Illinois (IS) vs. MSU vs. UMN vs. UF !!

[yogivet]

Hey all hope you're all thriving.

Never thought I would be in this situation, but it looks like this is going to be a tough decision! I am currently accepted at three schools (Illinois, Michigan State, and Minnesota), and am waiting on a hopefully good answer this Monday from UF (interviewed back in Feb, visited a few weeks ago and LOVED it). Also waiting on NC State, though I have no idea where I stand there haha.

I would love any input from current students about their perspectives and experiences at any of these schools. Factors that are of high priority to me are:
- Curriculum (how well established is the curriculum? do you feel you learn well with the curriculum and class set up? how well do you feel the curriculum prepared you for clinical rotations / work / the NAVLE?)
- Faculty / Staff (how are the relationships within the school? what are the faculty members like?)
- Facilities (do you feel the campus and facilities are modern / spacious enough / fit the needs of the school?)
- Area (what have you liked/not liked about the city or area that the school is in? what extracurricular activities have you loved to de-stress from school?)
- Learning opportunities (how competitive are wet lab seats? is it hard to get into the electives that you want?)
- Internal environment (competitive vs. collaborative? social? supportive?)

I am specifically interested in studying mixed animal practice (mostly dog/cat but with some equine focus as well). Would love to learn about practice management (interested in obtaining a business certificate if possible) and *very* interested in complementary and alternative medicine - so any info about opportunities of this sort would be awesome to hear about!

Tuition is also of course a big factor, with Illinois being my most affordable option. But wanting to know all of my information that I can gather before making a final decision! Thank you in advance!!

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[battie]

Curriculum (how well established is the curriculum? do you feel you learn well with the curriculum and class set up? how well do you feel the curriculum prepared you for clinical rotations / work / the NAVLE?)

The "new" Illinois curriculum is on its 12th or 13th class at this point. Established enough to get the major issues solve while new enough that they're still making tweaks. The Illinois curriculum is unique in the whole 8 weeks spent in the hospital during years 1-3. In hindsight, I don't think it benefits students a lot from the perspective of preparation for post-grad life. Id rather do a 2+2 program rather than 8 weeks in the middle of the didactic years. Like, I enjoyed rotation vacation because it's essentially a break. But it didn't really prep me much.

As far as navle is concerned, you prep for that via zuku or vet prep. Never once looked at my class notes for that shenanigans. It's as much practicing for how to take the navle as well as the info on it.

Faculty / Staff (how are the relationships within the school? what are the faculty members like?)

Overall I think faculty/staff care for students at Illinois. The administration helped me a lot when my younger sister died 2 weeks into 2nd year, where I missed 2.5 weeks of school (including a midterm). I feel like I got the support I asked for. Likewise, there have been academic decisions made by the administration that didn't seem to be in the best interest of the students. SO YMMV based in which Illinois grad you speak to. I can think of several people who strongly disagree with me.

Facilities (do you feel the campus and facilities are modern / spacious enough / fit the needs of the school?)

We know the facilities would work for you class cause the facilities were specifically changed for a class your size. Lol. There's been a ton of remodeling of the student building, teaching hospital, and wildlife clinic starting in 2016 and just recently wrapping up. The small animal clinics has essentially been completely remodeled.

Area (what have you liked/not liked about the city or area that the school is in? what extracurricular activities have you loved to de-stress from school?)

I didn't go out to do things. Lol. My destressors were videogames, reading, movie nights. So I didn't go out out unless on a club thing or for a bar crawl. I went to an undergrad in a 5000 person town, so Chambana isn't small to me. Plenty to do if you go looking.

Learning opportunities (how competitive are wet lab seats? is it hard to get into the electives that you want?)

Clubs have opportunities aplenty, especially if you commit to the club. You're more likely to get wet lab seats and such. Electives were open enrollment up until third year. Then several of those were a lotto/ranking system.

Internal environment (competitive vs. collaborative? social? supportive?)

Based solely on the class. 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 were all drastically different in culture.

I am specifically interested in studying mixed animal practice (mostly dog/cat but with some equine focus as well).

Our equine club was the 3rd or 4th most active club while I was there. I had a lot of opportunities as a student not even interested in practicing equine medicine post graduation. Our production med club was also top 5 in activity.

Would love to learn about practice management (interested in obtaining a business certificate if possible)

We have one of the most active VBMA chapters in the country. I feel like a third I'd each class gets their business certificate. Then a specific professor does a business series of electives that are pretty highly regarded by students.

*very* interested in complementary and alternative

We have an integrative med club, but activity will depend on who is running it