I think we should go back to circa. Sounds a lot cooler than about.

I start in circa a week and change.

Auburn starts Monday and I'm kinda scared i'm not gonna lie. we just completed our 4 day orientation and it was fun, exhausting, and terrifying all in one. Good luck to everyone else who are starting classes soon!

Actually I think it is at some random farm near the NB center, and not actually at the NB center, but I could be wrong.

OT rant: why are coveralls made for people with no shoulders?

Why don't they make coveralls for women??!?!?! i mean come on, 75% of vet students are women and every vet student buys coveralls. And i'm sure women working in other jobs need coveralls too!!

4 full days?? Texas A&M's orientation is three 8am-5pm days and even though I've seen the schedule for it, I still don't understand how it takes that long to 'orient' us for school!

Blackat--they do make coveralls for women (err, at least one company does...)

http://www.pellavet.com/show_product/?product_id=339

Let it be know that they definitely run small, though!

LSU is 4 days long too. Yesterday was the first day. It was get to know some people, team building activities/ice breakers day. It was actually pretty fun. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is orientation from 8am to ?, prob 4 or 5 pm. Have heard that it is pretty boring, mostly just people coming to talk to us. Some upperclassmen told me I will be so glad to start classes on Thursday and be done with orientation. Can't decide how I feel about Thursday yet. :D:scared:

I was so excited. Then i realized it does not come in a shade of brown (mandatory for us :( ) but also, it is 2x as much as the Dickies ones I am waitlisted for. Oh well, it was close though! thanks!!!

Dude no ****! I'm looking through our A&M schedule and being like "cool, we listen to people talk for several hours then get to walk aorund a bit for clinic tours, tehn listen to more people talk...whoo!"

Oh well. It's a good problem to have.

I guess I got lucky because Ok-State's orientation goes like this: Wednesday is 7:45-5 of people talking, Thursday is a ropes course, and Friday is the white coat ceremony in the morning with optional tours in the afternoon. That's it.

BROWN? Here I think they're supposed to be green (at least when I worked as a milker at the vet school's teaching herd, all the vet students who came in had the green ones from Pella Vet). I think other places require blue.

How unfashionable. I'm so sorry.

Yeah Michigan State's is similar. Friday the 27th we have people talking from 8-2:30, then we have our white coat ceremony starting at 5. Then Saturday the 28th we have ice-breakers/get-to-know people activities from 9-4ish, then we start classes Monday the 30th. Ahhhh so soon!

Mississippi requires khaki coveralls yuck

:laugh: yea not very pretty but I think most people just choose khaki color which is ok. Green is good. Blue reminds me of the school janitor lol

Oh, but I like blue! I think navy is generally a flattering color....and doesn't show blood and poop stains as badly :)

At Western we got to dance as an orientation activity! :laugh: Enjoy it while it lasts, then hit the ground running on day 1.

We're 1/2 way through week 2, and I'm loving it so far (even though it's a lot of work)! It's good stress with a great group of people.

I'll be sure to cruise the boards periodically (I totally dropped off the face of the earth here.)
:luck:

Meanwhile up in the other half of CA, we start exactly two weeks from today! :eek:

Well, today is the second day of actual classes. It is AMAZING!!! I was wandering around the building during lunch and got to part of a tiger surgery! So my new goal is to check out the surgery board before class in the morning to see what kind of awesome things I might get to see at lunch. Got to meet dyachei (even though I didn't know it until later)! Very cool:D

We have to have blue coveralls at Davis. =) But, I like blue so I am happy. Plus our orientation is 5 days long.....and they haven't released any type of a schedule yet. :(

Which I really would love to know what exactly we are doing all week. But I can hardly wait for school to start!!! :D

Michigan State's orientation is a week from tomorrow and I am moving up with my dog and cat (who are still getting used to each other...) today. I just got my anatomy book yesterday night and started to freak out, quite honestly...but I am very excited to start, nonetheless.

LSU's three days of orientation is over (yes!) and we are in the middle of our first day. Wooohoo!

Let's just say Illinois orientation might kill me off. I almost fell asleep already today...oops! Good thing it's only two days. On the bright side...small animal ortho surgery rotation for first week of school!!! :love:

so we're taking a total of 31 credits. That doesnt include our optional elective and optional MBA cert program (which everyone seems to be taking both). Somehow i thought we'd be taking around 25 credits. i was totally off lol

Orientation next week though! There are a lot of short activities mixed in between talks so I dont think it will be too boring. I will attach it if anyone is curious. I'm kind of curious about the schedule of other schools :)

My parents came today and were asking about the coat ceremony because another coworkers daughter is goin to school and she has one. I was like, we don't have one first yr :( lol i wish there was part of orientation that parents could come though and they can do the whole talk about how great we are for accomplishing this... My parents are really proud but that whole feeling slips in the cracks when there is no function for them to come too and its just like BOOM i start school haha

I think I *did* fall asleep for a second in orientation natalie...eeks. luckily my farm animal handling techniques will most definitely keep me awake next week. GULP!

Our orientation is going pretty well so far. It's exhausting to meet so many new people, but I get the feeling that I should get used to the exhaustion from other sources ;). Your first day looks better than ours, Blackat! They said, 'Welcome,' then we devoted practically the whole morning to talking about money, harassment, and depression. First day, honestly! But it got better after that and the orientation facilitators have been really good about letting us meet the class-- I feel like I'd recognize at least 75% of the class (which seemed impossible at the beginning!) and I know my anatomy group well ish, I think! Tomorrow is my matriculation ceremony and I am super excited for that! Then classes start 8:00 Monday, and so begins the next 4 years of my life! :eek:

Mizzou's Orientation is officially over today. We had 4 days at Lake of the Ozarks on a team building retreat and today was the academic orientation on campus. It was a blast at the lake. We got to do so much fun stuff (and TONS of really nice gifts to the class!), meet so many people and actually hang out and get to know our professors. It was really fun to see them all be so goofy and welcoming, it made them seem much more approachable. We also got to do speed networking with the dean, MVMA members and other vets. Each team was assigned two second year students to ask q's of and on the last day we had a second year panel for even more questions. Plus, who doesn't love giant lake inflatables and karaoke? Today was pretty dry and more about the rules/regs and other normal orientation stuff. At the end we got our Hill's backpacks and more giveaways.

I'm really excited about attending Mizzou. Talking to friends starting at other vet schools it just sounds like their orientations are kind of a let down so far and they aren't feeling nearly as comfortable about starting. They did a great job of bringing all of us together and making us feel welcome. We're still very clear on how hard it's going to be but I think it will be way, way easier already having friends to work with and knowing the professors really do care that we do our best!

I cannot believe i missed the tiger surgery! I'm gonna stop eating lunch and juts walk around the clinic every big break we've got, lol

Enjoy your freedom! You'll have an amazing time once things get rolling. And (possibly) see you at Symposium! :cool:

Ughhhhh, I'm so jealous of all you guys. Ohio is on a quarter system, so I have one MONTH (to the day) until orientation even starts. Oy vey, so far away.

Second day of orientation, and we had a panel of upperclassmen spend about a half hour going on about how much time people spend studying, failing exams, crying, drinking, and doing it all over again the next week. Then they said we looked nervous and told us not to be since vet school is great fun :rolleyes: For all anyone who's been through tells me about it, I still have no idea what I'm getting into and have a feeling I won't until I'm well into the year. The the uncertainty doesn't bother me inherently, but I think I'm starting to guess one of the ways which vet school could strain close relationships with people "on the outside".

That aside, I am very excited about the coming weeks, months, and years. My fourth-year mentor invited me to join him on his ER shift last night, and I had a wonderful time. It was a pretty quiet evening, and my mentor spent a while giving me the background on cases, teaching me some diagnostic and technical skills, and letting me try things. Now I'm even more eager to start classes and learn the basics --partly so I can have a clue about what the Drs and the students on rotation are saying with all those big, long words :laugh:

Let me guess--your mentor was John A., right? :) That's awesome that the eager freshman was you!! Fantastic! I'm on medicine--tomorrow's my last day--but maybe I'll see you when you come for the tour. My patient in ICU was the twitchy kitten.:)

I'm pretty surprised that orientations at other schools are so long! Our first day (this coming Monday), we're supposed to hear welcome messages, then distribute locks and take pictures for our ID cards, then some speeches, then we go on a tour and hang out with our second year buddies. On Tuesday, we put in our microscope orders and spend the rest of the time talking about "Topics in Professionalism" (whatever that is). Then classes start on Wednesday. We definitely don't get a bonding retreat!

Freedom?? I have very little time here to finish my thesis and rather than doing it today spent 12 hours managing a research cat in labor with a history of dystocia with my PI yelling at me all day and only one of the kittens even has an outside chance of surviving after that whole 12 hour day...right now going to class all day and coming home (where I can do things like eat food and drink water) and studying sounds like "freedom" to me. :laugh:

(note: I'm sure this will change...)

We're on quarters at UCDavis too, but Fall quarter starts early for vet students, and even a week earlier than that for first years.

I do not start until September 1. We have a 3 day orientation at the U of Calgary. And then the first two weeks is a philosophy course that is comprised of some field trips. Then regular classes start on Sept 20th. At the U of C our classes are split between two different campuses, the health sci building at the foot hills hospital and the clinical skills building on the north end of calgary. I really like the hands on approach of the cirriculum. I am starting to get soo excited to start, yet at the same time I am so nervous. Its been great reading about everyone elses experiences so far!

Well, there goes my anonymity :laugh: Willowhand is, indeed, the eager freshman (you weren't the only one to call me that -is it so unusual that one of you manages to lure a mentee into your lair?) Anyway, please introduce yourself at some point. I'm not sure if I can remember who was treating twitchy kitten :)

I actually enjoyed the Q&A with the uppers and found it vaguely reassuring. It seems like they are all normal people who can screw up and bomb the occassional test (or three!), and there they are, still getting through vet school. It helped me feel like maybe I CAN do it, too.


<-- Jealous! I miss working ER and feel like what few skills I gained there are all going to evaporate in the next couple years of sitting in classes. And apparently my senior is out of town on vacation for a few weeks. I'm afraid by the time I meet him, this little honeymoon period will be over, I'll be drowning in bones and tissues, and I won't even have the time or energy to tag along even if he is available and willing.

Just finished the first full week of school...and I am exhausted! For those of you who haven't started, yes, it really is as much work as they say it is! We have our first anatomy exam next Wednesday already and in only seven lab periods and four lectures we've learned all of the muscles, bones, blood supply, and innervation of the forelimbs. I'm pooped!

Well as an update...today we had our 5th test. It really honestly isn't that bad! Easy material...just memorize it!

have you had your anatomy one yet? do majority of your anatomy exams come from the practicals in lab? ours is like 20% written and 80% lab practical...like they tag a tiny bone or indent and u name it lol.

:) Don't worry, I don't remember what you looked like, either! I was the tall one with short dark curly hair--look a bit older (will be 31 in a few weeks!). I passed by a couple of tour groups in the hallway today while wheeling my dead patient down to necropsy...

Glad you are having so much fun! I wish all mentees were as interested and involved! (Mine is pretty awesome, too!)

Hey, I saw you! Well, not really, I was focused on your dead patient, but you wheeled right by me! You probably didn't see me, but if you noticed a guy more than a bit older (31 is NOT old!) that was me.

5th test?? Here in the UK our year is broken up into 4 modules and there's one fat test at the end of each module of the course. The first one is essays, short answers, a spot exam, and oral test.

It's our second week and we finished bones, muscles, nerves, vessels in the animal body course. We've also had some AHWAFS (animal husbandry, welfare, and food safety), and vet public health lectures in between too. We're all exhausted! I love the accents of the professors though. Our VPH professor sounds like Mario!!! :p

Actually our first anatomy exam is this Monday (so I need to get to the lab and study!!). We have quizzes every friday in anatomy so it keeps us studying it all the time. Ours is going to be 50% written and 50% practical (labeling and such.) We have to be able to identify structures in radiographs as well. We have covered bones, muscles, veins, arteries, joints, ligaments, and nerves of the thoracic limb in the horse and dog. We also have to identify all kinds of structures in the horse hoof. On the written part we have to be able to answer questions like origins, insertions, actions, and innervations of the muscles, differences in species, and whatever was in the reading is fair game. There will be questions like... if the cranial side of the leg between the elbow joint and the carpals is cut to the bone, what structures would be cut and what would happen to the function of the leg? Also, trace a drop of blood from the subclavian (vessel going into the chest) to the tip of the toe.

There is soooo much more than I ever realized. I figured when we learned bones...we'd just learn the bones not every little tiny structure on all the bones. There are so many more muscle than I thought too... close to 15 just in the lower part of the leg. Even some of the muscles are divided into different "heads."

How long is everyone's anatomy courses? Ours is 2 semesters first year. We start surgeries next year so we kind of have to get it out of the way quick.

ours will be only 24 weeks total, the new curriculum puts in 8 weeks of rotations so we have less time for anatomy, which bums me out because I want as much time as I can get to learn it!

Just went into the anamoty lab for the first time yesterday. We have Basic and Applied Anatomy I and II this semester, and III is in the spring. Ours seems pretty similar. Quizzes every Friday that make up 10% of the grade, except in weeks there is a test. 2 written exams that count for 50% of the grade and are mostly mc but could also have short answer and essay. And 2 practical exams that count for 40%. Good luck on your first anatomy test!:luck::)

OT: How is everyone's grading scale? LSU is 8 points, so 92%-100% is an A, 83%-91% is a B, and so on. Hard to get used to for me; have always had 10 point grading scales.

UT's anatomy course is 2 semesters first year as well. First semester is small animal, next semester is large animal.

I remember when I took farm animal anatomy as an undergrad, the professor said that we were barely scratching the surface of things. He warned those of us going into vet school to be ready for lots and lots of details!

My friend/rotationmate and I were careful to cover up the patient because we didn't want to "scare" the freshmen too badly. ;) I think I might have seen you--but I was more focused on saying hi to my mentee at the back of your group. :) Hope you spend some time in the hospital this fall! If you want to go out for a drink sometime, let me know--"older" folks in vet school need their own kind of support, as I well know. ;) Good luck Monday!!! You'll do great!

Hmm am I the only one that was not thrilled with orientation? I would have much rather spent the three days reading, relaxing, and coming to terms with the fact that I will have no life very very soon :rolleyes: I'm very excited for school, I just really hate ice breaker games!!

LOL, yeah, I noticed that! I was trying to get a clue what happened to the dog, but you had him wrapped up so completely in like five towels he might as well have been a mummy!

i had an AWESOME time at our orientation. We got to spend 3 days up at Pingree Park, which has a CSU campsite. a lot of people didn't like it. But I thought it was an awesome way to meet everyone else. It totally reminded me of Salute your Shorts. lol. and we had 3 meals/day and I was able to eat lunch with different people.

I'm super excited/nervous about starting school on monday