Advice Needed

[kat3ros3]

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Hi-I post here once in a while to be a worry-wart and this one is no exception!

I apologize for the lengthy post, but I really just need to get things off my chest .

I'm incredibly worried about applying to vet school in a year. I currently have a 3.46ish GPA that I am working extremely hard (although rather unsuccessfully) to raise, about 500 hours of vet experience (primarily exotics and equine/large animal), 8 years of horseback riding (and continuing independently in college), a president/former secretary of my school's equestrian club, treasurer of the pre-vet society and member of a sorority. I'm graduating a semester early simply because I absolutely cannot handle my school. I have depression, which makes it difficult to focus on my school work and my ability to sleep, and have developed a lot of anxiety due to the pressure of being the "perfect student" to get into vet school and it, in turn, has affected my GPA. I get lower test scores than I feel I should have because I have panic attacks during tests. I feel unqualified even now because I go to a small liberal arts college which offers limited classes pertaining to pre-vet needs.

On the bright side, I do have one lovely letter of recommendation and experience with one of the top equine hospitals in the world, but I can't help but freak out.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I've just reached a point where I don't really know who to turn to.

 

[LetItSnow]

Does anyone have any advice for me? I've just reached a point where I don't really know who to turn to.

I would talk to the appropriate people at your school and lay out that entire story. Or hell, copy your post, put it in email, send it to the dean of students, and ask to meet to talk about what resources the school has available to help.

From what little you said (realizing it was a thin portrait), you sound like someone who could get in. But if your test/performance anxiety is as bad as you're portraying it, that's something you're going to need to get under control - preferably before you start vet school, because the pressure is much higher than undergrad.

 

[kat3ros3]

I'm hoping that a lot of the anxiety will go away once I get in; I know I'm capable of managing a heavy workload and not one to shy away from difficult classes. I'm graduating a semester early so that I will be able to devote this summer and next year to really getting my mental health under control.

I just felt so overwhelmed I had to post this somewhere. I think if I spewed this out to my pre-vet advisor, he would just look at me funny.

 

[Poppy327]

From one Greek to another I strongly suggest you take comfort in your sisters and let them know what you're going through. Perhaps one of them can be your study partner and help you feel less anxious about tests. Being Greek is a valuable experience and resource and I urge you to take advantage of it in this situation. Once you feel more centered you can also take leadership roles within the house ( maybe even academics chair ) and show vet schools you are a well rounded leader. Not to mention chapter Advisors write excellent LOR.

 

[Chinola]

But if your test/performance anxiety is as bad as you're portraying it, that's something you're going to need to get under control - preferably before you start vet school, because the pressure is much higher than undergrad.

I never had anxiety about exams in undergrad and now that I'm in vet school I get so anxious about every single one! I can barely sleep the night before exams. In undergrad I was getting 8 hours before every exam. I'm agreeing with LIS that you need to get your test anxiety under control before getting to vet school. Right now all you can think about is getting in and that's the big hurdle. Once you're here the even bigger hurdle is passing vet school! At least at my school if you fail you have to repeat the entire year! In undergrad I knew if I failed I just had to repeat one class.

Good luck getting your mental health under control in the next few months! Make sure when you receive professional help you also receive help for your test anxiety!

 

[Minnerbelle]

I'm hoping that a lot of the anxiety will go away once I get in

So where exactly is this anxiety coming from? It might be time for a good chat with a school counselor to figure this out.

I'm not sure it's a wise assessment to think that "needing to get into vet school" is the only source of your anxiety. It might seem like it when you're on that side of the fence, but is it really over once you get into vet school? What about the need to match into a good residency/internship? And you seem confident about doing well in vet school, but what if the first round of exams come around and you don't do so well? How will that affect your anxiety? And depression is something you want to learn to cope with now too. Perhaps vet school will be a magic cure... but more likely, whatever baggage you bring will keep haunting you in vet school where you're likely to be constantly stressed (and even if you aren't, you'll be in an environment where everyone else seems to be).

You just don't want this to become deja vu. You don't want to be a year into vet school and decide that you can't take it anymore, because you won't have the option of graduating early.

 

[kat3ros3]

From one Greek to another I strongly suggest you take comfort in your sisters and let them know what you're going through. Perhaps one of them can be your study partner and help you feel less anxious about tests. Being Greek is a valuable experience and resource and I urge you to take advantage of it in this situation. Once you feel more centered you can also take leadership roles within the house ( maybe even academics chair ) and show vet schools you are a well rounded leader. Not to mention chapter Advisors write excellent LOR.

As far as Greek goes, my sisters are not people I can confide in; the ones that I have tried to talk to just nod their heads and tell me "you work so hard; quit fussing", which is not what I need to hear. I'm really one of those people on the edges and the only pre-vet sister. Quite frankly, a lot of my stress stems from my sorority and the time they require.

I was toying with taking the Scholarship Chair position or a Recruitment position, but with two leadership roles already, working on founding an equestrian team, riding my own horse, and academics, I just couldn't do it.

Chinola, I'm not worried so much about passing; it's getting A's. Passing my classes is not difficult, and I have never had worries about failing school. A lot of my test anxiety comes from worrying about getting that 89.5% and not a 90%. I'll literally have nightmares about it, which I completely understand isn't normal. I'm in counseling now, but it's very difficult to make progress when I can't devote 100% of my time to getting better; currently, it's just enough to keep my head above water.

I do feel better to just gush about it and a lot of my freaking out stems from a huge exam I have tomorrow, which is going to be fine in the end. I just wish I didn't feel such a huge pressure, but I know 100% of that pressure is in my head. Ugh-school.

 

[PetPony]

As far as Greek goes, my sisters are not people I can confide in; the ones that I have tried to talk to just nod their heads and tell me "you work so hard; quit fussing", which is not what I need to hear. I'm really one of those people on the edges and the only pre-vet sister. Quite frankly, a lot of my stress stems from my sorority and the time they require.

Why don't you leave the sorority? If so much stress comes from the time commitment and you feel they just aren't helpful, then I don't think you should stay with them. You seem to have enough other extracurricular things going on. It won't hurt to drop just this one.

 

[kat3ros3]

Minnerbelle, a lot of the anxiety comes from not having enough confidence in myself to do well and the pressure I put on myself to get the grades to get into vet school. If I didn't do well on my first round, I would do what I typically do, rally and get down to business. Vet school is hard and I don't expect it to be a cakewalk. I also don't expect getting in to be a magic cure, but I do expect it to reduce a lot of the overwhelmingly anxiety and hopelessness I feel right now. I can assure you I'm being realistic about it all.

And by the time I'm in vet school (hopefully two years), I will have had at least 2 years of weekly or bi-weekly professional therapy (I have been getting professional help since this summer) and I am currently, but very reluctantly, looking into medication as an option. By the time I am looking for residencies and internships, I would like to imagine that any issues I may have will be under control.

Petpony, one reason is I don't like to quit things (so stubborn about that) and secondly, all of my friends are in the sorority and I really do not want to deal with the isolation that would come from quitting.

Goodness, I'm a bit crazy, aren't I?

 

[breenie]

And by the time I'm in vet school (hopefully two years), I will have had at least 2 years of weekly or bi-weekly professional therapy (I have been getting professional help since this summer) and I am currently, but very reluctantly, looking into medication as an option. By the time I am looking for residencies and internships, I would like to imagine that any issues I may have will be under control.

Being a functional human being is a work in progress. Most people who've been through some situation difficult enough to warrant therapy will tell you that they didn't wake up one day magically fixed and a totally awesome, perfect human being. I think we just try to be a little better than we were the day before.

I urge you to really try to put your anxiety and issues into perspective... I know right now it seems like that 89.5% is the end of the world, but your health and sanity are the workhorses that will get you through veterinary school and your professional career, not a star-spangled transcript of all A's.

This is an endurance race, not a sprint. Talk to a therapist, get your priorities in order before you tackle vet school. Look at it as learning the skills to cope with situations that are difficult for you, not "fixing" yourself.

Many people on this forum can tell you that you don't need a 3.9 GPA to get in, anyway.

 

[PetPony]

Petpony, one reason is I don't like to quit things (so stubborn about that) and secondly, all of my friends are in the sorority and I really do not want to deal with the isolation that would come from quitting.

Goodness, I'm a bit crazy, aren't I?

I wouldn't really call it quitting. Sometimes you just gotta realize what's more important. "Not quitting" or getting rid of that stress factor and making your life easier (which may raise your grades).

Isolation? You can't have friends without being in a sorority? I don't know what I am doing with those people that I thought were called friends.. 😛

Or you can't be friends with people that are in sororities? What kind of friends are they if they aren't willing to hang out with you if you're not a part of their sorority.. Yes, you're gonna see them less because you're not going to the events anymore, but that doesn't mean you can't see them at all.

Is being stressed out o much really worth it?

 

[Minnerbelle]

Look at it as learning the skills to cope with situations that are difficult for you, not "fixing" yourself.

👍👍👍 That's such an awesome statement breenie. I almost want to print it out and tack it on my wall. I think that's advice a lot of us can use.

 

[RackingHorse]

Why don't you leave the sorority? If so much stress comes from the time commitment and you feel they just aren't helpful, then I don't think you should stay with them. You seem to have enough other extracurricular things going on. It won't hurt to drop just this one.

I think this is the best advice in this thread. If I were the poster here, I would quit one of the activities that is taking up my time so I could have more time to study, relax whatever I needed to do. I have a friend who is pretty much in the same situation as you are right now. She has decided to quit on of the activities she is doing. I think that decision will help her a lot.

 

[RadRadTerp]

klonopin.

 

[kat3ros3]

I am mildly resistant to therapy and medication as ultimate solutions for these problems simply because I have found that they don't work or have horrible side effects. I am speaking entirely from experience.
As far as dropping the sorority goes, I have been scaling it back a lot, but in doing so, am preventing myself from doing any of the fun things they offer because I haven't earned enough "points". I probably will talk to our president about my options.

When I say isolation, I mean that I study so much and am so busy with other things that I really do not socialize outside of sorority functions.

I just want to thank everyone for being so incredibly kind and patient. I appreciate it a lot.

 

[goldnretrivrgrl]

Personally, I didn't worry too much about A's in undergrad (it seems pretty easy in retrospect) but vet school is a whole different level of anxiety for some of us. Get the help you need now(therapy/medication/whatever), try to learn some better coping skills for those times when stress is unavoidable, learn a little about balancing school/social commitments, and hopefully the transition into vet school will be a little bit smoother for you

 

[petdrhpful2015]

There is no better time to figure out balance and how to cope with stress when you're in undergrad. Once you're in vet school, you won't have time to do these things! If you stop too long to think about how hard it all is and how stressed out you are, you'll get behind. I certainly don't have straight A's for my first semester but man am I happy and love vet school. That is so much important to me than saying I have a 4.0. If you don't find a balance, you will burn out. i don't know many people that can keep up such an intense pace for even one semester. I started out going petal to the metal at the beginning and now I am t.i.r.e.d.

The best advice I can give anyone is to just relax a little and enjoy the ride. Getting into vet school is 100% worth sacrifcies, but not worth being miserable. It won't get any easier once you get here and so much harder to fix problems since it is like stress on steroids!!! You need to be a whole, happy person, first and foremost. The rest will follow suit.

 

[PppermintTwist]

I am mildly resistant to therapy and medication as ultimate solutions for these problems simply because I have found that they don't work or have horrible side effects. I am speaking entirely from experience.

I dont think you should be embarrassed to go to therapy. It is a place where you can work out what triggers you anxiety and teach you where these feelings came from and most importantly teaches you how to overcome the anxiety. Dont just go to any old psychologist/therapist. Try to find someone that you connect with and feel comfortable with, if you really dont feel like one therapists approach is helping you kindly go to someone else.

As far as medications. Not all meds are bad. Sometimes they are needed to help correct an in-balance of chemicals in your brain certain meds may not work for everyone and even cause bad side-effects but there is probably something out there that would help.

If I were you I would do therapy and learn to better handle my stress. And use meds as a last resort, or use them and then taper off of them as the therapy begins to work for you.