After all these years, I wish I could say I love vetschool but- I can't.
Dont get me wrong--Im thrilled to be a vet student. But with so many years practicing as a tech, knowing how the "real vet world" works, its difficult having to sit in classes 8 hours a day, learning mountains of minutia, thinking "why are we learning this again? For example, even though we are required to take biochem as a pre-req to vetschool we have to take it AGAIN our first semester. With that in mind your like "okay this should be an easy review-right"...NOPE! The exams where ridiculous.
We also have to take Cell Biology. Boring, time waster.
Small Animal anatomy was pretty decent, but large animal anatomy was horrible. 102 students in a lab built for 50, with 12 specimens, and a professor that likes to pull random parts of the GI tract through a slit in a garbage bag as a test question.
Grrrr.
Honestly, I'm just not academically inclined. And for the most part that is what we do here the first 2 years. I was warned about this before I started, so Im not that shocked or disappointed. The biggest issue for me was dealing emotionally with spending an overwelming amount of time studying; yet achieving less than desired results. Frustration +++. But I just had to get over that.
The courses I enjoy most are those more clinically related (LOVED my Emergency and Critical Care elective.) And I live for the wetlabs! My GPA might not be in the top 10%, but so far I'm getting excellent feedback from the clinicians on my clinical skills so thats good enough for me.
The good things about UGA are the faculty and staff. We have our share of "background noise" too, but honestly being older with my own life issues, I hardly notice it. But in all, the profs and staff are awesome, always willing to help you out, help you learn, help you SURVIVE--whatever you need.
Ive talked to some upperclassmen and some say second year is better, while some say its worse...so I'll guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Overall to stay motivated, I focus on the longterm goal...Graduation.