is vet school more difficult than college?

[luvNeMoles]

i was just wondering if things get any easier? i know just getting into a vet school is a big hurdle...but i just wanted to know what vet school is like once you're in.

you remember what is was like transitioning from high school to college? does it feel like that, or is it like you're just continuing college?

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[Klhughes]

For me vet school is much more difficult than college was. I had terrible study habits throughout college because I don't think it was that difficult. Of course this is going to depend on where you are going to college and how good of a student you are. I have not heard anyone in my class in vet school though that thinks that vet school is an easier or on the same level as college was. It is generally much more intense than college because you are taking not just 1 or 2 challenging courses but more like 3 or 4 that are pretty hard plus the others that may not be quite as hard but still require your time and energy.

 

[critterfixer]

It's much harder. I know it could be argued the level of difficulty in each course is not necessarily any harder than an upper-level or grad level science course, but the point is you are taking at least 5 upper level science courses at a time, with labs. The workload is something that has to be experienced, and really cannot be described.

Of course, there are those who put much less effort and time into their studies, but they will graduate with a C average or they will D out. At some point, you have to start putting in 60+ hours a week of combined class time and study time or you will not really and TRULY grasp the material--there is just too much. Besides, once you get to clinics, you best be prepared to spend that amount of time--and on your feet, for the most part.

 

[littlelisa]

Once you get into clinics, are you still studying? Or is your time spent like you're the "real" vet at that point? Are you studying cases and actually just with the clients and patients? I guess my question is, when I start vet school I know my time will be spent studying, but when clinics start, how does that change?

 

[twelvetigers]

You are studying everything you learned in the last three years so that you will do well on boards, while also utilizing the information learned during rotations and, as always, learning new things, be it information or procedures or how to deal with clients...

At least, that's my take on it.

 

[1CellNtheSea]

To the OP, I consider it to be totally different from undergrad. While it is great learning about things you want to be learning about, and interesting things at that, it is still very hard. The actual material isn't that difficult but its the amount of work you need to do. In undergrad you take maybe 15 or so hours, but in vet school its usually 22+, and those are all intense courses. Of course it's do-able, but for most people (including myself), you need to reconsider your study habits from undergrad and master time management! That said, I completely love vet school. Maybe it's just the type A masochist in me, but I love being busy all the time and to me, studying is relaxing. (Curl up on the couch with a book...) Call me a nerd. 😛 Also, its great because I'm learning about things that I will be using in the future. I don't just take a test and forget the material. The challenge of vet school to me is using your knowledge and applying it to the patient laying on the table. Easier said than done!

 

[Angie09]

I think it depends a lot on where you went to college, what kind of courses you took, and how good at studying you were then vs now. I can't speak for clinical years (I assume those will be harder) but as for classroom years, so far I think vet school is much easier than college was. I went to a hardcore science/engineering school, where everyone had to take exactly the same core classes for the first 3-4 semesters, and I was TOTALLY unprepared for the level of rigor coming out of high school. There were so many things most of my classmates knew like the back of their hand that I'd never even HEARD of before. And there was barely enough time to try to learn the new material, let alone try to go back and catch up on all the stuff I'd missed because my high school classes weren't very tough. I was flailing around literally trying not to fail out of school, doing nothing but go to class, study, and sleep, for the first two years. I'm incredibly glad I went there and wouldn't change it for the world, but it was a trial by fire.

In comparison, vet school is a lot of work volume-wise, but it's not conceptually that difficult. There's just a lot of it, and a lot of it's memorization. I also figured out (somehow, magically) between college and vet school HOW to study effectively (and the fact that the courses aren't things like complex variables and theoretical mechanics helps a lot. 🙂) I think all the material so far is stuff that a reasonably intelligent person can definitely grasp and remember; and it's taught at a level where you don't need more than a basic biology/chemistry background to understand it. Whereas in college I felt like I either needed to be a mathematical genius or go back and redo my last two years of high school to have a chance of understanding anything. Now, I go to class and study a lot, but I also have time to do research, run, play with my dogs, cook, hang out with my family, hang out with my friends, and still get good grades. So for me, vet school so far is a lot easier than college.

My experience is probably not typical, but I'll toss my dissenting opinion in there anyway. 🙂

 

[luvNeMoles]

I think it depends a lot on where you went to college, what kind of courses you took, and how good at studying you were then vs now. I can't speak for clinical years (I assume those will be harder) but as for classroom years, so far I think vet school is much easier than college was. I went to a hardcore science/engineering school, where everyone had to take exactly the same core classes for the first 3-4 semesters, and I was TOTALLY unprepared for the level of rigor coming out of high school. There were so many things most of my classmates knew like the back of their hand that I'd never even HEARD of before. And there was barely enough time to try to learn the new material, let alone try to go back and catch up on all the stuff I'd missed because my high school classes weren't very tough. I was flailing around literally trying not to fail out of school, doing nothing but go to class, study, and sleep, for the first two years. I'm incredibly glad I went there and wouldn't change it for the world, but it was a trial by fire.

In comparison, vet school is a lot of work volume-wise, but it's not conceptually that difficult. There's just a lot of it, and a lot of it's memorization. I also figured out (somehow, magically) between college and vet school HOW to study effectively (and the fact that the courses aren't things like complex variables and theoretical mechanics helps a lot. 🙂) I think all the material so far is stuff that a reasonably intelligent person can definitely grasp and remember; and it's taught at a level where you don't need more than a basic biology/chemistry background to understand it. Whereas in college I felt like I either needed to be a mathematical genius or go back and redo my last two years of high school to have a chance of understanding anything. Now, I go to class and study a lot, but I also have time to do research, run, play with my dogs, cook, hang out with my family, hang out with my friends, and still get good grades. So for me, vet school so far is a lot easier than college.

My experience is probably not typical, but I'll toss my dissenting opinion in there anyway. 🙂

which college did you attend?

 

[Angie09]

Harvey Mudd. It's a really tiny school in Claremont, CA -- Pomona is one of the other schools in the consortium and is better known.

 

[rachroo]

I also figured out (somehow, magically) between college and vet school HOW to study effectively

Any suggestions/tips/advice/things "I wish I would have known" for all of us soon to be 1st year veterinary students would be greatly appreciated if you wouldn't mind sharing!

 

[Poochlover11]

Any suggestions/tips/advice/things "I wish I would have known" for all of us soon to be 1st year veterinary students would be greatly appreciated if you wouldn't mind sharing!

That would be awesome! It would also be really informative if someone could figure out how much time they study on a regular week day/weekend.

 

[Klhughes]

That would be awesome! It would also be really informative if someone could figure out how much time they study on a regular week day/weekend.

For me it depends on if we have a test on Monday. Most weeks we have tests Monday and Friday so I will take Friday night off and study all day Saturday and Sunday (like 9am -7pm... then my brain is fried and I hit a wall). During the week it depends on when we get out of class because this varies a lot but I would say I spend probably 3 hours on average. It goes up a lot if its during one of those many Monday/Friday test weeks. I can tell you from listening to my classmates talk that I study a lot less than many of them.

 

[critterfixer]

I generally study for about 4 hours a night, except if I have a test the next day, then I usually go for about 8-9 hours and then I just can't take anymore. I've found getting enough sleep is more helpful than cramming all night.

Like, Klhughes, I take Fridays off, except if we get out by 1 pm, then I generally stay at school and study until 5 pm. I study Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but take time to do stuff with my family, walk my dogs, ride my bike, etc. The amount of time spent on weekend days varies. I had a small animal medical case elective that generally took up about 6 hours of my Saturdays, but otherwise, I try to put in anywhere from 3-5 hours a day. All told, I probably log about 30-40 hours a week of studying, but there are times I just don't study much at all, and it drops to about 15 hours for the week. Monday nights, I stop at 8 pm, no matter what, and watch House. It's the one show I don't miss.

I find that it is really, really REALLY helpful to stay at school to study. If I come home, I tend to become very, very lazy about it.

 

[rugbychick16]

I study probably ~3 hours a night on weekdays...it can vary. If I go to some meetings/play intramurals one night, I'll get very little done, but if there is a tough test that week or we get out of lab earlier in the afternoon, I might put in 5 hours.

Weekends, its proportional to the amount of tests/how hard they are for the following week. I try to do one quality thing with my boyfriend every weekend, shop for groceries, cook, clean, do laundry, take care of pets, sleep in....and the rest of the time study. Probably about 4 hours most saturdays and more like 6-8 on sundays.

 

[tealamutt]

you will probably find a huge variety of study tactics, and you kind of have to just figure out what works for you. I have friends who study 4-5 hours per night and all day on the weekends and some that skip class to study for the exam the next day (never very effective). I find if I pay attention in class and glaze over my notes most nights, I can get away with 1-2 hours studying per night and 4-5 hours each day of the weekend, unless we have an exam coming up in which case add an hour or two each day. We have pass/fail but I manage 90% on exams or better with that strategy.

you can't really cram for exams and anyway with a minimum of 1 exam per week (some weeks 3 or more) your best bet is to keep up. How much and how you study will completely depend on what kind of learner you are. If you pick up a lot in lecture, less study time for you!!

 

[Angie09]

The way I study is to go to class, pay attention, take notes. After classes are over for the day, I usually spend between 0 and 2 hours (it was always 2 first semester, when I was panicked about grades, but after first semester finals I felt like I didn't really need to put in quite as much time as I had been, so now some evenings I don't study, and others I study for a couple of hours) going back through lectures. I go over all the slides again and make a study guide for myself, by summarizing all the main points on a separate sheet of paper. The trick for me is that I do this from memory -- if I just copied it from the slides, I wouldn't learn a thing; so what I do is read about one concept until I understand it, then I summarize it from memory (sometimes I have to cheat and glance at a detail, but most of it is memory). At the end of the page, I go back over and talk my way through all the points on that page, making sure I can recall all of them. Then I start another page. For a 50 minute lecture, I usually end up with 2 or 3 pages of summary, in semi-outline format.

On weekends I do the same thing, but I put in more time. Maybe 4-5 hours a day. Note that the relatively small amount of studying I do on weekday evenings comes back to bite me on the a** at exam time, when I need to study for 4-5 hours/night and all day on the weekend, to finish up all the notes I didn't get to during my general, no-exam-looming study time. I work better under pressure, so (so far, anyway) it's more effective for me to back-load my studying since I waste a lot of time being inefficient and distracted if I try to do it too early.

The key to this strategy is that everything I write down on a study guide is written down from memory -- I'm not passively copying something, I'm laying down a pathway in my brain to recall this information, which makes it progressively easier to recall it each time I repeat that process.

Then the night before the exam, I go over my study guide, review everything briefly, quiz myself on things, and quiz myself using old exams.

This is what works for me; it will be different for everyone and trial and error is probably the best way to find out what's best for you.

ETA: this differs from what I did for similar classes (like bio) in college, because then I thought that just reading the book/notes was enough, or I would passively copy study guides from them instead of making myself do it from memory. It's very easy to read over something and convince yourself, "Yeah, I know that. Yeah, I remember that" and not actually KNOW it -- I was just recognizing things, not remembering them. For all-multiple choice exams that MIGHT work, but when you have to actually come up with answers on your own it definitely didn't, for me.

 

[rachroo]

Thank you! 🙂

 

[DocDVMD]

Do you guys have time to take a weekend off once in a while, for instance to fly/drive to visit a SO, friends, or family?

 

[Poochlover11]

Yes, thank you very much! It is nice to know an average of how much time I need to study each day to do well. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

 

[1CellNtheSea]

Do you guys have time to take a weekend off once in a while, for instance to fly/drive to visit a SO, friends, or family?

It is a necessity! You can easily go crazy if you don't take any time off, speaking from experience. I went through the whole "can't...stop...studying...must...do...well" phase and totally neglected my friends. You need that time to recharge and de-stress. Getting your mind off studying for a bit actually helps you concentrate better in the end, for me anyways. Work hard, play hard I guess! Even just getting out of town, mini-road trips on weekends, chatting over a beer some night, etc. It makes it much more enjoyable. Give your brain a break! 👍

 

[sofficat]

When I first read the post I though- Heck Yea! But then when I really started to think about it I came down to this-

Undergrad I had 12-15 hours of classes, probably 2 science courses and worked 30 hours a week. I was always busy with work or studying.

In vet school, I have 22-24 hours of hard science classes, but no job. All I do is study, which I actually don't mind because it is vet stuff, so I like it. On the weekends I study, but also hang out with my husband, play with horses, chill with friends, go hiking, etc which is a nice mental break. In undergrad I worked every weekend, so I didn't really do that stuff.

They are both very different. I definitely enjoy vet school more than undergrad, though. (not all people will say that!)

 

[cateyes]

I agree with everyone else on here. The material is way more interesting than the information in the majority of my undergrad classes were. The concepts themselves aren't difficult. What makes school hard, in my opinion, is the fact that you're taking on average 6 intensive science classes in a quarter (or semester). You're in school on average 8 hours a day, and your brain is constantly working to process information. Then you have to go home and try to study all of the information that was covered that day, because the next day you're going to learn as much, if not more, the next day.
Some weeks, vet school seems really doable, and like the best place in the world. Other weeks, like when you have 3 or four exams in a week, it seems impossibly stressful. But you learn how to study, manage your time wisely and you can still have a life. I still make it to the gym every day, I still have time for my dog. It's time management, and making sure that you keep what's important to you in your life.

 

[luvNeMoles]

I agree with everyone else on here. The material is way more interesting than the information in the majority of my undergrad classes were. The concepts themselves aren't difficult. What makes school hard, in my opinion, is the fact that you're taking on average 6 intensive science classes in a quarter (or semester). You're in school on average 8 hours a day, and your brain is constantly working to process information. Then you have to go home and try to study all of the information that was covered that day, because the next day you're going to learn as much, if not more, the next day.
Some weeks, vet school seems really doable, and like the best place in the world. Other weeks, like when you have 3 or four exams in a week, it seems impossibly stressful. But you learn how to study, manage your time wisely and you can still have a life. I still make it to the gym every day, I still have time for my dog. It's time management, and making sure that you keep what's important to you in your life.

does everyone eventually take all the same classes? and can't you choose to lower the credit hours? or do you have to do average of 20 hours to be able to graduate in 4 years?

 

[sofficat]

does everyone eventually take all the same classes? and can't you choose to lower the credit hours? or do you have to do average of 20 hours to be able to graduate in 4 years?

Everyone has the same core classes, which equal about 20-22 hours a semester, and then you take 1-2 electives each semester as well.

 

[Angie09]

Yeah, I don't think you can reduce the course load at all. You could opt not to take electives, but that still left me with about 30 credits this semester. I don't know of any schools that let you attend part-time, although I might just not be aware of them. Also, I think you're only eligible for Stafford loans for 4 years, so if you dragged it out longer you'd have to find some other way to pay for it.

Everyone does take the same core classes at first, but the farther along you get, the less core there is and the more electives. So first year, you're probably taking exactly the same classes as every single one of your classmates (maybe + or - 1 or 2 electives), while by third year you might only have 2 or 3 core classes per semester and the rest are electives. Although that probably varies from school to school, too.

 

[Angelo84]

I agree with the others vet school is not easier than undergrad. In undergrad I took an average of 18 credits (15-21/semester). So adapting to vet school wasn't as hard. So far we have had 23, 27,24, and 32 credit semesters.

Again it is not that the material itself is any harder its just that it moves a lot faster--instead of two lectures a week you have four and your in class probably on average 6 hours a day. Our exam schedule is very steady at one exam a week (occasionally we get a friday/monday) plus quizzes or homeworks. I can't imagine having three exams in one week other than for finals.

What has worked well for me is reading before class, pay attention in class, and reviewing what we went over that week on the weekend (takes 3-4 hours). During the week I read for the next day and study for whatever exam we have next. Weekends I review the week and study with friends for the upcoming exam. I or my roomate make dinner every night and eat/clean up together so that is a built in solid 1-2 hours break a day (depends if I'm cooking). Note: I spend more time studying than most of my classmates.

As far as working during vet school I do some dog walking (lunch) and work a 6 hour shift at the hospital.

As far as free time if there is something I want to do--a wet lab, a hike etc I can take a half day out of the weekend and it doesn't affect my week. Taking the whole day out messes things up!

Staying on top of the material makes things much easier and it is really easy to get behind (and really hard to catch back up).

 

[david594]

Some weeks, vet school seems really doable, and like the best place in the world.

So vet school is kinda like Disney World? 😀

(I think I am going to stick with that mental image)

 

[hopefulvet21]

As someone currently afflicted with senioritis, this thread is depressing. I know I used to study 3 hours a day and more on weekends, but that number has plummeted this year. I really hope I can get back into my old study habits where I worked very diligently at everything.

One thing I always liked to do was to read a good portion/all of the textbook before a difficult class started during my summer or winter break. It made things much easier during the semester and spread the work out. I know a lot of people probably feel a break is a break, but I found it worked for me. So I wanted to know what class first year was the killer? I've taken immunology, virology, biochem, and am currently in a comparative anatomy course so I feel I have at least a good background in those subjects. What subject involved the most work for you guys 1st year that would be a good one to get a head start in? I was thinking histology might be a good one...

 

[StealthDog]

Immunology is what kicked my butt first year... so you're already ahead there 🙂

 

[cateyes]

So vet school is kinda like Disney World? 😀

What subject involved the most work for you guys 1st year that would be a good one to get a head start in? I was thinking histology might be a good one...

I think it depends on the curriculum of the school that you go to, because many of the schools offer different courses at different times.
at my school I would say first quarter the three big ones are histo, cell bio and canine anatomy; winter quarter i would have said bio 1 (path/immuno) and bio 2 (virology/bacteriology/intro to parisitology), and spring quarter i'd say neurology and endocrinology.
But I feel as though it's definitely school specific. It seems as though you've got a great science background- I definitely wished that I had taken those courses last quarter because they would have been a major help!
My best advice to you is to take the summer off! Do nothing, rest, relax, do whatever you enjoy. This way you're recharged and ready for school.

 

[IvyLynx]

Also, its great because I'm learning about things that I will be using in the future. I don't just take a test and forget the material. The challenge of vet school to me is using your knowledge and applying it to the patient laying on the table. Easier said than done!

How do you transition out of doing that? Learning things for tests and then forgetting them? I don't do it on purpose, unless it's history which I really hate omg. Did anyone gain study habits that helped them retain the material? or is it more of a mindset? This is going to help me later, so...OR this kinda ties in to what I'm learning in a another class...

 

[IvyLynx]

Yeah, I don't think you can reduce the course load at all. You could opt not to take electives, but that still left me with about 30 credits this semester. I don't know of any schools that let you attend part-time, although I might just not be aware of them.

NCSU does for special circumstances, like pregnancy.

 

[1CellNtheSea]

How do you transition out of doing that? Learning things for tests and then forgetting them?

Still working on that.... 😳

I guess another good thing about vet school is the amount of repetition you get with everything. Every class (at least I found) seems to come together at certain points throughout the semester and you find things sticking in your mind. There are certain things I know like the back of my hand because I hear it so much.

People always say "learn it, don't memorize it", but when you're just trying to get through the test, it's easy to just memorize it. But that's one of the main challenges of vet school...the learn vs. memorize thing, at least for me.

I was helping out in the teaching hospital one day and a clinician walked up to me when a 4th year was explaining something and asked me tell her "why" that happens. (I should've known because we had JUST talked about it in class that day!) Uhhh... that was embarrassing but now I'll always know the answer!

 

[Ninnerfish]

Are there any classes that just... you know... suck? I've been struggling to get through the Ochem/ochem lab/biochem triumverate of terror this semester and the only thing that keeps me from going complete bat**** is the knowledge that the classes I'll be taking next fall will actually mean something. But it seems illogical to assume that every class I take for the next four years will be wonderful (although at least they wont be chemistry).

 

[InfiniVet]

Are there any classes that just... you know... suck?

Yes and the #1 repeat offender is typically Gross Anatomy. It just sucks.

For me it was Physiology (because of the subject), microbiology (because of the teacher), and public health (because of the course set up).

But it may be completely a different class for you. You may utterly despise your histo professor or you could totally love histo but decide that you are just not friends with immunology and never will be. So it kinda depends.

 

[VAgirl]

So it kinda depends.

Totally. I was just talking about this with a classmate a few hours ago. I love immuno, but she's not liking it. For me, I'm really disliking endocrinology and renal anatomy & physiology. She was commenting that since she's had those before, they didn't bother her so much. Whereas I've had immuno before so it's easier for me to follow that. So I think some of it is preference and maybe some of it comes from what you've had exposure to before and therefore what you feel more comfortable with.

But I'd still say for the most part I like the majority of my classes. (Not all the time, not the night before an exam for instance. But a significant majority of the time. 🙂)

 

[eventualeventer]

Are there any classes that just... you know... suck? I've been struggling to get through the Ochem/ochem lab/biochem triumverate of terror this semester and the only thing that keeps me from going complete bat**** is the knowledge that the classes I'll be taking next fall will actually mean something. But it seems illogical to assume that every class I take for the next four years will be wonderful (although at least they wont be chemistry).

Ha! Triumvirate of terror. I like that. Mind if I steal it? I have a feeling I might need it. 😀

 

[1CellNtheSea]

Are there any classes that just... you know... suck? I've been struggling to get through the Ochem/ochem lab/biochem triumverate of terror this semester and the only thing that keeps me from going complete bat**** is the knowledge that the classes I'll be taking next fall will actually mean something. But it seems illogical to assume that every class I take for the next four years will be wonderful (although at least they wont be chemistry).

As much as I've been worn out from anatomy and phys, I have to admit they were definitely interesting. But I like knowing how things work so maybe that's why. It's cool to finally understand things you heard your boss talking about at work.

A class that flat out sucks... HISTOLOGY. Ugh!! Hated it with a passion. But unfortunately, I know how important it is. In pathology our teacher is always showing us histo pics and is like "you learned that in histo right?" and the class collectively groans and says "kinda?"

 

[critterfixer]

Are there any classes that just... you know... suck?

Food Hygiene. Hands down.

 

[Ninnerfish]

Food Hygiene? I have this mental image of a piece of broccoli washing its hands.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Optho

 

[dyachei]

Food Hygiene? I have this mental image of a piece of broccoli washing its hands.

No, no. Food hygiene is the class where you learn what diseases you can get from food and how to prevent them. it's actually Zoonoses and Food Hygiene. And we just had a terrible final in it today.

I personally hated Histo.

 

[critterfixer]

I agree, dyachei, histo sucked rocks.

 

[mbv]

Just wanted to throw in that I'm with angie... I think it really depends on where you went to undergrad and where you go to vet school.

I am just completing my first year, but I think vet school is easier than college. There are more classes and I study more, but really, the tests are generally easier than the tests that I took in college. It is possible to actually get every question right on many of our vet school exams...so not the case at my college. I went to a competitive college; I go to my state land-grant institution for vet school...

I would also say that most of my classmates probably would NOT agree with me.. When I was applying to vet school I was kind of irritated that my GPA was lower than it would have been had I attended a lot of other schools; now that I'm in vet school I really appreciate my college's rigor.