Do girls dominate the vet scene?

Laf1980
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:26:11 +0000

Individualized - The advice that I am about to give you is based upon my D’s application experience last year, and certainly, other experiences may differ.

With only 28 fully accredited vet schools in the U.S., competition is certainly very keen. All schools look at your UG GPA, your GRE test scores, prior vet or animal care experience, recommendations, and a final evaluative interview as the primary criteria for admission. For GPA purposes, what is important is not only your score, but what courses you took to achieve that score. My recommendation is to major in Biological Sciences and to take the most difficult courses that your school offers. I recommend Biology because it offers the most flexibility, is offered in most UG schools, and you take courses such as anatomy, bio-chem, physics, chemistry, and organic chemistry. If you look at most vet school websites, these are the courses listed as required for admission. Therefore, it not how many credits you accumulate, but what courses you took to accumulate those credits. Most schools require a minimum 3.65 GPA for serious consideration.

Keep an open mind, and be prepared to travel. Just because you are lucky enough to have an in state vet school does not mean that you will get in. In state schools do give preference to in state students, but if there are many students who are qualified, then you may need to look at other options. My D applied to 9 schools. She was accepted to 2 schools, waitlisted at one school, and rejected at all others including our in state school. Keep your options open. In my D’s class of 100 students, 8 (including her) are from out of state. You will get an inkling as to how you are faring if you get called for an evaluative interview. These interviews are held in mid to late February. If you do not get an interview, then you will probably get a thin envelope. They establish the interview time. You can not request one. It is the final step in the admission process, and usually they will pose a vet problem in the interview, and evaluate how you handle that problem. Decisions are released in mid March.

I hope that you find this post helpful, and I wish you the best of luck in your future plans.