Hi!
I am currently a Junior in High school, and my plan is to become a veterinarian! I have been looking into early acceptance programs to give me the security of knowing I have a spot saved for me in vet school. It would give me the comfort of knowing that my hard work will pay off because I will already have a spot saved for me in vet school to pursue my dream.
I was wondering if anyone has gone through the application and was expected into one of these programs and what their applications looked like. For example, how many hours of volunteering do you have, sat/act score, what type of questions did they ask during the interview, how much did you shadow, what types of leadership did you include? Any information would be greatly appreciated!! That includes any vet and pre-vet information! Thank you for reading!
There are a few older posts in this forum where some students or their parents discuss various programs and the stats that are required. I will copy and post one reply that may be of some help to you:
01-22-2017 at 12:22 am
We just turned in our applications for the early admit programs at K-State and Mississippi State. Mississippi State said we could hear by the end of this month and K-State said to tell them when we needed an answer and they would let us know. Both schools said my son had a good chance of being admitted because he is in a high school program where he will be getting his Certification as a Veterinary Assistant and will have 300 hrs of time working with a vet by the time he graduates. He also has lots of hours working as a horseback counselor at summer camp and plays polo and polocrosse. We have our fingers crossed. The next step is the interview with K-State. He has also been accepted at Colorado State’s equine science major.
It appears that the student above had quite a few hours of working directly with a vet as well as receiving a certification in Veterinary Assistant. It seems that most universities offering this program require at a minimum an ACT score of 29, a high GPA, especially in the science and math courses and about 100 hours of direct animal care.
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Thank you so much for your reply! It is super helpful!
Our daughter was just accepted into the Veterinary Scholars program at Purdue. Her stats were: ACT 34, SAT (new) 1490, Weighted GPA 4.3, Unweighted 3.89ish She has taken most of the major math and science AP classes (AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Calc, AP Stat, AP Physics) as well as AP lit and AP Capstone (research). The minimum requirements for Purdue was an ACT of 29, SAT(new) 1370, and GPA 3.75/4.0. Everyone we spoke with in the Purdue program said that you really need to be above those minimums in order to be competitive.
During the spring of her junior year our daughter started volunteering at a local humane society (about 60 hours) as well as a theraputic equine riding center(about 100 hours). Over the summer she started shadowing with several small animal vets. One of those vets offered her a regular unpaid volunteer position which later became paid. She probably had close to 150 hours of direct vet experience from working at the vet’s office. Working in that office really helped solidify her career choice b/c she has been able to be part of the day to day workings of a veterinary practice. It isn’t always glamorous…she’s had to do her share of cleaning and stocking of supplies.
When we attended a day for prospective students at Purdue we were able to hear from a panel of vet and pre-vet students (some were in vet scholars program). One of the things they said was important was to also show that you have interests and involvements outside the field. Our daughter is also a swim instructor and lifeguard. During her interview with the Vet Scholars staff she talked about how much she enjoyed working with people and animals and that veterinary medicine would allow her to do both. During the interview they also asked her what she knew about the amount of debt that vet students normally have, what her outside interests were and what she did to relieve stress, what her study habits were, and what her interests were within the field of veterinary medicine. For Purdue the application process closed on Feb 1st and she was notified that she was given an interview in mid March (they do it over skype). She received her acceptance in early April.
Hope this helps!
junebug67, Was your daughter able to transfer her AP classes in as college credit? My son will graduate from HS with his AA through dual enrollment and I hoping his credits will count.
Is there anyway anyone could let me know about these early acceptance programs for Vet school? I am currently a junior in high school and passionately want to pursue the career of a Veterinarian.
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She came in with 39 credit hours of AP (3 from a dual credit class). She is about 5 credits below classified a junior.