"Living" in Veterinary school??

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AniSci

AniSci

AniSci
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To all the current/past veterinary students, can/could you ever find (or make) time for things like exercise during school?

I really enjoy running--it keeps me sane, it gives me some time to myself, and it keeps me from getting fat as a result of all the sitting/studying I do (even though I eat fairly healthy). I'm worried about having to give it up once vet school starts in a year. I know it'd probably be worth the sacrifice, and I can pick it up again after graduation (hahah); I'm just trying to get some input so I can prepare myself for whatever may happen. 🙂

Also, what's your diet like? Do you find a way to keep yourself fairly healthy, and find other ways to occasionally take some time to yourself?
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If it's something you enjoy, you can make time for it. I don't enjoy exercising at the gym at all so I don't. But tv is what I use to relieve stress and relax and I've been able to follow 10-13 shows simultaneously (even in 4th year).

My diet isn't too bad, lunch is the only meal I consistently buy from the school caf. Otherwise I make and eat breakfast and dinner at home. In the first 3 years, I've had no problem making dinner every day after classes ended at 5:30. In 4th year I've taken to making a week's worth of dinners on the weekend so I could bring it to school if I stayed late or eat it quickly if I have the chance to pop home for an hour.
 
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dyachei said:
Please, do a search before asking questions like this. they have been asked and answered many times. And it doesn't really change.
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Wow. That was a great answer! Thank you!
 
Guise, can/could you ever find (or make) time for things like masturbating during school?

I really enjoy choking the chicken -- wonking the cronker keeps me sane, it gives me some time to myself, and it keeps me from getting frustrated as a result of all the fantasizing about the genetics professor that I do (even though I try to study hard, I absolutely refuse to take that class). I'm worried about having to give it up once vet school starts in a year. I know it'd probably be worth the sacrifice, and I can pick up teasing the weasel again after graduation (hahah); I'm just trying to get some input so I can prepare myself for whatever may happen. 🙂
 
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AniSci said:
Wow. That was a great answer! Thank you!
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Seriously, stop making new threads, use the search, you'll find answers. We don't have time to sit around and repeatedly answer questions that have already been answered. The terms of service you agreed to has rules, rule #3 is to use the search. So you are going against terms of service by doing what you are doing. Not only that but snarking off to a moderator who is doing her job should be grounds for banishment in my opinion.
 
you will have time in vet school for whatever you choose to in vet school. no one holds a gun to your head and says "you must..."

and since you control what you put in your mouth, i bet you are capable of feeding yourself healthy food. whether you want to or have the motivation to is up to you
 
AniSci said:
To all the current/past veterinary students, can/could you ever find (or make) time for things like exercise during school?

I really enjoy running--it keeps me sane, it gives me some time to myself, and it keeps me from getting fat as a result of all the sitting/studying I do (even though I eat fairly healthy). I'm worried about having to give it up once vet school starts in a year. I know it'd probably be worth the sacrifice, and I can pick it up again after graduation (hahah); I'm just trying to get some input so I can prepare myself for whatever may happen. 🙂

Also, what's your diet like? Do you find a way to keep yourself fairly healthy, and find other ways to occasionally take some time to yourself?
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Hey! So far I've found time to go to the gym most days for about an hour, or run outside. Also, for days when I'm really busy, I have weights in my room to do some resistance training. Given I've just started, but exercise is my outlet!

Also, eating healthy is fairly easy too, as far as time/price and I always feel better about what I'm doing when I know I'm filled with good food. Some of my favorite things are hummus on whole wheat toast (a good breakfast on the go), steamed veggies with garlic, baked sweet potatoes/potatoes with olive oil, bananas, apples and clementines for snacks. Yogurt for breakfast is also satisfying (as is a piece of dark chocolate with it- hey, antioxidants!) For my daily coffee fix, I like flavored coffees, but I skip the whipped cream and use skim milk. When I do go out, I usually order grilled chicken and substitute fries for veggies.

The other big thing I can say is try to SLEEP at least 5-6 hours per night at your busiest! Even in the middle of exams, I think this honestly helped me more than studying all night would have.
 
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Njnealon said:
The other big thing I can say is try to SLEEP at least 5-6 hours per night at your busiest! Even in the middle of exams, I think this honestly helped me more than studying all night would have.
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This is far too little. Even as a minimum.

I know vet students like to think themselves indestructable, but you aren't. There is no reason you should be only getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night, exam week or not. If you are having to study that much, you aren't studying correctly/efficiently.
 
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WhtsThFrequency said:
This is far too little. Even as a minimum.
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Yeah I barely function on less than 7.5 hours though I know my body really wants 9. At some point i realized that staying up late to study wasn't actually all that beneficial, as I would be too tired to remember things correctly anyway. So a regular sleep schedule is like top priority.

If I do stay up late, it is almost never for school related activities...
 
WhtsThFrequency said:
This is far too little. Even as a minimum.

I know vet students like to think themselves indestructable, but you aren't. There is no reason you should be only getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night, exam week or not. If you are having to study that much, you aren't studying correctly/efficiently.
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For me personally, I've gone through all of undergrad functioning perfectly fine with only 6 hours of sleep per night. I think the appropriate amount of sleep greatly varies between individuals. Sleep is such a mysterious phenomenon!
 
Jonah93 said:
For me personally, I've gone through all of undergrad functioning perfectly fine with only 6 hours of sleep per night. I think the appropriate amount of sleep greatly varies between individuals. Sleep is such a mysterious phenomenon!
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Yeah, I personally think it varies with the individual. For example, I do best on 5-7 hours, and so does my mother. That's how we've always been. Any more than 7, I'm really groggy all day. My sleep schedule might be a bit atypical from all the late shifts/overnights I used to work, but I've been trying to fix this for school. Yet, I know people like my sister, father and roommate who need 9 hours a day. Sleep is so mysterious!
 
Anecdotal. 5-6 hours is not enough for most people. And just because you can function on that amount of sleep does not mean you are functioning at full capacity.

In addition, undergrad is a cakewalk compared to vet school. You will most likely need a lot more sleep given the workload.
 
Njnealon said:
Yeah, I personally think it varies with the individual. For example, I do best on 5-7 hours, and so does my mother. That's how we've always been. Any more than 7, I'm really groggy all day. My sleep schedule might be a bit atypical from all the late shifts/overnights I used to work, but I've been trying to fix this for school. Yet, I know people like my sister, father and roommate who need 9 hours a day. Sleep is so mysterious!
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I'm exactly the same way! Anything over 7-8 hours and I feel like total crap for the entire day.

WhtsThFrequency said:
In addition, undergrad is a cakewalk compared to vet school. You will most likely need a lot more sleep given the workload.
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Well that depends on the person. Also, there were quite a few studies done that support the fact that optimal sleep duration varies largely between populations. What I said was definitely anecdotal, but I know for a fact that sleeping over seven hours screws with me for the whole day. Too much sleep for me and I'm actually functioning at a lower capacity 🙂 So my anecdote was simply used to portray that there is no "minimum" in terms of sleep duration that applies to everyone.
 
WhtsThFrequency said:
I'm also grouchy because I didn't get my old person nap today.

(only half kidding....I never napped my whole life UNTIL vet school. Then I discovered what a wonderful thing it was.)
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I recently read that people used to go to sleep at around 7 or 8 right after dinner, wake up at 10, do stuff until midnight, then go back to sleep. Apparently, studies have found that this disjointed sleep cycle is actually extremely good for you. So in that sense, napping is also really good for you! I should really try doing that one of these days.
 
Jonah93 said:
I'm exactly the same way! Anything over 7-8 hours and I feel like total crap for the entire day.
.
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Ok, again I'm not talking 7-8 hours, I'm talking 5-6 as was mentioned earlier.

I was not talking about forcing people to sleep for over 8 hours. I'm not sure why you all got started on how bad you feel if you sleep more than 7-8 hours - that isn't what I was going on about. I was saying 5 hours of sleep a day in a stressful environment is not enough for the vast majority of people, nothing about what the high end should be.
 
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The app just **** itself and didn't post my reply to this. :annoyed:

Cliffs: Vet school ain't undergrad. So you're going to need more sleep. i.e. What WTF has already said.
 
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I can function off of 4 hours of sleep too.... but ideally my body does best with 7-8... I used to do 3-6 hours of sleep in undergrad, but vet school ain't undergrad and my old lady self is basically out by 10:30-11PM now.
 
I'm cranky and old, so I didn't read the rest of the responses. Here's my take. It depends on you. Years 1-3, plenty of time to exercise. Never had a class start before 7:30. Get up at 5, go work out, come back, eat breakfast, shower, etc. In 4th year, good luck.
Lunch - I have a turkey sandwich, carrots, and some trisuits every day. Cheap and simple. No need to find a microwave.
Studying - from after dinner until 9PM at the latest, unless an exam was the next day, then I might stretch it out until 10. Got 8 hours of sleep every night - or at least 8 hours in bed.
Dinner - a lot of fluidity here. Initially, I was eating one of those steamer meals and some salad. After the first year, we discovered a Thai restaurant near my house. (Back story, I have a house 1 hour from school, where my wife lives, and I have an apartment in Raleigh). I would take my Thai left overs for two meals and cook something on the weekend to cover the other two. Any cooking was done on the weekends and packaged for easy reheating. I have been known to frequent a local Chinese or Greek restaurant once a week or so, depending on how the weekend went.
There is plenty of time in vet school for other activities. I learned to reload ammunition, hunt deer, and became a technical scuba diver in the first three years. I'm not at the top of my class. Never really considered that a possibility. I learn better by actually doing my job, rather than reading about it. Information in the absence of context is useful for passing a test, but doesn't stay with me.

Bottom line, vet school isn't that difficult, and you have plenty of time to do what you need to do. I even managed to make another human and he's survived to the 6th month mark so far.
 
Armymutt25A said:
Bottom line, vet school isn't that difficult, and you have plenty of time to do what you need to do. I even managed to make another human and he's survived to the 6th month mark so far.
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Grats on the baby!!! 🙂
 
WhtsThFrequency said:
Guise, can/could you ever find (or make) time for things like masturbating during school?

I really enjoy choking the chicken -- wonking the cronker keeps me sane, it gives me some time to myself, and it keeps me from getting frustrated as a result of all the fantasizing about the genetics professor that I do (even though I try to study hard, I absolutely refuse to take that class). I'm worried about having to give it up once vet school starts in a year. I know it'd probably be worth the sacrifice, and I can pick up teasing the weasel again after graduation (hahah); I'm just trying to get some input so I can prepare myself for whatever may happen. 🙂
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You just made me cry. Thank you.
 
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