WAMC?

[beanbeanbean]

I decided late in the game (junior year of college) that I want to pursue a career in vet medicine. I have known and seen people who have 5000 hours of vet experience, awesome GPAs, and good people skills that haven't gotten in, so I'm worried about my chances.
I know I'm applying to TAMU for sure and maybe Colorado plus a couple others. I have in-state advantage at A&M.
Stats: 20 (21 soon) female, Texas resident
Almost finished with my B.A. in English (it was too late to change majors)
GPA Overall: 3.89 Science: About 3.5ish but I'm in genetics, ochem 2, and micro right now and taking biochem over the summer so it'll definitely change
GRE: 167 verbal, 160 quant, 4.5 analytical writing
Vet experience: only about 100 hours between the clinic I work at (it's also a boarding facility and I do more on that end) and a local animal shelter where I helped with spay/neuter set up and anesthesia recovery
Animal experience: about 100 hours from the local animal shelter and over 2000 from the boarding facility I've worked at for almost two years
Other relevant information: I work reception at the boarding facility so I feel like I have fair interpersonal communication skills. I also teach some introductory training classes and have additional tasks no other employee except managers have. I've known the owner of the facility for almost seven years and she's my biggest cheerleader, so I know I want a recommendation from her, the vet who works there, and the shelter vet I've volunteered with. Because of my English background I feel confident in my writing ability. I was a National Merit Finalist in high school and got a scholarship for that. I've worked through my undergrad career about 20-25 hours per week at aforementioned boarding place and have always been taking at least 12 hours, which means I've had no time for extracurricular activities.
My ultimate goals are definitely small animal, probably something with canine behavior or shelter medicine.
I did get 55 hours of college credit from doing AP courses in high school. I got mostly 5s on those and a couple 4s. A lot of them though were for my prereqs (both gen chems, physics I, statistics, calculus) so I'm nervous about that having no bearing on my GPA even though I ostensibly did well in the material because of my AP scores. I've been told I interview well but I know I get flustered easily also.
I crammed all the prereqs I didn't cover in high school into the past year, so between that and work I haven't had much time to diversify my experiences. My concern is that because my science GPA isn't outstanding and I only carried a heavy science load in the past year that I won't be appealing. I'm going to bust my butt writing my essays and personal statement and I feel good about the people I'm hopefully getting eLors from, but ultimately I haven't done all that much with the profession itself or at my institution. Almost all of my experience has been doing rather than shadowing but still.
I know it's tough to predict because there are so many factors that go into acceptance, but does anyone have any advice other than make sure my personal statement and essays convey everything I want them to know about me and what I plan to contribute to the profession? I just feel like with my late start I haven't had as much time to establish myself, and I'm planning to start applying this application cycle. If I don't get accepted I absolutely will spend the next year getting large animal and exotic experience where I can since I know that's a big weak spot of mine, but it would be nice to hear from people who have applied successfully about how I can tailor my application to stand out from the pack.

EDIT: I'm also applying to start an MS in vet sciences with a concentration in shelter medicine. I think that will help demonstrate my ability to manage an upper-level biomed curriculum in stuff that's more relevant to veterinary practice than physics and organic chemistry.

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[LetItSnow]

I think you basically have it figured out.

Your most significant obvious weakness is experience. Put as much effort into that prior to applying as you feasibly can. Personally, I think a 75/25 split between your stated area of interest and "other veterinary stuff" is most appropriate from the admissions standpoint - they want to see that you're serious about whatever area you say you are, but they also want to see that you have broad exposure.

Your ETA comment about academics probably is overkill. Your GPA is adequate to demonstrate your academic credentials, especially if you do very well with the load you said you currently have (genetics/ochem2/microbio). I personally would worry less about your grades (caveat: as long as you maintain them) and more about your experience. Nothing wrong with the MS, especially if it dovetails with your future interest (and what a neat degree if you really do go into shelter med!), but don't do it ONLY to get into vet school.

You also are on the right track understanding that if you don't get accepted right away you should work on experience. But while yes, you should get LA/etc experience, keep showing a steady trend of experience in the area that you plan to tell schools you want to go into. If you want to do shelter med or behavior med, steadily accumulate experience in those areas.