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Your GPA is your only glaring weakness right now, IMHO. Depending on which schools you're applying to, you might miss GPA cutoffs (e.g. NCSU's cutoff for OOS applicants is 3.4). Your experience seems fairly diverse and considerable to me already, so I'd just focus on pulling up academic numbers in the short time you have left before the next cycle. Good luck!
I didn't apply to any of those schools, but I just wanted to say that if you feel like your stats are average for those schools, that's a) actually a very good thing, and b) all the more reason to attend the interviews. The average vet student may have your pre-vet stats, is probably white/middle-class/female, and wants to go into SA med, but that's exactly how averages work -- a lot of successful applicants fit that mold and perhaps you're one of them! Plus, the interviews are absolutely your chance to show you're a mature, intelligent, and driven pre-professional beyond your paper application. It's way too early to feel defeated. Good luck!
Thank you!
Thanks! 🙂
Where all have you applied to?
Hmm. The only things I can pick out are that your GRE scores could use a little improvement, as you said (though they're certainly not bad) and that your vet experience hours are a tad on the low side. Not according to what most schools post on their websites, but just from what I've seen around here, shooting for 1000 hours seems to be the goal, and you want that to be fairly varied too. What schools did you apply to and get rejections from? Don't give up hope yet if you're still waiting on others, because your stats actually look pretty good. If you do end up needing to reapply, definitely get file reviews from the schools that rejected you.
I was rejected from Cornell and UTK, and I am waiting on Wisconsin, NCSU and MSU (I had an interview there last month)
I didn't even get an interview at UTK. I was a little surprised by that too. I expected the Cornell rejection, but I thought I had a shot at UTK.
Perhaps it was something in the subjective (Phase 2) portion of the evaluation? I don't have all of your objective stats so I can't calculate what your Phase 1 score would have been, but based on the info you gave us I think it's unlikely you were disqualified in Phase 1.
It all depends on the lab. I found a poultry behavior lab that paid me, but I know a good number of labs in my area offered class credit or publishing opportunities.
TBH, I'd totally take the publishing opportunities. I'm pretty sure all of the schools drool over applicants with good experience, grades, AND publications haha.
Touche
A lot of networking and a little bit of luck. I found at larger universities research positions were more competitive.
St. George's does! That's the only school I know of off the top of my head
Ross does as well, but I'm not sure about St Mattews.
An accredited school is legit no matter where it is located. Sometimes island life can be difficult though, from what I understand.
Searching the threads can find you very thorough discussions about the island schools.
I personally haven't considered any island school because I do not want to be out of the country. @jmo1012, care to weigh in?
Would you say you were well received by NCSU students, as were your classmates at whatever school they ended up at? The 4th year island students I've met usually say everyone welcomed them, but I have always wondered if that was just 'tour appropriate' talk.
for the most part well received. some people are better than others. most clinicians dont care - the bit that trips me up is when a very specific thing has been taught here that wasnt necessarily emphasized (or the opinion of our professor) in our classes. that occasionally leads to grumpy clinicians.
Thank you!!! Good luck to you too 🙂
Include everything! Your Sea World experience is awesome, as it diversifies your experience. Your academic stats are extremely competitive as well. I would advise continuing to diversify your experiences by including some more LA, specifically food animal and some more equine, to help round out your vet hours.
The VMCAS application is very thorough. You should include EVERYTHING, including those extracurriculars and especially the research (many schools view research favorably). The VMCAS has a special section devoted to extracurriculars and other employment. You should include everything. Keep in mind that many schools rank certain experiences differently. You should cast your net broad when it comes to listing experiences. Schools can look at the experiences they like and can ignore the ones that aren't relevant to *their* application process. But, an activity that might not matter as much to one school might make you stand out against other applicants at another.
