WAMC - Trad. App feels very "normal"

[kfbrcr8]

20M, GA resident. Junior Biology Major. Applying this fall. Looking at UGA, UT, VMCVM, Mississippi, Mizzou, LSU, UW Madison

Concerned that my application has nothing "extraordinary" enough to stand out. Feels like I have just done the normal stuff.

cGPA: 3.75 (Will fluctuate after this semester)
sGPA: 3.68? Depends on school and if they include all science or just prereqs. (Have one B out of all bio classes but a few Bs in chemistry/physics)

Vet Experience
~1200 hrs VA at one clinic. SA with some goats and pigs
-Have a LA vet and Food animal vet lined up to shadow over summer if nothing changes.

Animal Experience
~450 hrs Kennel Tech at same clinic as above
~50 hrs pet sitting for neighbors
~300 hrs helping on family members farm (Equine and chickens)

Research
-None

Employment
~3000 hrs in construction
~100 hrs Gen Chem II TA

Extracurriculars
~Multiple Leadership roles in Prevet Club every year. Hoping for President this upcoming year but will be after submitting.
~Varsity Soccer Captain in HS
~FFA in HS (Not counting as animal because I mostly cleaned trailers before pig shows, helped with selling plants)

Volunteer
~Getting it this semester through a program with my university. Not sure of hours right now as I am just getting started.
~Have some volunteer hours but they are through other organizations i.e prevent and FFA. I plan to reference that in experience descriptions

Awards/Honors/Scholarships
-Multiple scholarships from freshman year
- Presidents List Freshman Year both semesters
-Deans List every semester since
-1st Degree Blackbelt
-National Honor Society

LORs
- Will likely have 3 vets. Is having no professor a huge red flag? I don't have a good enough relationship with one to feel comfortable with them writing me one.

Personal Statment
-Plan to start with my first experience in vet med. Grew up in a rural community and worked at the only clinic in my town. Plan to discuss how I want to work in a rural area.

Concerns
-Again, I don't feel like I have anything that really stands out. All of my experiences just seem very normal. Also worried about my gpa after this semester (ochem 2 and phys 2). Obviously I have no research and don't have anything in the works so ideas on my school list and any others not heavily research focused?

Also, any recommendations for writing experience descriptions? Ive heard the "what you did and what you learned" for vet experiences but what about like FFA or varsity soccer? Should I write a story about how I was impacted for those or treat them like a resume. i.e "Captain of the team, led the team to many wins"? That just feels so boring to read. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

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[abrew13]

Will likely have 3 vets. Is having no professor a huge red flag? I don't have a good enough relationship with one to feel comfortable with them writing me one.

VMCAS strongly encourages one of your letters to come from a professor, and I’m pretty sure some schools specifically require it. Do you have an academic advisor you could ask, or is there a professor you are kind of close to that you could try to get close enough to this upcoming year?

 

[ctwom24]

I can give my two cents and try to help since I applied this past year and have gotten into multiple schools (very thankful). I would say if you can keep your GPA up or maintain it above a 3.5/3.6 then you'll be in the competitive GPA range. You have a good amount of veterinary hours so that's awesome, I think it is a good idea to get some large animal vet hours this summer (maybe shoot for 150-200+) as you are planning on doing! If you have the opportunity to engage in research I would recommend doing so, so you can have something down for that application section but research is not a requirement for admission into schools.

I like your idea for your personal statement- rural vets are definitely in high demand these days- just make sure you can express your unique perspectives/nuance you have for vet med within your statement and express your passion for the field as well.

I only applied to VMCVM and UW Madison among your list of schools. I would say for VMCVM they are more holistic for OOS applicant GPAs but for UW Madison they have a very high average GPA standard for OOS students I think it is like 3.9. I am not saying OOS applicants with GPA's under 3.9 do not get in but with only 30 OOS spots it is challenging. Just something to consider when forming your school lists- I tried to apply to schools with a reasonable amount of OOS spots (took the leap on UW Madison because I have family in Madison).

For your experiences section I know different schools may tell you different things. But the way I did my experiences section was dedicating about 75-80% of the characters to what I actually did (drew blood, monitored patients during surgery, etc.) with an emphasis on hands on duties within the first or second sentence [an admissions counselor told me to do so in order to capture the admissions team's attention]. Then the remaining characters I tried to wrap up my description with 1-2 sentences detailing what I learned or how the experience contributed to my veterinary knowledge (ex: this experience exposed me to veterinary surgery which grew my interest in specializing in the future).

I did end up including how I did competitive swimming in high school and how I was team captain of my high school team. I spun these experience descriptions to show how competitive swimming taught me excellent time management skills + discipline and then I spun team captain to highlight an early leadership experience and how I promoted inclusivity, etc. Really think about how those experiences impacted you or what vet schools can glean from those experiences that they do not see elsewhere in your application.

For LORS, I know one of my schools required a professor LOR (Tufts) so I am not sure about your schools. However, I would also strongly recommend having a professor or advisor LOR so schools can hear from someone who taught you and see how you are as a student rather than just as a VA.

I remember something an admissions counselor mentioned- applicants really do not know what "worked" on their application so take my advice with a grain of salt, this is just what worked for me/what I think. I know it can be very difficult to not compare yourself to others but you are in the same boat as many and I would recommend being an advocate for yourself! If you have any other questions feel free to DM me!