Classes aren't the focus of a Ph.D. though. The workload comes with juggling those courses + teaching + research responsibilities, and then juggling studying for QE + teaching + research, and then trying to get your research to work out to make a meaningful contribution to the field. Yes, a PI will make a significant impact on the day to day life of a Ph.D. student, but overall the workload you take on is correlated to whether or not you finish, and how quickly you do so. And even at the most prestigious and selective Ph.D. programs (which are more selective than vet school), a much higher proportion of people who enter the program do not finish than in vet school.
At least in vet school you KNOW where you stand and what the next stressor will be. And the exams come and go whether you study for them or not. In a Ph.D. program, it's all on you. And this can be a lot harder than vet school in a lot of ways.
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my classmates ask me this a lot.
I've only just finished my first semester of veterinary school but so far vet school is easier than my experience with completing my PhD. But it's hard to convey how it's easier because it's inherently different.
I spend much more time in the lecture hall than I ever did as a PhD student, but there is less mental anguish so far in veterinary school. When you're responsible for a project succeeding or failing you spend all of your time wondering what you're doing wrong...is the whole idea wrong and thus destined to fail...or are you messing up somehow? You never know when you're going to be done/graduate and that's very difficult to deal with. On the other hand I spend a lot of time in the classroom/anatomy lab in vet school and studying. But the material is there to be learned, it's all presented to you and it's your job to learn it. For me, that is much easier to deal with than research and it's endless uncertainties.
As a vet student I know I just have to pass my classes and I will be advancing to the next semester. Do that, and in 4 years I graduate! That's amazing! Throw in the fact that I get mandatory holidays/vacations and I'm in heaven!
As a graduate student I consistently worked 60+ hour weeks, worked 7 days a week, often on holidays...I've spent every christmas and new years eve and 4th of july in the lab for the last 6 years. As a veterinary student I get 3 weeks at christmas! thanksgiving break! spring break! 2.5 months in the summer?!?! haha it's unbelievable.
Of course, tests are stressful but even the worst test I've had so far was not as bad as the oral examinations that you get in graduate school.
Thats not to say that vet school is easy. cause of course its not. It's just different and I realize that it is very tough for some of my classmates. I think that vet school would be much harder for me as well had I not gone through graduate school first. If there is one thing graduate school does, it makes you mentally tough.
I'll let you know if my opinion changes as I get deeper and deeper into vet school but as of this moment, graduate school wins as being tougher/more demanding
