What was the weakest part of your application?

[OHlivia]

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Looking at the thread about what made people's applications stand out, I got to thinking about what everyone's weakest points are. It seems like everyone has something that they really think will hurt them, so I'm just curious: What was/is/will be your weakest point on your application, and how did/are/will you plan to overcome it?

Even though I won't be applying until next year's cycle, I know my biggest flaw is going to be my very limited veterinary experience. I didn't get started on getting vet experience until this summer since I didn't realize until this past school year that I really wanted to be a vet. But I plan to overcome this by demonstrating how my leadership experiences in college relate to vet med (I'm in the Corps of Cadets at my school, which is always fun having to play that role 24/7 on top of 22 credits, extracurriculars, and working *end long-winded parenthetical statement*).

 

[twelvetigers]

I love long winded parenthetical statements!

My weakest part is my GPA, no question... also the hardest thing to fix.

 

[rileyroo]

mine will be my GRE - hands down. and i'm not sure if i'll be able to fix it b/c i'm horrible at these standardized tests. lol

 

[eventualeventer]

I love long winded parenthetical statements!

My weakest part is my GPA, no question... also the hardest thing to fix.

Me, too! I guess we'll just have to blind them with charm in our personal statements or something.

 

[twelvetigers]

Or make a 5894579384578934 on our GRE or something. 🙄

 

[stick91]

Probably my science GPA (was about a 3.3 the way most schools calculated it) and the fact that at the time of the application I had less than 30 hours of small animal vet experience.

I think what helped me (accepted to two schools and wait listed at two others) was that I had really strong grades in all of my upper division biology classes taken my junior/senior years, and I was actually doing more in those two years as far as groups and such, so I demonstrated an ability to do well in class while having a lot of other commitments. I have no idea if it impacted my application much but I had just gotten the job I currently have at a small animal hospital right at the application deadline. At the time I had only done the working interview but I did put that job on there, so maybe that helped? If nothing else it has certainly given me a good perspective on small animal hospital vs. ambulatory equine (which is what the majority of my vet experience was in).

 

[StayingHopeful]

I think my weakest point was probably my interview at the first school I interviewed at, which is why I was glad my advisor told me to try to have my 1st choice school not be my first interview (and why I now want to pass that on!).

I think what helped me was GPA and breadth of experience* with the majority of my hours in what I hope to go into.

Best of luck!!

*although I didn't have any LA, which I think hurt me*

 

[HopefulAg]

Science GPA
Small amount of LA experience



And long winded parenthetical statements are pretty much a staple of any paper, post, or thought I have.

 

[Pandacinny]

My GPA, definitely. It was like a 3.22 cumulative and I think it's a big part of why it took me three tries to be accepted.

 

[sumstorm]

GPA of 3.4 in cummulative and pre-reqs over 8 years old, and most over 10 years old.

 

[chasec]

Gpa

 

[chris03333]

verbal GRE hands down. I studied my a** off on only verbal for 3 months (flash cards, kaplan class) and retook it.............got the exact same Q and A (this was prior to the writing section) scores, which were very high and then...............................(wait for it)................................................................................................................................Managed to score 70 points LOWER on the verbal section



grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr😡😡 wait listed at all of the schools I applied to in round 1. Pulled myself off the wait/alternate lists so my husband could finish his engineering degree, went into lab animal full time for a year then reapplied.

I got into several schools round 2 (never attempted the ****GRE again). Never will do anything that requires me to retake that frickin hell torture nightmare (I am not bitter at all)

 

[VAgirl]

GPA for sure. 3.1 something undergrad GPA. Assorted other pre-reqs taken after UG in which I did well, and I did have a one year masters GPA of 3.97 to balance it out, but still. Yikes. Even with that, only one school asked me if I thought I could handle vet school given my previous academic performance. Heh.

 

[karmapple]

Science GPA. I really don't recommend being a "B" student. I never really thought to much about it and was just happy that I wasn't getting C's, until I sat down one day and calculated my science GPA and realized it was falling dangerously close to the 3.0 mark.

Also, I had NO large animal veterinary experience. Not that I didn't try! (Perhaps I didn't try quite hard enough.)

 

[Catnapper]

Quant GRE + little LA experience = 👎 for me

 

[feadog]

Mine were also a lower GPA (~3.2 depending on the calculation) and only 100 hours of LA (non-veterinary, just husbandry) experience.

 

[gone2dogs]

Mine were lack of upper division bio classes and low experience hours... both areas have improved, but only time will tell if they have improved enough!

 

[VetMed555]

Pretty much zero LA experience and being from a fourth tier school (which didn't matter at all to the schools I applied). I didn't get into Missouri (my 4th choice👎), and I heard that they really valued LA experience--so there.

Very strong science GPA and tons of research saved my behind, I think.

P.S. Oh, and I did have D- in Introduction to Bible study in another life at a Christian college, but none of the schools cared AT ALL =)

 

[Mistoffeles]

low undergrad gpa (2.71, saving grace that *none* of it was science classes) + the fact that my undergrad career was a train-wreck of emotional crap and related disciplinary issues.

balanced by science gpa = 3.61 ten years later on and a personal statement/explanatory statement which tackled the "issues" head-on in a before/after context, and an extremely successful career in project management and database management to demonstrate stability.

experience was not an issue for me, close to 10,000 hours as a volunteer, tech, shadow, in a mix of LA & SA, all with increasing levels of responsibility in each.

hence the acceptance at schools in the UK where they look at your youth a little less harshly than in the US, and alternate-list at Tufts where they skew older-age and heavily weigh personal growth and self-awareness (at least that was my sense).

 

[rugbychick16]

Lack of veterinary experience, I just had one summer at a small one doctor clinic where I did kennel work, cleaning, and receptionist duties-rarely got to watch surgeries or do tech work. Although I had alot of animal experience that must have made up for it.

 

[dvm2013]

mine was experience! I thought that you needed thousands of hours but as it turns out you really don't. The quality of your experience is much more important and if you have different kinds of experience that looks good too. Everyone tends to have one weaker point in their application but if everything else is up there it definitely can balance it out.

 

[rileyroo]

mine was experience! I thought that you needed thousands of hours but as it turns out you really don't. The quality of your experience is much more important and if you have different kinds of experience that looks good too. Everyone tends to have one weaker point in their application but if everything else is up there it definitely can balance it out.

i hope so b/c my gre is tragic. 🙁

 

[Truth74]

gpa hands down

 

[Caninerepro]

My weak points were a 3.4 undergrad GPA (which I rectified with a 4.0 graduate GPA) and absolutley 0 hours of general practice pet medicine hours. I did not bother to even try for pet medicine hours as I have no intention of doing spays, neuters and shots for a living. That was demonstrated by my actual vet experience (specialties of various forms) and my personal statement. No one even asked me why I did not want to do GP work. Oh, and my GRE was only a 1370, so not that strong either.

 

[katryn]

My biggest weak point was definitely interview skills, but I'm also having to work around a lack of extracurriculars during college. I'm working on it now that I'm out....but how to explain that I sat on my butt and did nothing but study and work during school...ugh.

 

[nyanko]

Pictorially represented:

How am I fixing it?

Getting a MS, and a lot of help with my personal statement and interview skills. And applying to more than one school.

 

[DollyyLlama]

haha, awesome nyanko!

 

[Kat0303]

I didn't have much veterinary experience. I worked for 3 different vets for a grand total of around 5 months. The quality of the experiences weren't even good either. The first one I was 16 and a summer kennel worker, the 2nd was a nightmare, and the 3rd was a good vet but never had any business (and I would have stayed with her longer, but I got into vet school while I was working there and had to move)

Quant GRE + little LA experience = 👎 for me

Congrats on your acceptance to UT! We'll be seeing you in about a month and a half.... The summer is flying by! 🙂

 

[lailanni]

Very little LA experience. But I have absolutely no intention of being LA, coupled with a pretty good SA experience so I don't think it hurt at all.