Applying to Vet School: Horse Trading and Cornell

For some time, I have suspected that even though Cornell put me on their alternate list, I was possibly pretty high on that list. 

When I declined to visit the campus, not for an interview but a tour, I was hounded by THREE different administrators who tried to get me to change my mind. But travel to Ithaca, New York in February? Hell no. The weather (although that was a general guess on my part, in hindsight it was a great call), the cost, the time away from classes--the cost to me seemed to be greater than the return. It was a tour of buildings and meetings with administrators, not an interview. I already knew I was an alternate. I didn't feel the need to visit the campus.

But when Cornell didn't let the matter drop, I began to wonder if there was a subtext that I had not originally noticed. As a compromise, they gathered the three most relevant people in the vet school (Asst Dean of Students , the woman in charge of curriculum, and the woman in charge of financial aid) to deliver a video conference to me. It lasted just over three hours. That's a pretty substantial time commitment on their part for a lowly alternate.

On top of that, they were burying me in emails and snail mails stuffed with instructions to fill out forms for financial aid RIGHT NOW. Since I had to fill out the FAFSA to be able to receive financial aid from any school, not just Cornell, I went ahead and did all that back in January, which is why my taxes were done so early. 

In short, they seemed to be pursuing me rather more aggressively than my position as an alternate would suggest.

So it was with no surprise that I got a call from the woman in charge of the Cornell vet school admissions office yesterday. Actually, she called three times and emailed once. I missed all the calls because I was in class (and I'm not sure she knows where I am physically; the time difference contributes to missing calls if you don't plan for it). I called her back and she said, Cornell wants to make you an offer of admission. I said, okay, send it on, but you should know that I have accepted one offer and my decision regarding Cornell will probably hinge entirely on financial matters. She said, okay, that's reasonable. We want to send you the offer letter because we want you to come here.

The offer of admission from Cornell arrived yesterday within half an hour of my speaking to her, and my financial aid offer letter from them arrived this morning.

No surprises there either. Cornell vet school has a large endowment and is able to provide more non-loan money to its students than Oregon State. The annual non-resident tuition at Cornell ($48,100) is $5,300 more per year than at Oregon State ($42,768). Unfortunately, that difference was not covered by the non-loan money that Cornell would offer me. Plus, like Oregon State, at Cornell I would remain a non-resident for all four years. 

(The matter of residency varies from state to state and also depends on whether the school is private, like Cornell, or state-funded. In Oregon, I would have to quit school for 12 months in order to become a resident. No exceptions.)

And why this flurry of letters and phone calls? After receiving the offer of admission from Cornell, I have about 36 hours to make my decision. Yep, that's right. No pondering or waiting for another offer. This will be binary: yes or no, and it will be done by Friday morning.

I'm flattered that Cornell has made me this offer but in all truth I will probably turn it down. Yes, they are an excellent school. Yes, I might have access to additional financial aid resources in subsequent years, but that's of course not guaranteed.

I don't want to drag this post on much longer, but there are other reasons that staying at Oregon State might be the better choice. I'll elaborate on these in another post.hbfg

Gainfully Employed

Tomorrow is the day. April 15. No, not tax day. I did my taxes back in January and I don't care about the anxiety that you procrastinators might have on the subject. April 15 is the official deadline for informing vet schools about your admission decision. If you got an offer from a vet school, you have to accept or decline it by April 15. 

I accepted the offer from Oregon State, of course. I still can't say that I won't change my mind if another school dangles an offer in front of me, but I'm becoming more emotionally and mentally used to the idea of staying here.

As I had already worked out, if I am going to leave, I need to be out of here by the end of June. And if I stay, I need to get a job for the summer.

That's right. I need to become a gainfully employed, tax-paying citizen, at least until September. Since I landed here two years ago, I've been living off savings and the bit of money the uni tosses my way. They pay my tuition, for which I am extremely grateful. But the rest, well, I couldn't live on it as my sole source of income. 

Living off savings is stressful. No money in, money only goes out. If I'm not thinking about cheese, I'm thinking about money.

Back to this job thing. I decided to start with my personal network, in fact, with one person in particular: the PI of the pregnant cow study. I worked my butt off for her project, going in night after night, showing up during the day when I was called in, and doing a good job on my assigned tasks. The project would not have failed in my absence but I am sure that I made a significant contribution to its success, and I'm proud of that. I did it for the experience, of course, but also for the potential for future opportunities. Or to put it another way, virtue is its own reward but money never hurts.

Turns out the PI of the project has a husband who is also a vet. He owns a clinic in the area. So I bided my time, let the last cow have her calf, waited for preliminary results to roll in, waited for spring break to come and go, then I approached her. (Oh yes, I started planning this months ago.) So, would S, her husband, happen to have any openings in his clinic this summer? I told her I wasn't necessarily expecting to advance my career as a clinician but that I wanted a summer job in the animal care industry if I could get one.

Well, turns out the PI gave me one hell of a recommendation to her husband. At his request, I dropped my CV off at his clinic yesterday. Today, his clinic manager called me. They want to try me out for one night a week, starting next week, with the intent to expand to nearly full time after classes are over in June. I will probably write more in the future about what the job entails, but I am thrilled that it appears to be a position with a lot of client and animal contact, not just a job mopping out boarding kennels. I would have taken the latter job without hesitation, but I'm glad that I might be able to do more.

No, of course I don't have time to start this job now when I'm buried in coursework this term, and defending the thesis on top of that. But I can't afford to pass it up, either. 

The school gig is certainly a nice way to pass a few months, even a year or two, if you have the time. And I'm staring down a long, four-year tunnel of more studying. But I will be happy to have a job again, even for a few months.

Sprucehill Bedazzle

Rest in peace, my sweet pea Dyna.

January 1999 to January 2015.

First Day of School

As a child, I always looked forward to the first day of school. Simply making the annual trip to buy school supplies the week or so beforehand was enough to send me over the edge with excitement.

Well, it's that time of year again. I'm can't say I'm beside myself with anticipation, but I am looking forward to returning to class on Monday.

I've got a full schedule this quarter: French, Biochemistry (a pre-vet weedout class, I've been told), Animal Nutrition, and Animal Breeding and Genetics. While the latter two are focused on industrial applications, I'm sure I'll learn valuable things.

Because of my interest in spending a year outside of the US during vet school and perhaps even an international internship after vet school, I intend to keep up with the French. Being reasonably fluent in another language will help me with these goals. I took a placement exam earlier this summer and tested out at the third-year level. However, I felt my conversational skills are far weaker than my grammar and vocabulary so I am starting a three-quarter second-year sequence for the language.

Textbooks are rather pricey, as science texts have always been, but I buy used ones if I can, as I always have done. I am perfectly willing to search through dozens of used books until I find one that looks least used. Sort of sad, really, because that means its prior owner didn't use it--didn't do readings or homework, didn't flip back and forth through chapters to study for an exam, didn't regularly cart it around in a backpack. A textbook that has been used to learn and explore looks pretty beat by the end of 10 or 12 weeks. Plus I write in books. Always have. All kinds of books. (While I like ebooks, I find not being able to jot notes and thoughts in the margins to be a bit frustrating.)

Going to university is quite expensive and it didn't make sense to me 30 years ago and doesn't make sense to me now that someone would waste time and money (somebody's money, not likely to be their own, and everybody else's time) by not going to class or even trying to learn something. But I suppose that even when I was 20 I was already a curmudgeon.

The campus this summer was rather underpopulated. I've been down there a couple of times in the past week or so to get my textbooks and supplies (how exciting! school supplies!) and the influx of thousands of painfully young men and women is a bit overwhelming.

But I'm ready. I've got notebooks for each class. I've got plenty of lead for my beloved mechanical pencils. I printed color coded schedules. I also downloaded my schedule to my various Apple devices. I printed a campus map highlighting the buildings that I need to be in this quarter. I even broke down and bought a student parking pass (they were offering a year-long deal if purchased online). I had my bike tuned up. I even bought two pairs of pants (new school clothes!) to wear instead of jeans (they are really jeans but they are colored). Laugh at me all you want. I am ready for the first day of school.

Nesting

My friend Anne in Portland gets credit for the title of this post.

After the initial frenzy of buying things like cars and beds and lawnmowers, the pace has slowed quite a bit. CircusK9 is settling in, working out new routines and schedules, spending time at home arranging my few bits of furniture and clothes ... all of which are best described as nesting.

Not to be one who is happy with too much sloth, I started my backyard project today. I'm going to get decent grass going out there, but I first have to remove the voracious weeds that have taken up residence. With my spiffy new mud boots, my city-supplied organic waste trash can, and my new weed poker, I spent almost two hours digging up dandelions and the like. It took me almost all afternoon because I was interrupted by a couple of rain showers, but those were simply an opportunity to curl up on my couchlet and take a nap with the terriers.

One of the daily tasks is sweeping the house. It is entirely floored with laminate. Durable and easy to clean. It is so fun to finish the living room and ... what's this? another room! Just the thought of having this much space makes me giddy.

The dogs have at last gotten over their jet lag. They were waking me up at midnight, ready to play or eat or walk or something, for days. The cats are back to their usual dysfunction, with HellBeast whaling away on Tsingy whenever he can get away with it.

All of the animals are learning the sunny window schedule. I've strategically arranged blankets and beds to accommodate them.

Slowly our little space is feeling more like a home. We may only be here a couple of years but at least we will be comfortable.

Making Another Leap Off Another Cliff

Making the decision to leave Saudi Arabia felt a lot like leaping off a cliff. But I'm getting ready to make some other changes that are taking me over the edge of yet another one.

On Wednesday, CircusK9 will board another plane and head to Portland, OR. That's close to but not yet our final destination. We will drive to Corvallis that night and start to settle into our small rented house (with a securely fenced yard).

I will start taking classes at Oregon State in June. Yeah, I know, many of you are thinking, doesn't this woman already have college degrees (I have two); why does she need more?

I will spend about two years taking catch-up classes in biology and chemistry. I may acquire another BS degree in the process although that may not be necessary. Then I will apply to at least five veterinarian schools with a goal of getting a DVM degree.

I've of course got some ideas of what kind of vet I want to be but I don't want to go into those now (not being coy, it's just far too soon to be writing about things like that).

Obviously a plan like this doesn't form overnight. I've been working on it for almost two years.

And a plan like this doesn't come without plenty of risk. It will be expensive and will take years to execute. Vet school is extremely competitive, harder to get into than med school (fewer schools, fewer slots, as many or more applicants). There is no guarantee that I can pull this off.

Why would I do such a hare-brained thing? Being at Aramco accelerated a dissatisfaction I've had with my career path as a geologist for some years. But being at Aramco gave me the opportunity to make this kind of dramatic shift, mainly because of the money but also because of the fact that living in Saudi Arabia gave me a perspective on life and career that I would not have gained if I had stayed in the US.

I won't go into the long list of pros and cons that I've been chewing on for so long. Suffice to say that I may be making a really dumb decision but at least I totally own that decision.

There's going to be lots of hard work ahead. But there will be plenty of adventures too, and no doubt one or two of them will be blog-worthy. Life certainly won't stop being absurd just because I am not living in KSA anymore.