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Hey Guys! I was just wondering if anyone knew which vet schools were pass/fail and which ones had letter grades?
Pass/Fail Vs. Letter Grades
- Thread starter Crazy Hippos
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Massey gives letter grades for everything. Of the students who pass a class, the top 1/3 get A's, middle 1/3 get B's, bottom 1/3 get C's, more or less.
Here, classes are graded or pass fail based on the class, I don't think we get to decide which. The actual classes where there are exams and such seem to be graded while the classes where we primarily listen to literature reviews or career descriptions seem to be pass/fail based on attendance. So far, the electives are pass fail (adv studies in zoo med, adv raptor med, etc.) A bit frustrating, since we do actually have quizes in those classes that don't count for anything (for us, they do for the grad students) and they are the only quizes I get 100% on....and they are similar to questions for boards.
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Colorado State is mostly all (maybe all?) Pass/fail. They do the whole class rank thing though so I am not sure how effective the system is in keeping down the competetiveness.
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at csu we do get grades on individual tests, but we won't have an overall gpa because it's eventually converted over to satisfactory/unsatisfactory and transfers to rank only. i was worried the ranking aspect was going to promote more competitiveness but actually everyone is very supportive of one another, emailing the class listserv with helpful website links, etc. at least that's been my experience!
Hey squeegee. That is my impression too. Before I came to CSU I was pretty leery of their philosophy on the whole ranking thing, but since Ive been a student I have really come to like it. I haven't really sensed much, if any, competitiveness in our class. No one even asks (or cares?) what you got on an exam or what your rank is....thus far lol. In fact, everyone is super helpful, and I haven't found anyone yet that wasn't 100% supportive.
I think its because the faculty emphasize that, no matter what your rank, in the end you will take out of the program what you put into it and become the best vet you can be. Even if your rank is #138 you're still called Dr. and have still graduated from the #2 school (maybe #1 this year? 🙂) in the country. So, IMO, that takes a lot of the pressure off and allows us to do our best to learn clinically relevant information that will make us outstanding practitioners. Just my 2c
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I didn't earn my way to vet school for a title or for school pride. I'm sure lots of people love being called doctor, and that it makes them feel superior to people that did not pursue a doctorate. Reality check: Achievement does not increase your worth. Virtue dictates worth. Nothing else.
If all you want is for people to think your smart (because you are a doctor, oooooh) then you would save yourself much stress by simply becoming a doctor of education instead of a doctor of vet med.
IMO, if you are an effective clinician, your vet school grades are totally irrelevant. If you are a poor clinician, regardless of grades, you should not practice clinical medicine (unless you desire to hurt the animals that you are supposed to heal.)
Being a doctor, in and of itself, is not really that cool. Saving animals is.
End of story.
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Umm, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that CBRGirl's point was that you can still treat animals with a license to practice veterinary medicine...not that you're cool for being called doctor...
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong... 🙄
btw, that phrase is pretty ubiquitous--there's an old joke: "what do you call the person who graduates last in his medical school class?" "doctor"--meant to reassure someone with less than stellar (but still passing) grades.
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I don't think there is anything wrong with feeling pride about earning the title of "Dr." We all worked damn hard and made a lot of sacrifices that other people did not. That's not saying that *only* people that have achieved this level of education are hard workers, but it is one indication. It is an accomplishment. Be proud 👍
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i think you misinterpreted CBRgrl's point in that the ranking system at CSU is not really emphasized so much, and that even if you're ranked last you will still be able to be "really that cool" and save animals. and as far as being an effective clinician, the grades kind of are important because if you don't make the grade, you won't get to clinics.
i'm sure she appreciates your reality check, though.
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At UGA most of the classes are letter graded, including the fabulous +/- system (which I think is a little excessive for a professional school, personally). We have a few classes worth like 1 (or less) credit hour that are pass/fail (Ethics, Career Opportunities, etc). Our clinics are not graded. Not sure exactly how they do it, but I think they're just pass/fail- I don't think they impact your GPA, though.
