Hi Everyone,
I am applying to AVC this year 🙂 I am a NS applicant and this will be my fourth year applying. Fourth times the charm right…. hahah. All you current students, how do you like the school? Do you get much experience handling animals in the first two years of the program? In your opinion what sets AVC apart from the other schools in Canada? I will be changing my residency to that of another school for next years application cycle but I have my fingers crossed that AVC will work out this year🙂
So far, I love AVC. Everyone here is super friendly and helpful. I had some trouble settling in at first, mostly due to things completely unrelated to school, but now that things are starting to work out I'm pretty happy here. The classes are interesting, and most of the professors are very nice and really go out of their way to help the students.
Not much live animal experience (plenty of dog dissection though!) in class so far, but there are a ton of opportunities to get involved outside of class. Students are allowed in the teaching hospital to shadow any time. There are large and small animal rounds once a week that are open to all students. Clubs are constantly offering wetlabs and activities that are always worth checking out. As TooLove mentioned, you can take out the teaching beagles for walks/snuggling whenever you like, and that's definitely encouraged - they actually just opened a new study lounge called the "Beagle Burrow" where we can take the beagles to study with us! You'll also be assigned a couple beagles, a cow, and a horse to look after starting second semester of first year. You can help spay and neuter feral cats with the Cat Action Team, or care for wildlife with the Wildlife club, or snuggle the blood donor kitties in the teaching hospital for the Feline club. Plus you can always volunteer at the humane society - just last weekend they were looking for students to help with their microchipping clinic. So yes, plenty of opportunities for hands-on learning and animal interaction, but it will all be outside of class in the first couple of years.
Do you guys have time to go on little "adventures" on the island? Like hiking and sailing? Or do you stay in the city?
Definitely! One weekend some of us toured the local farms for PEI Open Farm day, and had a blast. I went to the annual "Farm Day in the City" and browsed the local vendors. Last Friday about half our class went apple picking together. I try to hit the Farmer's Market for tasty lunch on Saturdays. I ride my bike when it's nice out and I feel like I have time - I'm hoping to go ride the scenic bike trail in Cavendish some weekend soon. There's a ski slope (really just a bunny hill, but you have to take what you can get when you're on an island!) that I plan on taking advantage of this winter. I try to get out and do
something fun at least once a week, preferably outdoors. So yes, there's time for little adventures if you manage your time well. You can't study all the time, you'd go nuts.
I spend very little time in the actual "city". Charlottetown is really a very small city, and everything surrounding it is farm land. I currently live on a horse farm about 15 minutes from campus, and only the last 5ish minutes of my drive in every day can actually be called "city". You'll find plenty of chances to get away (or live away) from the city if that's what you prefer.
