Class of 2023... how you doin?!

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Haha! I was actually looking forward to those activities but they are till tomorrow and Thursday, and today we had a scavenger hunt so I was looking at a map and feel down a few stairs :shrug: now I have a sprained ankle LOL hopefully it gets better quick 😕 other than that not bad! thank you for asking 🙂
 
Haha! I was actually looking forward to those activities but they are till tomorrow and Thursday, and today we had a scavenger hunt so I was looking at a map and feel down a few stairs :shrug: now I have a sprained ankle LOL hopefully it gets better quick 😕 other than that not bad! thank you for asking 🙂
those stairs are certainly a pita. hope you have a speedy recovery and enjoy your next few days! And don't let the imposter get too loud. It will always be there, but you got beat that off with a stick and just do your best!
 
Thank you! Love your description haha I will do that :diebanana: (lol thats kinda graphic) thanks!🙂
 
Had my last day of work Wednesday. Very bittersweet. Then today we took a day trip to ride a bunch of rollercoasters. Tomorrow I have to fit in a bunch of appointments, plus try to get up to Massachusetts to move some stuff into my apartment and then I have my goodbye dinner with my coworkers.

Followed by Saturday where I'm spending the morning at a rally trial, then leaving for vacation in the afternoon. We're not coming back until next Friday night. Saturday I'm moving in the rest of my stuff, Sunday is my friend's bridal shower and then off to my first day of vet school that Monday.
:help:

...I'm wishing I would've taken another chill week but I really needed the extra income.
 
@Dinashadow totally feel you on that. My last day of work is this coming Monday. Then my good bye dinner is next Friday. I have orientation in between, and my sister is having a baby today or tomorrow, and my other sister is having a birthday party for my other nephew this weekend. Everything is coming so fast!

Oh, and my last appointments at work before school are... a double euthanasia. Like seriously? Couldn’t be a new puppy exam or something? Selfish, I know, but that’s pretty depressing right?
 
@Dinashadow totally feel you on that. My last day of work is this coming Monday. Then my good bye dinner is next Friday. I have orientation in between, and my sister is having a baby today or tomorrow, and my other sister is having a birthday party for my other nephew this weekend. Everything is coming so fast!

Oh, and my last appointments at work before school are... a double euthanasia. Like seriously? Couldn’t be a new puppy exam or something? Selfish, I know, but that’s pretty depressing right?
I feel your pain, my last day was Monday, and the last appointment was to euthanize a patient I had grown super close to
 
I'm so glad that my last day was 7/30. It gave me the opportunity to relax and go travel a bit! But I'm already missing the cash flow. Moving everything tomorrow and then we have orientation on Wednesday!
 
@Dinashadow totally feel you on that. My last day of work is this coming Monday. Then my good bye dinner is next Friday. I have orientation in between, and my sister is having a baby today or tomorrow, and my other sister is having a birthday party for my other nephew this weekend. Everything is coming so fast!

Oh, and my last appointments at work before school are... a double euthanasia. Like seriously? Couldn’t be a new puppy exam or something? Selfish, I know, but that’s pretty depressing right?

I had an extremely easy last shift. I worked the evening shift and from 4-8 my doctor had 3 no call no shows. She jokingly asked me what I had done.
 
One of my favorite clients gave me a really nice goodbye card and even a target gift card. I was in the exam room with her seven months ago when I got my acceptance call, and she’s been asking about vet school every time I’ve seen her ever since. And I’ve seen her dozens of times since (dog has cancer, gets acupuncture and IV Vitamin C plus blood work regularly). It made my heart feel so full to know how much of an impact I’ve had on her, and it’s a big reason of why I don’t regret (yet) not taking a break between working and starting school. I’m glad I was able to give all of my time possible to these clients and patients who appreciate the work I put in for them. An 84 year old client who’s a serious badass with purple hair also hugged me and kissed me on the cheek when I told her I was leaving. These people make all the bs we put up with worth it.
 
Not sure where to post this but for current students in LDR's, how do you cope? I've only been away for a week and I'm already suffering big time. We will see each other most weekends but used to live together so these next 4 years seem daunting (no way he can move here, he's in another program).
 
Not sure where to post this but for current students in LDR's, how do you cope? I've only been away for a week and I'm already suffering big time. We will see each other most weekends but used to live together so these next 4 years seem daunting (no way he can move here, he's in another program).
Relationship Center
And I think there may be some more threads if you search for “relationship” in this forum, but this is the main one I’m aware of
 
Week long orientation starts tomorrow!! Little nervous but mostly excited to meet a bunch of new people. I got to meet up with my fourth year mentor yesterday and she was so welcoming and helpful, which got me even more excited. She even set up for her friend who's on rotation in the exotics department to show me around sometime this week!
 
Not sure where to post this but for current students in LDR's, how do you cope? I've only been away for a week and I'm already suffering big time. We will see each other most weekends but used to live together so these next 4 years seem daunting (no way he can move here, he's in another program).

Seconding the relationship thread where a lot of us have contributed in the past.

But I’m a nutshell: the four years of LDR were the worst. For me personally, the hardest parts were the times immediately after saying goodbye. The interim time was more bearable because I was busy with school and studying and friends and activities. The sudden switch if spending a long weekend together to abruptly not having him there was heart wrenching, whereas others found it to kind of recharge their dedication to LDR.

There is no one right way to do it, but my biggest advice breaks down to talking regularly, communicating well and having specific meeting times to look forward to. It can be done, but many times it doesn’t work out, which doesn’t make you a failure.
 
It can be done, but many times it doesn’t work out, which doesn’t make you a failure.
Many (maybe most) relationships including some marriages fall apart during vet school, even if they aren’t LDR. As someone who committed more to my relationship than vet school for a good 3 years (first of which was LDR), and it still didn’t work out in the end, I’ll say it will be okay! At the time it was devastating, but it worked out much better. I ended up upgrading to a better relationship with my now hubby, and all is groovy. It was kind of fun dating during clinics too. I distinctly remember inadvertently blowing off a one night stand because the resident I was working with was super incompetent and I was stuck sitting in the teaching hospital twiddling my thumb for hours waiting to be allowed to leave, as I sat there re-evaluating my life choices. Not my finest moment, but if my biggest worry was being late for hooking up with some random dude, it was an improvement to the rocky relationship that I was constantly worrying about. Also, not being bound to someone and their career and goals when figuring out what I wanted to do with my career after graduation was freeing. It was stressful having my career choices limited based on my ex’s career/location. Vet school does make you a bit of a different person coming out than went in, so it’s not surprising that people drift. It only gets more stressful once you’re out in practice (demands of your job are worse than as a student in many cases), so it really takes a partner that is understanding of that. It’s really easy to become resentful of your veterinarian SO if you don’t get it and support it.
 
Not sure where to post this but for current students in LDR's, how do you cope?

My BF do what we call Book Club. We read the same book at the same time. It's not a super regular thing (like every Tuesday and Thursday), but more of, "Hey, can we do Book Club tonight?" It's a good bonding thing for us, and it's a good stress reliever we both enjoy as well. We got through 3 books last year, I think.

Otherwise, good communication. Phone calls/skype. Now that I have good enough Internet, we'll play videogames together on weekends. And we make sure to have plenty of time together during the times in back home. He also visits once a year.

General support as well. He gets vet school sucks, and he helped me through a particularly horrible year last year. Likewise he has his own struggles. So supporting one another is key.
 
CSU's orientation has been super fun so far! Tomorrow is our last day and we have our coating ceremony in the evening. We were sent links to this microsoft drive that has a bunch of study tips and stuff--I looked at them and immediately got overwhelmed :smack:
 
CSU's orientation has been super fun so far! Tomorrow is our last day and we have our coating ceremony in the evening. We were sent links to this microsoft drive that has a bunch of study tips and stuff--I looked at them and immediately got overwhelmed :smack:
The drive is a little intimidating. Take it slow and have fun at coating tomorrow! It's a big accomplishment, so take some time to be proud of yourself and your classmates this weekend before classes start 🙂
 
Not sure where to post this but for current students in LDR's, how do you cope? I've only been away for a week and I'm already suffering big time. We will see each other most weekends but used to live together so these next 4 years seem daunting (no way he can move here, he's in another program).
I’m going to echo @that redhead and say that this was my experience as well. The day I left my boyfriend was the absolute worst. Afterwards, particularly once classes started, I genuinely did not have time to miss him. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought. Then again, we did FaceTime every night and we made sure to visit each other every 6 weeks or so. That definitely helped.
 
Only one more day (really only a half day) of orientation to go!
 
Failed the first physio quiz. Off to a good start!
I used Khan Academy on YouTube to help study for the earlier physiology material 🙂 An important skill to develop is recognizing what isn’t working study-wise and adapting quickly instead of just continuing to do what isn’t working.
 
Week one down. I always knew this would be hard, but the amount of information they throw at us is more intense than I ever expected. Here's to hoping I can get through this.
You can. Go look at all those people in the lobby who've done it and know you can too with determination and knowing when to take time off. 🙂
 
Week one down. I always knew this would be hard, but the amount of information they throw at us is more intense than I ever expected. Here's to hoping I can get through this.

It’s funny because every year feels hard, but when you’re in fourth year you’ll look back and think wow, first year wasn’t so bad! But it always feels like it at the time- you’ll adapt without even realizing it 🙂
 
It’s funny because every year feels hard, but when you’re in fourth year you’ll look back and think wow, first year wasn’t so bad! But it always feels like it at the time- you’ll adapt without even realizing it 🙂
Sadly, Year One is actually the hardest, even with changes I think at OKstate. haha
 
Anything in particular I need to know about? Lol
I think the classes are the hardest and the material is so much memorization year 1 that it is at times overwhelming between anatomy, histology and physiology. After that it starts to get more clinical and not quite so tedious in my opinion. 🙂
 
I think the classes are the hardest and the material is so much memorization year 1 that it is at times overwhelming between anatomy, histology and physiology. After that it starts to get more clinical and not quite so tedious in my opinion. 🙂

Oh I agree that the material starts out most tedious and terrible in first year and gets better as you go! Just that they ask more and more of you every year and we always adapt to the increasing workload 🙂
 
Any current vet students have any advice about the transition to the courseload in vet school? I start next week but I’m already really nervous about it all. The harder content, larger amount of content, finding time for myself in all of this. I feel like some students make it out to seem pretty terrible, but how bad really is it? I made it through undergrad without too much trouble but I understand this is going to be pretty different.
 
Any current vet students have any advice about the transition to the courseload in vet school? I start next week but I’m already really nervous about it all. The harder content, larger amount of content, finding time for myself in all of this. I feel like some students make it out to seem pretty terrible, but how bad really is it? I made it through undergrad without too much trouble but I understand this is going to be pretty different.
Most of the time I didn't find the material any more difficult, it's just a lot. Like drinking from a firehose, as you may have seen some others mention. My best advice is not to try to learn every little thing, because you won't have time to. Learn what you can, and always take time for yourself. Try out a few different study methods to see what works for you. Focus on things that will be efficient for you - most of the time that's not going to be rewriting all your notes unless you're super fast with that. It doesn't work for everyone of course but active recall is usually the most efficient way to actually learn things - so quizzing yourself or having others quiz you.

But again, taking care of yourself is my best advice. Grades aren't worth your health/sanity.
 
Any current vet students have any advice about the transition to the courseload in vet school? I start next week but I’m already really nervous about it all. The harder content, larger amount of content, finding time for myself in all of this. I feel like some students make it out to seem pretty terrible, but how bad really is it? I made it through undergrad without too much trouble but I understand this is going to be pretty different.
I've been in class for a week and from my point of view, it is easier than undergrad.

I remember seeing a list of enzymes that worked together (I think for DNA repair but may be wrong) and the teacher said "but I don't expect you to memorize all of this"

And I was like "WHAT. THIS IS FANTASTIC."

Because that's all of what my major was-cramming all that stuff in.

So I think it's ok to relax a little bit and just stay on top of it.
 
Seconding what has been said above. Focus on understanding the material, and tying together how it interacts with other material you have learned. That will get you so much farther than trying to memorize little facts without context. I have found the exams in vet school are very different than undergrad. In undergrad it very much testing to get the class weeded out into different grades; in vet school I find our exams are more generalized and test knowledge/deeper understanding. Don’t get me wrong, we got tested on specifics, but I never felt like an exam was testing me for a grade vs seeing what I understood.

Also: HAVE A LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but if you take breaks and do fun things (intramural sports, going dancing, volunteer shifts in the teaching hospital, insert whatever you want here) the time you spend studying will be more valuable. I guarantee if I had spent more time studying last year my grades would have gone down not up because I would have been absolutely miserable and not used my time as effectively.
 
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I've been in class for a week and from my point of view, it is easier than undergrad.

I remember seeing a list of enzymes that worked together (I think for DNA repair but may be wrong) and the teacher said "but I don't expect you to memorize all of this"

And I was like "WHAT. THIS IS FANTASTIC."

Because that's all of what my major was-cramming all that stuff in.

So I think it's ok to relax a little bit and just stay on top of it.

First lesson: Vet school teachers love saying "don't memorize this" then putting it on the exam anyway.

Not all of them and not for every instance they say "don't memorize this" but it happened enough times that I didn't trust those words.
 
One of my biggest regrets from my time in vet school is that I didn't utilize counseling and other mental health resources when I very obviously needed them.
Our counselor is a saint and I didn't even start seeing her for anything vet school related. Everybody deserves a good therapist regardless of what they have going on in their lives
 
Most of the time I didn't find the material any more difficult, it's just a lot. Like drinking from a firehose, as you may have seen some others mention. My best advice is not to try to learn every little thing, because you won't have time to. Learn what you can, and always take time for yourself. Try out a few different study methods to see what works for you. Focus on things that will be efficient for you - most of the time that's not going to be rewriting all your notes unless you're super fast with that. It doesn't work for everyone of course but active recall is usually the most efficient way to actually learn things - so quizzing yourself or having others quiz you.

But again, taking care of yourself is my best advice. Grades aren't worth your health/sanity.

Yup, it really is about studying “smarter not harder.” Efficiency is key. Find what works for you and ditch anything that doesn’t. Don’t stress about pre-reading for lectures and ****, ain’t no one got time for that. The material in vet school is very shallow and not difficult. It’s the amount of stuff they cover that is hard. And the asinine stuff you’ll never need to know later (unless you are in that particular field, and sometimes not even then) that somehow becomes your grade. It’s ok if you can’t retain all the information. Lol, none of the professors remember 3/4 of the info taught in just about every class they don’t teach. And that’s being generous. And the corollary to that is don’t worry if you’re struggling to get good grades. Do your best and try to understand the concepts. Pay attention to the recurrent themes over the next 4 years. The topics that come up over and over ARE important and you need to know those. Yes, renal physiology IS super important. It literally comes up every semester until you graduate. Don’t be the idiot who doesn’t understand what to expect with kidney failure but can name all the carpal bones on a cow (even the anatomic pathologist couldn’t remember so it’s not that important). Don’t obsess about some trivia about llama sperm that literally will come up once and will not be on NAVLE. The kids who do well grade-wise just have really good short term memory, and the amount they’ll eventually retain is probably about the same. In the meantime you just gotta survive. Find out what best way to get things into short term memory as fast as you can.
 
Any current vet students have any advice about the transition to the courseload in vet school? I start next week but I’m already really nervous about it all. The harder content, larger amount of content, finding time for myself in all of this. I feel like some students make it out to seem pretty terrible, but how bad really is it? I made it through undergrad without too much trouble but I understand this is going to be pretty different.

The content isn’t harder, there’s just a lot more of it. Accept that you cannot know everything (probably a good life lesson too) and work hard to understand the concepts. There comes a point where more studying does not equate to better grades, and that’s the point where you need to learn to step back and let yourself breathe. Set aside dedicated time for exercise, fun with friends, reading a book, watching TV, whatever helps you unwind. And never compare yourself to classmates- some people will brag about all-nighters or not having studied at all or whatever. That’s their business, you just do what works for you.
 
Thank you for all the advice.. it’s very helpful and makes me feel slightly better. I was worried I’d have no time to do what I love to do anymore, but you all have made me realize I need to make time to do those things because my mental health is important too
 
Finished the first day of actual classes. Anatomy lab is very unguided which was... different. But anatomy lecture in general is actually mostly stuff I already learned, and I’m better at biochem than i thought I’d be! Given that today’s classes were the ones that comprised 21 out of my 31 credits, it shouldn’t be too horrible.
 
Finished the first day of actual classes. Anatomy lab is very unguided which was... different. But anatomy lecture in general is actually mostly stuff I already learned, and I’m better at biochem than i thought I’d be! Given that today’s classes were the ones that comprised 21 out of my 31 credits, it shouldn’t be too horrible.
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I’m glad the first day went well! I’m going to warn you, they make the first day/ week/ month easy on you so first years don’t panic and run away crying. Through SDN, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people from a lot of different vet schools, so I can easily say that I haven’t met a single person that made it through the first year without getting knocked down... hard! You’ll get to the stuff in these classes you haven’t learned, and the good study habits you develop now will really help you in a month when exams come.
 
I’m glad the first day went well! I’m going to warn you, they make the first day/ week/ month easy on you so first years don’t panic and run away crying. Through SDN, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people from a lot of different vet schools, so I can easily say that I haven’t met a single person that made it through the first year without getting knocked down... hard! You’ll get to the stuff in these classes you haven’t learned, and the good study habits you develop now will really help you in a month when exams come.
I think, initially, it's hard to gauge just how much the volume of credits/material will really affect you. There were a lot of things about first year (and vet school in general) that really weren't that hard, but the frequency and rate at which you have to do it really wears on you even if you don't realize it until you have a meltdown. The constant level of stress of staying on top of 20-30 credits is huge and I think I've gone something like three semesters straight where I had at least an exam a week (or two) for 90% of the semester.

I will say that everyone I know has gotten insanely good at inhaling vast amounts of information in a really short period of time. At the same time, learning to adapt like that can make it harder to enjoy some previous hobbies (like reading or art) because your brain just screams for the maximum amount of information and stimulation per second because that's what you've trained it to do in school. I know a lot of people who have lost interest in books, long movies, drawing etc because they feel like things aren't happening fast enough in them anymore.
 
Holy crap, I've experienced this and never made the connection before but it makes so much more sense now in that context. I pretty much completely dropped my hobbies (reading, art, language learning, translation) during vet school and, even after leaving, I had a really difficult time getting back into them. Part of it I think was mental health related, but another part of it was because those things just felt so slow and not as mentally engaging to me anymore. Movies are really hard, too, and it's rare that I watch one all the way straight through these days. I could never put my finger on why I felt that way, and still do to an extent, but I'm finally starting to gradually immerse myself in those hobbies again.

Though it's kind of funny, because I don't even know that I ever really successfully "adapted" to the horrific levels of cramming and regurgitation of mass amounts of information that is required in vet school (if my GPA was any indication).
It didn't click for me until my boss made an offhand comment the summer after my first year, asking me if I had stopped reading yet because books weren't dense enough. She said it took her years after she finished vet school to be able to read for pleasure, and even then it was nonfiction most of the time.

I've been trying really hard over the past semester or so to cultivate what I call "slow hobbies", so I can give my brain a break and remind myself that those things are still engaging (you just have to learn how to switch gears a little). I picked up reading again and have gotten really into gardening (and, recently, composting) and spending time doing those things has been a huge boon to my mental health overall. I picked up swimming as well since it's an activity that you generally can't do while listening to music or watching TV, so you have to spend time focusing on yourself and the moment while you're doing it.
 
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