What are my chances?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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What are my chances?

  • Great!

    Votes: 12 8.8%

  • Good, but some areas could be improved

    Votes: 28 20.6%

  • You're a pretty average candidate, so it could go either way

    Votes: 21 15.4%

  • Not great, but there's room for improvement

    Votes: 7 5.1%

  • Have you considered under water basket weaving?

    Votes: 68 50.0%
  • Total voters
    136
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finnickthedog said:
Never give up on your dreams WZ! You can be a horse. You can be anything you set your mind to.
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I don't want to be a horse anymore, they're crazy!
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singhb09 said:
Yeah, just VMCAS fees, supplementals, and GRE scores set me back around $2400 :eek: but honestly I had been saving for over a year anticipating to spend a lot, and given that it's my future at stake I see it as a more-than-worthwhile investment. It is my first time! It took me a while to get my foot into the door of vet med experience though so I spent a couple of years after finishing undergrad working on getting diverse experience. I'm applying a couple of years later than I would have anticipated in the past which I know is no big deal but it's dragged on as if it were an eternity!




Thank you! I know my academics aren't necessarily "bad", but obsessing over the Successful Applicants Stats forums (for several months :scared:) had me worrying about all the 3.8+ GPA's I was seeing, lol. So far I've interviewed at Western, and interview at Michigan this Friday. In January I'll be interviewing at Kansas, Auburn, and Ohio.
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Yes, I'll be stalking and obsessing over the successful applicants stat forums for another year... Best of luck with your interviews!!!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
finnickthedog said:
Never give up on your dreams WZ! You can be a horse. You can be anything you set your mind to.
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0/10 do NOT recommend searching "How to be a horse" on google!!!!!!!! Apparently that's a fetish for some people and there's people who pay other people to put on horse costumes and do nasty things.
 
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cdoconn said:
0/10 do NOT recommend searching "How to be a horse" on google!!!!!!!! Apparently that's a fetish for some people and there's people who pay other people to put on horse costumes and do nasty things.
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Rule 34, part b: Never google things without safe search on.
 
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WildZoo said:
Horses wake up with only two decisions to make: homicide or suicide. I prefer sleeping in.
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Ahh.. so it sounds like my personality fits the personality of a horse. (That explains why my Patronus is a Unicorn- the horn gives extra homicide power!)
 
I think finals are getting to you guys :whistle:
 
I believe that statement... I was watching a necropsy on a horse with a split pelvis and torn urethra. He did this after slipping in his urine after waking from anesthesia... in a padded room
 
cheathac said:
I believe that statement... I was watching a necropsy on a horse with a split pelvis and torn urethra. He did this after slipping in his urine after waking from anesthesia... in a padded room
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That is horrifying.
 
As a child I wanted to be a firefighter, then a policeman, then an "Animal Cop" (after watching some Animal Planet). In grade 3, after realizing the amount of job instability and the difficulties getting into something like that, I decided to settle for the boring life of a veterinarian ;)

I feel like at some point I must have wanted to be a human doctor as well, but that was all a long time ago.
 
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Saraya5266 said:
Soooo.... This year I applied to vet school at Tufts, University of Penn, Ohio State, University of Illinois, Colorado State, and Virginia- Maryland. I just heard back from Ohio State and was declined. It is making me very nervous because I thought I had a strong application and I already feel kind of defeated. I do know that I have five other schools I am waiting on yet. What do you guys think of my chances? Here are my stats..
Senior Undergrad Student
Cum GPA: 3.82
Science GPA: 3.73
GRE scores: Quat-153(51 percentile), Verbal-154(63 percentile), and writing- 5(93 percentile)
I have research experience under my microbiology professor at my undergraduate institution.
I have been working at a small animal hospital since I graduated high school. >2000 hours of experience
I have shadowed an equine vet briefly as well as a large animal vet briefly.
I received a STEM scholarship at school.
Been involved in leadership roles on campus.
Volunteered for a variety of different things throughout college.
I also have a lot of other things from high school as well.
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If there's one thing I've learned from applying this cycle, it's that all the schools evaluate applicants differently and how you do at one school doesn't necessarily have much standing on how you might do with another. Me for example, I got rejected from Missouri outright and got an interview from OSU. My point is, there's a lot schools you have left to hear from. I was feeling so defeated when I got rejected from Missouri and the very next day, I got an interview. Your GPA is good, your GRE isn't bad, sounds like your veterinary experience isn't particularly diverse, but some schools don't care as much about that. I'd say you have very good chances of getting an interview somewhere! It's not over until your hear from all of those schools!
 
mmmdreamerz said:
If there's one thing I've learned from applying this cycle, it's that all the schools evaluate applicants differently and how you do at one school doesn't necessarily have much standing on how you might do with another.
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Exactly! I was rejected outright from my UF (my IS) and NCSU, but got interviews at Penn and UTK, and was accepted by UTK. We say it again and again, but really it is so true - each school looks at applications differently, and each school has a different applicant pool as well. A rejection at one school doesn't necessarily mean squat for your chances at other schools!
 
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WildZoo said:
Exactly! I was rejected outright from my UF (my IS) and NCSU, but got interviews at Penn and UTK, and was accepted by UTK. We say it again and again, but really it is so true - each school looks at applications differently, and each school has a different applicant pool as well. A rejection at one school doesn't necessarily mean squat for your chances at other schools!
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You really can't *get it* until you experience it firsthand but it is so true lol
 
mmmdreamerz said:
You really can't *get it* until you experience it firsthand but it is so true lol
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mmmdreamerz said:
If there's one thing I've learned from applying this cycle, it's that all the schools evaluate applicants differently and how you do at one school doesn't necessarily have much standing on how you might do with another. Me for example, I got rejected from Missouri outright and got an interview from OSU. My point is, there's a lot schools you have left to hear from. I was feeling so defeated when I got rejected from Missouri and the very next day, I got an interview. Your GPA is good, your GRE isn't bad, sounds like your veterinary experience isn't particularly diverse, but some schools don't care as much about that. I'd say you have very good chances of getting an interview somewhere! It's not over until your hear from all of those schools!
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Well it is more comforting to hear these things from you guys. Just nerve racking experience, especially when you have wanted nothing more than to become a veterinarian. I knew going into this application cycle that my diversity in veterinary medicine isn't the greatest, but unfortunately I had to work throughout school in order to pay for it(hence why I such a substantial amount of small animal hours). This along with the other activities I was involved in while keeping a good GPA did not give me much time to "diversify." So that definitely scares me. Thanks for the encouragement, and providing some hope! Good luck to you as you go through your interviews as well!
 
Saraya5266 said:
Well it is more comforting to hear these things from you guys. Just nerve racking experience, especially when you have wanted nothing more than to become a veterinarian. I knew going into this application cycle that my diversity in veterinary medicine isn't the greatest, but unfortunately I had to work throughout school in order to pay for it(hence why I such a substantial amount of small animal hours). This along with the other activities I was involved in while keeping a good GPA did not give me much time to "diversify." So that definitely scares me. Thanks for the encouragement, and providing some hope! Good luck to you as you go through your interviews as well!
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I understand. When the first thing you hear is a rejection it is very easy to get caught up in it. You still have five schools to hear from and all it takes is one "yes!"
 
WildZoo said:
Rule 34, part b: Never google things without safe search on.
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I thought rule 34 was that if it exists, there's porn of it. I wasn't aware that there were subrules.

Had to mid-comment check myself. From Urban Dictionary
Rule 34B
(a) An extension of Rule 34.
If porn has not been made of an object that has been Rule34'd, porn will be made of this object as soon as your request is processed.

(b) An extension of Rule 34 for medium.
If a creative media exists, someone has used it to create porn at some time.
 
Why would you state that SMU is not accredited?

SMU is a fully accredited Veterinarian school. Go to their website. Here's the information.

Association of America Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC)

St. Matthew's University, School of Veterinary Medicine is a Member Institution of the AAVMC.

Cayman Islands

The Ministry of Health Services, Agriculture, Aviation and Works of the Cayman Islands has granted St. Matthew's University School of Veterinary Medicine a full charter (click here to see document).

American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)

St Matthew's University School of Veterinary Medicine charter qualified the School to seek listing with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which in turn allows our graduates to register with the Educational Committee of Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG). ECFVG certification allows our graduates to be licensed in the United States and other countries accepting ECFVG certification.

St. Matthew's University School of Veterinary Medicine received its AVMA listing in December 2005 (listed under Related Resources - Veterinary Colleges of the world, British West Indies).

American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB)

In addition, the American Association of Veterinary State Boards has established a program for evaluating international veterinary education called the Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education equivalence (PAVE). You may learn more about the PAVE program at:

http://www.aavsb.org/PAVE/PAVEHome.aspx
 
Concernedmother said:
Why would you state that SMU is not accredited?

SMU is a fully accredited Veterinarian school. Go to their website. Here's the information.

Association of America Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC)

St. Matthew's University, School of Veterinary Medicine is a Member Institution of the AAVMC.

Cayman Islands

The Ministry of Health Services, Agriculture, Aviation and Works of the Cayman Islands has granted St. Matthew's University School of Veterinary Medicine a full charter (click here to see document).

American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)

St Matthew's University School of Veterinary Medicine charter qualified the School to seek listing with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which in turn allows our graduates to register with the Educational Committee of Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG). ECFVG certification allows our graduates to be licensed in the United States and other countries accepting ECFVG certification.

St. Matthew's University School of Veterinary Medicine received its AVMA listing in December 2005 (listed under Related Resources - Veterinary Colleges of the world, British West Indies).

American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB)

In addition, the American Association of Veterinary State Boards has established a program for evaluating international veterinary education called the Program for the Assessment of Veterinary Education equivalence (PAVE). You may learn more about the PAVE program at:

http://www.aavsb.org/PAVE/PAVEHome.aspx
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None of that means it is accredited.

here's the list of accredited schools: https://www.avma.org/ProfessionalDe...on/Colleges/Documents/colleges_accredited.pdf
 
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Teepster87 said:
I thought rule 34 was that if it exists, there's porn of it. I wasn't aware that there were subrules.

Had to mid-comment check myself. From Urban Dictionary
Rule 34B
(a) An extension of Rule 34.
If porn has not been made of an object that has been Rule34'd, porn will be made of this object as soon as your request is processed.

(b) An extension of Rule 34 for medium.
If a creative media exists, someone has used it to create porn at some time.
Click to expand...
Ha, that wasn't an official extension, I made it up
 
DVMDream said:
SMU is not accredited. Instead of taking just the NAVLE, you have to also take either ECFVG or PAVE as well as NAVLE to be able to be licensed in the US. And those additional tests aren't cheap or easy.
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Thank you. We will certainly investigate this. This information was very helpful. Where do you attend school/or did? Concernedmother
 
dyachei said:
The other thing about PAVE is that some states won't accept it.
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dyachei said:
The other thing about PAVE is that some states won't accept it.
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St. Matthew's Univ. is not accredited by the AVMA and my daughter was just accepted. Also, they do not offer financial aid or loans. You have to finance it on your own. OMG!!!! Concernedmother
 
Concernedmother said:
St. Matthew's Univ. is not accredited by the AVMA and my daughter was just accepted. Also, they do not offer financial aid or loans. You have to finance it on your own. OMG!!!! Concernedmother
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Yeah. I would recommend your daughter apply to other schools. If she wants to go caribbean, Ross and SGU are both accredited and offer federal loans.
 
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Concernedmother said:
St. Matthew's Univ. is not accredited by the AVMA and my daughter was just accepted. Also, they do not offer financial aid or loans. You have to finance it on your own. OMG!!!! Concernedmother
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Just to give you an example, I have a friend currently attending SMU and she has resorted to crowdfunding her education this year because one of her non-federal loans ended up falling through for whatever reason. That stuff doesn't happen (or it is really uncommon/rare) with federal loans.

The costs to attend are mind boggling. I visited and got a chance to stay in the student apartments (which are optional, you can go elsewhere)-they cost $2000 a month for a 2 bed 1 bath. The students told me that was cheap for the island. Even just groceries cost anywhere from 3-5x that of the same stuff you'd find in the States. Several students talked about wanting to transfer to US schools because of costs.

Otherwise, I'd say the island is probably about as safe as any other college town. It's certainly beautiful, but seriously expensive. I have no problem believing that students leave with $300k+ of debt, even if their tuition is slightly cheaper than some OOS schools.
 
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dyachei said:
Yeah. I would recommend your daughter apply to other schools. If she wants to go caribbean, Ross and SGU are both accredited and offer federal loans.
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She is waiting for a reply from Ross. Not sure about SGU. Thanks. Concernedmother
 
pinkpuppy9 said:
Just to give you an example, I have a friend currently attending SMU and she has resorted to crowdfunding her education this year because one of her non-federal loans ended up falling through for whatever reason. That stuff doesn't happen (or it is really uncommon/rare) with federal loans.

The costs to attend are mind boggling. I visited and got a chance to stay in the student apartments (which are optional, you can go elsewhere)-they cost $2000 a month for a 2 bed 1 bath. The students told me that was cheap for the island. Even just groceries cost anywhere from 3-5x that of the same stuff you'd find in the States. Several students talked about wanting to transfer to US schools because of costs.

Otherwise, I'd say the island is probably about as safe as any other college town. It's certainly beautiful, but seriously expensive. I have no problem believing that students leave with $300k+ of debt, even if their tuition is slightly cheaper than some OOS schools.
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Not to mention that federal loans allow for more freedom in repayment options and financial hardship
 
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Thestral said:
Posting here as a placeholder; will update my info on this post and then repost with my complete stats when I actually start the app process. Hope that's okay!

I'm still not sure if I want to apply this summer or wait another cycle; the schools I apply to will depend on what prereqs I can realistically finish.

3rd year UG, 1st semester, working toward B.S. in Chem with concentration in Biochem

interested in applying to Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Kansas, VT, Auburn (IS), NCSU, LSU

cGPA: 3.80 (about to take a hit :/)

300+ veterinary hours total; includes 20ish exotic, 90ish equine, and 200ish small animal

decent amount of animal hours (have to go back and calculate)

research hours: 40ish (?) equine, 20ish bovine, and 50ish (?) salamander

Any advice on whether I should apply this summer? I know it's hard to judge on so little info; I'll be updating this when I get more time. Personally I feel unprepared, but other people including the equine vet I shadow told me to at least use it as practice
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Your GPA is great, but your hours are pretty low. NCSU will automatically throw out your app if you have fewer than 400 hours, and most schools will expect more than that. Since your GPA is high, as long as your GRE is good too you can probably get away with fewer than average hours but you still need more. (Average is generally 1,000+ veterinary hours plus about the same number of animal hours).

If you can squeeze in a few hundred more hours before application time, it would be worth applying but otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it. Applications are expensive so unless you have tons of money to burn, don't apply just to practice. Even if you do have a lot of money, there would be better ways to spend it in order to improve your application.

I don't know about Auburn's average stats, but if you really want to apply without considerably more hours, a good compromise would be to apply to just your IS for your first cycle. You have the grades, you just need more hours so with more time I'm sure you can get in somewhere!
 
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Thestral said:
Oh and Auburn I believe has a 3.59 average cGPA. My pre-vet adivsor said 600-1000 hours to be competitive.
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Yeah, 600 seems to be on the low end of competitive though I think it's pretty rare for someone to be accepted with 600 (again, I don't know about Auburn specifically). Their admissions department and the Auburn c/o 2021 thread (and the ones from previous years) may be helpful. You can also look in the successful applicants threads and see who applied to Auburn. I do know that Texas A&M and NCSU in particular are very, very competitive for OOS.
 
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TrashPanda said:
Your GPA is great, but your hours are pretty low. NCSU will automatically throw out your app if you have fewer than 400 hours, and most schools will expect more than that. Since your GPA is high, as long as your GRE is good too you can probably get away with fewer than average hours but you still need more. (Average is generally 1,000+ veterinary hours plus about the same number of animal hours).

If you can squeeze in a few hundred more hours before application time, it would be worth applying but otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it. Applications are expensive so unless you have tons of money to burn, don't apply just to practice. Even if you do have a lot of money, there would be better ways to spend it in order to improve your application.

I don't know about Auburn's average stats, but if you really want to apply without considerably more hours, a good compromise would be to apply to just your IS for your first cycle. You have the grades, you just need more hours so with more time I'm sure you can get in somewhere!
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Not to mention if you want practice there's nothing stopping you from just opening up VMCAS, looking at the questions/filling them out on your own documents, and then not submitting them. They only want payment when you submit, last I checked, so it doesn't make sense to me to practice by actually applying.
 
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Any insights into how competitive OK State is for OOS? I couldn't find any admissions stats from them
 
Thestral said:
Any insights into how competitive OK State is for OOS? I couldn't find any admissions stats from them
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OK State Undergrad here who is also a biochemistry major! Shout out to the psychos who picked an unnecessarily hard major!

One of the awesome things about out vet school is that you can do a file review with them before applying! So I emailed Anna Teague in April-ish, and she looked over all my information, calculated my GPAs, and emailed me back with what needed to be improved! I wouldn't do that until April though, hahah she's crazy busy with admissions right now, and will be until April.

Let me know if you have any questions, there's a couple OSU vet students& DVMs who graduated from OSU on here!
 
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cdoconn said:
OK State Undergrad here who is also a biochemistry major! Shout out to the psychos who picked an unnecessarily hard major!

One of the awesome things about out vet school is that you can do a file review with them before applying! So I emailed Anna Teague in April-ish, and she looked over all my information, calculated my GPAs, and emailed me back with what needed to be improved! I wouldn't do that until April though, hahah she's crazy busy with admissions right now, and will be until April.

Let me know if you have any questions, there's a couple OSU vet students& DVMs who graduated from OSU on here!
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Thank you so much! I've never heard of a file review before applying; that would probably significantly ease my worries. I will definitely do that either this or next April.

How do you like the atmosphere at OK State? Location, culture, etc.
 
Thestral said:
Thank you so much! I've never heard of a file review before applying; that would probably significantly ease my worries. I will definitely do that either this or next April.

How do you like the atmosphere at OK State? Location, culture, etc.
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Right now I might not be able to give Stillwater great reviews- it's really cold (wind chill of 12 when I left this morning). Hahaha

But I love OSU. The campus is beautiful, I really love the facilities! I actually do research over at the vet school with a professor, so I really like that. Lots of research opportunities!! It's definitely got a small town, big college vibe... but Stillwater itself is okay. There's a couple of everything you'd need, and that's about it (unless you're counting Sonics or Walmart- we have 3 of each). Stillwater airport recently flying nonstop to DFW, Texas, so that's a huge plus! It's only about an hour/ hour and a half drive into the city, so if you have free time, it makes for a great day trip. Culture is very conservative, so that can either be good or bad, but it's slowly moving to be more neutral.

I think that's about all! Trying to think if I missed/ forgot anything!
 
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cdoconn said:
Right now I might not be able to give Stillwater great reviews- it's really cold (wind chill of 12 when I left this morning). Hahaha

But I love OSU. The campus is beautiful, I really love the facilities! I actually do research over at the vet school with a professor, so I really like that. Lots of research opportunities!! It's definitely got a small town, big college vibe... but Stillwater itself is okay. There's a couple of everything you'd need, and that's about it (unless you're counting Sonics or Walmart- we have 3 of each). Stillwater airport recently flying nonstop to DFW, Texas, so that's a huge plus! It's only about an hour/ hour and a half drive into the city, so if you have free time, it makes for a great day trip. Culture is very conservative, so that can either be good or bad, but it's slowly moving to be more neutral.

I think that's about all! Trying to think if I missed/ forgot anything!
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I'll add that we're about an hour away from two large cities (Oklahoma City and Tulsa). @Thestral, if you want something that's not in Stillwater, you can probably find it in one of the cities.
 
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