Hey! I'm actually still a third year; I was in the class of 2017 until last year and then opted to take 9 months off (mental health reasons
). I have heard quite a bit from my friends about the low down on 4th year. From advice to listening to them bitch/rave about various little details, clinicians, workload...
Disclaimer: this will probably be more criticism-oriented than not; you can get the positives anywhere, but I know that when people ask this question they wanna know the low down dirty.
The small class size is great, although I hear that next year we will be going from 55 to 72 students. TBH, I suspect that will pose a huge issue with space. The facilities are pretty small in comparison to other schools, and they haven't started any renovations yet... Our anatomy lab is really nice but TINY. It was packed when we were just 55.
I'm interested in mixed practice, with a heavy focus on cattle. I think our LA hospital--the staff and efficiency of the place--is awesome (some of my SA 4th year friends have really disliked it, but theyre biased
). LA it has been around for a while, however the SA hospital was only built in 2017. It's disappointing to me that we are a referral-only practice; you can't just waltz in. The only emergency services we have are offered to students (which is nice, definitely have taken advantage of that...) and current patients. It's physically small as well as grossly understaffed. We are also lacking a dermatology, neuro and ophthalmology dept/clinician. And an actual board certified criticalist. It sucks; even through we bring professors in for these subjects, not having having one 4th year makes it challenging. If you're interested, you have to do a preceptorship elsewhere. I've also heard that there are a couple rotations that kinda suck. Radiology for instance has great clinicians, but for reason the students end up taking radiographs the whole time and not actually learning how to interpret them.
As far as pre-4th year coursework, it's a mixed bag. There are PHENOMENAL professors, not so good (either difficult, totally confusing or unqualified [we have a medical chemist teaching pharm... she's a wonderful person and obviously has some great credentials, but she joined the staff 2 years ago and doesn't know squat about vet med]), and some that are really poor teachers in a lecture setting but FANtastic in clinics.
More on the ****ty professors: I don't know if it's like this at other schools, but we have a professor who is hell-bent on weeding people out. She's actually stated that she sees herself as the "gatekeeper". We tend to lost a lot of people first year (anywhere from 3-6, which is a lot with our numbers). Most of them come back the next year, but it sucks.
We FINALLY got a mental health worker last year. Again, I dont know if it's like this at other schools, but it seems the topic of mental health gets brushed under the rug. My situation was that I saw everyone else puttering alone, so I kept telling myself I should bury my **** and press on until it was too late. That said, I think we're getting better about it. The administration is really understanding. I love our dean.
What would you like to know about the NAVLE? I do have quite a bit of insight from my friends who took it, although I obviously haven't taken it. 99% of people buy a subscription to a prep service (VetPrep or Zukureview). I actually only know of one person who just studied from their notes. The general consensus though is that really you should look at your 3rd year as studying for the NAVLE. Some people only made it 20% through their practice questions. It sounds like it could go either way as far as usefulness. I've also heard from several people that taking as many of "The Big Four" (SA med, LA med, SA surgery, and LA surgery) as you can before you take the exam is extremely helpful.
By the time you take the NAVLE, you will have had plenty of practice taking multiple choice tests. Exams are frequent, usually 1 per week starting around the 3rd week of the term, There ALL multiple choice, with like 4 or 5 (out of 100s lol) being exceptions. Sucks if you're like me and prefer written
.
I don't know anything about state licensing exams, but I can certainly ask my friends if they can comment on it.
I hope that helps! Do you have any specific/other questions?