Hi all - just coming to try to get an idea if going to vet school would even be feasible for me, as I'm just starting to do my research.
I'm an older student (just turned 28.) A year ago, I left my career to go back to school to become a doctor, and did a one-year post-bacc. I got a GPA of 3.66 in the post-bacc, but my undergrad GPA was low, a 3.3.
Anyway, after completing the post-bacc and shadowing in hospitals I've realized that while I truly love medicine, I don't love treating people. I've had a lifelong love of animals (I'm guessing this is sort of an eye-roll statement for people who want to go to vet school) and have started thinking that veterinary medicine might be right for me.
I am currently a volunteer at an animal shelter and am looking around for opportunities to shadow or work at a veterinary clinic.
Even reception work at a vet clinic would help you get your foot in the door.
🙂
So - question 1 is, with a good GRE score would I have any chance at all of getting in to vet school? I'm a Pennsylvania resident, so my instate school would be Penn, which I am guessing is one of the most competitive?
Of course there's a chance. You'd have to rock the GRE and have wonderful veterinary and animal experiences, but there is definitely a chance with a ~3.45.
While Penn might be your only IS school, it is definitely competitive and definitely expensive. Look into other schools to apply to as well, but
generally your best chance at admissions (unless you have amazing GPA+GRE+experience) is your IS school.
Question 2 is, would I have any chance of applying for 2013? Or will I need to get a year's worth of veterinary experience under my belt?
I'm not sure how much you've looked into how the application works.
Have you looked into what courses are required to apply? Different schools have different prereqs, of course; here's a link to those (
http://www.aavmc.org/College-Specif...ific-Requirements_College-Specifications.aspx). Also, your courses need to be less than 5-6 years for math and science classes, and I think generally less than 10 for others (english, etc.). So make sure all your classes qualify, since you're an older applicant. I'm not sure a one-year post-bacc would cover all of your bases as general chemistry (one year) is a prereq for organic chemistry (one year) which is a prereq for biochem. So just make sure you meet all requirements before paying the money to apply.
Most schools require some amount of animal and veterinary experience. Again, I don't know how much you've looked into this, but
animal experience is usually volunteering at shelters, kennel cleaning at a vet's office, caring for horses, vaccinting cows on your family's farm, etc.
Veterinary experience is done under direct supervision of a DVM/VMD. This includes work as a veterinary assistant, vet tech, or shadowing a vet. Research with animals is a sketchy area, which can be included in either section, depending on several factors. Also note that these are in 'hours of experience' not just 'I worked for a vet for a year.'
As far as applying right now goes, if you feel like you want to, you can only regret NOT applying.
I know a few people who were accepted with little to no actual veterinary experience; but the kicker was that they had nearly 4.0 GPAs, and almost perfect GRE scores. On the flip side, however, there are those who are rejected every year with 3.8-4.0s, and great GRE scores, too.
Speaking of GRE, you'd have to take it very soon to guarantee that it would make it to the school(s) you apply to before their respective deadlines. UPenn's is December 1, so you have a little wiggle room there, but other schools (TAMU, last year, for example) require it even before the October VMCAS deadline.
It's all up to you. Sure you have a chance, it's not the best chance in the world without much veterinary/animal experience, but still, it's possible.
Without knowing how much you've researched into this, I'm giving a broadly general response. Any other specific questions you'd like to have answered?
