Rejected from transfer school. What now?

So I’m receiving my AA after this spring semester and planning on transferring. This is my first year in college and since most of my credits were earned through dual enrollment and AP, I didn’t have many classes to count towards my GPA. Unfortunately I pulled through with a 3.3, not the greatest. I had some extenuating circumstances resulting in me not doing as well as I would’ve liked to, but no valid excuse that I can put on my application.

I’m pre-vet from Florida so of course my first choice was the BS Biology program at UF CLAS and I was rejected. I sent an email asking to be considered for another major (possibly zoology) and they responded that my paraprofessional GPA was “well below the minimum requirement” and that my pre-professional GPA was also low and did not allow me to qualify for any other science major at UF. This greatly confused me since the minimum GPA for both of these majors is a 2.8…

I have applied to 3 other schools that I have not heard back from yet. This concerns me because now my hopes aren’t too high for those schools either. If I manage to get accepted to one of them, I now feel like I should reconsider my major and my career goals. If I can’t get accepted into UF, what makes me think I can get accepted into any vet school? What should I do? If I manage to raise my GPA while at another institution should I even bother applying again? No one likes to hear rejection so of course this has me feeling very hopeless, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I feel for you. It’s difficult to have to rethink your plans in this way. It sounds like you know your choices and are considering them wisely. Your assessment is accurate: If your GPA isn’t high enough, you will not get accepted to vet school and will have to reconsider becoming a vet. Are there other careers working with animals that you might qualify for? Veterinary assistant perhaps? Lab tech for animal hospitals? Administrator for some sort of animal-related business or non-profit organization? The career center at your community college might have some ideas and your CC might have courses for those careers. You live in Florida. Perhaps look online for places where you can volunteer and learn about other jobs working with animals. One place to find volunteer positions is through the website WWOOF – you can work on farms for as short as one day or several months. Best of luck to you.

One more thought–there’s probably a thread on this forum that discusses pre-vet programs. Maybe look that up. You can ask the question there about whether it’s possible to raise your grades through some sort of post-bac program. I’m saying this because I understand that premed has programs for students to do repair work on their grades. The programs are called “post-bac” and that stands for “post-baccalaureate” I think. At any rate, the idea would be to finish your BA someplace in something and then do repair work–if you still want to be a vet by that time. I’m not sure if that’s possible or not.

If you were my child, I would suggest first doing work with animals, if you haven’t already, and finish your BA in something. Then if you’re still interested in becoming a vet, look into post-bac programs, if they exist. Some programs are cheaper than others! Be sure to research them carefully and choose wisely (if they exist). I know that at Hunter College in NYC there’s a post-bac that’s relatively cheap for residents, for example. In the same city Columbia University has a similar program that’s more expensive.

A BA degree would allow you to get good jobs in administration someplace BTW. You could get work as an administrative assistant any place with a BA plus experience, including places that work with animals: Veterinary colleges for example need admins. They also do research and need lab assistants. There are several types of jobs that you could potentially work in related to animals, either as an end point, or as along the way to becoming a vet. To get administrative experience, you can start at college. Perhaps get a campus job doing that sort of work. Or during the summer. Through those means you can pick up a few months here and there, adding up to the 1-2 years experience that many administrative positions ask for. Also there are temporary agencies that place you temporarily until you find permanent position. That temp work adds up to years experience and can get you started Good luck to you!

A quick Google search returned that the average GPA for students accepted into veterinary school is a 3.53. You are below this at 3.3, but you are not catastrophically below this. My understanding is that some pre-vet classes are quite tough. One pre-vet student that I know referred to organic chemistry as “the hardest B- that I have ever earned in my life”.

You are only half way through university. One thing that you should think about. Are the “extenuating circumstances” that prevented you from doing you best going to repeat when you get to a 4 year university? Do you feel that you have a realistic ability to pull up your GPA over the last two years of university? If so, then veterinary school is still a possibility.

Of course veterinary school is also financially very challenging. You would be best to get through undergrad without any debt if you want to be able to graduate veterinary school with a small enough debt that a veterinarian’s salary will be enough to pay it off.

Finally, you will need a lot of experience with animals.

And of course, you need to wait and see what happens with the three schools that you have not yet heard back from. I do wonder whether the pandemic is slowing down some decisions.

Would it make sense to stay at your CC for another year and complete a second major? That would give you a chance to pull up your grades a bit more. For example, if you have completed the Biology major, you should be able to finish off the courses for a Chemistry major pretty easily.