BIF technicalities

[ratshark]

Hi,
I thought I'd start a thread for really specific questions regarding the BIF since I'm sure most of us will come across some problems.

1) The statement of intent portion says that it should have a character limit of 2500. Does this include spaces?

2) For non-U of G applicants who have had their courses approved, should we include a copy of Deanna's evaluation? Also, since the courses were approved, I just wanted to confirm that we don't require course descriptions to be attached to the application.

[cbarne01]

Good idea.

1) I assume that the 2500 character limit includes spaces, you'd have to play in the application to find out otherwise. There is also a 200 char limit to the activity descriptions.

2) Page 1, section 2 states that course descriptions are required IF they are not U of G courses AND they are not preapproved (to [e-mail])

[cbarne01]

Does anyone know if the from/to fields in the Veterinary & Personal Background section are mm/yy or dd/mm/yy?

[dreizehn]

The question hasn't come up yet, but I figure it may at some point:

It appears you are able to navigate backwards and forwards between the pages in the form while completing it and it keeps your input intact; just don't close the tab you are working in.

ratshark:

---

I agree with what cbarne01 has already written; my additional input is below:

1.) The character limits DO indeed include spaces (I tested this in the form). If you go over this limit, you will receive an error message that must be corrected before proceeding.

Since I have a better grasp of word count than characters when trying to organize writing something, I used my essay from my application as a guide, and determined the 2500 character limit is approximately 400 words.


2.) For non-UofG students who have already pre-approved all courses being submitted, neither course descriptions nor a copy of Deanna's evaluation(s) needs to be attached (you've already completed this step by going through the approvals process ahead-of-time). The admissions office keeps a file of your communications regarding course approvals, so they already have record of your submitted course descriptions and Deanna's evaluations.

The only applicants who would still have to submit course descriptions are any non-UofG people who are living-on-the-edge and did not get their courses pre-approved.

cbarne01:

---

The date fields have a calendar icon just to their right that will bring up a mini-calendar from which you can select the appropriate date, which is then automatically inserted into the field; the date is inserted in MM/DD/YYYY format. (as with everything else, these icons are deactivated in the preview, but work in the real BIF form)

[guest01]

I am a non-guelph student and I got my pre-reqs approved this past summer (2012). However, I took a course (Biology 3FF3- Evolution at McMaster) in Fall2012 which I did really well on but I didn't get it approved. I was wondering if it would still count as one Biological Science.


Do both of the Biological Sciences need to be animal biology related or just one?

Thank you!

[lowenger]

You should get that Evolution course assessed ASAP. All courses that are not U of G need approval.

As for animal related it is not a requirement for both courses.

[aquavet]

Hey, lucky you I was looking through some of my past course evaluation requests and I can tell you that Biology 3FF3 is an acceptable biological science.

Good luck!

Feb 18, 2013 21:56:40 GMT -5 @guest01 said:

I am a non-guelph student and I got my pre-reqs approved this past summer (2012). However, I took a course (Biology 3FF3- Evolution at McMaster) in Fall2012 which I did really well on but I didn't get it approved. I was wondering if it would still count as one Biological Science.


Do both of the Biological Sciences need to be animal biology related or just one?

Thank you!

[guest01]

aquavet: Thank you! Do you mind if I ask when you got that course approved?

Can I still use it for my application even if I didn't personally get it approved?

[aquavet]

Feb 26, 2013 16:01:25 GMT -5 @guest01 said:

aquavet: Thank you! Do you mind if I ask when you got that course approved?

Can I still use it for my application even if I didn't personally get it approved?

I had the course approved July 2012. I'm not sure if we can use it if we didn't get it personally approved, but I don't see why not unless you violated the full-time semester rule or any of the other stated rules.

[dreizehn]

As Ms. Lowenger stated: "All courses that are not U of G need approval." Luckily for you, aquavet recently had the course approved for him, so it is likely also acceptable in your case, unless, as he said, "...you violated the full-time semester rule or any of the other stated rules."

Now, this course will still need to be assessed for approval for your case in particular, as it is with all external applicants since each has a unique set of conditions (e.g., academic history, other courses, etc.). Ideally (for all involved), this is done far ahead of time via Ms. Lundmark (www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/recruitment/en/applyingtodvm/Makingacourseevaluationrequest.asp). However, per the "IMPORTANT NOTICES" section of this year's BIF form:

You must submit copies of course descriptions or outlines for all prerequisite courses declared in Section C if the courses were taken at an institution other than the University of Guelph and if you did not have them preapproved. Please email them to: [e-mail]

So, as stated above, just make sure to e-mail off this non-preapproved course's description and/or outline before the March 1 deadline (along with the necessary ID information to connect the e-mail to your application) and you should be fine to use it in your application. Also, I do believe all contact with admissions regarding you application must be made via the UofG e-mail address assigned to you.


As for your earlier question:

Feb 18, 2013 21:56:40 GMT -5 @guest01 said:

Do both of the Biological Sciences need to be animal biology related or just one?

As Ms. Lowenger stated: "...it is not a requirement." Further, per the admissions page (www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/recruitment/en/applyingtodvm/Academicrequirements.asp):

• "You can study at any accredited university and take any major that interests you..."
  
• "Courses do not need to be completed in a designated Pre-Veterinary program."

[/i]
(all emphasis mine)[/li][/ul]I don't think it's stated anywhere that any courses must be animal related (they just have to be approved as a biological sciences course). This is demonstrated by briefly looking through UofG's list of acceptable prerequisite courses, where there are courses from a wide range of acceptable biological sciences fields that are not directly animal related (e.g., environmental biology, microbiology, soil science, etc.). As previously stated, external courses do have to be individually approved though to ensure they meet the admissions office's requirements.

[guest01]

Thank you dreizehn for the detailed reply!

[Guest1232123]

I was looking over the BIF for last year and I noticed that there is a section for other employment as well as extra curricular activities. On the OVC website non veterinary jobs are considered a extra curricular activities. I'm concerned because I have to work to pay for school between that and volunteering with DVMs I don't really have time for other clubs/ teams ect. So I don't have any extracurricular activities/hours as I was counting on my non vet job to go under that section.

My friend suggested putting the fact that I go running almost everyday on under the extra curricular activities. I wasn't really sure about it so I thought I'd ask.

[dreizehn]

Jul 22, 2013 10:00:02 GMT -5 @Guest1232123 said:

I was looking over the BIF for last year and I noticed that there is a section for other employment as well as extra curricular activities. On the OVC website non veterinary jobs are considered a extra curricular activities. I'm concerned because I have to work to pay for school between that and volunteering with DVMs I don't really have time for other clubs/ teams ect. So I don't have any extracurricular activities/hours as I was counting on my non vet job to go under that section.

My friend suggested putting the fact that I go running almost everyday on under the extra curricular activities. I wasn't really sure about it so I thought I'd ask.

Firstly, I'd consider the following three sources of information, which I think well summarize the purpose of the "Other Employment Experience" and "Extracurricular and Community Activities" sections (all emphasis mine):

• Per the OVC admissions' non-academic requirements web page:

  "So much of veterinary medicine involves working with people and as part of a team. Jobs and volunteer activities that hone your communication, interpersonal and organizational skills are important."

• Per the OVC admissions' FAQ web page:

  "Your extracurricular activities demonstrate your ability to work as a team and when required take on a leadership role. Veterinary medicine is all about working with your colleagues. It will be difficult to succeed in the DVM program if you try to do it all on your own. Take on a new leadership role in a university club, join student government, volunteer in your local community, join an intramural sports team, attend leadership conferences, etc. The possibilities are endless!
  
  The DVM Admissions Committee also wants to see that you are a balanced individual capable of dealing with the stress of four years of medical training. Try volunteering for a non-animal charity, with a local school, at a nursing home, etc. Try learning a new skill or developing a new hobby. It's important that you have outlets for stress relief if you are to be successful in the profession."

• Per the U of G's undergraduate calendar's section on DVM admissions:

  "Successful candidates should have integrity, reliability, maturity and determination. It is important that professionals have excellent communication and leadership skills, and that they have a talent for effectively working with others."

With the above in mind, I definitely would include your running in the extracurricular activities section, as it is an example of a hobby/sport, as well as a form of stress relief (also since the online form provides up to 10 spaces for entries, and you seem to be struggling a bit to think of some).

However, I would also strongly recommend you try to have more than just this single entry in the extracurriculars section in order to better demonstrate interpersonal, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. While your non-vet job, as well as your (hopefully) lots of vet and animal experience, may already involve a good number of these skills, I think you should strive for more diversity in your experiences to demonstrate that you are a relatively well-rounded applicant. Furthermore, as the role these "other" sections on the BIF play in the admissions process is not as well defined as the academics, MCAT, and interviews, it's hard to judge exactly what kind of an impact these sections have on an application. As such, I think it's important to make sure you put forth a good display of experiences.

Do you have ANY other kind of hobbies, team sports, activities, or volunteering you are involved in? Also, you may want to consider going a bit further back into your past for experiences. If you've followed a generally standard undergrad, then high school was probably just a few years ago; were you perhaps more involved in extracurriculars, volunteering, etc. back then? As that would really not have been that long ago, I definitely think it would be appropriate to include those experiences on the BIF. For example, though I myself did have a good amount of experiences within a couple years of my application year, I also included quality experiences from as far back as eight years before my application year. Personally, I think if you have the space available, I'd include as many quality entries as you can (without resorting to meaninglessly padding your form with fluff), as the admissions committee can sort out for themselves what they do or do not think is important for their purposes.

[Guest22]

Has anyone ever put pet sitting on their BIF for animal experience? I know pet ownership doesn't count, but I've seen people mention pet sitting on other forums (some American, but still). I've done a good amount of both paid and unpaid dog sitting, so I was just wondering.

[guest 5261]

does anyone know where we can find examples or tips on how to right our statement of intent? im having trouble coming up with ideas on how to start

[dreizehn]

Aug 15, 2013 9:41:24 GMT -5 @Guest22 said:

Has anyone ever put pet sitting on their BIF for animal experience? I know pet ownership doesn't count, but I've seen people mention pet sitting on other forums (some American, but still). I've done a good amount of both paid and unpaid dog sitting, so I was just wondering.

I'm sure someone has previously put down pet sitting but, as you're already aware, the OVC site for non-academic requirements, specifically states that "animal experience does not include pet ownership" (emphasis mine). With this is mind, I personally would definitely consider pet sitting borderline at best, since in the vast majority of instances it's essentially just like having a short-term pet.

Of course though, this also depends on the circumstances and extent of your pet sitting. If, for example, your pet sitting formed a rather significant employment or volunteer experience, it might fit well in those sections instead. Alternatively, if you routinely had to spend significant additional time with the animals beyond what standard pet care/ownership entails (e.g., health issues requiring care, training for behavioural issues, etc.), this might make it a more qualified entry for the animal experience section. For example, it's somewhat different, but I myself included fostering rescue dogs in my own BIF's Animal Experience section, as a large number of dogs in the program had noteworthy behavioural issues (i.e., mostly severe trust and fear issues, some aggressive dogs) for which lots of training with the dog was performed, and a good number of others had special health concerns that required additional time and care. Fostering is also a bit different than pet sitting, as it's generally more of a long term commitment, and we also had to do some of the work facilitating adoptions, but that's just an example of how, depending how involved the pet sitting experience was, it may or may not be suited for the animal experience section.

However, in any case I definitely wouldn't put too much emphasis on the pet sitting since it may be questionable as meaningful animal experience. Rather, I would include it only if you really think it went beyond the average kind of pet sitting, and if you have space, which is likely since the new online BIF allows plenty of entries (i.e., 10 per section as of last year). Also, you wouldn't be penalized for including it, as they could just disregard it if they didn't think much of it. Just do make sure to try to get more quality and diverse animal experiences to better demonstrate your efforts in that section.

Sept 9, 2013 20:50:33 GMT -5 @guest 5261 said:

does anyone know where we can find examples or tips on how to right our statement of intent? im having trouble coming up with ideas on how to start

I assume by "statement of intent" you are referring to the personal statement/essay on the BIF where they ask you to "explain why you wish to be a veterinarian." Honestly, if you just do a quick web search, there are plenty of other people who have asked this question, along with many decent responses. I just did a few searches in the past couple minutes and found the following:

• From this forum (UofG FVC):
  • The Essay Questions
    
  • Why be a vet?
    
  • BIF help
    
    (just be aware that the BIF used to have two essay questions, so that might come up in these posts. As of the last admission cycle (2013 entry), there was just the one essay question: "Explain why you wish to be a veterinarian. Please respond in essay form. You may use up to 2500 characters." While probably unlikely, keep in mind that the BIF can always change or be updated from year to year.)
  
  
  
• From the Student Doctor Network's pre-vet forum:
  • Why do you want to become a vet?
    
  • Why do you want to be a vet?
    
  • Why did you choose veterinary medicine?
    
  • Why do you want to be a vet?
    
  
  
  
• A short document from the San Diego State University pre-vet club that seemed, from a quick glance, to have at least some decent basic tips: sdsu-pvma.webs.com/Applying%20to%20Vet%20School/Personal%20Statement%20Barb.pdf
  

There's a lot of information already out there, so there's no sense in my rehashing a lot of it. With that said, here's just a few of my quick thoughts:

• You're looking at a career in veterinary medicine, so I think it can be safely assumed that you like animals, and, especially, are interested in their health and welfare. As such, you may want to mention this in passing, but I personally wouldn't go into it more than that at all just because I think it's such a given prerequisite for this career. More go into the experiences, motivations, and interests that have brought you to decide veterinary medicine is for you.
  • What is it about you that makes you a good fit for this field?
    
  • What about you will make you an asset to this field?
    
  • What kind of things have you done that gave you the experience to be sure this is the career you want?
  
  There's no need to go into details since these are provided elsewhere in the BIF, so approach it in a somewhat more general sense.
  
  
• Hand-in-hand with why you think you're a good fit for vet med, think about why you believe vet medicine is a good fit for you. There are plenty of other career paths out there, including many others working closely with animals. What aspects of vet medicine itself have led you to decide this is the career you want?
  
  
• The BIF is a long form, but it could never cover everything. What is it that you want the admissions committee to know about you that you don't otherwise have a chance to say? What distinguishes you from all the other people out there who are also applying?

Ultimately, I think the question is difficult for many people to begin exactly because it is so seemingly simple, and there's not a lot of guidance given. However, that's also what makes this such a potentially powerful and meaningful question and answer, because it is so open to each applicant's own expression of what they think is more important. For most, this is really not the kind of essay one can just sit down and write in a couple hours; you really do need to spend a decent amount of time just thinking about everything. Why DO you want to be a vet? Why aren't you going after something else instead? What experiences have brought you here? There really are a lot of things to write about, and once you start you'll probably find it'll be more difficult trimming everything down to fit into the space allowed.

One final thing: this essay is pretty much the only chance during the whole application process during which you are given free reign to express whatever you personally think is most important, and most want the admissions committee to know. As such, though there are a lot of resources out there, tips on what to write, and others giving examples of what they wrote, don't get fully caught up in what other people have done, or with trying to check-off a sort of list of talking points others think should be covered. Take full advantage of this opportunity to express yourself, and don't make it a cookie-cutter response.


51 days since I last posted a giraffe...far too long :

[GEst]

Hello,

I was wondering about extra curricular activities for the BIF. I don't join any sports or clubs because I don't have an interest in them.
I work (non vet related), volunteer with a DVM and go to school. All three of which I enjoy and I have to work so I can pay for myself to go through school . and I don't feel the need to join anything else. Is this going to affect my chances for admission?
I'm not a very stressed individual and if I ever get stressed I just hang out in my apartment and do what ever. That works for me. I'm guessing I can't put "hangs out in apartment" as an activity. But it doesn't seem fair that I would be penalized because I don't want to/have time to join a club.
Any info advice someone has on this please let me know!

Thanks

[Guest999]

Hey I'm no admissions committee but I would highly doubt that this would impact your admission. Like it has been mentioned a lot before, the BIF is more of a "flag" for admissions to evaluate your experience.

Extra-curriculars are important to show that you are a well-rounded individual who is good at time management and enjoys many different aspects of life, such as volunteering or being part of clubs (such as a running club). However, I'm sure this is not a requirement by any means. I'm sure many people are in your situation where they have no interest in any clubs or sports at this point in time and I doubt this is grounds for non-admission. However, I would say it is advantageous in the sense that clubs and sports do allow for some great friendships and possible connections, but if its not your thing then its not your thing!

If you are worried, you can always buff up the extracurriculars on your BIF by volunteering once in a while with organizations that interest you, see if they are hosting events and offer to be a volunteer for the day, that sort of thing!

All-in-all, if your academics are at least relatively strong and you feel you have generally good quality experiences on your BIF, minor details such as extra-curriculars shouldn't play any significant role on your admission, in my opinion. However, if things boiled down to you vs someone else with the exact same academic standing and same veterinary experience quality, and it was a decision between you and the other person being offered an interview... I can see this as a situation in which your extra-curriculars may play some kind of role.

Sorry for the tangent! Hope some of that helped a little bit!

[biommmm]

Regarding the personal statement. Is there anyone we could send it to so they could read it and give feed back regarding its effectiveness? I've written mine but I just want someone more qualified to read it (other then my parents, because they think its brilliant, alas they are my parents and are quite biased) .

Thanks!

[dreizehn]

Nov 25, 2013 10:55:09 GMT -5 biommmm said:

Regarding the personal statement. Is there anyone we could send it to so they could read it and give feed back regarding its effectiveness? I've written mine but I just want someone more qualified to read it (other then my parents, because they think its brilliant, alas they are my parents and are quite biased).

You raise the good point of the importance of getting others to read your personal statement in order to get external feedback, as well as this feedback ideally being as unbiased as possible.

If you go to UofG, I believe you can get help through Writing Services, and I seem to recall speaking to applicants who have done so in the past and found it quite helpful. I think many other universities also offer similar programs if you are an external student.

If you want, feel free to also send it my way, and I can take a quick look at it for you. My e-mail is in my profile.