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If you read my Game Item Exchange thread, you know that my younger son is graduating this May with a pre-veterinary medicine degree. Since October, he's completed many pages of applications, taken both the General GRE and a GRE-Biology exams, written many essays, and received 5 letters of recommendation and evaluations in his pursuit to be accepted into a vet graduate school. All this while completing his last 18 hours of classes this semester. Whew! sweatdrop
Five of the seven grad schools require an interview as part of the process. He received a polite regrets letter from one of the schools (Missouri... it was a long shot but worth the try). However, he did get an interview invitation from Tuskegee University (Alabama). I helped with the driving to the school (about 4-1/2 hours from his campus to Tuskegee).
His interview was Friday and he felt the interview went well. He found out from one of his interviewers that Tuskegee goes through hundreds of applications and narrows the list down to 400 potential students which are offered interviews. Of that 400, only 70 students will be offered letters of acceptance to the vet school. Tuskegee will be sending out letters of acceptance (or rejection) around March 15.
He's also waiting to hear whether or not he's being offered interviews at 3 other vet schools (Va Tech, Univ of Tennessee, and Auburn) in the next couple of weeks. And, he's sent applications to Univ of Georgia and Oklahoma State (which don't interview). These vet schools send out their letters sometime between mid- to late-March.
It's very tough to get into vet school. We'd always heard that it's harder to get into vet school than med school, but never knew the reason why until we got more information when my son was in high school.
Here's the problem...
There are only 27 vet schools in the entire US. This means some states, like ours, don't have a vet graduate school program for our state's students to attend. As result, our state contracts with other states for a certain amount of "seats," or places for students to attend. Our contract states/schools are with the University of Georgia (12-17 seats), Tuskegee University (15-20 seats), and Mississippi State (5 seats).
Do the math here. That means, for all the students in our state wanting to attend vet school at these three university, a total of 32 to 42 seats/places. Getting one of these seats means the student attends as an out-of-state student with in-state prices (because of the state contract agreement). But, more importantly, the student is actually IN vet school.
And, what about the other vet schools, or the other 24 non-contract schools? Well, our state's students have to compete for the at-large seats. In most cases, there are 5 to 10 seats for everyone has to try to claim.
In my son's pre-vet Class of 2008, there are over 100 students. Plus, you don't have to have a degree in pre-vet to apply to vet school. If you've taken the prerequisite courses, you can a degree in Biology, Chemistry, or even History! Of course, there are other criterion that also have to be met (GPA requirements, General GRE scores, a few also require an additional Biology GRE score, a minimum of 400 hours of vet-related experiences, some also require certain amounts of hours of animal/ non vet-related experiences, 20 page application forms, essays, and, for those schools that require them, being invited to interviews).
To help his case, my son is getting a Wildlife and Fisheries Biology minor (pre-vet majors are not required to get a minor) to try and edge out the competition. He's gambling that by having a broader scope of animal academic experience, on top of everything else he's done. The Tuskegee interviewers did mention and asked about his wildlife courses during the interview. So, his gamble may pay off.
However, the problem remains that there simply aren't enough places for all the students. It is not uncommon for students not to be admitted to any vet schools the year they graduate with their Bachelor's degree. One of the young ladies we met at Tuskegee (she is from Texas, which means, she's competing for one of the few at-large spots at Tuskegee) had this happen to her. She's spent the past year working as a vet assistant while waiting for this second chance to apply for vet schools again.
So, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers! And thanks!!! biggrin heart
 Rhiannon2006 · Sun Feb 10, 2008 @ 06:54pm · 0 Comments |
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