What's your story? (Pre Vet)

[prevet04]

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Hi Everyone! I just wanted to make a thread for people to share their stories and get advice on their applications.

Here's my story:
I'm an undergrad at University of Guelph majoring in Animal Biology, applying to OVC for the second time in Jan 2015. First time I applied to OVC (this year) I didn't get an interview. My marks were in the mid to high 70% range for my prereqs and last 2 semesters. My MCAT score was a 23 (writing it again in a few days to try to bump my score). This will be my third time writing my MCAT (if that doesn't show determination, I don't know what does haha!) My marks are improving, it just sucks when you struggle through first and second year and you can't retake courses for OVC. I would love to go back in time and slap my first year self for doing so poorly in classes.

My experience includes volunteering at a companion animal clinic, assisting with clinical nutrition research on cats, equine vet shadowing, working at a canine rehab and chiropractic clinic, and working as an on call technician at the OVC in the large and small animal surgery wards. I am also working on publishing a literature review in JAVMA in the near future.

I've been casually looking at Ross, SGU, and schools in the UK. I would love to go to the States because it is closer to home, but I am missing a bunch of prerequisites and my first year physics/chem/bio courses are all pretty awful.

My plan right now is to do an extra semester this fall, graduate, and apply to OVC for Sept 2015 entrance. If I don't get in, the plan is to do a MSc. (potentially in Clinical Studies at the OVC). Then, apply after my masters to both the OVC and other schools. If a masters doesn't work out, I'd probably try to get into vet tech school (even though it would be a bit upsetting as I've put everything into getting into vet school).

Anyways, feel free to leave your own stories and questions below, also any advice would be much appreciated. 🙂

 

[Lab Rat83]

This is fun! Second year vet student at AVC on Prince Edward Island (Canada). I had applied 3 times before I got in. No interview my first attempt, interviewed and wait listed on round 2 and accepted round 3. During this time I increased my prereq GPA from about 77% to about an 82% and even started my plan b career of becoming a high school science and math teacher. I also effed off my first part of university and had to make up for it big time. I took my GRE 3 times and went from a 35% percentile average to > 70%. I had a lot of small animal clinic experience as well as lots of dairy.

Now looking back at my rock bottoms, my struggles, my battle with 1.5 year long depression following a job loss (which I'm only starting to feel comfortable talking about now) and sacrifices there's nowhere I'd rather be (even during the stress of midterms and exams) and nothing else I'd rather be doing. To use my father's saying I'm happier than a pig in sh't.

 

[prevet04]

This is fun! Second year vet student at AVC on Prince Edward Island (Canada). I had applied 3 times before I got in. No interview my first attempt, interviewed and wait listed on round 2 and accepted round 3. During this time I increased my prereq GPA from about 77% to about an 82% and even started my plan b career of becoming a high school science and math teacher. I also effed off my first part of university and had to make up for it big time. I took my GRE 3 times and went from a 35% percentile average to > 70%. I had a lot of small animal clinic experience as well as lots of dairy.

Now looking back at my rock bottoms, my struggles, my battle with 1.5 year long depression following a job loss (which I'm only starting to feel comfortable talking about now) and sacrifices there's nowhere I'd rather be (even during the stress of midterms and exams) and nothing else I'd rather be doing. To use my father's saying I'm happier than a pig in sh't.

Wow! Im so proud of you for sticking with it! It makes me really hopeful to see that if you work hard and want it bad enough, you can get in. I had read that AVC is pretty hard to get into as well. And it is only for Canadian residents in the Atlantic provinces right? I'm glad you love being in vet school and its nice to see that the struggle of getting in is worth it 🙂 Did you apply to any international schools as well? Do you ever consider teaching or wish that you have gone that route? I have been thinking of going into optometry lately if vet school doesn't pan out, but it seems to be really competitive (only one optometry school in Canada!) Good luck on all your studies! 🙂

 

[battie]

I am definitely one of those people who started wanting to be a vet when I was a young kid. I had a six month stint where I thought it would be cool to be a weather anchor, but that reverted back quickly. I grew up in pet stores because my family has owned them for several generations, so I got a lot of vet exposure early and took every chance to go to the vet with my mom/aunt/grandparents when I could. Working with the animals for so long has pretty much kept the dream alive! lol. I have jumped from wanting to just GP, to being the vet for the horses used in the Olympics, to doing research to reduce the prevalence of genetic diseases in purebred dogs, to catering specifically only to dog breeders, to shelter med, and now I'm thinking hard on emergency med after the experiences I've had this summer. Applied last year to five schools, waitlisted at one. So I am reapplying to only two of those schools this year and taking the gap year to get experience and help raise my GPA some.

 

[pipab]

Thank you for coming up with this post. Very interesting topic. My story -- I grew up in a farmer family in North Eastern region of Thailand. My grandparents had many water buffalo 🙂. Being a vet is not that well-known in my region (about 25 years ago), but I always curious if those water buffalo ever catch a cold. Anyway, I ended up graduated in Computer Science and worked in a software company for many many years 🙂. I found my interest again when I moved to the US about 7 years ago. So, I quit my job and now I'm a pre-vet student. I'm applying to Texas A&M(only one school) this year. I took GRE last week and did bad on Verbal. So, I'm re-taking it next month. I'm also looking at Ross and SGU.

 

[battie]

My grandparents had many water buffalo 🙂.

Water buffalo?! That's sweet!