Vets vs. Meds

[bj89]

I thought i'd get a discussion going on which program people think is more competitive. Some have argued that getting into vets is more competitive than meds, but i think this is debatable. From the admissions statistics (taken from http://www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/future/dvm/) of the class of 2014, there were only 407 applicants (WAY more females by the way) in total, 221 of which were interviewed for 114 spots. I think these odds are great compared to meds, where you are usually competing with a much larger applicant pool. Also, the mean MCAT for entry is <10 for all sections.
Maybe i'm missing some other extraneous factors. What does everyone think?

[tooty]

Med is clearly more competitive than vet judging from those stats.

[Rosie]

If you judge solely by the stats (GPA-somewhat depending on school, MCAT and number of applicants) then I agree that it does seem like Med would be more competitive then Vet.

There are different standards though for vet admissions when it comes to extracurriculars. One of the important factors is continuous experience with animals (both small and large) as well as volunteer work in veterinarian practices. Applicants are also required to get letters from 2 separate veterinarians I believe at OVC. So while getting into vet school may not be "much harder" than getting into med, it is still a difficult endeavour.

On that though professional schools, grad programs and second entry programs are getting more and more difficult to get into in general in this country.....

[mattg]

i posted this in a thread a while back... :


where does this myth come from? I've been hearing this for the past 10 years, and it's so not true...

Stats of the 2010 OVC application cycle:
407 total applicants
221 interviewed
114 admitted

= 1/4

and if you just consider domestic applicants:

267 total applicants
199 interviewed (almost 80% of applicants!!)
104 admitted (half of all interviewees)

= 1/2.5

much better than med school in Canada (or Ontario at least)... not to mention the med applicant pool is much more competitive than the vet applicant pool (i.e. the median MCAT of the admitted OVC applicant is 9 9 7 Q)

i'd take 1/2.5 over the med odds anyday!

lol nothing against the poster, but i've been hearing this rumour for years, and i don't know where it comes from

source: http://www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/future/dv...atsOVC2014.pdf

[bj89]

Originally Posted by Rosie

If you judge solely by the stats (GPA-somewhat depending on school, MCAT and number of applicants) then I agree that it does seem like Med would be more competitive then Vet.

There are different standards though for vet admissions when it comes to extracurriculars. One of the important factors is continuous experience with animals (both small and large) as well as volunteer work in veterinarian practices. Applicants are also required to get letters from 2 separate veterinarians I believe at OVC. So while getting into vet school may not be "much harder" than getting into med, it is still a difficult endeavour.

On that though professional schools, grad programs and second entry programs are getting more and more difficult to get into in general in this country.....

Yes, you are right in that vet-related EC's are much more important when applying to vet than medically related EC's when applying to meds. Which i think makes sense, cuz they want people who they know are comfortable handling/dealing with animals

[mattg]

Originally Posted by Rosie

There are different standards though for vet admissions when it comes to extracurriculars. One of the important factors is continuous experience with animals (both small and large) as well as volunteer work in veterinarian practices. Applicants are also required to get letters from 2 separate veterinarians I believe at OVC. So while getting into vet school may not be "much harder" than getting into med, it is still a difficult endeavour.

i would definitely say that having to get very high marks/mcat, while also gaining enough "experiences" (ranging from years of volunteering to research to whatever) is much harder than getting mediocre marks/mcat while doing some work in the field you are hoping to go into

[tooty]

Originally Posted by Rosie

There are different standards though for vet admissions when it comes to extracurriculars. One of the important factors is continuous experience with animals (both small and large) as well as volunteer work in veterinarian practices. Applicants are also required to get letters from 2 separate veterinarians I believe at OVC. So while getting into vet school may not be "much harder" than getting into med, it is still a difficult endeavour.

It's not harder period. It's not even close. Instead of volunteering anywhere, pre-vets have to volunteer at an animal shelter or a vet clinic. They're not doing more than the typical premed doing ECs, except they have much lower cutoffs and greater seats-to-applicants ratio. And LORs from vets would follow from these experiences, so they're killing two birds with one stone.

I agree that it's probably difficult though.

[Rosie]

Originally Posted by tooty

It's not harder period. It's not even close. Instead of volunteering anywhere, pre-vets have to volunteer at an animal shelter or a vet clinic. They're not doing more than the typical premed doing ECs, except they have much lower cutoffs and greater seats-to-applicants ratio. And LORs from vets would follow from these experiences, so they're killing two birds with one stone.

I agree that it's probably difficult though.

Oh yea I agree that it's much harder for meds, I was just stating that there are other aspects of the vet application that we should also consider and look at to get a full idea of the application process.

[rmorelan]

I was under the impression that myth is because in the US it is more competitive to get into vets than meds. There overall med acceptance rate is about twice as high as there compared to Canada though so that is potentially big factor (?)

[ladybug]

just want to add an interesting point:

ontario vet applicants can only apply to one school in ontario (the OVC). they aren't eligible to apply to other schools in other provinces, and thus only have one shot at getting in, whereas med applicants have 6 schools in ontario alone to apply to and can apply out of province if they make those cut offs.