Western U

[Chapelle]

---

Members do not see this ad.

a

 

[natalieises]

I don't think there are any scholarships because Western is a private school. Also, you won't necessarily out compete everyone. The reason for the lower requirements is the way they pick the class. They seat on diversity so you could have a 4.0 and still not necessarily get in.

 

[Chapelle]

a

 

[CatVet2Be]

What do you mean by diversity? Diversity of animal experience, cultural background, age?

All of the above. Also, I think that since it is a new school and expensive (no in state tuition) it tends to not be most people's top choice. Even if they do offer scholarships they probably won't cover the extra expense of a private school vs. in state school tuition.

 

[Sharpei5]

I noticed that Western has much lower requirements/averages. Do you think this is just because it's new or are there serious differences between it and other schools? Do you think it may be advantageous to go there if you're really overqualified because you're likely to out-compete other students in scholarships, etc.?

They seem to require a lot more upper level Bios then most other schools. They seem to have more requirements compared to other schools.

http://www.aavmc.org/vmcas/VMSAR2009_2010/documents/Western2010.pdf

I can not explain why the have lower GPA, there must be a correlation between cost, private schools, and maybe they look for something different.

 

[lteddygrahamsl]

I think Western tend to have lower GPA's because they don't really base getting into western just on GPA. They look at overall status of the applicant and make sure that their personalities will work with the program (problem based learning). Its a different teaching style from all the other schools. You have to be really motivated. If you have a 4.0 at your undergrad will not necessarily mean you will get a 4.0 at Western. Its really hard to just memorize the material and regurgitate it on an exam here. Especially 8 weeks worth of material since we only have a weeks worth of exams every 8 weeks. You really have to understand the material. Surprisingly, the material I learned the first couple weeks of vet school, I can still recall most of material now two years later. Hope this helped.

 

[Chapelle]

a

 

[lteddygrahamsl]

Our whole system is based on Problem based learning. Cornell may do it but its not the basis for their entire program. They have lectures incorporated into their system with PBL.

 

[sbrook]

The diversity Western is looking for is what type of background each student has and literally what you bring to the table. PBL at Western is done by a small group of students working on individual cases in a small group setting. They want each student to bring some experience to all the other students so we can all help eachother learn. A class full of 4.0 students with the same backgroup would limit everyone's learning.

I don't think having great grades makes you overqualified for Western and I don't think having a lot of experience in 1 thing gives you an advantage. What is great about western is they look at the whole student not just parts and not on a point scale for each aspect. Who gets in each time really depends on the other students in the pool of applicants because they want a balance of experience in each class.

I don't want to sound preachy I just wanted to bring a Westerner's perspective to the thread 😍

 

[chris03333]

regarding grades...

Western has a GPA cut off point. Once you pass that point you make it to the next level in the app process. That is the only point in which they look at your GPA, so having a 4.0 will get you to the same step in the process as someone with a 3.0. So there is not really a "overqualified" GPA.