Hey! Current second year -- figured I'd jump in and add some thoughts as well.
With the current curriculum set up, you do have an exam pretty much every week in the systems courses, but given that you're focusing on one main subject at a time, they're a bit easier to study for than having a bunch of different subject exams during midterms/finals. Like mentioned above, during your first and second year, the systems course topics are the same. However, second year is when you get into the 'abnormal', while first year focuses mostly on normal. I like focusing on one subject at a time, but sometimes I feel it can be easy to lose the information you've just learned when you move onto a new systems course. Second year they've been a bit better at drawing on past information to help recement the old info, as well as establish a new baseline for the new information you're learning as everything builds on each other. And when they're able to, they'll put systems together to help 'build the bigger picture' (i.e. second years are currently in Reproduction II so when we discussed pyometra's, we went into a bit of depth on the Immunology/Hematology changes you'd see on bloodwork and what they mean).
While I like the systems courses, I don't exactly like the set up for the longitudinal (semester-long) courses. The longitudinal courses are: One Health, Veterinary Doctoring, and Veterinary Career and Practice Management. These courses kind of shoehorn in the "other" parts of being a doctor and they sporadically pop up throughout the semester -- you can go weeks without having something to do in one of these courses. You do see these courses every semester at least for your first and second years.
- Veterinary Doctoring includes Pharmacology stuff as well, and my classmates and I feel the Pharmacology portion of the course gets shoved to the side when it's actually super important. Because it's a longitudinal course that randomly pops up here and there, you often forget about it in favor of focusing on systems course material, so a lot of us feel we're not getting a good grasp on the material because you learn it one day, and then don't use it again for weeks or until they throw an exam at you. The Curriculum Committee is aware of our concerns for Pharmacology, and we're really trying to push them into giving us a week of Pharmacology or making it is own systems course. The information is too important for our future careers, but it's not being taught to us in a consistent manner that makes our knowledge useable. They basically have to reteach us certain Pharmacology topics because we so sporadically use the information. It's enough of a problem that even third- and fourth-years struggle with the topic.
- One Health is an okay course. It's a bit tedious in the material, and you have these TEDA modules you do during your first year and you finish them the first semester of your second year. The information is interesting, but it's not always the most applicable. It's still important, but sometimes feels like more busy work than anything.
- Veterinary Career and Practice Management is exactly as it sounds -- it teaches you the non-science/medical side of being a doctor. There's a lot of diversity training, communication training, history taking, ethics, business, and they cover debt/income as well. It's not bad during first year, but during first semester second year there's some stuff that needs improving, but is overall a fairly simple and straightforward class.
The groups you're assigned to are great, but they do unfortunately make you switch groups for your second year, and I believe you get another group when you start third year.
At MSU, you don't start clinics until March of your third year -- so you get just shy of a year and a half of clinical rotations. Clinics go through the summer between your third and fourth year. From what I know, there are like core rotations you have to do for the curriculum, but there are also optional ones you can take as well that may have more relevance to the career path you want. The first part of third year is 'junior surgery' and is exactly what it sounds like -- gets you prepped and doing surgeries.
It's important to remember that MSU is still actively shaping its new curriculum. I believe 2022 was the first class to graduate with the new curriculum set up, so it's still
very new. The concerns I mentioned above have been addressed to the Curriculum Committee, so they're aware and actively trying to make changes to improve things for future years. After each course, they ask for feedback on not only the instructors for the courses, but the course structure as well and they'll take notes for the next class to improve on things. Everything is still a huge WIP, but the curriculum is being improved upon each year as they learn what works and what doesn't work, so that's something else to consider. The current classes are, in a way, guinea pigs as MSU makes adjustments.
Overall, I am really happy and thriving in the program. I love the instructors and faculty -- there's a few that aren't my favorite in regard to their teaching style, but overall, they're all genuinely amazing and passionate about their topics. Most of them also work in MSU's hospital/clinic or at their diagnostic laboratory, so you'll see them around a lot and be able to familiarize yourself with them to make connections before you get into clinics! And since MSU does have a teaching hospital, there are plenty of opportunities -- in the large and small animal sides -- to get involved in the hospitals for more hands-on experiences!
Apologies for the small essay, but if you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out!
