Along with submitting an application via VMCAS, you are required to submit an official transcript from every school you ever attended to the vet schools you are applying to. In addition, VMCAS requires that you enter in each individual course and course information into VMCAS, a tedious process.
With that in mind, do not wait until the summer ends to request a transcript from your school(s). The last thing you want to do is underestimate the amount of time that it takes to enter every single course you’ve ever taken into VMCAS. For those of you who are applying with just 2 or 3 years of college under your belt, this may not be an issue. However, if you are like me, in that you have accumulated transcripts from seven colleges over the years, completing the coursework section on VMCAS takes some time.
My advice:
- Request transcripts at the end of the spring term of the year you are applying. Of course, if you are taking summer classes, you will want to request transcripts immediately after the summer courses have completed. If you are taking summer courses I recommend requesting 1 transcript after the spring to have to enter in your coursework thus far, and then request transcripts at the end of the summer for you to enter into VMCAS as well as mail to your schools.
- Request MORE transcripts than you will need. Specifically, get 1 transcript for every school you will apply to, 1 for yourself, and then a few extras in case something goes awry with the mail (these things do happen!). Plus, it’s always good to have a few extra transcripts on hand in case something unexpected comes up.
- Don’t forget about mailing fall transcripts to the schools you applied to after you submit your application. Some schools don’t require you to do this, but I think it is a great idea to mail your fall grades along with a nice letter updating the school on your progress since applying. Again, request the transcripts as soon as the term is over and get them in the mail pronto to any schools that you are still “in the running” for.
- Save Transcript Request PDFs to your computer. Nowadays most schools have ways of downloading transcript request forms to your computer. Do yourself a favor and save them to a folder on your computer. If you have a program such as Adobe Acrobat Professional that will allow you to fill in the PDF on your computer, then do that as it will save you time later.
- Scan a copy of your transcripts to your computer. This may not be feasible if you don’t have a scanner, but I find that it is quite helpful to have an electronic copy on hand at times that I need to quickly look something up.