Mississippi State experience

[smoknjoe44]

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I wasn't really too impressed with MS State CVM.

First my mentor met with me for about a minute and then ran off to talk to someone that she knew. She returned 20 or so mins later only to leave me alone again. That just sort of made me angry to start with.

Then, during the tour, none of the students seemed to be knowledgeable about what was going on. Anytime they were asked a question, they could not give a straight answer if they could even anwer it at all.

Next, I found it disturbing that students only get to LOOK at a dissected horse instead of doing it themselves. With such a large shortage of large animal vets today, it seems surprising that they would not provide the material for students to get a hands on experience with the anatomy of these species. The tour guide said that she thought everyone got a cat though, but I'm almost certain that everyone in my HIGHSCHOOL got to dissect their own cat. If I'm going to pay $30k a year, I want something more than that.

The orientation process seemed ridiculous. They kept telling us that they didn't want us to be nervous and to stay calm while they were talking about how much everything was going to cost us. I'm pretty sure that most of us are aware of the expense of going to vet school and we didn't need this reinforced for 2hrs and right before our interviews. If they felt this was necessary, they should have had our interviews in the morning and then talk about it later in the day.

Then I didn't like how they didn't allow parents to come to the orientation deal. My parents didn't even come with me to MS, but I felt that if other students did/ didn't want their parents to be there, they could tell them that. Then they wanted you to leave immediately after your interview so as not to make other people nervous. If you can't deal with these issues and tell your parents not to be there or hold your cool while other people who have interviewed remain there, then what are you doing at vet school? Perhaps some of us wanted to look around the school some more...

If you like the school, sorry for seeming like I am bashing it. I guess my experience wasn't too enjoyable and I even wish that I spent my money applying some where else. If you all have been to the school and had an interview this past week, it would be great to hear your input on it.

 

[bnicolec]

I absolutely enjoyed MS CVM. I was extremely surprised with how clean the facility was. I was unable to attend the pizza party on monday, but my mentor gave me a tour with her friends right after my interview. She asked Ms. Coats if it would be okay to do so, and Ms. Coats seemed happy to have her show me around. I LOVED!! LOVED!! it there, but unfortunatly the cost is a little much. I don't know how it would be able to afford it. My interview was good, I made them laught and probably came off cocky once or twice, but I really felt like they wanted me to be there. Maybe because I had been to Illinois the day before where it felt like I was a number, but I just felt like they really liked me. I liked how they explained admissions process and how 2 adcoms had to make a case as to whether or not you should get an interview and then had to present your case to the other 4 adcoms. Something about knowing that someone fought for me to be there that day made me feel special 🙂 (corny, I know)

I am sorry for your bad experience, but I just found the place absolutely wonderful and I would recommend anybody who can afford being about 220,000 in debt after school to go for it and apply.

 

[OSJ]

I loved it as well! I thought it was a great experience. I walked around the main MSU campus the day before. I thought the campus was both beautiful and welcoming. Where did you hear about not being able to dissect a horse? I know some of the mentors were talking about dissecting a horse leg while I was there. They seemed to emphasize that they did not specifically kill animals when they did not need to (the associate dean, I think, made a pretty big deal of it.) Maybe because of that there are not so many large animals around to be dissected? I thought the veterinary hospital was very nice, very clean and well kept.
I thought the interview process went really well and they obviously took a great deal of time to get to know my application before I got there and to get to know me during the interview. They were very kind, respectful and interested in my opinions and what I had to say. I have a lot of experience and they picked something for each of it to ask a question about.
I think Miss. is my first choice. I definitely did not feel like a number here!

Forgot to add that you start doing surgeries (spay/neuters) the beginning of your 2nd year. One of the students mentioned that a recent graduate had done her rotations/externships focusing on surgery and had done 98 spay/neuters by the time she graduated.

 

[smoknjoe44]

In my opinion, there was not much of a difference in the appearance of the school relative to other schools. The only difference is layout, and it was not any cleaner than any other school I have been to (KSU, UM, UGA). As far as the horse leg, yes they did have six or so legs to look at, but that does not seem enough IMO. No, you don't want to kill horses just so that you can hack away at them, but I feel that it is necessary for students to gain the knowledge of their internal anatomy as well as other large animals. Each species is different in terms of anatomy and it is of major importance to know where certain structures are in various species.

The major thing that did bother me though was the lack of knowledge of the students that were giving the tours. Perhaps you all had a better group or maybe it was because you all toured at the nonscheduled times. Anyhow, I just did not get a good feeling of the school.

 

[ontheranch]

smoknjoe44, just out of curiosity what is your favorite school that you have interviewed at?

 

[smoknjoe44]

smoknjoe44, just out of curiosity what is your favorite school that you have interviewed at?

I only interviewed at Kansas State and MS state, but I went to Minnesota with my girlfriend for her interview. Also, I've been to UGA because it is my state school. Anyhow, excluding UGA, I liked Kansas State the best. The students really seemed to know a lot about the school, even the freshmen. Also, the interview process was much less stressful to me that MS state. Also, I like the fact that Kansas has been around much longer than most of the other schools. NOW CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, but I heard that MS almost lost it's accreditation a few years ago... I don't really want to go somewhere that they are still trying to work out the kinks in their ciriculum.

Minnesota wasn't too bad of a school, and I almost wished that I had applied there. My gf said that, even though the interview was 60 mins long, it was very conversational and inviting. I don't know if any of you have heard of the Body Museum where they have on display real life models of skeletons with just the veins or just the muscles so that you can get an idea of how many veins and arteries are in the body, but they had a cat that had all of the arteries oriented around the cat's skeleton. They have a professor that is really into this kind of stuff and I just thought it was amazing.

Although I did really like KSU, if I get into UGA, I will go to UGA because it will cost me so much less. I got to see more of UGA's vet school because I went on a tour that lasted nearly the whole day and sat in on a class and lab. In the lab, there were four or so people in a group, and the class was divided up into thirds: one third dissected horses, the second third dissected goats, adn the final dissected cows.

All in all, in order of most favorite to least favorite: KSU, UGA, UM, MS. Anyhow, I still beleive that no matter where you go to school, you get out what you put in. All of the students at these schools said that you could go and watch upper classmen and observe surgeries if you wished. There are opportunties to set yourself apart from the other students at all of them, and I beleive that you have to put yourself out there to get the most out. However, I just have to go with my gut instinct as to what school I will go to.

 

[chris03333]

NOW CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, but I heard that MS almost lost it's accreditation a few years ago... I don't really want to go somewhere that they are still trying to work out the kinks in their ciriculum.

/QUOTE]

You're wrong. 😉 They have not even been put on probationary status (you have to be before you can have almost lost accreditation.)

 

[BobDog]

Mississippi State is not a new vet school that is "still working out the kinks." You seem to be misinformed.

 

[smoknjoe44]

Mississippi State is not a new vet school that is "still working out the kinks." You seem to be misinformed.

Well I stand corrected on the whole accreditation aspect--took it from a friend who visited the week before me...maybe she meant that the students scored low on their boards. She said that they ended up redoing a lot of the school- redoing the curiculum- or at least that is what I got out of it.. Is that correct?

 

[Tiraka]

This was when they were using a PBL-based curriculum. They saw that their board scores were dropping with PBL and switched back to a lecture-based curriculum. Since then, their board scores have been on par with the national average. When I asked about it in my interview, they said they have no plans to reinstate PBL in the future.

 

[smoknjoe44]

This was when they were using a PBL-based curriculum. They saw that their board scores were dropping with PBL and switched back to a lecture-based curriculum. Since then, their board scores have been on par with the national average. When I asked about it in my interview, they said they have no plans to reinstate PBL in the future.

Ok, yes then, that must be what she was talking about then.

All in all, it may appear that I am bashing the school, but I'm not trying to. I just, simply put, did not have a good feeling about the place and just wanted to see everyone's opinion on the school.

 

[chris03333]

This was when they were using a PBL-based curriculum. They saw that their board scores were dropping with PBL and switched back to a lecture-based curriculum. Since then, their board scores have been on par with the national average. When I asked about it in my interview, they said they have no plans to reinstate PBL in the future.

Great that they said that but that seems wrong also. The first graduating class with the new traditional curriculum is the class of 2008. The NAVLE administration/stats are not complete until the April administration. So although they may have some stats for the December administration, it is certainly jumping the gun to say they have solved their issues🙄.

Interesting tidbit, the year they decided to switch to traditional curriculum is just after many of the professors who were pro PBL left the school. Then the larger majority were pro traditional. So IF they decided that PBL was the problem (Cornell certainly doesn't have problems with NAVLE and they have had PBL for a while) it may not have been decided without bias.

 

[VAgirl]

Well I stand corrected on the whole accreditation aspect

In addition to the comments already posted on accreditation, when I was at Iowa State (which had accreditation issues in 2003 or so but has since gotten back its full accreditation) the faculty I spoke with actually indicated that this was a good thing. He said they had known for years that the facilities needed updating, but couldn't get the message through to the people who controlled the purse strings. When the accreditation issues happened, the money people finally got the message and the university received the significant amount of funding needed to begin a total overhaul of their facilities. Honestly, if you go there you see how excited everyone is about the changes that are happening. So from that standpoint, having had some accreditation issues isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world (especially for the folks who will be studying at that university a bunch of years down the road who get to take advantage of all of the awesome changes that take place). Just wanted to throw that out there.

 

[chris03333]

In addition to the comments already posted on accreditation, when I was at Iowa State (which had accreditation issues in 2003 or so but has since gotten back its full accreditation) the faculty I spoke with actually indicated that this was a good thing. He said they had known for years that the facilities needed updating, but couldn't get the message through to the people who controlled the purse strings. When the accreditation issues happened, the money people finally got the message and the university received the significant amount of funding needed to begin a total overhaul of their facilities.

👍good point VAGirl

 

[hoodle]

In addition to the comments already posted on accreditation, when I was at Iowa State (which had accreditation issues in 2003 or so but has since gotten back its full accreditation) the faculty I spoke with actually indicated that this was a good thing. He said they had known for years that the facilities needed updating, but couldn't get the message through to the people who controlled the purse strings. When the accreditation issues happened, the money people finally got the message and the university received the significant amount of funding needed to begin a total overhaul of their facilities.

This is what they said at Davis too - that the de-accreditation was political, not educational. Whatever it is, we all reap the benefits now, bc they totally redid their buildings!

 

[kdog84]

I really liked MS CVM. First off I was very impressed with how MSU handled there application process. I applied at MSU, LSU, and Oklahoma. Compared to the other schools MSU kept me well informed and allowed the process to be stress free.
My mentor was great! He talked to me the whole time at the pizza party and then before and after my interview.

I thought the tour was also good. When the tour guide was asked about the Master/DVM program she didn't know very much about it, but another girl stepped up and explained everything because she was doing the duel program.

The talk about cost at the orientation process didn't stress me out because we already know this. I did like how they explained the process we had to go through to get the interview.

I was very impressed with the cleanness of the city and facilities. The interviewers were nice and we both had some laughs. The only thing that made me nervous was when I walked into the interview and one of the interviewers, a small animal alumni vet, had the list of questions Barbra Coats had sent out and he asked me how I thought he felt about it!! Other than that the interview went well.
I liked the fact that they do the 2 years of rotations. Also, MSU has a 92% passing rate on the national boards.

 

[alonepear]

... I heard that MS almost lost it's accreditation a few years ago... I don't really want to go somewhere that they are still trying to work out the kinks in their ciriculum.

Just to assuage any fears about Mississippi State and its status, we had our recent accreditation visit this past fall, and were just reaffirmed (ie are continuing) to be a fully accredited college of veterinary medicine until 2014.

And SmoknJoe, I would like to apologize very much for the behavior of my classmate as your mentor. I hope I can reassure you that we're not all like that down here!! 🙂

Oh and the horse dissection thing -- it's true that every anatomy lab group does not get their own horse to dissect. We got a bunch of horse legs in when we did the front and hind limbs, and we've gotten in brains and hearts of different large species as we've gone through those sections. The opportunity is available, however, to perform the dissection on these specimens if you are interested, so those that are indeed wanting to do equine get to dissect, while the rest of us small animal/exotics/research people still learn everything from the specimens, but we don't necessarily perform the dissection.

Hope this helps un-confuse this stuff!

 

[tastrophe]

I have to agree that the orientation was a bit over the top - I mean, making you sign forms about tuition costs before you're even accepted, and before the 2008-09 costs have been determined? I also felt like I was hurried out after the interview, I had intentionally scheduled my flights so that I could spend the entire day/evening checking out the school only to find out that they didn't want us there any later than what was absolutely necessary.

Re the "newness" of the school, they said something in the orientation about the school being relatively young (my interviewers said something about that as well). I don't think that's a bad thing though.

All of that said, I did like the school overall and felt I could get an excellent education there. They are clearly the best in terms of communication too, Barbara has been absolutely fantastic!

Question though, what is "PBL"? problem-based learning? or?

 

[alonepear]

Question though, what is "PBL"? problem-based learning? or?

Yep, although it has been discontinued here within the last few years. I've heard that it was due to a decline in the passing of the boards on the first try (while we maintained average when considering the first two tries, but of course, who wants to try twice?), but I don't know what the whole truth is.

 

[smoknjoe44]

Just to assuage any fears about Mississippi State and its status, we had our recent accreditation visit this past fall, and were just reaffirmed (ie are continuing) to be a fully accredited college of veterinary medicine until 2014.

And SmoknJoe, I would like to apologize in the very least for the behavior of my classmate as your mentor (trust me, I know who it was). She is an extremely immature and rude person to all of us, and I can COMPLETELY understand how she could not help in making your visit at least somewhat pleasant. I hope I can reassure you that we're not all like that down here!! 🙂

Oh and the horse dissection thing -- it's true that every anatomy lab group does not get their own horse to dissect. We got a bunch of horse legs in when we did the front and hind limbs, and we've gotten in brains and hearts of different large species as we've gone through those sections. The opportunity is available, however, to perform the dissection on these specimens if you are interested, so those that are indeed wanting to do equine get to dissect, while the rest of us small animal/exotics/research people still learn everything from the specimens, but we don't necessarily perform the dissection.

Hope this helps un-confuse this stuff!

Sorry about the whole accredidation thing...I jumped the gun a little after hearing this from a friend, and I was obviously misinformed. About your classmate, it's alright, we all have one or two people this way. I realize that everyone was pretty nice and I really like how Barbara keeps us up-to-date. I guess it just all boils down to a gut instinct that I have that makes me not want to go there...