As I write this, we are now a week into our new lives as first-year vet students, members of the Class of 2019. I say "we" because this cohort of 56 will be together for four years. It won't be until the fourth year when we move into different clinical rotation tracks (small animal, large animal, general, exotics) that we will begin to spend time apart. On a side note, OSU has the smallest class size of any of the AVMA-accredited schools.
I'm pretty interested in finding out how similar vet school is to grad school. Sure, our schedule is more intense (19 to 21 credit hours every term), but how much more dense is the information? A difference that I already can see is that the DVM is a professional degree. You get an MS or PhD, there is no guarantee of a job. You get a DVM and the implication is that you have been trained to perform a specific job, and you should be able to move right into it. This will likely provide more fodder for posts in the future.
I'm perfectly happy in this environment, though. I like being a student. It is a familiar routine for me, and I can easily study every day of the week. However, I won't spend 16 hours at school, ever. I did that in grad school the first time around and have learned since how to be efficient and effective at most intellectual tasks. But it also means that I don't fall behind in any one class. I can balance school work and other activities more easily.
There are lots of vet student clubs in which I can participate. I'm interested in the Ag Animal club since I'm interested in working with food animals, but I've also put my name on the email list for the Shelter Medicine club. You'll recall my previous posts about my volunteer work at Pro-Bone-O in Eugene. The vet students participate heavily in that and other volunteer activities with shelters. I want to be able to continue doing that when I can. I've already signed up to help at a free clinic here in Corvallis for pets of the homeless that will be held later this month.
In addition to vet school stuff, I've also been asked to assist with tenure/promotion review associated with two of my mentors, my advisor and another professor in Animal Sciences. I could not have quit my job with Aramco, got an MS, and made it into vet school in just 2 1/2 years without mentoring. I have to write a letter for each one, evaluating their teaching and mentoring. I was also asked to sit on the student committee that evaluates and summarizes all the student reference letters for them. As you can tell, I have a full plate already, but there is no more professional way for me to thank my mentors for their assistance and support than to return the favor.
On top of that, I spent the two weeks between quitting my job at the emergency clinic and starting classes turning my thesis into two publications. I sent the drafts to my advisor and expect that she and I will spend much of the fall engaged in numerous back-and-forth rounds of editing. No rest for the weary or the wicked!
No doubt I'll find plenty to whine about as I go, but so far, so good.
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