What are my chances? High GPA & GRE, Low exp

[friedbologna]

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[supershorty]

You need far more experience to be competitive. I think you applying this year is going to be effectively donating your application fees, to be completely honest, and I can't recommend it in good conscience. Just over 100 hours is not sufficient, especially not only in small animal medicine.

Take this next year to really get exposed to the field and get a good solid amount of experience in different areas (including large animal/equine) and then apply.

 

[JaynaAli]

I agree with shorty. We can’t stop you from applying, but I think you’d be much better served to just be patient and wait a year and get significantly more experience in the field. I went to and was one of the student ambassadors that gave admissions tours to prospective students at one of the colleges you say you’re interested in applying to.

I also don’t feel like an essay spent trying to defend such a low number of hours would be very compelling? Perhaps you’ve got an amazing plan and I’m willing to be wrong, but I can’t imagine anything you could say that would convince me you truly know enough about the profession with 200 hours of shadowing. I am also extremely skeptical of an essay that’s going to criticize an aspect of the field (cost) when you have what amounts to between two days and three weeks lived experience in said field. ER medicine is expensive because you have to staff it whether anyone shows up or not and you’re paying for the luxury of people (and often specialists) to be available to you 24/7. I’m not saying that costs don’t become an issue, but I don’t think this is the right focus for an admissions essay. Especially if you’re going to apply with few hours, I want to know what skills and traits and experiences you have where you know you are a fit for the profession and want to pursue it.

I think with more experience hours you’ll be competitive down the line with your GPA and stuff, but this year probably isn’t your time yet.

 

[battie]

If I was an emergency vet alumna evaluating you as part of the admissions process for my school, I would likely not pass you on for evaluation. I appreciate the sentiment, but to have ~100-150 hours in emergency medicine, want to specialize, and then hopefully make emergency medicine more affordable would seem like naivete to me. I would particularly want to see you have hours in a specialty hospital with a criticalist.

Unfortunately vet med emergency is expensive because we don't have billion dollar healthcare corporations subsidizing our medicine. I'm paid 75/hr, my techs 30/hr, reception and assistants 20/hr in a metro area. Just in payroll alone that's almost 1800 shift with a skeleton crew. At a minimum, payroll is 108,000/month alone. That's with really poor staffing to be honest.

More to the point, the majority of us have zero influence on cost. I certainly don't. The criticalists at most of the local facilities don't either because they have no ownership stakes. The one specialty center in my area that is privately owned costs just as much as my corporate owned ER

 

[battie]

I know I don't have great odds and spoke with other students who are enrolled at KSU and they said that you have a better shot of getting in at KSU (in-state) on your second shot applying, so, I thought that applying this year and showing improvement for next year would help.

The better shot would be simply be in comparison to your low shot now. It doesn't mean by applying twice, you're improving your odds. You chance of getting in next year is as good as it would be if you don't apply this year at all.

Save your money. Wait to apply with the best application you can put forward.

 

[supershorty]

Hi all thank you for your responses! I do want to say that while my goal is to make ER medicine affordable, that doesn't mean I don't know why it is expensive. I am currently shadowing an ER vet alumni from KSU who started the ER vet clinic in my city and have talked about this with him as well. I know I don't have great odds and spoke with other students who are enrolled at KSU and they said that you have a better shot of getting in at KSU (in-state) on your second shot applying, so, I thought that applying this year and showing improvement for next year would help. Definitely not getting my hopes up, and appreciate y'all humbling me!

Applying multiple times itself does nothing to improve your odds. You may be a better applicant on subsequent rounds because of having additional time to get experience, but no one in the admissions office is looking at applications and going "oh, this person has applied X amount of times, we should admit them."

When I was a wee pre-vet with as little experience as you have, I thought I wanted to do whatever my most recent experience was. Spend a summer in equine med? I wanted to be an equine vet (I don't.). Spend a year working as a zoo intern? I wanted to be a zoo vet (I DEFINITELY don't). Small animal GP? Maybe I want to be a GP, although that didn't have the same allure to me. You simply don't have the experience to know what you want right now, even if you think you do, and 15 hours is nowhere near enough for me, reading admissions essays, to take you seriously about wanting to specialize. You need more time to know what that entails and what the industry itself is. Right now, you don’t know what you don’t know.

What is the rush to apply this time around?

 

[pp9]

If I was an emergency vet alumna evaluating you as part of the admissions process for my school, I would likely not pass you on for evaluation. I appreciate the sentiment, but to have ~100-150 hours in emergency medicine, want to specialize, and then hopefully make emergency medicine more affordable would seem like naivete to me.

Came here to say the exact same thing. The fact that your stated goal for becoming a vet is to make ER more affordable alone tells me you do not have enough experience in the veterinary field, let alone saying you want to do ER after only 15 hours of shadowing.

I'm being a bit snarky going forward, but also completely serious. I was ECC for almost three years and dabble in relief. Reading that definitely struck a nerve with me. Personally I would not even bring up the idea that you 'will make ER more affordable' in any essay, interview, etc. It's noble in theory, I suppose, but so, so naïve. I agree with @battie completely in that if I were on the panel, I would toss your app aside as well. Table that dream until you get in, graduate, and are sure you want to do ER. Then you can totally open up your low-cost ER clinic and watch it close down 6 months later.

If you don't understand why this is the reaction you are getting to that statement, that's proof that you need more experience both in the field in general and specifically ER.

Also ETA: If you're going to apply this year anyways and plan to address the deficiency in experience in your personal statement, I'm curious to hear what your plan is for that. What would you be saying to the admissions committees?

I wanted to be a zoo vet (I DEFINITELY don't)

Why not? You don't like every animal hating you, constantly putting out major chaotic fires involving critically endangered animals, and wishing you were paid better?