Class of 2012: How's everyone settling in?

[BlazeoGlory]

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Hey guys, it's been awhile since I've posted...been so busy during the first few weeks of vet school!

It is GORGEOUS here in Grenada, although it's not easy getting to the beach during the week! Classes are great, I've already learned so much and everyone is so supportive and wants to help you succeed!

How is everyone else faring? Anyone having a hard time adjusting?

😎

 

[wi girl]

Just finished my second day of classes and I LOVE IT! Can't wait for everyone else (2nd years +) to come back ... yay vet school.

And I know I'll be singing a different tune in like .... four weeks when exams start. 🙂

 

[adOggy07]

Kansas is wonderful!! I'm in love with the small college town atmosphere.. everyone is so NICE here... life is much more slow and calm in Kansas than compared to California's lifestyle.. I feel like it's making me a much calmer person... =)

Most everyone in my class is super nice and friendly so it's been awesome!!

I met RubyJoe in my class too and she's great! 😀

Our first test in next Friday... it's going to be on the bones of the dog and cat. Funnnnn... hehe. After the test, we're having a big party, and that really will be fun!! 🙂

 

[bovine]

Three more weeks until we start at Ohio State. 😴

 

[hoodle]

We start orientation at Davis on Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[VAgirl]

We start orientation at Davis on Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woohoo!! 😀

 

[RockStarKDub]

I am having the time of my life!!!!! Survived my first anatomy quiz today (forelimb of the dog) and now am looking forward to a 3-day weekend back home. I'm so excited, I've been away for over 6 weeks!

Vet school = awesome. (But ask me again after my first final..)

 

[zut]

Edinburgh is absolutely fantastic, and the first few weeks of classes have already been challenging but also extremely interesting. They threw us into dissection and I think I am managing to survive.

 

[freyamaxine]

I am about 5 weeks into my second semester. I love it and also hate it at the same time.

I feel really burnt out, and have not done hardly any study yet. I have a test tomorrow and I still have about 12 lectures to read, yet I don't have any motivation 🙁

I hope it gets better

yay vet school!

 

[cows93]

Yay for vet school 3yrs and 7 months to go🙂

They really do put you through the paces but it is all very iteresting. Missing my s.o. a lot. But enjoying most of the classes. (I can't say trying to figure out embryology is fun) Good luck everyone🙂

 

[projekt]

Going pretty well. I'm still worried that I haven't been studying appropriately. We've only had one quiz, in Histology (which is called Microanatomy here). I think I did well on it, but I could lose a couple of points if they graded it extraordinarily strictly.

Tons of clubs to join! I have to select the few I really want.

Joined Small Animal Treatment Crew! Lucky me 🙂

 

[charismarl]

Well the first week of orientation was mostly torture during the day but fun at the bars at night. The first week is freaking me out a little bit...mostly because everybody else is freaking out and stuying ALL the time. I'm trying to find my balance and get into a groove. But overall, I have been meeting some cool people (and some other people who I would like to punch in the face 🙂). A lot of the people are a lot more arrogant and competitive than I expected 👎...oh well...I suppose everyone's true colore are bound to come out eventually. Glad to hear that everyone else is having a wonderful time...and I'm jealous of all you lucky people on beautiful islands!

 

[Electrophile]

Well the first week of orientation was mostly torture during the day but fun at the bars at night. The first week is freaking me out a little bit...mostly because everybody else is freaking out and stuying ALL the time. I'm trying to find my balance and get into a groove. But overall, I have been meeting some cool people (and some other people who I would like to punch in the face 🙂). A lot of the people are a lot more arrogant and competitive than I expected 👎...oh well...I suppose everyone's true colore are bound to come out eventually. Glad to hear that everyone else is having a wonderful time...and I'm jealous of all you lucky people on beautiful islands!

I don't think that's exactly a unique experience, so no worries there! 😉 When you get a lot of type A, very intelligent people together, doing some posturing to see where we all "stand" is common, though admittedly very silly. This mostly goes away by second semester. Mostly. 🙄 Pace yourself for sure! We've been back in school for a week and I'm finally studying for my first quiz tomorrow tonight. No worries, seriously.

 

[WishingnHoping]

Cows93 and I are both not really enjoying the embryology, then. 😉 But yes, it is AMAZING! But also extremely challenging, fast paced, and more information than I could ever absorb right now. I can't say at the moment I'm feeling very motivated to study or enjoying the studying but it really is a blast. We're on our third week, pretty far into our dissections, and already have been out on a farm! I have to add that my classmates are the best! 🙂

 

[projekt]

That's funny. Here at UGA they emphasize that there are enough DVMs for everyone and they hammer it in that competitiveness is counterproductive. Some may disagree, but I haven't felt that streak coming out much in my classmates. Some people are friendlier to me than others, and some people probably feel the same about me, but aside from that, we're getting along. Definitely no knuckle sandwich orders.

 

[VetMed555]

Well it hasn't been easy so far. The orientation was OK, but a little too touchy-feely for me with cliches such as "there's no I in teamwork!" But at least we found out who our possible lab partners are. BTW Charismarl is mine 🙂, so I sincerely hope it's not me she wants to punch in the face. As far as competitiveness goes...I didn't notice too much of it. I am competitive, but with myself, not my classmates. I don't care if somebody else gets a higher grade etc., I do care if I don't do my best. Right now I pretty much feel like I'm behind in anatomy and embryology (yes, count me in for not being too crazy about embryo). However, from conversations with my classmates, nearly everybody feels like they're behind. It's a HUGE amount of information.

 

[WishingnHoping]

Like projekt, it's hammered into us here at Cornell that it shouldn't be a competitive environment and that we all should help each other. So far, that seems to be exactly right. I haven't felt any competitiveness at all.

 

[chris03333]

There seems to be a similar type thread to this one almost every year. I will say the same as I always do, come back in like 5 weeks and update what you think🙂

 

[adOggy07]

Just curious for those of you studying embryology... how often do you guys have this class? Here at KSU, we have it once a week.

We are using a human embryology book for our text in the class. I kind of found it odd at first? But I suppose they probably have a lot more research done on human embryology and not animal? I don't know how true that is. I was just wondering why we don't use an embryology book that focuses on animals....? What texts are other schools using?

We have our first lab practical on Friday on the bones of the dog.. fun, fun.... 😛

 

[Electrophile]

We are using a human embryology book for our text in the class. I kind of found it odd at first? But I suppose they probably have a lot more research done on human embryology and not animal? I don't know how true that is. I was just wondering why we don't use an embryology book that focuses on animals....? What texts are other schools using?

From an ethics perspective, most people have much less problem messing with sea urchin, Xenopus, zebrafish, chick, or mouse embryos than human (not to mention it's probably far cheaper), so I would suspect the majority of developmental biology has been done in animals and not in humans.

We didn't use a separate text for embryology. But it's not weird using human medical textbooks. We used the Guyton text for physiology and the Abbas text for immunology, which are both "human" texts. But there's plenty of animal examples in both texts. All are animal examples if you keep in mind humans=just another animal. 😉 And remember in developmental biology/embryology, the majority of the early stuff is going to be very very similar anyways. It's usually just the later organ development that happens at different times. Gotta love comparative anatomy and physiology...

 

[ShelterGirl]

No actual classes yet here at Davis, still in orientation mode. It's fun and I've met a lot of people, including a few SDNers 🙂

Looking at the course notes and the sheer volume of information has me plenty nervous, though!

 

[pressmom]

Just curious for those of you studying embryology... how often do you guys have this class? Here at KSU, we have it once a week.

We are using a human embryology book for our text in the class. I kind of found it odd at first? But I suppose they probably have a lot more research done on human embryology and not animal? I don't know how true that is. I was just wondering why we don't use an embryology book that focuses on animals....? What texts are other schools using?

We have our first lab practical on Friday on the bones of the dog.. fun, fun.... 😛

We had printed notes by a professor here that does a lot of research in embryology. They were mainly animal-based but did have some human comparisons. That didn't make it any less confusing though.

 

[WishingnHoping]

At Cornell we have embryology twice a week. No required text, just printed handouts with lots of drawings. If I need clarification, I use Scott Gilbert's dev bio book (which comes highly recommended by professors generally), and our professor is Drew Noden who has a book of his own that some people here say is good and the drawings are clear and easy to follow.

 

[charismarl]

BTW Charismarl is mine 🙂, so I sincerely hope it's not me she wants to punch in the face. quote]


Ana- I could never punch you in the face...if I did that, who would I have to motivate me to learn all the innervations?

 

[WannaFixFounder]

Cornell kids- say hi to Dr Misner (Anatomy) from all of us at Ross. She was a visiting professor this summer, and she's a doll.

 

[VAgirl]

Anyone get to do a high ropes course as part of their orientation? Woowhee, exhilarating!! We just did it today. 😀

 

[SpayLady]

That's funny. Here at UGA they emphasize that there are enough DVMs for everyone and they hammer it in that competitiveness is counterproductive.

Hi Projekt,

I look forward to meeting you next year! I sent you a PM with some computer questions specific to UGA and would appreciate any advice you have time to provide. Thanks!

 

[rexosaurus]

Anyone get to do a high ropes course as part of their orientation? Woowhee, exhilarating!! We just did it today. 😀

At CSU we had a week long orientation, and 3 days of it was up in the mountains. We did a high ropes course up there, scared the **** out of me! It was fun though, I liked it!

 

[charismarl]

Anyone get to do a high ropes course as part of their orientation? Woowhee, exhilarating!! We just did it today. 😀

haha no...I wish! We just ran around and did silly things with balloons and pieces of webbing...pretty lame.

 

[projekt]

Nah, we did a "low ropes" course that hardly had any rope at all. 🙂 I put on my survey that we should have done a high ropes course.

The course instructors were surprised that nobody in our class was squeamish about being picked up and moved by other people. I guess it goes to show what vet students are made of. Either that or the animals make us into big pushovers.

 

[adOggy07]

school is officially kicking my butt.

i forgot what it feels like to always be tired.... 😴

 

[zpinkpanther]

So, I've been looking at this thread for a few days now, and I'm finally going to speak up now. 🙄

Ross is great so far! Adjusting to the island took a while (and to be honest I don't think I'm fully over culture shock yet), and things are definitely different here. I'm kind of in love with some of the food here, though! 😀

During orientation we didn't do any high-ropes or team-building stuff; we mostly sat through lectures about various things for a few hours in the morning, then had the rest of the day free for activities with our orientation group, mostly going to the beach, exploring the island, etc. We did do an activity where we had to build an animal cage out of cardboard boxes, which was supposedly in the name of leadership development. 😛

Anyway, we just finished our 3rd week (we have tomorrow, Friday, off for St. Kitts' independence day!), and had our first exam- Gross Anatomy lab- on Monday. I did well, so that was a relief! And the professor said this was the highest average he's ever had on the first exam- way to go us! 🙂

Like most of you said, I've also been studying my butt off. I've been studying about 3 times more than I studied in undergrad. 😳 Classes are difficult, but doable, and having supportive friends makes all the difference. I'm sure by the time finals get here, I'll feel differently. 🙄

Glad to hear everyone else is doing well! It seems overwhelming at times, but I know we can do it! 😀

 

[zpinkpanther]

Just curious for those of you studying embryology... how often do you guys have this class? Here at KSU, we have it once a week.

Our embryology course is called Microanatomy and is kinda a combination of Histo and Embryology. We have 3hours of lecture for that class on Mondays (which sounds bad, but we get 10 or 20 minute breaks every hour), then one hour of lab the other four days of the week. We mostly use Dellman's Veterinary Histology for the class.