So I'm out of the running for UCVM. I took 3 of the required courses online & they said they aren't equivalent to the prerequisites - which is funny, because they're fine for WCVM. It was a gamble - they would only look at the syllabi to determine equivalence after they received an application...which means I enrolled in the Ecology prereq & spent $800 on it, only to be mid-way through it & told it's not good enough. Pretty frigging frustrating! Anyhow, I figured I'd forward on some advice from a friend who's in 3rd year at UCVM.
When you're answering the essay, regardless of what it's about, think RELATIONSHIPS. As in, building relationships with clients etc. There's an entire course in first year, I think, that teaches you solely how to communicate with & build relationships/trust with clients. So that really is a biggie. Also, a huge thing they focus on is PREVENTION rather than cure - so mention that too. Definitely tweak your essays/interviews to include these two aspects! She said she thought the essays for the past 2 years have generally been about the role veterinarians play today in large animal medicine, so you might wanna start thinking about that too.
I might get some slack for posting this, but we're all here to help each other as best we can, right? The advice is no good to me anymore, but I really hope it's helpful to you guys. Knock 'em dead 🙂