Class of 2021 . . . how ya doin?

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SandstormDVM said:
Man, I really do love most people in my class but there is a small but vocal minority that really ruins it for everybody. There's been several occurances of cheating and yesterday, upon it being announced that class ranks are available, a lot of them started asking other what their current GPA and class rank are.
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In the immortal words of someone - "It is what it is"
 
Coopah said:
I feel where you're coming from, for me it's more of an internal drive to do well. I grew up as the youngest of 7 children and you had to act fast to get the food off the table. I had to be super competitive to survive. Clearly @cdoconn isn't suggesting stalking people outside the classroom to see what others got. I totally understand how that can give people anxiety. For me being competitive in a class means really understanding the material, not necessarily the grades. I love being able to explain things to others, it fills me with a sense of pride that they feel I can help them.
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Off topic, but I have five siblings and people would never believe me when I said I had to fight for my food. You've got to establish your dominance, or you're not getting anything to eat. I might have developed a slight case of food agression. "No, you cannot have ONE fry." 🤣
 
Emily Faith said:
Off topic, but I have five siblings and people would never believe me when I said I had to fight for my food. You've got to establish your dominance, or you're not getting anything to eat. I might have developed a slight case of food agression. "No, you cannot have ONE fry." 🤣
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Oh man, I'm the eldest in my family, but I'm always trying to cook for or give food to my younger brother. I'm the type of grandma that's ready to shove food down your throat every time you step into my house.
 
Emily Faith said:
Off topic, but I have five siblings and people would never believe me when I said I had to fight for my food. You've got to establish your dominance, or you're not getting anything to eat. I might have developed a slight case of food agression. "No, you cannot have ONE fry." 🤣
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My sister and I call this "food panic" when it's in the context of outside the family, where propriety dictates you save some food for other people and not try to fight them for it.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using SDN mobile
 
Emily Faith said:
Off topic, but I have five siblings and people would never believe me when I said I had to fight for my food. You've got to establish your dominance, or you're not getting anything to eat. I might have developed a slight case of food agression. "No, you cannot have ONE fry." 🤣
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Yeah, I've developed that as well. I can't help it! Especially since we were poor enough growing up that if my father didn't work overtime, we didn't have money for food. My mother was one of those extreme couponers and we had this massive dining room table that sat about 12 and she would spread coupons over every inch of it. So yeah, you may not have ONE fry 😉.
 
nessie5876 said:
I think someone said something like the researchers/people who go into academia get As in vet school, people who specialize get Bs, while the best clinicians will be the people in the class who get Cs.
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I flat out don't think there's any correlation between grades and how good of a clinician a person is.
 
Emily Faith said:
Off topic, but I have five siblings and people would never believe me when I said I had to fight for my food. You've got to establish your dominance, or you're not getting anything to eat. I might have developed a slight case of food agression. "No, you cannot have ONE fry." 🤣
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I'm so glad I'm not the only one who struggles with this! I still have issues with sharing food with friends and I eat really fast since that's what I had to do if I wanted seconds of something! 😛
 
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nyanko said:
I flat out don't think there's any correlation between grades and how good of a clinician a person is.
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I would think the only reason to care would be residencies, since they actually still look at grades & class rank.

Although I've now been told by multiple professors that getting in to residency programs is more about networking & feet on the ground than it is about grades. But, that doesn't mean the grades are insignificant, either.

For all these people who are decrying "comparing grades" by seeking them out -- in most of my pre-req classes, they *post* the mean, median and distribution for each test. One of my classes straight up posted individual rankings, with names attached. It's not like I've gone chasing people down for grade gossip (if anyone here does that, then you're a brat).

For me, it's helpful to know grade distribution information, because it helps me gauge my *own understanding of the material*. It's more of an "ah cool, will relax a little bit for next test", or "ok clearly wasn't just me who thought that test was designed by monsters", or "oh ****, guess I need to stay off the interwebs a little more before the next exam". It has literally nothing to do with competing with other people.

(This may be helped along by the fact that none of my classes curve, either, so if everyone help each other and learns the material, everybody wins. But also, I'm not a competitive person by nature.)

Sent from my Nexus 5X using SDN mobile
 
Yikes... the more I see stories about crazy obsessed grade people, the more I want to back away from that bubble. I enjoy challenging myself, but I definitely get B's and I definitely fail tests or get below the average from time to time.

So I guess for me it's better told by a quick story- when I was in ochem 1, I was stubborn af and wouldn't change my way of thinking and studied super hard but the wrong way and got a C (my first C). I was devastated. But I figured things out halfway through ochem 2 and I got my **** together and I pulled that would be D to a B. And I've never been prouder of a B before in my life. And I don't cheat- I personally think it's 10002929203848392x better to get a lower grade in a class fairly than to cheat and get a higher grade (that doesn't even factor in what happens if you get caught too!)

That's sort of what I meant. I'm not going to be (super) devastated if I got below the average or got a C in a class, especially if I did what I could to do well. Mainly, I know that the water hose of information is coming, but I'm excited to welcome it- not fight it.
 
Our first exam in vet school was in biochem class, and I studied super hard and got like a 98% or something, then said wait wtf am I doing this is madness and backed off for the rest of the time. I was so chill about grades I barely had a pulse for the rest of vet school I think, and ended up a little below the middle in class rank.

It does come back to bite you a little if you want to specialize but it just means you have to double down on networking, work hard in internships and make people see that you're more than that. The main reason residency programs care about class rank (aside from the obvious, it's an easy way to compare people when you have 60 applications in front of you) is that they all have pesky board exams you have to take that are really really hard and they want people who are going to pass the exams and become boarded. That's what I find myself having to explain - I CAN buckle down, study and do really well on exams when I want to, but for most of vet school I didn't feel the need as long as I learned the material. And even the act of passing a board exam says nothing about your proficiency as a clinician, which is ultimately what they want to produce. Perhaps it's easier to just care a little about grades during vet school but ultimately a few bumps in the road isn't the end of the world. I even say it builds character. 😉
 
nyanko said:
Our first exam in vet school was in biochem class, and I studied super hard and got like a 98% or something, then said wait wtf am I doing this is madness and backed off for the rest of the time. I was so chill about grades I barely had a pulse for the rest of vet school I think, and ended up a little below the middle in class rank.

It does come back to bite you a little if you want to specialize but it just means you have to double down on networking, work hard in internships and make people see that you're more than that. The main reason residency programs care about class rank (aside from the obvious, it's an easy way to compare people when you have 60 applications in front of you) is that they all have pesky board exams you have to take that are really really hard and they want people who are going to pass the exams and become boarded. That's what I find myself having to explain - I CAN buckle down, study and do really well on exams when I want to, but for most of vet school I didn't feel the need as long as I learned the material. And even the act of passing a board exam says nothing about your proficiency as a clinician, which is ultimately what they want to produce. Perhaps it's easier to just care a little about grades during vet school but ultimately a few bumps in the road isn't the end of the world. I even say it builds character. 😉
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As someone who is interested in possibly specializing but had a rough go of things first semester (improving now, though!) and is trying to work with and build as many relationships with clinicians/interns/residents and attend events in my areas of interest as I possibly can---even if it is at the detriment of my academics at times---this gives me such relief. Hahaha. 🙂
 
nyanko said:
Our first exam in vet school was in biochem class, and I studied super hard and got like a 98% or something, then said wait wtf am I doing this is madness and backed off for the rest of the time. I was so chill about grades I barely had a pulse for the rest of vet school I think, and ended up a little below the middle in class rank.

It does come back to bite you a little if you want to specialize but it just means you have to double down on networking, work hard in internships and make people see that you're more than that. The main reason residency programs care about class rank (aside from the obvious, it's an easy way to compare people when you have 60 applications in front of you) is that they all have pesky board exams you have to take that are really really hard and they want people who are going to pass the exams and become boarded. That's what I find myself having to explain - I CAN buckle down, study and do really well on exams when I want to, but for most of vet school I didn't feel the need as long as I learned the material. And even the act of passing a board exam says nothing about your proficiency as a clinician, which is ultimately what they want to produce. Perhaps it's easier to just care a little about grades during vet school but ultimately a few bumps in the road isn't the end of the world. I even say it builds character. 😉
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You are awesome. That is all.

raw
 
cheathac said:
Yeah the competitiveness worries me too. Especially since I want to specialize in lab animal/pathology so I know my grades have to be good. Others have told me it's a lot on who you know? Thankfully Purdue has both a lab animal and pathology residency program, so I hope to start making connections in hopes of one day doing a residency here. Do any current students have advice when it comes to wanting to specialize/grades? I like setting grade goals for myself each semester but maybe that isn't the best way to do it in vet school. I plan on having a daily routine to sift through all the material, study with others, as well as include some me time and exercising.
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cheathac said:
Yeah the competitiveness worries me too. Especially since I want to specialize in lab animal/pathology so I know my grades have to be good. Others have told me it's a lot on who you know? Thankfully Purdue has both a lab animal and pathology residency program, so I hope to start making connections in hopes of one day doing a residency here. Do any current students have advice when it comes to wanting to specialize/grades? I like setting grade goals for myself each semester but maybe that isn't the best way to do it in vet school. I plan on having a daily routine to sift through all the material, study with others, as well as include some me time and exercising.
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Try to do well, but don't kill yourself trying to do well (if that makes sense). At some level I'm betting that there are grade cutoffs (as in, below a certain GPA it may not matter who you know or what experiences you have) but I do think it's more important who you know and what you've done to prove that you're actually interested in/dedicated to the field. I'm happy to share my stats and any other questions in PM if you're interested (just matched to a lab animal residency this cycle). 🙂
 
cdoconn said:
And I don't cheat- I personally think it's 10002929203848392x better to get a lower grade in a class fairly than to cheat and get a higher grade (that doesn't even factor in what happens if you get caught too!)
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Yeah, I completely agree. I have never understood the motivation to cheat. Particularly in something like vet school. Even without considering the moral integrity factor, who does that help? Certainly not the animals who are going to be depending on you to do your best by them. I think it points to a level of selfishness that is hard for me to understand. I'm really saddened by the stories people have posted on here about cheating that goes on 🙁

nyanko said:
Perhaps it's easier to just care a little about grades during vet school but ultimately a few bumps in the road isn't the end of the world. I even say it builds character. 😉
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The world these days needs more character-building activities. Man, this has been a good day on SDN for Calvin & Hobbes.

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You guys also need to realize that the difference between rank sometimes comes down to like 0.001% between gpas.

You guys are thinking way too hard on this. I promise. As has been said before, you will all be very intelligent. And seeing how you stack up against others, whether individually, or class average, probably won't mean much in the long run.

I am also a huge advocate for mental health in vet school. It can be really hard to maintain in school as it is. And if you are always concerning yourself with how you are doing compared to everyone else, you're probably going to have a bad time.
 
Abnerrs said:
You guys also need to realize that the difference between rank sometimes comes down to like 0.001% between gpas.

You guys are thinking way too hard on this. I promise. As has been said before, you will all be very intelligent. And seeing how you stack up against others, whether individually, or class average, probably won't mean much in the long run.

I am also a huge advocate for mental health in vet school. It can be really hard to maintain in school as it is. And if you are always concerning yourself with how you are doing compared to everyone else, you're probably going to have a bad time.
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True story: I had a scholarship first semester first year that rolled over from undergrad that required a really awfully high GPA. So I did nothing but studied and studied and studied because gosh darn it GPA was important! .... and I crashed and burned. Clinical depression? Check. Daily migraines? Check.

The next semester, when I was in the midst of drowning in my broken mental health, I started making small changes. I would allow myself to do things I love (baking, running, reading, video games). I would give myself at least a night or part of a weekend off to go outside or go out with friends or whatever. My number one priority was no longer school. It was me. And guess what? My grades actually increased!

The moral of the story: If you let it, vet school will consume you. Don't let it. Fight back, and make sure you put your mental health before anything else. Grades and everything else will follow suit 🙂
 
Yup. I think being an older student, the knowledge of myself was/is my greatest asset. I can maintain my grades because I know when to study and when to watch netflix. I think that is why first semester for most folks is so draining/sets the tone for your school year. Learn to listen to your body's needs, and you will be amazed how much life and grades improve.
 
The vet I've worked for and shadowed since I was 15, who's been my mentor and inspiration for years, and was my primary LOR just sent me a super emotional text about how proud he was of me and of how confident he is that one day I'm going to be a fantastic vet. (I'm trying really hard not to cry, but that one set me over the edge in terms of the feels)
 
Lupin21 said:
Yup. I think being an older student, the knowledge of myself was/is my greatest asset. I can maintain my grades because I know when to study and when to watch netflix. I think that is why first semester for most folks is so draining/sets the tone for your school year. Learn to listen to your body's needs, and you will be amazed how much life and grades improve.
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Hey Lupin... come listen to my body's needs? ;-)
 
cdoconn said:
The vet I've worked for and shadowed since I was 15, who's been my mentor and inspiration for years, and was my primary LOR just sent me a super emotional text about how proud he was of me and of how confident he is that one day I'm going to be a fantastic vet. (I'm trying really hard not to cry, but that one set me over the edge in terms of the feels)
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I haven't been working with my vet for quite that long, but she was so excited and proud when I told her (I happened to be at the clinic that day). She was telling everyone who walked through the door that I got into vet school and ordered ice cream for the whole clinic to celebrate. I definitely would not have made it into vet school without her and all the techs being such a huge encouragement to me. Makes me want to be a great mentor like her someday.
 
cdoconn said:
The vet I've worked for and shadowed since I was 15, who's been my mentor and inspiration for years, and was my primary LOR just sent me a super emotional text about how proud he was of me and of how confident he is that one day I'm going to be a fantastic vet. (I'm trying really hard not to cry, but that one set me over the edge in terms of the feels)
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Emily Faith said:
I haven't been working with my vet for quite that long, but she was so excited and proud when I told her (I happened to be at the clinic that day). She was telling everyone who walked through the door that I got into vet school and ordered ice cream for the whole clinic to celebrate. I definitely would not have made it into vet school without her and all the techs being such a huge encouragement to me. Makes me want to be a great mentor like her someday.
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One of the vets that I've been interning with for the past year was really excited too and told everyone that day about it! 🙂 It was such a great feeling to see her so excited for me! Now, it just makes me sad though because she left the hospital last week for a job with the government and she was hands down my favorite vet that I have worked with.
 
PigFarmer25 said:
One of the vets that I've been interning with for the past year was really excited too and told everyone that day about it! 🙂 It was such a great feeling to see her so excited for me! Now, it just makes me sad though because she left the hospital last week for a job with the government and she was hands down my favorite vet that I have worked with.
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I told my research vet as well and she was extremely happy! (Not gonna lie, I still think they're gonna call me and be like "so... cdo. We ****ed up. You actually didn't get in. Our bad. Oops.")
 
cdoconn said:
I told my research vet as well and she was extremely happy! (Not gonna lie, I still think they're gonna call me and be like "so... cdo. We ****ed up. You actually didn't get in. Our bad. Oops.")
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I've thought about that too, and basically my response to myself is basically they f***ed it up, their fault not mine, I'm still going whether they like it or not! lol
 
Coopah said:
I've thought about that too, and basically my response to myself is basically they f***ed it up, their fault not mine, I'm still going whether they like it or not! lol
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Basically hahahahahaha! They're basically gonna have to physically escort me from the building and take away my ID access before I leave on my own terms at this point. 🤣
 
cdoconn said:
The vet I've worked for and shadowed since I was 15, who's been my mentor and inspiration for years, and was my primary LOR just sent me a super emotional text about how proud he was of me and of how confident he is that one day I'm going to be a fantastic vet. (I'm trying really hard not to cry, but that one set me over the edge in terms of the feels)
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Emily Faith said:
I haven't been working with my vet for quite that long, but she was so excited and proud when I told her (I happened to be at the clinic that day). She was telling everyone who walked through the door that I got into vet school and ordered ice cream for the whole clinic to celebrate. I definitely would not have made it into vet school without her and all the techs being such a huge encouragement to me. Makes me want to be a great mentor like her someday.
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The vet I work for *may* have been more excited than me (that's a lie...not a chance...but probably close lol). She has been such an incredible mentor to me from day one and it was so fun to be at work when I found out that I got in and get to tell her...her and one of the techs actually took me out to dinner and got me balloons. It was so sweet. We also have a lot of awesome clients that I've gotten to know really well and I can barely walk in an exam room without being asked if I got in lol
 
mmmdreamerz said:
The vet I work for *may* have been more excited than me (that's a lie...not a chance...but probably close lol). She has been such an incredible mentor to me from day one and it was so fun to be at work when I found out that I got in and get to tell her...her and one of the techs actually took me out to dinner and got me balloons. It was so sweet. We also have a lot of awesome clients that I've gotten to know really well and I can barely walk in an exam room without being asked if I got in lol
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🙁 uughhh I want some pre-vet shadows or workers to get excited about.
 
Trilt said:
🙁 uughhh I want some pre-vet shadows or workers to get excited about.
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I'm technically prevet for the next 5 months...I'll come hang out with you @Trilt ...you may feel differently after said experience...so enthusiastic and naive we are😉
 
mmmdreamerz said:
I'm technically prevet for the next 5 months...I'll come hang out with you @Trilt ...you may feel differently after said experience...so enthusiastic and naive we are😉
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Both I and the clinic have a spare bedroom. 😛
 
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