition asst. position

I'm worried I'm not going to be a competitive applicant. Where should I be at right now? Am I on track?

 

[vampyrica]

What are your science and last 45 gpas looking like? Mizzou looks at both cGPA and last 45 credits as well as credit load per semester. You should have 15+ credits per semester.

 

[JaynaAli]

I’d say you’re on track and will get reasonable consideration, but you need to do everything in your power to continue to raise your GPA to optimize your chances as you complete the coursework. From their website, it looks like Mizzou’s average GPA for admitted IS students is 3.7. If you’re in-state you probably have a little more wiggle room because there’s less competition for more seats compared to the out of state pool. But I would focus on getting excellent grades from here on out to maximize your chances.

In my opinion it would be better to take classes a little slower and do excellent (as long as you’re still meeting their 15 credit per semester minimums or whatever it is) than overload yourself and take too many classes and subsequently do less than your best. Seems like Missouri does consider rigor a bit, but I’d bet overall GPA is still considered more than a small impact of rigor.

I’d keep getting more vet experience too, but your grades are where I’d focus. I think that’ll have a bigger impact to optimize your chances than simply adding more vet hours or a wider variety.

 

[battie]

Agreed with Jayna. Don't sacrifice your grades for hours at this point. Time to get strategic with your class schedule and take probably no more than 6-8 difficult credits per semester. You're going to really need to show an uphill trend. Hours will not help you if your grades drop.

 

[Alicat9152]

Hi there, current student @ Mizzou 🙂
I applied 2 years ago as an OOS student and was waitlisted but called off shortly after decision day. My GPA's were ~3.54 across the board however I have a variety of diverse veterinary and other experiences that set me apart from other applicants. You are only a sophomore, so you have time. Your GPA is not bad and on the lower average of admitted students especially IS as it's a smaller pool and your chances are better.

I see you are in the Pre-Vet club at MU, have you talked to Doug the advisor? He is a GREAT resource and recruiter for the vet school and would be happy to sit down with you to go over where you currently sit on a "competitiveness" level. The typical required credit level admissions like to see is 15/semester...that being said when making your schedule of classes be strategic and split up your more challenging upper levels, so you don't risk a hit to your GPA. Admissions wants to see like others have said an "upward trend" so while maintaining this 15ish credits a semester, admissions does not want to see you get destroyed mentally/physically due to the difficulty, all in all be kind to yourself and work on that upward trend. But again, you are a competitive applicant with some room for improvement.

As far as experiences go, Doug will tell you the same thing but focus on the breadth and depth of your experiences (quality) over quantity. They want to see a diverse applicant that is also able to be human and not vet med 100% of the time. Example, I was a certified spin instructor and taught classes at my university's fitness center for 3 years a couple times a week (aka not at all related to vet med but was a really great outlet for me outside of academics). Mizzou also loves to see leadership in some way, shape or form. Whether that be on a club executive board at MU, a mentor/peer tutor, primary researcher, trainer at a clinic/hospital you work at, etc.

Hope this helps! If you have any other questions or want to chat just holler 🙂