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mirk-eaves · 4 years

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2019-2020 Application Cycle Reflection

I want to start this post off by saying that it is okay if it takes you more than one cycle to get into veterinary school. It’s actually quite common to take multiple cycles to get to school. Disheartening and soul-crushing? Yes. An indication of your inability to be a great doctor? No. One of my favorite doctors took two cycles to get in and another doctor I knew took three. In fact, VMCAS (Veterinary Medical College Application Service) shows that 50% of applicants do not receive any acceptances in an app cycle. Why is this? -- because there aren’t enough seats in all the veterinary medical schools combined for all the applicants and it’s such a competitive process. Sometimes, it really did feel like a luck of the draw and the applicant pool changes every year. When I received all five rejections from all five schools my first time around, I was very discouraged (not to mention during that time, I also had a precarious job situation and was in a terrible, manipulative relationship, so many things in my life just weren’t good at once). I know it’s hard and my heart goes out to you. But if you’re willing to try again, I highly recommend it if you know this is the field you want to enter.

I applied a lot smarter my second time around. I heavily researched schools about their mission statement, values, the type of students they prefer, their GPA requirements, GRE requirements, if I could see myself a student at the school, the cost of education, the cost of living, social services, research opportunities, MPH opportunities, all of it.

Because I really did not want to go through the grueling application cycle a third time, I went a little crazy and applied to 14 schools. This is abnormal. According to VMCAS, the average applicant applies to four schools. I’m just a weirdo who wanted to put all my eggs in one basket and then some. This basket was overflowing. I applied to: Cornell, Georgia, Colorado State, Wisconsin, VA-MD, Long Island (new school), Michigan State, Minnesota, Tufts, UPenn, Purdue, (the) Ohio State, Tennessee, and Illinois. I admit, some schools I applied to I did not know much about and decided to apply anyway (Tennessee and Purdue), but the other 12 were schools that I wanted to attend for various reasons. I did not apply Caribbean because I knew I wouldn’t be able to tolerate island life. Kudos to those who can, but I wanted to stay in mainland USA. For that reason, I also did not apply to any international schools.

My first cycle, I thought I wanted to be an avian doctor, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I cannot really concretely say that was my passion simply because I didn’t have enough experience. That was what I wrote about in my application essay, by the way. Avian medicine is a field that I’d love to learn more about, of course, and I’m sure I’ll have more concrete experience in it through wildlife clubs and rotations in vet school. So, the second time around, I completely scrapped that essay and rewrote it based on the strong background that I had in research and small animal medicine. By that time, I had been working as a genetics lab technician and a veterinary assistant for a couple of years. I had my trusted, close friends read and eviscerate comment my personal statement essays. It was difficult, of course, but necessary to the process of making my application essays better -- and it did! My dear friends helped me organize my thoughts and make my essay short, sweet, and clear. I am eternally thankful for them, which reminds me that when quarantine is over and before I move for school, I need to take them out for some fancy cocktails and dinner!

I submitted my application and supplementals literally the day that they were due. I had all my recommendation letters and transcripts sent a month back, but I spent up until the day of to look over essays and to spend a few days to sleep on my application so that I can feel confident when i submitted them that they best reflected who I am. I encourage everyone else to do the same: sleep on it for a few days. Those moments are so great in realizing things you may have forgot to include or mull over how you really feel about your writing instead of thinking it is all great at the heat of the moment -- because (hoo boy) when I reread my application essays from last year, I cringed so hard. There was too much fluff. I tried too hard to seem impressive, rather than show who I am, as a human being. Do not be like me my first time around and use fancy language. It’s really not that clever and future you will be thankful to avoid the inevitable cringe you will feel when you read it over a year later. It’s like reading your facebook posts from when you were twelve -- it seemed like such a good idea at the time... but it wasn’t. Keep it simple and make it a true reflection of you. Schools already know you are smart and capable. They want to know who YOU are and why they should choose you.

I very distinctly remember the day I submitted the applications. I stayed late in lab (something I often do where I won’t be working anymore, but my desk space is such a productive place for me to work on applications/course work) and as soon as I hit submit, two of my lab mates and I went for some much needed drinkos.

All you can really do after that point is to wait. And wait. And wait some more. God, the waiting is terrible because there is nothing you can do at that point, but be alone with your thoughts and who wants to do that? Not me! Slowly the confirmation emails trickled into my inbox one by one that the schools have accepted my application and that it was all complete (well except for Wisconsin since their timeline/process is a bit different).

Over the next couple of months, I received my first wave of rejection letters. I expected them, to be honest, so they didn’t hit me hard. I think this is a very important thing to learn: expect to get rejected -- not because you suck, but because that is the reality. I got on the interview-waitlist for VA-MD (same as last year), then a few more rejections from other schools. UPenn specifically rejected me particularly early for not being competitive enough, which sucked, but it’s okay. I was wondering if I’d be unsuccessful this cycle again when...

December 18th, I was talking to my lab mate with my laptop on my knees when I heard an incoming email ping from Michigan State University inviting me to interview with them! I shrieked, hugged my lab mate, and hugged everyone else in our little lab neighborhood, and immediately called my mom, who also shrieked. I was overjoyed! My first vet school interview!!!!!

I went back to New York for the winter holidays to visit my family for two weeks and while I was standing in the checkout line of a T.J. Maxx on December 30th with my mom and my brother, I received another email. I see the header on my phone and it is from University of Minnesota about my application status. I read the first sentence of the email, which was a generic “thank you for applying to this school blah blah” and I honestly thought it was a rejection letter, but then I read it more closely and it was another interview invitation!?!? I couldn’t believe it! I thought I’d be lucky to just have one interview from any of the schools I applied to and now I have two? I am over the moon!!!

More on the actual interviews in the next posts!

#vet school #vet student

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