Archives for Non-Traditional Students category
So, 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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Mar 26, 2009 | | Getting In, Non-Traditional Students
I got my grades today, and I am thrilled to report that I got straight A’s. I think the last time that happened was in 1992. So why, you might ask, am I whining?
Because there’s no standard as to whether professors award plus and/or minus grades. In two of my classes, there were no pluses or minuses. In another, there were pluses but not minuses. In yet another, there were traditional pluses and minuses, and in the last one, there were some pluses and some minuses, but no A pluses. HUH?! Read the rest of this entry »
Dec 23, 2008 | | Non-Traditional Students
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 | | Getting In, Non-Traditional Students
Well, the first week of school has come and gone, and already I’ve discovered things that do and don’t work for me. Doesn’t work: the trusty backpack I’ve had since the first time I was in college – it’s too small for my ginormous notebook. 
Does work: sneaking in the exit doors to get a better seat in the lecture hall.
Here are my top ten observations for the week as a back-to-undergrad thirty something:
1. Cell phones are ubiquitous!
When I went to school, cell phones were non-existent. Now they are glued to the ears of half the students you pass. For me, it’s a bit disconcerting, especially in the restroom! What’s up with that?! There is no one I need to speak with so badly that I need to call them up while I’m sitting on the toilet…
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Aug 30, 2008 | | Non-Traditional Students
Rah Rah Rass, You can kiss my OH DEAR, I’m afraid I got rather cynical there, just for a moment.
Yesterday I went to orientation at Colorado State, the esteemed institution that I will soon be attending in order to take a few prerequisites for vet school. If all goes as planned, I will start vet school there next fall.
Trouble is, there are only two orientations – one for incoming freshman, the other for transfer students and anyone else, most of whom are early twenty-somethings.
They really needed another orientation for old farts like me, who didn’t appreciate the overzealous Doogie Howser lookalike belting into the microphone, “How are you doing today?!” I believe the expected response was an enthusiastic cheer. I and the other assorted crew of non-traditional students stared on in disbelief. (No offense to the Doogie lookalike, who I’m sure is a very nice person.) There just comes a time in your life when the whole pep rally thing doesn’t appeal, probably because we have been negatively conditioned by years of business meetings to behave in a completely stoic and boring manner.
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Aug 01, 2008 | | Non-Traditional Students
I’ve been having a blast (ha!) studying for the GRE, which is now less than a month away.
Since my previous GRE scores, stellar though they are, are now more than ten years old, I get to take the test again. Back when I graduated, the GRE was still on PAPER. The only reason I took it at all is that it was free: I was part of the Educational Testing Service’s experiment as to the feasibility of computer based testing. Lord knows I had no intention of ever setting foot in the halls of academia again. Funny how life throws you curveballs.
The bummer is that I’ve yet to match my original scores in any of my practice tests, and it’s driving me NUTS. Did I study for it the first time around? No… Have I just forgotten basic algebraic principles and multi-syllabic vocabulary words? Well…
The good news is that in all the questions I’ve missed, I’ve readily understood the explanations. So it’s not as though I’ve forgotten any concepts entirely, it’s just that they don’t always jump immediately to mind when staring at a question with that darn clock ticking down in the background. Hopefully a little brushing up will set me back on track.
I really hope all this hullabaloo will make me a better vet. If anything, I will continue to be sedulous in my studies, so that I might garner sapience. With my capacious vocabulary, I shall appear rather urbane to my coterie of fellow vet students. Grr. Eat Me.
Jul 20, 2008 | | Getting In, Non-Traditional Students
I spent last weekend climbing and camping near Aspen with my handsome other half, who was having a birthday. I snuck around to all the other campsites and left invitations to drop by for cake and ice cream. About 30 people showed up (boy was he surprised), and every one was interesting and fun to talk with.
The most interesting to me, though, was a woman who looked to be in her seventies or so. We got to talking about my going back to school and she told me she was the first woman ever trained as a surgeon in the state of Colorado. She’d had a forty year career as a general surgeon, and, as she put it, “had to break down a lot of barriers.” (I probably misquoted her slightly, but that was the gist.)
At any rate, meeting her reinforced my decision to go to school. So what if I don’t graduate vet school until I turn 40? At least, as a friend put it, I’ll be 40 and a vet, instead of just plain ol’ 40. And what I’ll have to overcome is nothing compared to being the first woman ever trained as a surgeon in Colorado. I should count my lucky stars.
Thanks, Amy, it was an inspiration to meet you.
Jul 19, 2008 | | Non-Traditional Students
Oh wait- there WON’T be thousands of others like me. Most people don’t decide in their mid-thirties that abandoning a high paying job to take organic chemistry sounds like fun. And the average vet school applicant is closer to 25, not 35. Logically, I know I’m not that old. But, like, oh my gosh, when I, like, talk to some of the kids that are, like, in college now, I, you know, like, feel, so, like, OLD.
Not that today’s young minds aren’t smart, caring individuals. It’s just that I feel out of place. Maybe it’s the language, maybe it’s the station in life. I worry about the mortgage and funding my retirement plan, not about where the party will be next weekend or whether that guy is going to call me again.
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Jun 04, 2008 | | Non-Traditional Students
