After talking to some of my friends that went to UC Davis for undergrad and had presentations from the vet school admissions director, I learned that the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine makes its admissions decisions based almost entirely on your numbers. I was surprised that it was this objective and thought it would be helpful to share what I learned.
They essentially use a formula with your GPA (most important), ETS PPI scores, and GRE score (least important) to determine whether or not you get an interview. (Note: I am not sure how this will be done in the future now that PPIs are no longer available.) Other than making sure you have the required 180 hours of veterinary experience and other checklist items, they may not even read your personal statement or look at the details of your experiences.
Once you make the interview cut-off, none of your previous application matters at all, which I heard directly from the admission director at my interview last December. Your admissions decision after that depends solely on your Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) scores. I will do a full post on MMIs later, but that goes to show how important it is to understand what they will be like!
So, if you are applying to Davis, be aware that the numbers really do matter. If your GPA and GRE are not as strong, I would recommend also applying to other schools that will focus more on your experiences and letters of recommendation.
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