WAMC Multiple Application Cycles

[Cats4Lyfe]

Hello,
I am a long time lurker, occasional poster on this forum.
I just applied to veterinary school for the 4th time and received another rejection. I wanted some input. I have a lot going on in my application so we'll see what I can remember.

2019- applied to WSU as an Idaho resident. Applied to every other school that I met the gpa and prereq requirements for (K-State, Cornell, Illinois, Colorado, and a few others)
2020- applied to WSU as an Idaho resident
2021- applied to WSU as an Idaho resident
2023- applied to WSU as a Washington resident
2024- plan to apply to WSU as a Washington resident and every other school that I meet requirements for (so far U of Arizona, Western U, U of Illinois, Iowa State, Mizzou, Cornell, Long Island U, U of Wisconsin, possibly Utah State and a few others). This will be my last year applying as I do not feel my application will be able to improve much beyond this point and I am tired of putting my life on hold.

Research Experience:
1 semester in a lab researching camelid diets
1 semester in a lab as part of class performing finch diet trials

Awards
Graduated early from high school
Valedictorian
Full tuition scholarship
Idaho Pork Producers Scholarship
4-H Country Scholarship
Pageant Scholarship
Dean's List one summer term in college

Extracurriculars
Active in student government all through high school
Active in multiple high school clubs and volunteer activities
Participated in a pageant in high school
Took ballet lessons and piano lessons through much of high school
Part of college swing dance club
Part of college intramural ultimate frisbee team
Some volunteer work in college that was not animal related
A few years of working in a non- animal job while in college

Animal Experience
Volunteered at a zoo for 2 summers in high school
Owned several pocket pets in high school (a rabbit, cockatiel, guinea pigs, & hamster)
Active in 4-H as a teenager including horse, dairy goat, meat goat, poultry, and rabbit projects. Served as my horse club president for several years.
Senior project in high school learning to calf rope and participating in a working ranch horse 4-H club.
Worked briefly as a bather for a groomer friend before going to college
Took horseback riding lessons off and on in high school
Activities Chair and then President of my college's Pre-Vet Club- involved in vaccination trips, animal handling, etc.
Worked for a summer on a goat dairy w/ some vet involvement
More recently, I have 2 pet cats.
I breed and show dogs in AKC conformation, rally, obedience, and herding.
I own a horse that I have done a lot of training with and will be hopefully showing next year.
I am not sure how many total hours animal experience but I would say close to 10,000.

Veterinary Experience
Multiple shadowing experiences at small and mixed animal practices.
Interned at a veterinary diagnostic lab for a summer.
Interned at an equine clinic for a summer.
Worked at a small animal clinic for 3 years (kennels, reception, teching)
Worked at a mixed animal practice for 3 years. I still work here. I previously did mostly teching in large and small animal, but I currently do mostly management and the business side of things. We have a practice manager, but I am the technician manager and essentially second in command. I fill in whenever the practice manager is gone. I have designed a training program and I am in charge of all scheduling updates and changes. I am also the current OSHA officer.
Over 10,000 hours last time I counted.

My ultimate goal is to become a mixed animal theriogenologist (dogs and horses, but open to whatever species has a need). I love my current mixed animal practice and I would happily stay here forever. I have helped build it through an ownership change and it has taught me a lot about management and business in the veterinary field.

GPAs:
BS in Biology from BYU- 2.81
Some post-bacc classwork at WSU- 3.28
Currently in an MPH with a veterinary emphasis at Mizzou- 4.0

2.87 overall undergraduate
4.0 graduate so far
2.79 undergraduate science
4.0 graduate science
2.86 overall science
3.02 last 45 (will continue to improve as I complete more masters classes)
Pre req GPA depends on each school's requirements, but it's around a 2.9

I had a rough undergraduate experience between mental health, an abusive relationship, etc. I also had to work 30-45 hours a week while in school fulltime to make ends meet. I was a straight A student in high school and went to college on a full tuition scholarship at 17, which obviously ended poorly. I have gotten a handle on my mental health and improved my study habits, as evidenced by my increasing GPA.

During file reviews with WSU the past few years, and a few other schools after my first round of applications, I was advised to show consistency in my upper level science coursework. I was advised to either complete another bachelor's degree or a masters degree. I have always wanted an MPH, so that is the route I chose.
There is obvious improvement in my gpa, so I was hoping this would be the year. By the next application's due date, I will have completed several more semesters of my masters and should have a higher last 45 gpa.

I was a bit nervous to post this because it has enough identifiers that people I know will know exactly who I am, but I figure they already know most of my stats.

Over the next year, to improve my application, I am looking for volunteer opportunities in the community that are not animal related. I am involved in redesigning the equine breeding program at my current clinic. I am also standing my stallion at stud for the first time next year. He will be having his show debut over the summer as well. I am part of the health committee for my dog breed's club and I am working on a health testing excellency program for the club. I am breeding a litter any day now when my dog comes into heat to acquire my next show prospect. I will be actively showing both my dogs at the end of next year. I will also be continuing to work on my MPH, which I am currently slated to finish in Spring 2025.

Any other suggestions to improve my application? Any schools I should consider applying to? I am reaching the point where some schools consider my coursework too old or they have changed prereqs since I was in undergrad, so that has been a limiting factor.

What are my chances?
Thanks!

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[wayne455338]

Your experiences are excellent, however, as you also know, your grades are the main reason holding you off. With your grades, I would try to apply to some holistic schools that either replace the grades or focus on the last 45 credits more instead of the overall GPA. I also noticed that you apply to some of the schools that are GPA-heavy such as Cornell and Mizzou, I would take these schools out and put island schools such as Ross and St George into consideration. U of Illinois, I think they have the first-year forgiveness option but you can't use those classes as prereqs. I would also consider LMU since I have heard a lot of feedback that they are holistic. At this point, I would say island schools might be your best bet. State schools, unfortunately, are getting harder to get into each year. I would not say you don't have a chance of getting in, but you have to be able to convince the committee that you can handle the rigorous class schedule in vet school. Good luck with your application and wish you the best.

 

[Cats4Lyfe]

Your experiences are excellent, however, as you also know, your grades are the main reason holding you off. With your grades, I would try to apply to some holistic schools that either replace the grades or focus on the last 45 credits more instead of the overall GPA. I also noticed that you apply to some of the schools that are GPA-heavy such as Cornell and Mizzou, I would take these schools out and put island schools such as Ross and St George into consideration. U of Illinois, I think they have the first-year forgiveness option but you can't use those classes as prereqs. I would also consider LMU since I have heard a lot of feedback that they are holistic. At this point, I would say island schools might be your best bet. State schools, unfortunately, are getting harder to get into each year. I would not say you don't have a chance of getting in, but you have to be able to convince the committee that you can handle the rigorous class schedule in vet school. Good luck with your application and wish you the best.

Thanks for the response! I am planning on applying everywhere that I meet the requirements for, just in case. I was under the impression that Mizzou was less gpa heavy? I am currently doing my MPH through Mizzou and the people I have spoken with (granted they are not on the admissions committee), have not seen too put off by my grades. They implied that my MPH at Mizzou would make me more likely to be considered.

I would be open to the island schools if I wasn’t married. My husband is finishing a PhD and has limited job and post doc options at the island schools. We don’t want to do long distance, so I am limiting myself to state schools.
Are there any schools other than Illinois and LMU that you would recommend I focus on?

 

[wayne455338]

I did not apply to Mizzou so I don’t know about their program. I just see a lot of applicants claim that Mizzou is sort of a gpa-heavy program. Since you know more about their vet school than me, I would not put any opinion on that. Speaking of holistic schools, Colorado state, Ohio state and Oregon state are also the options but I don’t know if you meet their minimum GPA requirement. You might want to check on their websites. Other than that, Midwestern in Arizona I believe is holistic too but you have to have minimum 3.0 for everything. I think that is all I have, maybe someone can give you more insight on other programs. Btw, if you have any questions for WSU, feel free to let me know.

 

[AppyDust]

Minnesota is a school that I've heard looks more at last 45 gpa. You might also look into South Dakota which is a 2+2 program with Minnesota and geared towards rural animal medicine.

I applied to WSU as a resident for 3 years without getting an acceptance. My overall and science gpas were a little higher than yours but I had substantially fewer veterinary hours. I got interviewed at South Dakota 3 times and got to the top of their waitlist one year.

 

[Alicat9152]

Just jumping on to comment on your Mizzou conflict, the admissions process from my point of view was fairly holistic. Admissions values applicants that have shown academically that they can carry a heavy credit load of courses (16+ credits/semester is ideal) successfully as we are a 2+2 program so our curriculum is accelerated and we switch classes each IP which is every 8 weeks and they need to see that you can handle that. They also value applicants that have done things within the community to show that we are able to focus on academics but also be human. A depth and breadth of Veterinary experience is valued also I believe so getting experience with each of the core species if you are able to and even branching out into public health will make you more competitive! Make sure you include EVERYTHING on your application. Yes this includes HS and before. My saying is that if they don't want to consider something, then they won't but if it wasn't on your app in the first place then they don't have the option to!

If you have any specifc questions about the program feel free to DM 😊

 

[Cats4Lyfe]

I did not apply to Mizzou so I don’t know about their program. I just see a lot of applicants claim that Mizzou is sort of a gpa-heavy program. Since you know more about their vet school than me, I would not put any opinion on that. Speaking of holistic schools, Colorado state, Ohio state and Oregon state are also the options but I don’t know if you meet their minimum GPA requirement. You might want to check on their websites. Other than that, Midwestern in Arizona I believe is holistic too but you have to have minimum 3.0 for everything. I think that is all I have, maybe someone can give you more insight on other programs. Btw, if you have any questions for WSU, feel free to let me know.

With the next few semesters of my masters, I may reach some of those gpa cutoffs, so I'm not counting them out yet. I would love to go to Colorado State because of the strength of their large animal repro program.

 

[Cats4Lyfe]

Minnesota is a school that I've heard looks more at last 45 gpa. You might also look into South Dakota which is a 2+2 program with Minnesota and geared towards rural animal medicine.

I applied to WSU as a resident for 3 years without getting an acceptance. My overall and science gpas were a little higher than yours but I had substantially fewer veterinary hours. I got interviewed at South Dakota 3 times and got to the top of their waitlist one year.

It has been interesting to look at the gpa ranges for their admitted students over the past few years. Most years, the low range of their admitted GPAs has been around 2.5. It makes me curious what the rest of the application looked like for those low GPA students.

Does South Dakota require any kind of residency or have any extra requirements for applying to their program?

 

[AppyDust]

It has been interesting to look at the gpa ranges for their admitted students over the past few years. Most years, the low range of their admitted GPAs has been around 2.5. It makes me curious what the rest of the application looked like for those low GPA students.

Does South Dakota require any kind of residency or have any extra requirements for applying to their program?

No they don't, you'll just be paying out of state tuition for four years. If you are applying to both South Dakota and Minnesota they give you a slight break on the supplemental application fee but both schools evaluate independently of one another.