Future DVMs- C/O 2021!

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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Bottle of Bear said:
It's more like you're trying to find out who's going where, that thread's to warn noobies about pros/cons of schools before they apply
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I saw a bunch of people wrote on there last year though asking for advice on which school to attend.
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I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question. Does anyone know whether there is a list of schools that have block scheduling (rather than the typical 8-5 day of classes)?
 
bombai said:
I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question. Does anyone know whether there is a list of schools that have block scheduling (rather than the typical 8-5 day of classes)?
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Are you referring to those that have blocks instead of semesters? Or those that have electives built in? Or something else? Not sure what you exactly mean by block scheduling
 
SummerTheLynx said:
Are you referring to those that have blocks instead of semesters? Or those that have electives built in? Or something else? Not sure what you exactly mean by block scheduling
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UC Davis uses block scheduling built within a semester, but the courses don't necessarily run the full semester (at least that is my understanding). Your schedule changes from week to week. It's a bit different. Classes don't run from 8-5 exactly. I'm looking for any other schools that do something similar to that or something non-traditional, in that sense. I hope that makes sense :).
 
bombai said:
UC Davis uses block scheduling built within a semester, but the courses don't necessarily run the full semester (at least that is my understanding). Your schedule changes from week to week. It's a bit different. Classes don't run from 8-5 exactly. I'm looking for any other schools that do something similar to that or something non-traditional, in that sense. I hope that makes sense :).
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Missouri works off a block system, but works very differently than that. Blocks are 8 weeks, and classes run only for 8 weeks and then you get a grade. There are 5 blocks/school year, 11 blocks total, and then you enter clinics.

Classes are not usually 8-5 here, except 1 or 2 bad blocks.
 
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bombai said:
Which school is that? What is the reason it changes?
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UTK. And it's because our exam blocks take up 3 hours, while lectures are only one. Plus some classes have more lectures than others, but they all span the entire semester. So every week is a new adventure! They give you the whole schedule at the beginning of the semester, that doesn't change too much (or at least it didn't for us this semester) but sometimes things do need to be adjusted.
 
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SummerTheLynx said:
Missouri works off a block system, but works very differently than that. Blocks are 8 weeks, and classes run only for 8 weeks and then you get a grade. There are 5 blocks/school year, 11 blocks total, and then you enter clinics.

Classes are not usually 8-5 here, except 1 or 2 bad blocks.
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WildZoo said:
UTK. And it's because our exam blocks take up 3 hours, while lectures are only one. Plus some classes have more lectures than others, but they all span the entire semester. So every week is a new adventure! They give you the whole schedule at the beginning of the semester, that doesn't change too much (or at least it didn't for us this semester) but sometimes things do need to be adjusted.
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What do you mean by a block system? At Davis, students take one class at a time and that's what they mean by it.

@bombai I think University of Illinois has a block system with all classes lumped together in one grade. I'm pretty sure @pinkpuppy9 and @batsenecal go there and would know more. I'm curious about how it compares to Davis's system since I applied to both.
 
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SummerTheLynx said:
Missouri works off a block system, but works very differently than that. Blocks are 8 weeks, and classes run only for 8 weeks and then you get a grade. There are 5 blocks/school year, 11 blocks total, and then you enter clinics.

Classes are not usually 8-5 here, except 1 or 2 bad blocks.
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Illinois is similar to this. We have four 8 week quarters per year the first three years. One quarter a year is a clinical rotation quarter, with third years having it the fourth quarter, so they start their year of clinics in March.

But we have multiple classes or quarter. We had Anatomy, histology, imaging, physiology, and neurobiology for 602.

Each quarter has only two tests, a midterm and a final. You're tested on all the subjects in a couple of different sections and you get one grade from the entire quarter. The midterm is 25% of the grade and the final is 50%.
 
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TrashPanda said:
What do you mean by a block system? At Davis, students take one class at a time and that's what they mean by it.

@bombai I think University of Illinois has a block system with all classes lumped together in one grade. I'm pretty sure @pinkpuppy9 and @batsenecal go there and would know more. I'm curious about how it compares to Davis's system since I applied to both.
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The block system simply means that courses are shorter and possibly more intense during the time period (since we would be learning 16 weeks of material in 8 weeks, we may meet more frequently for a particular class during that time compared to those on a semester system. 4-5 classes per block (or instructional period/IP), 2 blocks per semester, with an added one starting at the end of April/beginning of May. It appears a bit more crammed (although doesn't feel it IMO) because we have two years of clinics as opposed to the traditional 1 year.
 
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SummerTheLynx said:
The block system simply means that courses are shorter and possibly more intense during the time period (since we would be learning 16 weeks of material in 8 weeks, we may meet more frequently for a particular class during that time compared to those on a semester system. 4-5 classes per block (or instructional period/IP), 2 blocks per semester, with an added one starting at the end of April/beginning of May. It appears a bit more crammed (although doesn't feel it IMO) because we have two years of clinics as opposed to the traditional 1 year.
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Ah, ok. So Mizzou has two blocks per semester of 4-5 classes, most schools have ~8 classes throughout one semester, Illinois has the schedule described above, and Davis has one class at a time for blocks of varying lengths.
 
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Thanks guys... yeah, I like the alternative type of system so I was just curious which schools did something a little different like that (rather than teaching ~ 8 or so classes at once for an entire semester. I love summer-school type classes, so UC Davis kind of reminded me of that. I appreciate the responses :).
 
bombai said:
Thanks guys... yeah, I like the alternative type of system so I was just curious which schools did something a little different like that (rather than teaching ~ 8 or so classes at once for an entire semester. I love summer-school type classes, so UC Davis kind of reminded me of that. I appreciate the responses :).
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Yo Bombai every time I see your name pop up, I think of Coach Bombay from the Mighty Ducks.
 
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bombai said:
Thanks guys... yeah, I like the alternative type of system so I was just curious which schools did something a little different like that (rather than teaching ~ 8 or so classes at once for an entire semester. I love summer-school type classes, so UC Davis kind of reminded me of that. I appreciate the responses :).
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I like Illinois' system because of how grades are calculated. Anatomy was my struggle bus and histology/imaging saved my life.
 
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cdoconn said:
Yo Bombai every time I see your name pop up, I think of Coach Bombay from the Mighty Ducks.
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Awww... I'll have to look that up--never heard of that person ;). But I do know Bombai!
 
singhb09 said:
Quack...quack....quack...QUACK QUACK QUACK!
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200_s.gif
 
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TrashPanda said:
What do you mean by a block system? At Davis, students take one class at a time and that's what they mean by it.

@bombai I think University of Illinois has a block system with all classes lumped together in one grade. I'm pretty sure @pinkpuppy9 and @batsenecal go there and would know more. I'm curious about how it compares to Davis's system since I applied to both.
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I personally have a love/hate relationship with this system. The combined final grade saved my butt last quarter, but you also don't get to show that you got A's in certain classes and maybe B's or C's in the others. For example, I had all A's in every test section except path (which I did really poorly in), and it pulled me all the way down to a final grade of a C since path was the main class in that quarter. You just see one grade, and our GPA system deflates us here. We also only get 9 grades for our entire veterinary school career. It will be a problem when it comes to post-DVM training, as many programs do GPA cutoffs before comparing class rank/reading your file. That's not so much an issue with the mega-course system, but probably just Illinois and how they do things. We've been advised to describe the mega-course system in letters of intent, as it can throw other programs for a loop.

Some people like having one massive exam every 4 weeks (we do have small quizzes/assignments sprinkled in the quarter too), but I don't like having to know 4 weeks of material for 5 classes that will be covered on one exam. It's just so much material and you never quite feel like you've mastered any of it, but I've managed to survive somehow. I think the balance of not having a test breathing down your neck every week, but having really fast paced courses kind of balances out....but you have to keep up on your studying.
 
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pinkpuppy9 said:
It's just so much material and you never quite feel like you've mastered any of it,
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I don't really think that changes whether you're tested in one tiny test every day or one massive test every semester. The volume of vet school is just plain overwhelming.

Interesting info about the block system. I didn't know they did that there.
 
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LetItSnow said:
I don't really think that changes whether you're tested in one tiny test every day or one massive test every semester. The volume of vet school is just plain overwhelming.

Interesting info about the block system. I didn't know they did that there.
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Yeah, that's true, but 60-70 lectures just for the midterm is a bit much to really learn imo, especially when we're still sitting for lectures two days before the exam. We get a reading day and that does help, but I also am one of those students who takes hours just to get through a small amount of material.

Honestly, I didn't really know too much about their curriculum organization until I started. They don't actually tell you (at least on the website) that they do mega-courses and how those are graded, other than each quarter is called 'VM 60_' and what a sample schedule can look like. It's worth knowing if you have other offers and are making a pro-con list. I know I harp on my GPA concerns a lot, but I'm in the majority when I say things could be very very different if they gave us a grade for each class. It's something that students have brought up to the admin many times.
 
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pinkpuppy9 said:
Yeah, that's true, but 60-70 lectures just for the midterm is a bit much to really learn imo, especially when we're still sitting for lectures two days before the exam. We get a reading day and that does help, but I also am one of those students who takes hours just to get through a small amount of material.

Honestly, I didn't really know too much about their curriculum organization until I started. They don't actually tell you (at least on the website) that they do mega-courses and how those are graded, other than each quarter is called 'VM 60_' and what a sample schedule can look like. It's worth knowing if you have other offers and are making a pro-con list. I know I harp on my GPA concerns a lot, but I'm in the majority when I say things could be very very different if they gave us a grade for each class. It's something that students have brought up to the admin many times.
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These are the types of things that would be nice to know before choosing schools. Thank you for your input :).
 
bombai said:
These are the types of things that would be nice to know before choosing schools. Thank you for your input :).
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Of course. Being in the curriculum now, I probably still wouldn't have declined my acceptance had I known back then because there are other factors to consider. It really can save your a** if you screw up on one exam (I truly bombed my final and still passed with a low C). Some students are still raking in the A's too, so it's not like it makes it impossible to get a 4.0 in any quarter.

Like I said before, in this style of curriculum, you absolutely have to keep up on your studying, possibly moreso than other traditional curricula. Cramming 70ish lectures in the week of the exam is usually not going to cut it if you're shooting for a high GPA (although I have a classmate that does it and is doing fine, gotta hate that :p).
 
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I totally agree with @pinkpuppy9 on the fact you have to keep up with it and that it can totally save you. I didn't study well enough for the anatomy midterm and then wasn't able to save the overall anatomy grade with the final. After meeting with one of our anatomy instructors and going over the tests, I know what to fix. But had I had anatomy separately, I would have failed the quarter. That's probably because I didn't keep up with anatomy very well.

So it's a double edged sword. It can save you in harder cases, but it kind of punishes the average student, depending on who you talk to.
 
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pinkpuppy9 said:
Of course. Being in the curriculum now, I probably still wouldn't have declined my acceptance had I known back then because there are other factors to consider. It really can save your a** if you screw up on one exam (I truly bombed my final and still passed with a low C). Some students are still raking in the A's too, so it's not like it makes it impossible to get a 4.0 in any quarter.

Like I said before, in this style of curriculum, you absolutely have to keep up on your studying, possibly moreso than other traditional curricula. Cramming 70ish lectures in the week of the exam is usually not going to cut it if you're shooting for a high GPA (although I have a classmate that does it and is doing fine, gotta hate that :p).
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I don't know that I agree with the bolded. At UTK, at least, when you have 1-2 tests a week, you don't really stop studying at any point in time for more than a quick break.

I suspect that no matter how you break it down, it's about the same.
 
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dyachei said:
I don't know that I agree with the bolded. At UTK, at least, when you have 1-2 tests a week, you don't really stop studying at any point in time for more than a quick break.

I suspect that no matter how you break it down, it's about the same.
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And then you do take a break when you have a week without a test and immediately regret that decision...
 
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pinkpuppy9 said:
Yeah, that's true, but 60-70 lectures just for the midterm is a bit much to really learn imo, especially when we're still sitting for lectures two days before the exam. We get a reading day and that does help, but I also am one of those students who takes hours just to get through a small amount of material.

Honestly, I didn't really know too much about their curriculum organization until I started. They don't actually tell you (at least on the website) that they do mega-courses and how those are graded, other than each quarter is called 'VM 60_' and what a sample schedule can look like. It's worth knowing if you have other offers and are making a pro-con list. I know I harp on my GPA concerns a lot, but I'm in the majority when I say things could be very very different if they gave us a grade for each class. It's something that students have brought up to the admin many times.
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This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing this. Yeah, none of us would have any idea unless we specifically asked a student or someone offered this information like you did.
 
Thanks for the info! Do you feel like different types of schedules at different schools affect student stress levels? I know vet school is hard and stressful no matter what, but I'm curious if it's equally hard and stressful no matter where you go, if it comes down to personal preference, or if some scheduling really is better.

I know a lot of med schools have moved to block scheduling (often one class at a time like at Davis), and I wonder if a similar change is coming for vet schools. Students at Davis seemed to really love their schedule and felt it was less stressful than other school's schedules, but of course except for transfer students, no one can really compare.
 
VetMed1 said:
This is very interesting. Thank you for sharing this. Yeah, none of us would have any idea unless we specifically asked a student or someone offered this information like you did.
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I asked during my interview for clarification on how it all worked. The fourth year was pretty helpful in that regard.
 
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TrashPanda said:
Thanks for the info! Do you feel like different types of schedules at different schools affect student stress levels? I know vet school is hard and stressful no matter what, but I'm curious if it's equally hard and stressful no matter where you go, if it comes down to personal preference, or if some scheduling really is better.

I know a lot of med schools have moved to block scheduling (often one class at a time like at Davis), and I wonder if a similar change is coming for vet schools. Students at Davis seemed to really love their schedule and felt it was less stressful than other school's schedules, but of course except for transfer students, no one can really compare.
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It probably is a person by person basis. I don't think there's a single US school that has a massively larger attrition rate that can be attributed to higher stress induced by the schedules.
 
batsenecal said:
It probably is a person by person basis. I don't think there's a single US school that has a massively larger attrition rate that can be attributed to higher stress induced by the schedules.
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I've tried searching for attrition rate info, but I haven't found much. It seems it's more often due to personal issues than something the school could have prevented. I'm interested in attrition rates and remediation policies, but also just general quality of life and stress.
 
TrashPanda said:
I've tried searching for attrition rate info, but I haven't found much. It seems it's more often due to personal issues than something the school could have prevented. I'm interested in attrition rates and remediation policies, but also just general quality of life and stress.
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it depends on the person. Do you have a hard time focusing only on 1 subject? 1 class at a time is probably not as helpful for you.

i know some schools are trying to be proactive about stress reduction, too. So it's all individual to the school and to the person.

Something I know I found helpful about multiple classes together was being able to tie-in concepts from 1 class to the next. They tended to try and coincide areas within subjects across the curriculum. Like anatomy of the lungs while you learn physio of the lungs, etc
 
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TrashPanda said:
Thanks for the info! Do you feel like different types of schedules at different schools affect student stress levels? I know vet school is hard and stressful no matter what, but I'm curious if it's equally hard and stressful no matter where you go, if it comes down to personal preference, or if some scheduling really is better.
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I think it does differ based on the person, honestly. Though, personally, I think I would have struggled regardless of where I went. It doesn't matter how you break it down, the amount of information thrown at you is enough to make you drown regardless.

That being said, once I got into the swing of things I personally didn't mind the 2-3 exams a week at my school (added up to 178 exams after it was all said and done :eek:). It kept me on top of the material and it broke down each class into easier chunks.
 
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dyachei said:
Something I know I found helpful about multiple classes together was being able to tie-in concepts from 1 class to the next. They tended to try and coincide areas within subjects across the curriculum. Like anatomy of the lungs while you learn physio of the lungs, etc
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One of my classmates and I were discussing this the other day- I really enjoyed when we had integrations from every class (learning about GI phys, GI histo, and large animal GI anatomy at once was very helpful), and I wonder if I would have enjoyed a system-based curriculum where they go through the physio, anatomy, pathology, etc. of each system like Davis (and I think a few others) does.

On the other hand, I liked the fact that a lot the material in our traditional curriculum had repetition, as I remembered it better if we learned about it in first year phys, then again in second year path, then again in third year medicine.

Either way I guess you learn the same thing at the end of the day and is probably just a matter of preference :shrug:
 
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TrashPanda said:
Thanks for the info! Do you feel like different types of schedules at different schools affect student stress levels? I know vet school is hard and stressful no matter what, but I'm curious if it's equally hard and stressful no matter where you go, if it comes down to personal preference, or if some scheduling really is better.

I know a lot of med schools have moved to block scheduling (often one class at a time like at Davis), and I wonder if a similar change is coming for vet schools. Students at Davis seemed to really love their schedule and felt it was less stressful than other school's schedules, but of course except for transfer students, no one can really compare.
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I agree that it's different for each person. Going through the block style....you still have individual classes/subjects, it's just that it's all dumped onto one massive exam for your midterm and final. We still sit in lecture for hours a day just like any other school. Like I said earlier...the stress of a massive exam and accelerated courses kind of balances with the fact that you don't feel the exam 'pressure' constantly.

Illinois is also big on integrating the subjects, mostly in the first year. Second year is really big on applying one class's concepts to another (antimicrobials/pharm + virology/bacteriology/case based questions). Some people have trouble managing that since it takes the full four weeks to learn each subject in order to pass the exam, but then you also have to be able to integrate everything and 'treat a patient' on the exam. I think it's actually good prep for boards, but others would prefer to separate the subjects on the exam.
 
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TrashPanda said:
I've tried searching for attrition rate info, but I haven't found much. It seems it's more often due to personal issues than something the school could have prevented. I'm interested in attrition rates and remediation policies, but also just general quality of life and stress.
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Since I Recall you saying you got an interview at Mizzou, I will bring up Mizzou for half a second with regards to this.

Most of our schools losses are due to stuff that's not related to classes and their difficulty, including family illness, realizing this wasn't the right career path, and other hers. There are some school related losses across the years, but I will be frank that they tend to involve IS students (at least for my class year) at a much higher rate than OOS.

You get 9 credits or Ds at Mizzou, but no leeway for Fs. If you fail out, you can appeal to go into the next year's class. 4 people in our class are from the year above,1 of which didn't get bad grades but simply had life happen.

Quality of life is what you make it to be. You need to figure out how to strike school-life balance, and given AVMA's wellness initiatives, I feel that this is an issue across the vet schools. I feel that there is enough time in my life to get the grades I want, sleep a real people's amount of sleep, cook food for myself on *most* nights, and get in small workouts (this is my personal flaw with regards to wellness/life balance), as well as have a semblance of a social life and be a halfway okay fiancée lol. And this is with me having an extra set of PhD classes on top of my DVM classes, as well as currently 3 research projects.

Breaks suck a bit more at Mizzou than other schools, as we get 12 weeks a year, and that's it. 1 week for thanksgiving, 1 week for spring break, 2-3 for winter, and 7-8 for summer. But, those decreased amount of breaks means we get to clinics so much sooner, so for me it's worth it. My sister, who was in vet school several years before me, strongly suggested I do a 2+2 program when I applied, as she said that's what she would do if she had to do vet school over.

Feel free to message me if you want any more specifics. Or feel free to talk to me on your interview day :).
 
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