2021 Illinois grad that was OOS.
Biggest recommendation: the cheaper of the two. I pay $325/week in loans and I only am paying for my first few years due to an inherited life insurance policy. So I think neither school is worth more than the other in terms of cost.
I participated in the WMC, which was a great experience tbh. Loved it, even though it was 20-25hrs a week of my life. There is the wildlife epidemiology lab, but I didn't participate there; a lot of students did research with other faculty outside that lab too. The exotics service is pretty fleshed out as well.
Now, the 8 weeks of clinics in first and second year (I don't count the 8 weeks of clinics in third year as third year; you basically start 4th year early) at Illinois vs the two years of clinics you get as Mississippi. By far I wish I'd had the two years straight of clinics rather than the 8 weeks of rotations. While the rotations during 1st and 2nd year were cool at the time, I didn't take away a lot of clinical knowledge in hindsight. Both schools essentially have accelerated didactics because of the extra rotations. So if I'm going to have accelerated classroom time, id rather have the useful clinics. The 8 weeks of rotations at Illinois are called "rotation vacation" for a reason; they don't really count for much in the long run.
As more schools open with "unique" curricula, I honestly hope more and more schools trend towards two years of clinics overall. It's how human medical school is done, and will make us more practice ready I think cause we'll be acting as clinicians with more safety net for longer. In a school with one year of clinics, there's no way for every student to go through things like cardio and dentistry; whereas 2 years of clinics means everyone could potentially get at least one go through for every service and then extra if they want.
