Any Tips for First Year?

[Emiloo4]

Do you know if it's available for iPads or if I got one of those tablet thingies/drawing boards for my Mac, if I could write in it instead of type?

It is available for iPads

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[PetPony]

Thanks!

 

[Emiloo4]

Bumping this since we're all starting soon.

 

[birdsofparadise]

This thread is absolutely amazing (and possibly a future lifesaver!) But I have quite a few questions for fellow vet students!

As a upcoming first year student this fall, I'm sort of worried of maintaining a balance between academics and social life/clubs. I desperately want to get involved in clubs, but I need to separate time for classes. Not to mention I want to keep volunteering and gain animal experience which leads me to this: how do you guys balance work/volunteer/social life so successfully?

I'm gonna bombard you guys with more questions: Did you guys volunteer/job shadow at the clinics during school? I hear a lot of people also work as vet assistants or have jobs at vet clinics. Was it hard to get jobs there?

 

[skittles12]

This thread is absolutely amazing (and possibly a future lifesaver!) But I have quite a few questions for fellow vet students!

As a upcoming first year student this fall, I'm sort of worried of maintaining a balance between academics and social life/clubs. I desperately want to get involved in clubs, but I need to separate time for classes. Not to mention I want to keep volunteering and gain animal experience which leads me to this: how do you guys balance work/volunteer/social life so successfully?

I'm gonna bombard you guys with more questions: Did you guys volunteer/job shadow at the clinics during school? I hear a lot of people also work as vet assistants or have jobs at vet clinics. Was it hard to get jobs there?

For your first question, I make sure to set aside some time each night for "me time." Depending on my schedule, it may be a whole evening, or just an hour or two. But during that time I do something that I just enjoy and isn't related to school. I also take at least one night a week to not study!
For me, making sure I have some time to do things I enjoy is more important than making a perfect grade on every test.

Here at UTK, most club meetings are during lunch, so it's not really a big time commitment to attend those. There are usually some wet labs throughout the semester--usually on Saturdays. Most of them are too time-consuming. I would say to join the clubs you are really interested in and don't spread yourself too thin--at least not first semester. Once you get a feel for things you can add more stuff if you think you have the time.

As far as working, most people I know either don't work, or only work on weekends.

 

[birdsofparadise]

For your first question, I make sure to set aside some time each night for "me time." Depending on my schedule, it may be a whole evening, or just an hour or two. But during that time I do something that I just enjoy and isn't related to school. I also take at least one night a week to not study!
For me, making sure I have some time to do things I enjoy is more important than making a perfect grade on every test.

Here at UTK, most club meetings are during lunch, so it's not really a big time commitment to attend those. There are usually some wet labs throughout the semester--usually on Saturdays. Most of them are too time-consuming. I would say to join the clubs you are really interested in and don't spread yourself too thin--at least not first semester. Once you get a feel for things you can add more stuff if you think you have the time.

As far as working, most people I know either don't work, or only work on weekends.

Awesome! Thanks for the tips! For me, being able to relax for a bit means a great deal to me. I think I'll buy myself an enormous whiteboard or a calender and start balancing out 'me time' and university haha.

A bit off-topic but is it possible for someone to work at multiple vet clinics during a period of time? I figure after first year, I'll try to find more jobs or shadow at multiple clinics since I'll have plenty of time during the summer

 

[LetItSnow]

As a upcoming first year student this fall, I'm sort of worried of maintaining a balance between academics and social life/clubs. I desperately want to get involved in clubs, but I need to separate time for classes. Not to mention I want to keep volunteering and gain animal experience which leads me to this: how do you guys balance work/volunteer/social life so successfully?

I'm gonna bombard you guys with more questions: Did you guys volunteer/job shadow at the clinics during school? I hear a lot of people also work as vet assistants or have jobs at vet clinics. Was it hard to get jobs there?

You get varying opinions on clubs. Here's mine. Clubs are good for a bunch of reasons: 1) The 'technical/medical' ones give you clinical skills a bit quicker than you might otherwise get them. That means being further along when you graduate, and it also means having some FUN in vet school amidst the drudgery of yer 65th exam of the year. 2) You can network through clubs; not with other students but with speakers. I've pulled in some interesting experiences just by talking to speakers and following up. 3) Minimal commitment. So long as you don't take officer positions, clubs (at least here) don't really demand much. You pay your dues, and then show up for whatever you want. Worst case, you find a club to be totally worthless (or you don't have time) and you're out your dues. Sucks, but not a HUGE deal. And with most clubs (again - at least here) you make back yer club dues in meals at the lunch talks. 4) Knowledge you won't get through school. Our VBMA club, for instances, has some great business-related speakers that talk on topics the school just isn't going to cover in the curriculum.

Some people, otoh, just aren't interested in clubs. They want a break over lunch and they want to get off campus as soon as school ends, or don't feel the dues are worth it. I can understand that, too.

I found that I had to put volunteering/shadowing on the backburner when classes are in session. I still dropped in at the clinic I haunt, and I spent quite a bit of time there this summer, but the other extra-curricular opportunities were more valuable.

Not sure where 'there' is when you're talking about jobs. If you mean at the teaching hospital, dunno. But a number of my classmates work as techs or assistants at clinics around the metro area. They tend to do it one weekend day or something like that, and pick up extra hours during break. If I were you, I wouldn't plan to work more than 10-15 hours/week at most. Maybe you find you can do more (hey, I worked full time for the first couple months of school), but it's better to ramp up than go in overloaded.

A big white-board with due/exam dates on it is a good thing. Our class reps actually maintained two of them - one in our lecture hall and one outside our study carrel room. I greatly appreciated it.

 

[Emiloo4]

Clubs = free food

In fact I am attending our VBMA for free Carrabas today and the food animal club for free BBQ tomorrow! .
In all seriousness though, the key is to not overload yourself. Your main goal is vet school and the classes you need to graduate and be successful. I am the person who will probably go to a bunch of meetings to begin with to see which ones I am most interested in, and then taper off from there.

But from what I gather, the OP is a freshman undergrad right??

 

[birdsofparadise]

You get varying opinions on clubs. Here's mine. Clubs are good for a bunch of reasons: 1) The 'technical/medical' ones give you clinical skills a bit quicker than you might otherwise get them. That means being further along when you graduate, and it also means having some FUN in vet school amidst the drudgery of yer 65th exam of the year. 2) You can network through clubs; not with other students but with speakers. I've pulled in some interesting experiences just by talking to speakers and following up. 3) Minimal commitment. So long as you don't take officer positions, clubs (at least here) don't really demand much. You pay your dues, and then show up for whatever you want. Worst case, you find a club to be totally worthless (or you don't have time) and you're out your dues. Sucks, but not a HUGE deal. And with most clubs (again - at least here) you make back yer club dues in meals at the lunch talks. 4) Knowledge you won't get through school. Our VBMA club, for instances, has some great business-related speakers that talk on topics the school just isn't going to cover in the curriculum.

Those are very good points. I guess I just want to get involved in as much clubs as possible since I did that in high school. But university's not similar to high school anymore is it?

I found that I had to put volunteering/shadowing on the backburner when classes are in session. I still dropped in at the clinic I haunt, and I spent quite a bit of time there this summer, but the other extra-curricular opportunities were more valuable.

Not sure where 'there' is when you're talking about jobs. If you mean at the teaching hospital, dunno. But a number of my classmates work as techs or assistants at clinics around the metro area. They tend to do it one weekend day or something like that, and pick up extra hours during break. If I were you, I wouldn't plan to work more than 10-15 hours/week at most. Maybe you find you can do more (hey, I worked full time for the first couple months of school), but it's better to ramp up than go in overloaded.

I was worried that I might have to put most of my volunteering behind until I'm done first year. I don't think I can manage having all of that in my first term.

I meant 'there' as in getting a job at a vet clinic or farm etc. (I heard that working at pet shops are frowned upon if you include them for vet applications-I mean it doesn't hurt to work there but I'd like to get a job that's beneficial for animal experience or employment) I might look into a job after first term.

If you work as an assistant, would you have to complete any classes to become certified? I do want to get some more hands-on experience with animals but as a shadowing student, I only clean kennels, do chores and observe surgeries. I doubt there's much else I can do when I shadow at clinics.

Clubs = free food

But from what I gather, the OP is a freshman undergrad right??

Yup, I'm a freshman from Canada!

omg, i could live with free food for the rest of my uni years

 

[wolfspeaker]

Most of the information given has been based on you being in 1st year Veterinary School, not undergrad.

 

[LetItSnow]

But from what I gather, the OP is a freshman undergrad right??

Oh. Oops. Yeah, OP, my thoughts were aimed at a first-year vet student. I have no clue how clubs in undergrad work - I did my degree a bit later in life and didn't have time for anything like that. Lots and lots of volunteering and shadowing, though.....