Midwestern vs Illinois

[Hcameron4]

I am deciding between the two schools that I was accepted to Midwestern vs Illinois. I would be an OOS for Illinois so cost-wise, Midwestern would only be approximately 10 thousand more. I really loved Midwestern when I toured and interviewed there, as well as felt it would be a good fit for me. It would also be more convenient and cost less to fly home to California. On the other hand, I was not completely impressed by Illinois and do not really see myself there, but I know it is a more established program. So any advice would be greatly appreciated!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[meelc]

Sorry to chime in without insight into the programs, but are you sure you are looking at an accurate cost comparison? According to the VIN tuition map, COA for Midwestern is about $100,000 more than OOS for Illinois VIN Foundation Cost of Education Map

 

[ajs513]

Sorry to chime in without insight into the programs, but are you sure you are looking at an accurate cost comparison? According to the VIN tuition map, COA for Midwestern is about $100,000 more than OOS for Illinois VIN Foundation Cost of Education Map

Yea without using the calculator and just looking at tuition, it’s $10,000 a year more expensive for tuition and fees. That’s not factoring cost of living or other expenses. So in just tuition and fees, it’s actually $40,000 more expensive. Yea, this forum isn’t for spouting the “go to the cheapest school” line, and if for whatever reason the OP has the money and it’s no object, sure. But it’s important to understand the actual cost difference.

 

[Hcameron4]

Yes sorry it would be approximately $10,000 more in tuition a year. Financially, I will have my parents to help support. I am just trying to get a feel for pros and cons of both schools!

 

[meelc]

Yes sorry it would be approximately $10,000 more in tuition a year. Financially, I will have my parents to help support. I am just trying to get a feel for pros and cons of both schools!

While I can't give any personal input as far as the schools go, I can give input on being a Californian living in Illinois since I did go to grad school out in Southern Illinois. Feel free to pm me if you want any insight into that transition!

 

[FrostySparrow]

I love my school and am happy to answer any questions you have about the program. But reading earlier replies about the cost differences when including CoL and tuition, I would readily say go to the cheaper program. I wish I had done so whenever I look at my yearly loans.

 

[battie]

I can chime in on Sunday. Got a lot of stuff tomorrow and am beat right now. Lol.

 

[battie]

Jk! Woke up way earlier than I thought I would. I will preface to say this was my only acceptance and K State was my top OOS choice.

Pros

1. Middle of the road tuition as far as OOS. Wont stand on this soapbox too long. I will say that we do not pay summer tuition for the summer between 3rd and 4th year.
2. Vast majority of the adults care about the students. I had a family emergency, dropped everything, and left the next day for 2.5 weeks. The counselor, course coordinator, and dean worked with me so that I could take my missed midterm late. The counselor found me an off campus therapist that specializes in my particular emergency, whom I went to for the rest of the quarter. After I was back, different adults who did and did not know me well checked in if they saw me.
3. Wildlife Medical Clinic. I love that place. Some of my best memories of vet school will be through the clinic. It's a lot of good practice for medicine.
4. Clinical quarters. It's nice to get out of the classroom, especially second year. It also means we start 4th year mid-ish March of 3rd year.
5. Job opportunities. We have the only diagnostic lab in the state (where I work), and the teaching hospital has plenty of job opportunities that adapt to student schedules pretty well. I'd say the clin path lab on call is the only one that is crazy town, and they're working on it.

Cons

1. University problems, parking in particular. You must have noticed we're are own world down on vet med, so it feels like main campus treats us as an after thought. Also hate that we basically must have a car, but get charged so outrageously for parking.

Love-Hate Relationship

1. How grades are set up. Having the very few grades makes our average GPA not match up with where we actually at. Not generally a huge deal, but for people going for internship/residency, it can be just one more thing you have to explain. The curriculum is now 10 years old, so programs are starting to realize this. Our class rank makes up to it for a certain extent. I appreciate that everything is together cause if you arent great at something, being good at other stuff actually can help you balance that out.

I'm honestly better at answering questions than word spewing. Lol. So willing to answer questions.

Tagging @SportPonies and @MyDogsAreBarking cause they may have different perspectives too

 

[SportPonies]

Jk! Woke up way earlier than I thought I would. I will preface to say this was my only acceptance and K State was my top OOS choice.

Pros

1. Middle of the road tuition as far as OOS. Wont stand on this soapbox too long. I will say that we do not pay summer tuition for the summer between 3rd and 4th year.
2. Vast majority of the adults care about the students. I had a family emergency, dropped everything, and left the next day for 2.5 weeks. The counselor, course coordinator, and dean worked with me so that I could take my missed midterm late. The counselor found me an off campus therapist that specializes in my particular emergency, whom I went to for the rest of the quarter. After I was back, different adults who did and did not know me well checked in if they saw me.
3. Wildlife Medical Clinic. I love that place. Some of my best memories of vet school will be through the clinic. It's a lot of good practice for medicine.
4. Clinical quarters. It's nice to get out of the classroom, especially second year. It also means we start 4th year mid-ish March of 3rd year.
5. Job opportunities. We have the only diagnostic lab in the state (where I work), and the teaching hospital has plenty of job opportunities that adapt to student schedules pretty well. I'd say the clin path lab on call is the only one that is crazy town, and they're working on it.

Cons

1. University problems, parking in particular. You must have noticed we're are own world down on vet med, so it feels like main campus treats us as an after thought. Also hate that we basically must have a car, but get charged so outrageously for parking.

Love-Hate Relationship

1. How grades are set up. Having the very few grades makes our average GPA not match up with where we actually at. Not generally a huge deal, but for people going for internship/residency, it can be just one more thing you have to explain. The curriculum is now 10 years old, so programs are starting to realize this. Our class rank makes up to it for a certain extent. I appreciate that everything is together cause if you arent great at something, being good at other stuff actually can help you balance that out.

I'm honestly better at answering questions than word spewing. Lol. So willing to answer questions.

Tagging @SportPonies and @MyDogsAreBarking cause they may have different perspectives too

Agree with all of the above.

I think the grading methods have been more beneficial to me than detrimental. Sure, there are days I wish we had normal exams and “normal” grades, but I think I’m honestly better off mental health wise not having three exams to study for each week.

also happy to answer specific questions. Illinois was my in-state so it was a no-brainer for me, but I’m very happy I came here. I fell head over heels in love with LMU on my interview and tour, but in hindsight see how poor of a choice that particular school would have been. Even if I didn’t feel quite the same about illinois on interview day, I ended up really happy here.

 

[Hcameron4]

Agree with all of the above.

I think the grading methods have been more beneficial to me than detrimental. Sure, there are days I wish we had normal exams and “normal” grades, but I think I’m honestly better off mental health wise not having three exams to study for each week.

also happy to answer specific questions. Illinois was my in-state so it was a no-brainer for me, but I’m very happy I came here. I fell head over heels in love with LMU on my interview and tour, but in hindsight see how poor of a choice that particular school would have been. Even if I didn’t feel quite the same about illinois on interview day, I ended up really happy here.

Thank you so much for the insight!! This has been really helpful.

 

[melsinge]

Jk! Woke up way earlier than I thought I would. I will preface to say this was my only acceptance and K State was my top OOS choice.

Pros

1. Middle of the road tuition as far as OOS. Wont stand on this soapbox too long. I will say that we do not pay summer tuition for the summer between 3rd and 4th year.
2. Vast majority of the adults care about the students. I had a family emergency, dropped everything, and left the next day for 2.5 weeks. The counselor, course coordinator, and dean worked with me so that I could take my missed midterm late. The counselor found me an off campus therapist that specializes in my particular emergency, whom I went to for the rest of the quarter. After I was back, different adults who did and did not know me well checked in if they saw me.
3. Wildlife Medical Clinic. I love that place. Some of my best memories of vet school will be through the clinic. It's a lot of good practice for medicine.
4. Clinical quarters. It's nice to get out of the classroom, especially second year. It also means we start 4th year mid-ish March of 3rd year.
5. Job opportunities. We have the only diagnostic lab in the state (where I work), and the teaching hospital has plenty of job opportunities that adapt to student schedules pretty well. I'd say the clin path lab on call is the only one that is crazy town, and they're working on it.

Cons

1. University problems, parking in particular. You must have noticed we're are own world down on vet med, so it feels like main campus treats us as an after thought. Also hate that we basically must have a car, but get charged so outrageously for parking.

Love-Hate Relationship

1. How grades are set up. Having the very few grades makes our average GPA not match up with where we actually at. Not generally a huge deal, but for people going for internship/residency, it can be just one more thing you have to explain. The curriculum is now 10 years old, so programs are starting to realize this. Our class rank makes up to it for a certain extent. I appreciate that everything is together cause if you arent great at something, being good at other stuff actually can help you balance that out.

I'm honestly better at answering questions than word spewing. Lol. So willing to answer questions.

Tagging @SportPonies and @MyDogsAreBarking cause they may have different perspectives too

Hi! OOS accepted at Illinois and I’m wondering if you could explain the grading system a little more? Why do they have less grades & less exams?

 

[battie]

Hi! OOS accepted at Illinois and I’m wondering if you could explain the grading system a little more? Why do they have less grades & less exams?

So the fewer grades tests are tied to how our curriculum is set up.

• Each year is divided into two semesters, which are further divided into two quarters (total of 4 quarters). Each quarter is 8 weeks.
• Each quarter has a group of 5 or 6ish core "classes" (anatomy, physiology, imaging, histology, and neurobiology for 1st years).
• Those core classes are not separate and independent from one another. They go together as "megacourses" that are labeled as VM 6-whatever (first quarter of first year is VM 602, second quarter is VM 601, third quarter is VM 603, and fourth quarter is VM 604). Everyone is required to register and complete these megacourses.
• Each megacourse has two exams: 1 midterm and 1 final during weeks 4 and 8 of the quarter
• Because there is only 1 megacourse per quarter, there is only 1 grade per quarter. This excludes electives, but these are nearly all pass/fail. Grade composition varies quarter by quarter and year by year.
• The clinical quarters (VM 601, VM 606, VM 612-617) are graded S/U. VM 606 has OSCE/milestone testing for 2nd years and VM 612 also has OSCE/milestone for 3rd years. OSCE is a clinical skills test that many (all?) Vet schools do in some format or another. Milestone is our "capstone" test, also something multiple schools do.

Does that make more sense?

 

[melsinge]

So the fewer grades tests are tied to how our curriculum is set up.

• Each year is divided into two semesters, which are further divided into two quarters (total of 4 quarters). Each quarter is 8 weeks.
• Each quarter has a group of 5 or 6ish core "classes" (anatomy, physiology, imaging, histology, and neurobiology for 1st years).
• Those core classes are not separate and independent from one another. They go together as "megacourses" that are labeled as VM 6-whatever (first quarter of first year is VM 602, second quarter is VM 601, third quarter is VM 603, and fourth quarter is VM 604). Everyone is required to register and complete these megacourses.
• Each megacourse has two exams: 1 midterm and 1 final during weeks 4 and 8 of the quarter
• Because there is only 1 megacourse per quarter, there is only 1 grade per quarter. This excludes electives, but these are nearly all pass/fail. Grade composition varies quarter by quarter and year by year.
• The clinical quarters (VM 601, VM 606, VM 612-617) are graded S/U. VM 606 has OSCE/milestone testing for 2nd years and VM 612 also has OSCE/milestone for 3rd years. OSCE is a clinical skills test that many (all?) Vet schools do in some format or another. Milestone is our "capstone" test, also something multiple schools do.

Does that make more sense?

Yes that does - thank you so much for clearing it up! Do you feel that these mega courses & only having 2 exams make studying/stressing about grades easier or more difficult?

 

[battie]

Do you feel that these mega courses & only having 2 exams make studying/stressing about grades easier or more difficult?

It has really depended on the quarter for me I dont know if you remember this, but Dr. Foreman probably tried to emphasize that we "integrate across the curriculum". Third year has been by far my shining moment as far as grades go, and part of that has been due to the integration and repetition that's inherent to our third year courses.

I think if you have good time management skill and are good about keeping up on studying, have just two tests is a good thing. It is not conducive to cramming (which is the whole point according to administration, to avoid the cram and dump method of learning). I fall in between these two learning styles. Lol. I personally liked having only 2 tests per quarter.

The biggest source of stress for grades was only in the quarters where tests were 90% of the grade. That is at least two quarters of second year. Otherwise, not a lot of stress overall.