Hi!
My question is pertaining to my situation. I am starting again to apply to veterinary school after a failure to get in right after finishing my BS degree. I will be finishing my MS in August of 2011 and have decided to apply again to veterinary school. I have geared my search toward schools that are not as ‘famous’ in the US as well as the Caribbean schools (looking at all 3, even though I’m really only interested in one of them). As with every student, I need to consider my eligibility, but I do not meet the requirements for my instate school, nor could I afford to go there. Do you have any advice or tips for a perpetually out of state student (at least for this application) that has a just barely ‘non competitive’ GPA with a graduate degree?
Thanks for your tips!
EH
Date: 3/2/11
Hi EH!
First of all, regardless of what you may think, I will always recommend a student to apply to their in-state school. Even if you don’t think you’re as competitive, the numbers are in your favor, regardless. I’m curious as to which requirements you fail to meet and whether that is really prohibitive or not. As for finances, as far as I know, US schools are often less expensive on the whole than Caribbean schools.
With respect to applying out-of-state with a less-than-stellar GPA, I would say Ohio would be a good choice if you haven’t already considered it because they have a track record of admitting a lot of out-of-state students. As far as Caribbean schools – I just posted on the blog about Ross University receiving full accreditation – which would put Ross at the top of my list for Caribbean schools as it is the only one with full accreditation at this point.
Do remember that plenty of people apply multiple times to vet school – the most number of applications I know of is 8 (and yes, the woman was accepted on her 8th application). I can hope that your graduate GPA is an improvement from your undergraduate GPA as that will show upward progression. If that is not the case, consider taking some additional coursework either at a local Community College or University to boost that GPA so as to demonstrate that you can handle the material. A graduate degree does mean a lot when it comes to your application – at the very least it says you’re capable of graduate level work, so good job going for the Masters!
The other piece of advice I will always give applicants is: get experience. And if you think you’ve got experience, I will reply: get more experience. Really. It matters a lot – but don’t just get experience in one field of veterinary medicine – feel out the field as there are so many different areas to pursue.
Thanks for reading the blog, and thanks for writing with your question! Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!
~Sharon
Life In Vet School & Tips On Getting In