Questions for Vet School Tour

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animalrie

TAMU c/o 2020!
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Hi! I'll be visiting my in state vet school (Texas A&M) in a couple of weeks and have scheduled a student-led tour. Does anyone have ideas for good questions I can ask during the tour about the vet school? What do you wish you had known about your school before you applied/attended?
Thanks!

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Well, what do you want to know about it?

I personally would want to know how the students like the professors and clinicians, the electives and when you start taking them and the opportunities available outside of classroom time. You may want to ask about mentorship and tutoring and how students like the general area. Most vet schools will be pretty similar in the classroom department (powerpoints ad nauseum with some hands on labs thrown in) so I think it's important to find out what the rest of the atmosphere is like.
 
I would pick the current students' brains about the school's interview process. Every school does things a little differently so if you can go in with an idea about what their interview day is like than it might give you an edge over others. I had talked to quite a few people about the interview day setup for my first choice school, and just knowing roughly how the day was going to be set up really helped settle my nerves on the interview day. One thing I really found helpful was the school did a mock interview question with two current students on the tour day. Just seeing how they answered that question really helped me understand what the school expected you to address when you answered their questions.
 
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Common questions I got as a tour guide:
1) How many times did you apply?
2) What's the hardest class?
3) Do you have time for other things?
4) Where do people live?
5) Is your class really competitive?

In addition to what redhead and CJ said, I'd ask about the university as a whole. Health center, support services, fitness, larger university clubs, etc. I think people get too focussed on the vet school itself and forget that there's a parent institution attached to it which may have its own pros and cons.
 
Ask about housing and parking or other transportation issues (i.e. where do you live and how do you get back/forth every day).

Ask about extracurriculars: how is the club life at the school? Do they have ACTIVE clubs in the areas you're interested? Do they have clubs that get you frequent and interesting hands-on experience?

Are lectures video-recorded and available immediately and repeatedly? (Best tech ever.)

Nothing wrong with asking about the interview process (per Cracker Jack's suggestion), but don't be surprised if the students say "they've asked us not to talk about that." We are specifically told at UMN what we can and can't discuss. I can tell you generalities (there will be two people, it will be a behavior-based interview, etc.), but I am not allowed to discuss specific content. I wouldn't be surprised if many schools are like that.

What sort of food places are within walking distance?

Are there excellent places to study near the classrooms?

Just a few thoughts....
 
In addition to the other answers, I'll just throw it out there, I went to A&M for undergrad (declined my vet admission offer) and I know there are some A&M vet students on here (though how active many are lately I'm not sure). So feel free to ask folks on here if you still have questions after your visit.
 
Food places, food options. Very very important. On campus study areas and how available they are. Also very important if you want to study away from home.

I feel like answers to a lot of the extracurricular/club/outside opportunities will really depend on who you ask (and to an extent, what year in school they're in). Talk to someone who's the president of 3 clubs or a class officer and they'll tell you it's effing grand. Ask someone who's not that involved and also doesn't have a club for her interest area, and she will tell you it kinda sucks. So I personally wouldn't put too much stakes in that, unless you're asking about a very specific thing like "is your Christian Veterinary Fellowship very active?" Same thing for "do you have enough free time? Is it doable? How are scholarships? Research opportunities?" kind of questions. You'll get a huge range of answers and no one answer is necessarily applicable to you. I mean, ask away, if even just to indulge! That's what you're there for, but I wouldnt take those responses (either very positive or negative) too seriously.

And take curriculum info with a grain of salt unless you're talking to someone who's gone through all of their didactic years. Many tour guides are first years, and they'll tell you alllllll about anatomy and physiology and stuff... Because that was their life. But give it a year, and the first year curriculum is nothing more than a fond memory, and really has no bearing at all on the rest of your training.

Attrition rate is important to ask IMO. Even if the guide tells you that a majority left for personal reasons, you should maybe think and pause a little if you know a school tends to lose 8-10% of their first years every year.

The most important thing to ask in terms of curriculum, I think is how clinics is run, and what students get to do on clinics. But that's really really hard to gauge for anyone who's not in clinics. Hell, I couldn't properly evaluate what I thought of my clinical year until I was half way through it, nevermind being able to compare it to another program...
 
FWIW, when I went to my top choice school for a tour, I was with a friend of mine and the tour guide. The friend is already 2nd year in their vet school, and she pointed out that sometimes its difficult to get to and from anatomy lab including changing and whatnot, so you have to use your time wisely. IE not a ton of extra time to stop and get food, etc. I thought that was worth knowing and I'm glad she told me because I wouldn't have thought to ask about the time it takes to walk the campus between classes/on breaks.
 
I feel like answers to a lot of the extracurricular/club/outside opportunities will really depend on who you ask (and to an extent, what year in school they're in). Talk to someone who's the president of 3 clubs or a class officer and they'll tell you it's effing grand. Ask someone who's not that involved and also doesn't have a club for her interest area, and she will tell you it kinda sucks. So I personally wouldn't put too much stakes in that, unless you're asking about a very specific thing like "is your Christian Veterinary Fellowship very active?" Same thing for "do you have enough free time? Is it doable? How are scholarships? Research opportunities?" kind of questions. You'll get a huge range of answers and no one answer is necessarily applicable to you. I mean, ask away, if even just to indulge! That's what you're there for, but I wouldnt take those responses (either very positive or negative) too seriously.

And take curriculum info with a grain of salt unless you're talking to someone who's gone through all of their didactic years. Many tour guides are first years, and they'll tell you alllllll about anatomy and physiology and stuff... Because that was their life. But give it a year, and the first year curriculum is nothing more than a fond memory, and really has no bearing at all on the rest of your training.

Attrition rate is important to ask IMO. Even if the guide tells you that a majority left for personal reasons, you should maybe think and pause a little if you know a school tends to lose 8-10% of their first years every year.

The most important thing to ask in terms of curriculum, I think is how clinics is run, and what students get to do on clinics. But that's really really hard to gauge for anyone who's not in clinics. Hell, I couldn't properly evaluate what I thought of my clinical year until I was half way through it, nevermind being able to compare it to another program...

I think that's true about most questions, though (that the answer will depend on who you ask). You ask me about housing (I live 30 minutes away in the house I bought 12 years ago...) and I'm gonna shrug.

You ask someone who studies off campus or at home about whether there are good places to study and they're gonna shrug.

The flip side of talking to someone who has gone through ALL of their didactic years is that things probably have changed. At our school, nobody in my year or third year would be the best first stop for questions about the curriculum because of curriculum changes.

So, I wouldn't let the fact that you're always going to get a biased answer sway you from investigating topics of interest.
 
Ask them why the Critical Care Cafe closes so damn early every afternoon!! 😉

I did my residency at TAMU so while I can't speak much for student stuff, if you're not a College Station native and would like some general info about the town, etc feel free to shoot me a PM.
 
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