Not this fall

[cjsmith]

I will not be applying to UCDavis veterinary school this fall. Biochem (of which I must take at least two quarters) requires previous completion of o-chem (a full year), which in turn requires completion of the chem I'm in during the spring. And no, I can't start o-chem in the summer. It's not offered.

All of this fussing around about fitting the courses in, and it turns out it never would have been possible to do them all in two years. Three = minimum.

This does kind of put the pressure on to get in on my first try. I simply don't have the financial wherewithal to go *four* years before entering vet school.

Good points:
- No GRE this spring!
- May be able to drop physics this spring (and get better grades in what's left).
- More time to gain a variety of animal experience - wildlife, etc. This is huge.
- More time to get to know veterinarians at all these places = potentially better letters of recommendation.
- Opportunity to take some really cool courses I don't specifically need. Micro! Human anatomy!
- Opportunity to beef up the transcript in the humanities.

Bad points:
- Money.

Comments

[steph-2012.livejournal.com]

Tip: *some* profs at DA will let you take some pre-reqs concurrently. You just have to ask and be prepared to make some sort of personal oath up front. Being a "grup" (especially one with a technical degree) usually carries a lot of weight with them. You can also petition to take pre-reqs concurrently.

Good luck!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This one's not going to fly quite so easily, as biochem is an upper-division course not offered at De Anza. I'll need to use my wheedling to convince (say) Santa Clara U that De Anza's o-chem is good enough. (Handy dandy fact: my chem prof this quarter is also Santa Clara U's biochem prof!)

It sure did work out well, though, when I got to take first quarter bio and first quarter chem at the same time. I did what you suggested: ask, and promise to be the best little squeaky clean student they'd ever seen. That time it worked. I'd be in deep doo-doo if I hadn't been able to start both of those in the fall.