Random thought, for those of you looking for general vet school advice…
The pre-veterinary forum at studentdoctor.net is free to join and has a ton of information about applying to vet school. It’s a great place to meet other people who are in the same boat, and to have your questions answered.
I’m happy to try and answer any questions you have, too, but I’m just one perspective. 
This post is for all you people who are applying to vet school this year, and who are reading this blog instead of working on your application (which, I might add, is due in a mere four days). I know you’re out there. Why else would the personal statement from my application have gotten 80 bazillion hits in the last 30 days?
Here is some last-minute advice for you:
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This is the essay from my second vet school application, and it is much more focused and personal than my first effort. There’s more heart in this one, and less brain. It also helps that I started early and I had every single writer I know read over it. Read the rest of this entry »
Jun 19, 2010 | 8 | Getting In, How I Got Here, Non-Traditional StudentsWhen I was applying for vet school, I wasn’t able to find many good examples of personal statements. It would have been really helpful to read someone else’s personal statement, which is one reason I am including these on my blog. I hope those of you who are in the throes of the application process find these helpful. The other reason I’m including these is they help explain how I became a non-traditional vet student.
Below is the personal statement from my first application. It’s good, but not great. I didn’t get admitted with this application, but it was the lack of coursework that did me in more than anything. I got the idea for this essay when I heard an admissions committee member say that the most memorable essay she’d ever read compared being a veterinarian to climbing a mountain. See this post for the essay from my second application.
Jun 19, 2010 | 0 | Getting In, How I Got Here, Non-Traditional Students
I suppose it’s a little ambitious to start a blog titled “Vet School Blog” long before one is even accepted to vet school. And it would have been really embarrassing had I never been admitted!
The good news, though, is…HOLY COW! THEY LET ME IN!
I’ll be starting at Colorado State in Fall 2010, and then you really will be reading a “vet school blog.”
One of these days , I’ll write a few posts about the application process this go-round.
Until then, however, I invite you to visit the project I am doing in honor of being admitted. I am profoundly grateful for the chance to go to vet school, and this is my way of showing my gratitude:
Jan 01, 2010 | 3 | Getting In, MiscellanyHooray, I am done with school for the year!
Finals are over, grades are in, and now I can relax. Well, I can start working my patooti off to save money for next school year, anyway.
The last month of school was incredibly stressful. I don’t think I’ve ever studied so hard, but it paid off with straight A pluses in upper division science classes. Sorry, CSU vet school, but I just can’t do any better than that… I hope it’s good enough!
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I had this lovely little dream last night in which CSU’s vet school called me up and told me that a spot had opened up for me in next year’s incoming class. Ah, if only.
If that were the case, then I wouldn’t have to spend the next 36 hours studying biochemistry. Just the next 18.
If only. . .
Mar 31, 2009 | 0 | Getting In, MiscellanySo, I received my official rejection letter from CSU’s vet school a couple months ago, and am just now getting around blogging about it. Why? Because I wanted to see what they had to say in my “file review,” i.e., my post-rejection interview.
It’s pretty cool that they even do this: basically, I got a one-on-one conversation with an admissions committee member to go over strengths and weaknesses in my application.
Now, some of you out there may be thinking, “Holy crap! She got a 1540 on the GRE and didn’t get into vet school?! I’m screwed…” Not so fast.
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Well, kids, I did it. The vet school application is in with less than 24 hours to spare. I really MEANT to get it done much sooner. *sigh* And I thought the GRE was bad. This application process has reduced me to a driveling mess!
About a year or so ago, I started recording some of my experiences in narrative format, thinking I might be using them someday on my vet school application. Turns out nothing in my application came from those early efforts, but I do think it was a useful exercise, because I’m pretty pleased with the way my essays turned out. (And some of those early essays have turned into this blog.)
So, here are my tips for those of you who are crazy enough to want to go through this process sometime in the future: Read the rest of this entry »
Oct 01, 2008 | 0 | Getting In, Non-Traditional Students
Thanks, Kaplan!
Holy moo-cow. I took the GRE yesterday and THANK GOODNESS THAT’S OVER!
Following the advice in my Kaplan study guide, I took it easy on Friday and didn’t study at all. Instead, I went to the zoo for a last minute reminder as to why I was putting myself through the torture that is the GRE. I got to see the pachyderm demonstration, where they filed the bottom of an elephant’s foot and then had her step into some foot baths, and I got a good look at a gorilla, and watched the polar bear blowing bubbles out his nose while underwater. It was a nice, lazy afternoon, complete with ice cream cone.
I didn’t take into account that standing in the sun all day and driving from here to Denver and back (an elevation change of about 2500 feet) might not make me feel so great the next day.
I woke up yesterday morning with a pounding sinus headache and a bout of nausea – not an auspicious start to the day – and I was a bit nervous to boot. Why so nervous? Because I wanted a killer GRE score. My undergraduate grades, while not awful, are all over the map. My undergraduate experience was a miserable one, and grades were the least of my worries at that time. I never suspected they’d come back to haunt me, because I had no intention of ever returning to school. Well, seeing as how that changed, I was hoping for good GRE scores to help prove that I am not a complete imbecile, incapable of getting a decent grade in an undergraduate science course. Read the rest of this entry »
Aug 10, 2008 | 0 | Getting In