I have been accepted to Illinois for Fall 2005. I am very excited but I have a huge fear. I have been out of school for over a year(I graduated from Cornell in January 2004). I worked with a large aniaml vet this past summer but since then I have not had any real veterinary experience. I am worred that my peers at vet school will have just completed undergrad and will remember everything they have learned. I must be honest, it has been a while since I have had to use what I learned at my undergraduate school. Is there anyone who had several years between thier undergrad and veterinary education and if so, did you find it difficult to get back into "the swing of things?" Thanks! 🙂
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Nerves
Started by alc27
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Congrats on your acceptance, and I'll see you here in the fall! 🙂
I graduated from Duke in '02 and took 2 years off before coming to vet school... had to make sure I didn't want to go the PhD route. (No problems making that decision!) Anyway, it is intimidating, 'cause there are a lot of IL undergrads that just had undergrad versions of the 1st year courses. And they do have it MUCH easier than the rest of us. But do NOT let yourself get discouraged, because the majority of students will be from another school or have been out of school for several years - or even 10-20 years!
It wasn't hard to get back in to the swing of things... you will remember how to study and the fear of falling behind will keep you going. 🙂 But it's really not that bad, and everyone is really friendly and willing to help each other out... anatomy study groups combined with late night pizza and really dirty jokes will be some of your favorite memories from 1st year.
And honestly... when 2nd year rolls around and we are all in the same boat with the same background, the people who had to study their butts off 1st year will probably have a slight advantage. That's what we like to tell ourselves, anyway!
So really, enjoy your last summer of freedom and don't think about school at all (because that will be all you do for the rest of your life). You will be fine, and you'll have a GREAT network of support here!
I graduated from Duke in '02 and took 2 years off before coming to vet school... had to make sure I didn't want to go the PhD route. (No problems making that decision!) Anyway, it is intimidating, 'cause there are a lot of IL undergrads that just had undergrad versions of the 1st year courses. And they do have it MUCH easier than the rest of us. But do NOT let yourself get discouraged, because the majority of students will be from another school or have been out of school for several years - or even 10-20 years!
It wasn't hard to get back in to the swing of things... you will remember how to study and the fear of falling behind will keep you going. 🙂 But it's really not that bad, and everyone is really friendly and willing to help each other out... anatomy study groups combined with late night pizza and really dirty jokes will be some of your favorite memories from 1st year.
And honestly... when 2nd year rolls around and we are all in the same boat with the same background, the people who had to study their butts off 1st year will probably have a slight advantage. That's what we like to tell ourselves, anyway!
So really, enjoy your last summer of freedom and don't think about school at all (because that will be all you do for the rest of your life). You will be fine, and you'll have a GREAT network of support here!
alc27 said:
I wouldn't worry myself too much about that.
It's been my experience that studying is like a reflex (even moreso now that I've been through my first year of vet school). I took a year off to work at a large dairy farm (not much time to study there), and it really was NOT an issue getting back into the swing of things. You've worked hard (otherwise you wouldn't have gotten into vet school)---once you get into the swing of classes, it all comes back to ya (like riding a bike)
As for that whole thing about the people that did their undergrads at the vet school, don't worry about that. At my school, such students only had the advantage in terms of gaining acceptance (it's all who you know). After that, we all seemed to be on the same playing field. Even the ones that had taken the undergrad version of the first year classes seemed to be just as lost as the next person. It doesn't matter where you did your undergrad, it only matters what you TOOK AWAY from said education.
Hope that helps!
I remember how anxious I was when I got into vet school--one word of advice--enjoy your time off. Free time is a scarce commodity in vet school.
Shocker
It's been my experience that studying is like a reflex (even moreso now that I've been through my first year of vet school). I took a year off to work at a large dairy farm (not much time to study there), and it really was NOT an issue getting back into the swing of things. You've worked hard (otherwise you wouldn't have gotten into vet school)---once you get into the swing of classes, it all comes back to ya (like riding a bike)
As for that whole thing about the people that did their undergrads at the vet school, don't worry about that. At my school, such students only had the advantage in terms of gaining acceptance (it's all who you know). After that, we all seemed to be on the same playing field. Even the ones that had taken the undergrad version of the first year classes seemed to be just as lost as the next person. It doesn't matter where you did your undergrad, it only matters what you TOOK AWAY from said education.
Hope that helps!
I remember how anxious I was when I got into vet school--one word of advice--enjoy your time off. Free time is a scarce commodity in vet school.
Shocker
