WAMC- UC Davis In state Student

[lbcsg1030]

Hi All,

I just wanted to get some feelers on my odds of getting into UC Davis as a first time, in state student. I went to college out of state at a tiny liberal arts college with a rigorous sciences program which tanked my GPA a bit.

Science GPA: 3.1
Last 45 GPA: 3.2
Cumulative GPA: 3.27
GRE: haven't taken yet :/ planned on studying for it this summer.
LORs: Professor (I do research with & is my advisor), & 3 vets from the same clinic that I have worked with for 2 years throughout college.

Major: Psychology (graduating may 2023)
Minors: Biology and Animal Studies

Veterinary Experience: 515 Small Animal Hours, 430 Emergency Small Animal Vet Hours, 15 Equine Vet hours, 4 Wildlife Vet hours

Animal Experience: Horse Wrangler (1.5k + hrs), Wildlife Rehab Intern (300hrs), Rat Colony Care Tech (350 hrs), Dog Bather (1k), Personal Horse Care (6k+), Pet Sitter (300 hrs+).

Research Experience: Behavioral Neuroscience Research with Rats (~200 hrs) - presented poster at a symposium, written paper & will be potentially published this upcoming year, Performed ovariectomies of Rats. Biology field research trip (72 hours)- invertebrate ecology.

Leadership Experience: Vice President of Operations, Chair Position, Director position in my sorority. Pre-Veterinary Chair in the Pre-Health Organization club. Works with Admissions office to talk to prospective students about Pre-vet on campus. Camp Counselor in HS for two different camps, (YMCA & Scouts). Team sports in High School.

Extracurricular Experience: Played D3 Golf for 2 years, then quit to focus on school and vet shadowing. Golf coach/volunteer for golf camps in high school. Campus Tour guide freshman year before covid.

Covid Impact: I failed General Chemistry 1 the fall 2020 semester- I had to move back home & school became less of a priority, retook the class and received an A. Struggled in Organic Chem and Physics, receiving both Cs (planning on retaking).


Just wondering if anyone could give me some advice on my application this far and comment on their personal experiences with applying to Davis with similar stats. What would make me a better more competitive applicant? Thank you in advance for commenting!

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[Kaharian]

The issue with UC Davis is that it’s a bit of a numbers game. From what I understand, interview invites are solely based on GPAs (45 and Science), Quantitative GRE score, and your three LORs. I believe after they give out those invites to the top 180 (ranked by the above criteria), they then will review the next 180 IS applications (again by rank) holistically for a total of 60 additional invites.

Is the dream specifically UC Davis or vet school? If it’s UC Davis, I would consider deferring applying for a year and taking/retaking as many classes as possible at a CC to get your GPA’s up and study for the GRE. If you look at their most recent class statistics it’ll tell you in detail the lowest GPA/GRE scores that were accepted and how that low score balanced out with the other GPA/GRE score. So if you really want to increase your chances for this cycle, study hard and ace the GRE to balance out your GPA.

If your dream is vet school, I would consider applying to more holistic schools this cycle. Your experiences section looks wonderful and if you apply to schools that look at the entire application and are less GPA focused, I think you’ve got a solid shot.