Electives

[InfiniVet]

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I have wanted to be a veterinarian since I was knee high to a grasshopper, and have lived my life to prepare myself for this career.
When I was a kid I wanted to be equine veterinarian, and its what I know best.
Then a few years ago I worked in a small animal clinic and that made me want to do mixed. Absolutely. Unwaveringly.
Then I joined the Exotics club and man, I could totally see myself working with exotics only. I'm going to Costa Rica & Africa this summer to do zoo med internships.
Then I joined the Food Production club, and what could be nobler than being part of the solution of solving world hunger?! I signed up to do a Food animal production tour of Texas this summer.
Started doing ECG rounds. Forget everything else I want to do a cardiology residency.
Oh and I'm a total Path nerd. Love Path!

Now I am deadly serious - I want to do it all. I want to take every damn elective.

I have always been sure I'd be a vet, and now I have zero idea of what kind of vet that'll be.

I must be extremely susceptible to suggestion I suppose. Has anyone else gone through this? I feel like I'd need 5 years to make this decision, but I need to pick electives pretty quick. Grr.

 

[Starwrecker]

I'm in second year and that's exactly how I feel. 😕

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I'm finishing third year and I feel the same! 😱 I'm leaning a lot to path and lab animal med/reseach....but then again I have really taken a shine to large animal med and think a feedlot vet position/bovine nutrition could be great. And there is neurosurg in the back of my mind. Eek!

 

[bclover]

I'm glad I'm not alone - and it's still early for me (1st yr). I do have it narrowed down a bit, (just a couple of things that I currently "think" I don't want to do vs. what I want to do), but there are SO many areas/options/angles that we can do. Not quite sure how to decide over the next 3.25 years!

 

[InfiniVet]

For anyone higher than a second year:
I'm trying to decide which electives to take and unfortunately I very seriously want to take nearly all of them. Its been really hard to narrow it down to 31 hours so far, and I have been advised not to take over 20. I was wondering if you have any advice on this and if there were any specifically that help you everyday? Or worse, any that were simply an academic exercise?

I'm mostly struggling between cases vs techniques. Is it better to choose electives along improving your ability to work up a case or is it better to focus on learning techniques.
Ex. Equine Dentistry and Small Animal Nutrition are in the same time slot.

I really appreciate any advice!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

IMHO, don't take more than 23 credits or you'll be begging for relief. I was miserable 2nd year taking 22. Unless these elective are little weekend classes or p/f things.

I think learning how to work up a case, y'know, problem based learning stuff, is essential. And in many schools, it is not focused on enough until too late (ie, you get thrown into 4th year headfirst!!)

Technique is important too, but if you have trouble hitting a vein you can ask an assistant to do it. If you aren't sure exactly how big to make an incision, you can look it up quickly in a book. You can't ask an assistant to generate a differential diagnosis list and a book can't tell you what to take off your r/o list. Learning to prioritize, think, and solve is the foundation of vetmed. I'm taking problem solving courses right now and they have helped immensely. If it comes down between the two (ie physical techniques versus problem solving ability) I'll take problem solving every time. Of course, a mix of both is good, but you sound spread thin! 🙂

 

[InfiniVet]

.. You can't ask an assistant to generate a differential diagnosis list and a book can't tell you what to take off your r/o list..

What the crap? Why not?!
;P

Ok thank you so much that really helped. I have been really struggling with this. I see what you are saying about the problem solving & learning to think and I will take that to heart. =)

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

It sucks though cause the technique stuff is usually a little more fun 😉 But oh, the things we do for education...

 

[StealthDog]

IMHO, don't take more than 23 credits or you'll be begging for relief. I was miserable 2nd year taking 22.

At the U of MN, they start us off with 21 credits first year, with our toughest semester (second semester 2nd year) at 36.5 credits... I wonder if schools count credits differently?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

They might. 23 or so credits for us would entail 8 to 5 or 8 to 6 straight classes every day. I don't know how you'd get 35!!

Our big core classes are 3 or 4 credits each, smaller ones are 2, weekend ones are 1 and usually p/f. For a 3 credit class we usually have that class two times per day and a lab every week. 4 credit classes (a few) meet multiple times per day. Usually people are enrolled in anywhere from 8 to 11 classes per semester

 

[Emio]

They might. 23 or so credits for us would entail 8 to 5 or 8 to 6 straight classes every day. I don't know how you'd get 35!!

Our big core classes are 3 or 4 credits each, smaller ones are 2, weekend ones are 1 and usually p/f. For a 3 credit class we usually have that class two times per day and a lab every week. 4 credit classes (a few) meet multiple times per day. Usually people are enrolled in anywhere from 8 to 11 classes per semester

whoa, that is interesting! we have about 36 credit hours as well, and only in class 9-12 with an hour lunch, but our big credit classes are up to 17 credit hours each. pathology was 17, anatomy was 13 i think, and pharm is 11. plus a bunch of 2, 3, 4 credit courses and a 9 credit-er.

anyway... i vote for equine dentistry over small animal nutrition any day!! but i'm a wee bit biased 😉

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

That IS weird! Hah, that makes much more sense now....I was going...36 credits??? That's not even physically possible!! I'm taking approx 19 this semester (average is around 20 per semester) and my days generally are 8 to 5 for two days of the week, 10 to 12 one day, and 1 to 5 two days.....much easier.

 

[StealthDog]

Wow, we don't have any classes bigger than 7 credits (which was pathology- 2 hours of lecture every day, plus two labs per week)... the majority of ours are 2 and 3 credit classes. We also usually have a "core" class at the end of each semester, which is a single 2-credit class squeezed into one week of 8-to-5 lectures and labs. Who knows how they think this stuff up?

 

[Jochebed]

I've been having a "credit/class crisis" as well lately. There are a TON of electives next year (3rd) and I want to take like 8 of them! Haha...not possible! At this point I'm probably going to just take one 1 credit class each semester. I have a different variable to factor in than most though in that I'm having a baby in July. I would LOVE to take a ton of electives, but as WhtsThFrequency pointed out, that adds up to long hours and long days. At some point I think that the hubby at home would appreciate a break from the baby. So I took extra credits this semester and luckily I had sense enough to take 1-3 electives each semester the 3 previous. So at this point I only need 2 credits above the required track/core classes to progress into 4th year. And that's all I'm going to take, which is disappointing, but still probably the best decision for me. My first inclination was to take just one 1 credit weekend class each semester and get those credits out of the way all in one weekend shot...and I still may...but I REALLY want to take Ferret Med/Surg and I think that's a "regular" weekday class, but still only 1 credit so not a big time infringement. So we'll see. But at this point I will probably only be taking 17 credits each semester next year, which will be the least I've taken at any point. But I'll probably need that... 😛

 

[Caninerepro]

At the U of MN, they start us off with 21 credits first year, with our toughest semester (second semester 2nd year) at 36.5 credits... I wonder if schools count credits differently?

Not to side track the discussion, but since I am starting 1st year at MN this Sept., what is a typical first year schedule like at MN time wise? Just wondering, now you have me worried about that 36.5 credit semester. They neglected to mention that during the interview weekend tours. 😱

I thought my 8-6 MTW, 11-5R and 8-1F grad school schedule was bad, as bad as the 1st years have it here at CSU.

Kai

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Congrats Ashley! wow, I need to read more threads in here, I totally missed this info, as I see you've mentioned it in others too. I'm too busy working out DDxes for "neurologic goats" for Pelzer to be at my most aware

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Duplicate, oops. Told you. Frickin' Interwebs....

 

[StealthDog]

Not to side track the discussion, but since I am starting 1st year at MN this Sept., what is a typical first year schedule like at MN time wise? Just wondering, now you have me worried about that 36.5 credit semester. They neglected to mention that during the interview weekend tours.

Haha, I'm not surprised they didn't mention it, although every vet school seems to have one "hell semester"...

First year was a long time ago, but I'll try to remember! They do request that you be available from 8 to 5 M-F because they reserve the right to schedule class any time during those hours... but you don't usually have class during all that time (except the notorious second semester second year). First year, we had a couple hours of lecture in the morning, usually followed by a couple hours of lab (histology, organology, or neurology), then lunch. Afternoons are either a few hours of lecture, or lecture combined with a lab (anatomy, radiology, or clinical skills). There's the occassional afternoon off or late morning start thrown in, plus field trips to dairy farms, goat farms, and horse farms for Animal Populations. You'll be getting a schedule at some point with every day planned out (since they're all a little different), so you'll have a good idea how much time you actually will spend in class pretty soon.