Sorry it has been a while since my last post. Just finished up with my rabies shots yesterday (yay, even though they weren’t really bad), so things are slowly but surely coming together before school starts.
As the title of this post states, tis the season of VMCAS (the Veterinary Medical College Application Service), as I’m sure all you pre-vetters out there are very well aware. So, I’ve decided to dedicate this post to my personal experience with VMCAS and my application process as a whole. (SN: Also to anyone applying to St. George’s University (SGU), the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK), Ohio State (OSU), the University of Georgia (UGA), or Ross keep an eye out because I’ll be posting some of my interview experiences with these schools at a later date.) I hope that this is helpful to some of you and that you can learn from some of my mistakes. So, let’s get started!
VMCAS
*Application Link: https://portal.vmcas.org/applicants14/index.cgi *
So, my help with VMCAS may be somewhat limited because from what I understand, a lot has changes with VMCAS since the last application cycle. However, I will try my best, and just remember that you can always contact VMCAS directly with any questions! Here are some general tips:~Start the application EARLY! I cannot stress that enough. This application is (or at least was for me) more time consuming than I gave it credit for. Give yourself enough time to be able to take your time in carefully typing in all of that information. It is easy to make mistakes on the most simple things, especially if you’ve been staring at a computer screen for hours wondering if the application is ever going to end. There is nothing more frustrating than finding spelling and technical mistakes after your application is submitted (I know this from experience)!
~Have someone else or a few people look over your application to make sure everything is correct and makes sense to someone other than yourself. This is something that I wish that I had done. You are the one writing your application, and you know what you want to say, but what matters more is that school admissions understands your application.
~Know the requirements for your particular schools. Some schools may require additional forms, supplemental applications, experience verification forms, etc. It is so important to know exactly what each school needs to save you from headaches later.
~Get organized. For me, I kept an accordion-type folder with a file (folder) for each school I applied to. Any time I sent a transcript, got a confirmation e-mail, or sent anything to a school, a copy or a receipt for each thing was added to the folder for that school. It made it much easier to figure out what was sent where and when it was sent.
~Transcripts: Now I know that this is different from last year, so please refer to VMCAS for the new procedure. The only thing I’ll say here is to order your transcripts ASAP! Also, keep any receipts/confirmation numbers from when you send them out. I had a school insist that a transcript was sent, but it didn’t it to its destination until I went back and questioned why it hadn’t been received yet, so be careful and stay on top of things.
~Know all your deadlines. I won’t even get further into that subject since there is so many and so much has changed in the process. I just wanted to mention it.
eLORs (Letters of Recommendation):
~Ask recommendation writers to write letters early as well. Give them ample time to write you a good, non-rushed letter. These people lead busy lives, and they’re doing you a favor, so don’t make it difficult for them by asking last minute. Ask how it’s going every once in a while to see if they need anything (and to make sure they didn’t forget).~Check your school specific requirements for LORs. Some schools require one or two veterinarians, others require a letter from a professor, some will accept letters from committees while others won’t. The best way to avoid a rejection for the silly reason of having only vet LORs when you need a professor LOR (or whatever the case may be) is to just check with your schools. Things may change from year to year, so make sure that (even if you are not a first time applicant) you know what the requirements are for that specific year.
~Ask your recommendation writer (if you would plan on asking them to write one again) to save a copy of his/her letter, if they’d be willing to write a letter for you in the future. I had to ask the same person to write two letters for me within a few months because I ended up applying to more schools than I had planned. My poor writer had to rewrite something she had just written a couple of months prior because she didn’t save the letter from the first time.
