Applying to Veterinary School is incredibly complicated, and I have found that, at my school at least, there’s not really anyone to help me. The professors and grad school advisors don’t have many vet school applicants, so they don’t know much about it. At my alma mater, Mills College, there is MAYBE one vet school applicant a year, more like one every three years. They have a great staff for human health program applications, but vet school is it’s own animal, so to speak, and requires specific direction.

This is all to say that I didn’t have a lot of help figuring out how to to these applications. I ended up doing them two years in a row, since the first year I was only offered wait list positions. The second year was A LOT easier. Both for practical and emotional reasons. I had discovered there was life after rejection from vet school, and so the stakes were just a little bit lower. Anyway, hopefully I can help lend some clarity to a couple people.

First thing, buy this book:

This is the “official” guide, and while it doesn’t really answer all the questions, it is a good starting point. It provides good descriptions of the schools (which I guess can now be found on the VMCAS website, if you don’t want to buy the book), which are important to read when deciding which schools to apply to.

The components of the application:

VMCAS

LOR

Prereqs

how many schools/which schools

FAQ (gpa, experience, etc.)