I'm sure you are well aware that veterinary school is going to be expensive, but you may not have realized that the costs actually start with the applications. Application cost may be constraining when trying to select how many, and which, schools to apply to. Though I am only applying to four schools (UC Davis, Colorado State, Washington State, and Oregon State), I was surprised that I've already spent a thousand bucks towards vet school applications. So, this post serves to guide you as you budget and plan your application strategy. This is a summary of what my costs have looked like; it will be slightly different for each applicant. Itemized details follow
VMCAS general application: $495.00
Sending transcripts: $10.00
GRE prep: $13.00
GRE exam: $195.00
Sending GRE scores: $27.00
Supplemental applications: $250.00
PPI evaluations: $0.00
Interviews: See more recent post from 1/18/2016
Total= $990.00+ (still to be added are interview costs (transportation/housing/food))
- VMCAS: You can apply to any number of schools through the Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS). It costs $195 for the first school plus $100 for each additional school you apply to (or, you can think of it as $100 per school plus a one time fee of $95 for using VMCAS). Almost all AVMA accredited veterinary schools use the VMCAS. As I mentioned, I applied to four schools: UC Davis, Colorado State, Washington State, and Oregon State. Note that a couple of AVMA-accredited veterinary schools do not use the VMCAS system. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Ross University in Saint Kitts (Caribbean).
- Transcripts: I have attended one community college and one university so far, and the VMCAS requires a transcript from every single institution you have attended. You need to order two official transcripts from each school-- one to be sent to VMCAS, and one to be sent to you so that you can input courses and grades EXACTLY as they appear on the transcript. If they are not exactly the same, the VMCAS will return your application until you fix it, and the transcript verification. To avoid this trouble, you might elect to use VMCAS's new transcript entry service (for an additional fee, of course). It is vital that you check and double check and get some unbiased person to check again that your entries exactly match the transcripts. Anyways, my CC charged $5 per transcript, but UC Davis's are free to its students unless you do a rush order.
- GRE prep: I know other pre-vets taking Kaplan or other GRE prep programs for hundreds of dollars, but to prepare myself for the GRE, I bought the Barron's Revised GRE prep book from Amazon and worked through it with a fellow pre-vet twice a week for about a 4 month period. Note: If I had not had my fellow pre-vet studying with me, I don't think I would have been as committed to the self-study program. Shout-out to Jackie! We both ended up scoring well on our actual exams, and neither of us felt compelled to retake it. I would highly recommend at least taking a diagnostic GRE to see where you are at BEFORE signing up for an expensive program! Additionally, be aware that schools often display the admitted class statistics, including average GRE scores-- check these out for your desired schools (found on the vet school's website), and plan on scoring at or above these scores. However, keep in mind that an average is made up of some lower and some higher scores, so don't beat yourself up if you do not do exactly as well as you hoped to. Similarly, find out which portions are actually taken into account by the schools you're trying to get in to: schools While my verbal and analytical writing scores were awesome, my math score was below the UC Davis average, but I did not find the deficit to be worth another four-hours and $195 to try for a few more percentile points.
- Your GRE scores are only valid for 5 years after the test date, because the percentiles (number of people scoring below a certain score) are recalculated. Your raw score corresponds to a percentile score, which you are evaluated on. The GRE exam fee has been rising, and probably will continue to rise. As of 2015, it was $195.00, so aim to get your best score on the first try!
- You get to send scores to 4 institutions for free; any additional scores will cost $27.00 each. When I took the exam, I had not quite decided yet which schools I was going to apply to, but when I realized I preferred Oregon over Cornell, I had to get those scores sent to Oregon.
- Supplemental applications: most veterinary schools require a separate supplemental application in addition to the general VMCAS. Some of them are available throughout the application cycle on their website, and some send them to you only after your VMCAS is submitted. Colorado and Washington were $60 each, UC Davis $80, and Oregon State $50. Later, I will write a post specifically about making your supplemental app shine! (Stay tuned).
- Only UC Davis and Colorado State University require Personal Potential Index (PPI) evaluations. Sending PPI evals to both those schools turned out to be free for me, so I suspect we are allowed some number of scores sent for free. However, you may have to pay $20 per institution if you are also applying to medical schools or graduate schools that also ask for PPI's.
- Check the details regarding your schools of interest's interview policies. Some schools only interview resident applicants, some don't interview at all, and some interview all applicants that make past the first rounds of selection. I have yet to find out if assistance for transportation, housing, and food exist, but I will update the post around January when I do! (see blog post on 1/18/16).