Class of 2015... How ya doing?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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pretty much did the exact same thing as letitsnow, and I never have to take that test again (I hope) :)
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that redhead said:
I thought this link might be helpful - average starting salaries for new grads in 2013.
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Has the 2014 info been published yet? I couldn't find it last time I looked.

Either way, when looking at contracts, remember the value of benefits. I have friends who make more than I do, but they also have to pay for a whole lot things out of pocket.
 
cowgirla said:
Has the 2014 info been published yet? I couldn't find it last time I looked.

Either way, when looking at contracts, remember the value of benefits. I have friends who make more than I do, but they also have to pay for a whole lot things out of pocket.
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I haven't been able to find the 2014 info yet. And thanks for the tip about benefits - really good point! I've never had to negotiate a salary before, so I'm not really sure where my range should fall. Plus now that I'm looking locally, it's closer in to the city and cost of living is higher which should have some influence, right? Agh...
 
that redhead said:
I haven't been able to find the 2014 info yet. And thanks for the tip about benefits - really good point! I've never had to negotiate a salary before, so I'm not really sure where my range should fall. Plus now that I'm looking locally, it's closer in to the city and cost of living is higher which should have some influence, right? Agh...
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This was a huge source of worry for me, trying to adjust what I knew the average was, for a lower cost-of-living region of the country and balancing out the value of various benefits. I just about had a heart attack when my soon-to-be-employer point blank asked me what I wanted. :eek:
 
For the first time in my life, I've had school cancelled the night before. Too much damn snow. On the upside, this means I have another day to finish this case paper and I have one less day of companion animal surgery.
 
Current rotation is pretty cool, gives me Thursdays off and confirms that this is definitely something I would be happy doing.

Job hunt has been essentially fruitless but it's been a week so telling myself to remain calm. Followed up with my only call back thus far, left a message. Hoping it doesn't turn into phone tag as I get out of my current rotation later in the evenings. Panicking about my life but not out of the norm for me.

Inexplicably glad I am not in PEI getting slammed with snow :D We got ~3" here the other day and government and schools all closed...bahahaha.
 
Coquette22 said:
TRH it was the better part of two-three months for me to find and nail down my job. I know it's hars not to freak out, but there's still time
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I'm trying so hard to teach myself to slow the heck down and roll with the punches. I get the feeling it's going to be a life-long endeavor.
 
Over the next month to two, a lot more clinics who are looking for new grads will pop up, so don't despair. A lot of clinics are just finding out that associates are leaving for other opportunities for people pursuing further training/SO gets in to graduate programs. And when people are looking to fill positions for June, they're not necessarily on top of it and many don't start posting until closer to that date
 
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I'm at Humane Alliance right now, and boy is this place pretty much amazing. With 3 surgeries under my belt in the last 2 days, I'm feeling more confident about the procedures. The people are fantastic and I'm so glad I was able to do this!
 
scb44f said:
I'm at Humane Alliance right now, and boy is this place pretty much amazing. With 3 surgeries under my belt in the last 2 days, I'm feeling more confident about the procedures. The people are fantastic and I'm so glad I was able to do this!
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Happy to hear you are enjoying your time there!! I'm scheduled to be there around this time when I'm a 4th year!
 
I'm at the point now that I'm wondering whether we're actually going to get credit for this rotation due to all the closures for weather. Monday was a holiday, okay fine, that was planned. Tuesday and Wednesday were storm days. Today they sent us home at 12:30 due to "deteriorating road and weather conditions". It's bright and sunny out, but the winds are high and blowing snow into the roads and I guess it's pretty bad in places outside of town. So in one week of this rotation, I've logged, er, 18 hours at school. o_O And ANOTHER storm on the way for Sunday. Luckily, I have more credits then I need, so not a huge deal, but not everyone is in that situation.
 
next time i am sick, i will be sure to call you at 6am, attending clinician, to let you know of this fact so that you dont get mad at me for not coming in on a weekend when i dont have any patients, and we are discharging one of the services patients today and the other one tomorrow. :rolleyes: how much time is left on clinics??
 
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Coquette22 said:
I'm at the point now that I'm wondering whether we're actually going to get credit for this rotation due to all the closures for weather. Monday was a holiday, okay fine, that was planned. Tuesday and Wednesday were storm days. Today they sent us home at 12:30 due to "deteriorating road and weather conditions". It's bright and sunny out, but the winds are high and blowing snow into the roads and I guess it's pretty bad in places outside of town. So in one week of this rotation, I've logged, er, 18 hours at school. o_O And ANOTHER storm on the way for Sunday. Luckily, I have more credits then I need, so not a huge deal, but not everyone is in that situation.
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I was wondering if all those missed days would start to impinge on the credits earned for rotations...
 
that redhead said:
I was wondering if all those missed days would start to impinge on the credits earned for rotations...
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I don't think it will. UPEI tacked days onto the end of the year for the undergrads, but the AVC admin put out a letter saying that it didn't affect the vet school. And no one's said it'd interfere with our credits. Still, it's a lot of missed time. (Though if road conditions cancelled it again tomorrow, I wouldn't be crying. The pre-clinicals might be upset though, they're doing a ton of make-up classes...)
 
Minnerbelle said:
Nah, at the end of the day the schools need you guys to graduate and get the hell outa there. A few days on this or that specialty isn't going to make or break your career anyway.
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Yeah. With the next class coming hard on your heels it would be a logistical nightmare.

jmo1012 said:
next time i am sick, i will be sure to call you at 6am, attending clinician, to let you know of this fact so that you dont get mad at me for not coming in on a weekend when i dont have any patients, and we are discharging one of the services patients today and the other one tomorrow. :rolleyes: how much time is left on clinics??
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Glad I'm not the only one getting really tired of some of the 4th-year nonsense.
 
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LetItSnow said:
Yeah. With the next class coming hard on your heels it would be a logistical nightmare.



Glad I'm not the only one getting really tired of some of the 4th-year nonsense.
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more nonsense - the whole NCSU university and vet school have delayed opening at 10am tomorrow based on current and expected weather conditions. 4th years? hah. no no, we are expected to make "informed and safe decisions" aka get your butts to school no matter what.
 
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jmo1012 said:
more nonsense - the whole NCSU university and vet school have delayed opening at 10am tomorrow based on current and expected weather conditions. 4th years? hah. no no, we are expected to make "informed and safe decisions" aka get your butts to school no matter what.
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I suspect the "informed and safe decision" to stay home would be reflected in your grade, needless to say? :)
 
LetItSnow said:
I suspect the "informed and safe decision" to stay home would be reflected in your grade, needless to say? :)
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probably. just more reasons for nit picky negative or unhelpful feedback. we at least dont have formal rounds at 8 anymore, but thats kind of moot if we have to be there anyway
 
Sent home just after my patient's surgery ended. It was kind of annoying, but at least the surgery got done and once I drove home, I completely agreed with UPEI's decision. One of the worst drives of my life, thank gods it was only a few kilometers. The surgery was pretty cool, admittedly, a repair of a radius/ulna fracture in a toy breed puppy. I got to place two of the screws, including doing the drilling-through-the-bone bit, which was incredibly nervewracking.
 
I'm at Humane Alliance right now, about to finish up the second week (most are going to be done, but 6 of us including myself are here for another week). It has been snowing so much that shelters haven't been bringing animals. I've done 6 procedures. I feel 100x more comfortable with them, and at least I get to spend another week here and hopefully double that, but it's a bummer for the others who are done and expected to get the normal 25 to 30 out of this.

In other news, I have done 4 OHEs. My first took an hour. My last took 38 minutes. Getting there...
 
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scb44f said:
In other news, I have done 4 OHEs. My first took an hour. My last took 38 minutes. Getting there...
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That's awesome! Fingers crossed the weather cooperates and you get at least a few more your way.

Mini rant: my next externship just sent me a whole whack of forms to fill out and need me to schedule an appointment to get finger printed there. I wish I had known these things when I had six weeks off instead of in the middle of my current externship. So hopefully I can get that appointment for today, which I have off, but of course it's snowing and the government has a delayed opening so no one is answering the phone. I also have to get blood drawn for a titer while I'm there - I'm hoping the titer I got done a little over a year ago might still be valid, but who knows. Boo.
 
Eww all that for an externship, TRH?
 
scb44f said:
Eww all that for an externship, TRH?
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Yeah, it's a huge government agency dealing with (ahem) national health.

Turns out I needed two pieces of ID with me, which I didn't have, so I went all the way over there, went through the song and dance of getting a visitor pass, found the building I needed to go to and then had to turn around and leave. To add insult to injury, I'm sick right now so my lungs are on fire and I feel awful and trekking through the cold has just made me feel worse. So instead of going back today, I'm going to wait until next Friday, when I was going to only have take a half-day at current rotation because I have to fly to ATL for my grandfather's funeral and now will have to take a full day off to get this dealt with. If I had known about this on my six week break, no problem. (Sorry for the ranting...bah humbug.)
 
that redhead said:
Yeah, it's a huge government agency dealing with (ahem) national health.

Turns out I needed two pieces of ID with me, which I didn't have, so I went all the way over there, went through the song and dance of getting a visitor pass, found the building I needed to go to and then had to turn around and leave. To add insult to injury, I'm sick right now so my lungs are on fire and I feel awful and trekking through the cold has just made me feel worse. So instead of going back today, I'm going to wait until next Friday, when I was going to only have take a half-day at current rotation because I have to fly to ATL for my grandfather's funeral and now will have to take a full day off to get this dealt with. If I had known about this on my six week break, no problem. (Sorry for the ranting...bah humbug.)
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Isn't dealing with government agencies fun?? :rolleyes:
 
Hey guys, What do you think about Fossum's SA Surgery book? Trying to decide if its a good one to buy. If you guys have other good surgery book recommendations, let me know! We start SA surgery tomorrow, and i'm Pumped!!
 
Kpowell14 said:
Hey guys, What do you think about Fossum's SA Surgery book? Trying to decide if its a good one to buy. If you guys have other good surgery book recommendations, let me know! We start SA surgery tomorrow, and i'm Pumped!!
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I LOVE the Tobias surgery books. There are typically step by step pictures.
 
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Kpowell14 said:
Hey guys, What do you think about Fossum's SA Surgery book? Trying to decide if its a good one to buy. If you guys have other good surgery book recommendations, let me know! We start SA surgery tomorrow, and i'm Pumped!!
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I prefer Tobias and Johnston's Veterinary Surgery: Small Animal set to Fossum and I'd also recommend Johnson's Piermattei's Atlas of Surgical Approaches to the Bones and Joints of the Dog and Cat for orthopedics.
 
My efforts to get surgeries keep getting thwarted. I take appointments for consults, and then the owners opt not to go to surgery. Frankly, this suits me just fine.
 
Humane Alliance was finally busy today! I did 2 puppy spays (24 and 20 minutes!), a dog neuter, an adult dog spay, 3 puppy neuters and 1 cat neuter. Good times.
 
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scb44f said:
Humane Alliance was finally busy today! I did 2 puppy spays (24 and 20 minutes!), a dog neuter, an adult dog spay, 3 puppy neuters and 1 cat neuter. Good times.
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If there are any other c/o 2017ers cruising this thread who are starting to think about rotations, they should also check out http://www.northlandspayneuter.org/ (in Duluth, MN). Generally speaking, I got around 10 procedures/day there. Usually 2-3 dog spays, 2-3 dog neuters, 2-3 cat spays, and then a table of cat neuters. They do all their procedures in that order (canine spay, neuter, feline spay, neuter), so you and the vet just plug away at the same time. She leaves you to do it however you like, but she's right over at the other Sx table if you need her. It's a great balance of having someone there to help if you need it but not having anyone creeping over your shoulder if you don't. All told (I kinda lost track because I wasn't really counting the cat neuters since it's just 'line them up and go') I did somewhere between 80-100 procedures on my externship there.
 
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For the record, we have been atypically slow at Humane Alliance due to the snow we got the last 2 weeks preventing shelters from bringing us animals. All the doctors and staff members kept apologizing to us, until yesterday.
 
Trilt said:
I'm so excited for my externship there next year! Anything you wish you'd known beforehand?
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Hmmm... That you don't need to bring a white coat, that the dorm deposit they mention in their handout they send you a couple weeks before your trip is still required even if you paid it online, that they go over the procedures for you on the first surgery day and you start them yourself on day 2, that everyone is amazing... I think that about sums it up. I'm sure I'll come up with more later.
 
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LetItSnow said:
Remind me again why you prepare for rounds?
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so the resident decided to be a total jerk during rounds. threatened to fail us multiple times and treated us like no one actually looked at the topic (2 of us were adequately prepared and the over achiever was very well prepared). we answered the questions they asked us to prepare ahead of time (though they were vague questions!) and sort of had a decent handle on some of the other stuff. but its a give and take teaching process, no need to be rude when we dont know every nit-picky detail that you need to know to pass derm boards...made all of us really want to work hard for rounds with him on thursday. NOT. also, if you seriously want to fail 3 of us for our abilities in rounds, tell me now so i can sleep in the rest of the week and you can do all your own paperwork and see your own cases. otherwise, get off your high horse.
 
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jmo1012 said:
so the resident decided to be a total jerk during rounds. threatened to fail us multiple times and treated us like no one actually looked at the topic (2 of us were adequately prepared and the over achiever was very well prepared). we answered the questions they asked us to prepare ahead of time (though they were vague questions!) and sort of had a decent handle on some of the other stuff. but its a give and take teaching process, no need to be rude when we dont know every nit-picky detail that you need to know to pass derm boards...made all of us really want to work hard for rounds with him on thursday. NOT. also, if you seriously want to fail 3 of us for our abilities in rounds, tell me now so i can sleep in the rest of the week and you can do all your own paperwork and see your own cases. otherwise, get off your high horse.
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Just point out that if he fails you, he has to spend two more weeks with you. :) That usually does the trick....
 
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I am having so many issues with this last rotation place and I want to scream. They just switched it so im doing six weeks of just path instead of three of path and three general stuff. That's not what I want to do nor what I think with ld be best for my overall education. Should probably just bite the bullet but ugh!
 
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