The Grad School Thread

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
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supershorty said:
Even if your PI is paying you a stipend, she’s not entitled to your time 24/7.
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She told me off today for spending too much time on TA duties (that I'm contractually obligated to perform, btw) for this very reason. She feels entitled to it whether she should or not and I'm so done with it.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
Are you able to continue your PhD if you don't accept the scholarship?
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Yup, the scholarship isn't mandatory. While waiting for my state to open their scholarship application, I think I will be able to make a living from part time jobs and a small stipend. But there is a pressure from the faculty to accept the offer as they are lacking academic candidates currently. I'm a bit hesitant to ask for the academicians opinions in case of a bias, I already asked a few, and most of them believe that accepting the offer is indeed the best choice
 
And by douchenozzle, I mean a word they won’t let me say here.

Remind me, at what stage in the program are you? You said a year and a half left (which translates to two, trust me, PIs always try to dangle a carrot), but I’m sorry that I can’t remember where you are in the vet side of things. The PhD is hard enough without a PI who doesn’t give you any respect.
 
WhtsThFrequency said:
And by douchenozzle, I mean a word they won’t let me say here.

Remind me, at what stage in the program are you? You said a year and a half left (which translates to two, trust me, PIs always try to dangle a carrot), but I’m sorry that I can’t remember where you are in the vet side of things. The PhD is hard enough without a PI who doesn’t give you any respect.
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I just finished my 3rd year. I haven't done candidacy yet (our department doesn't have requirements for when it's scheduled and leaves it totally at the major professor's discretion), I have one published paper and another due to be submitted this summer, and I'm a coauthor on a couple more. I need one more course and three more semesters of dissertation credits to fulfill degree requirements. I would only be her second student to finish a PhD, if we make it there. She's been here about 6 or 7 years. She tentatively has a job offer out of state and has said she'd graduate me before moving.
 
I've been thinking about you WTF because I remember hearing some stories about your PhD experience. It's good to see you around! I hope you are enjoying your job and that everything is going well. 🙂
 
It’s all going well. Love the job as it’s mostly teaching with service on the side. I took a little break from most research (aside from grading slides here and there for people) for the first couple years to shake off the lingering PhD stress, but now I’m mentoring some students on their projects and it’s super fun.
 
Boss man talked to me yesterday about moving me up to first author on a big manuscript that we're putting together (I was originally going to be second), and I'm super stoked about it because I've put a lot of time and work into that project in the last several years.

Kinda wondering if this project is going to morph into my thesis even though it's not at all what I'd proposed.
 
hope you're all doing well!! I have had almost no time off since the end of first year dvm - went straight into my PhD lab rotation and I'm almost 3 weeks into it. I kind of hate it. I knew going into the program that I did not want to spend a lot of time on in vitro models and of course I'm doing cell culture pretty much all summer. I've been there done that in undergrad and I'm just over it. I'm passionate about biomedical imaging, I'm sure I'll be doing some cell imaging but ultimately I want to be working in vivo. I don't think this is the lab for that but that has yet to be seen.

I was supposed to be rotating through an imaging-specific lab (they have access to every modality you can imagine, even brand new ones, I was so psyched) but the PI turned out to be a predator and a **** mentor (based on several sources including a grad student, lab manager, and a news article lol) so I wasn't about to put myself into that situation. The mentor is great where I am now. It's just not the research I want to be doing. I think the mentor and lab environment are ultimately going to be more important for the degree, as I know I can go on to do whatever I'd like post-grad, but.... 3-4 years is a long time to do stuff I don't really want to do. idk.

@supershorty do you have your dvm yet? I've been following your progress for a few years and I got lost sometime last year :laugh:. hope you are feeling well!
 
sheltermed said:
hope you're all doing well!! I have had almost no time off since the end of first year dvm - went straight into my PhD lab rotation and I'm almost 3 weeks into it. I kind of hate it. I knew going into the program that I did not want to spend a lot of time on in vitro models and of course I'm doing cell culture pretty much all summer. I've been there done that in undergrad and I'm just over it. I'm passionate about biomedical imaging, I'm sure I'll be doing some cell imaging but ultimately I want to be working in vivo. I don't think this is the lab for that but that has yet to be seen.

I was supposed to be rotating through an imaging-specific lab (they have access to every modality you can imagine, even brand new ones, I was so psyched) but the PI turned out to be a predator and a **** mentor (based on several sources including a grad student, lab manager, and a news article lol) so I wasn't about to put myself into that situation. The mentor is great where I am now. It's just not the research I want to be doing. I think the mentor and lab environment are ultimately going to be more important for the degree, as I know I can go on to do whatever I'd like post-grad, but.... 3-4 years is a long time to do stuff I don't really want to do. idk.

@supershorty do you have your dvm yet? I've been following your progress for a few years and I got lost sometime last year :laugh:. hope you are feeling well!
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The nice thing about rotations is that even if you know it's not the kind of research you want to do, you can still pick up new technical skills that you might end up using in your project later on! Does make for a long summer though 🙁 sorry it's not more up your alley (although I'm glad you avoided that other lab).

I do not have my DVM yet! One of the benefits of doing the degrees concurrently like this is I'm in my 5th year of school and get to tell people that I'm still not any sort of doctor. It's fun or something. I'm hoping I can defend at the end of next year though and then go do clinics and finish everything up.
 
I def wanted to go the DVM/PHD route but after a summer research scholars program I was unsure. What are you all planning to gain from the PHD with the veterinary field in mind and how will you use it or how will it aid in your future career? I appreciate in advance for anyone sharing or sending me a message! thanks!
 
Vet2022-20224 said:
I def wanted to go the DVM/PHD route but after a summer research scholars program I was unsure. What are you all planning to gain from the PHD with the veterinary field in mind and how will you use it or how will it aid in your future career? I appreciate in advance for anyone sharing or sending me a message! thanks!
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Don't do it is my advice. haha

If you do, I would certainly recommend finishing DVM first then pursuing it. 🙂
 
Vet2022-20224 said:
I def wanted to go the DVM/PHD route but after a summer research scholars program I was unsure. What are you all planning to gain from the PHD with the veterinary field in mind and how will you use it or how will it aid in your future career? I appreciate in advance for anyone sharing or sending me a message! thanks!
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Same way I feel about vet school - if you're unsure about it, don't do it. Also happy to answer questions in PM. The way my program works, I did finish the DVM portion before fully entering the PhD portion, which has worked out nicely (well, as nicely as grad school can) for me so far.
 
Wasn't sure where to post this but CONGRATS SHORTY @supershorty

shorty pca.jpg
 
vetschoolsletmeinplease said:
I'm in an MS program before I apply to vet school again, everyone else here is PhD am I allowed here lol
Anyway I'm doing a term paper for class and I get to cite myself for the first time which is very exciting
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Of course you're allowed here!
Citing yourself is always fun, congrats :heckyeah:
 
Multiple conferences that I'd be interested in going to next year aren't doing poster sessions, which means I'm not eligible to apply for a travel grant to go :yeahright: SO GUESS I'M NOT GOING.

Going to be a pouting kind of afternoon.
 
I wonder if imposter syndrome ever goes away. I got my committee meeting summary and my chair wrote glowing comments and said I'm positioned well to graduate "in the near future," and yet my brain was like HA FOOLED THEM AGAIN.

I feel like I'm going to graduate and still think I'm actually an idiot and just really good at tricking everyone 🤣
 
supershorty said:
I wonder if imposter syndrome ever goes away. I got my committee meeting summary and my chair wrote glowing comments and said I'm positioned well to graduate "in the near future," and yet my brain was like HA FOOLED THEM AGAIN.

I feel like I'm going to graduate and still think I'm actually an idiot and just really good at tricking everyone 🤣
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Yes, you will.

Or at least I feel like that on a regular basis. Residents ask me questions now and I look around and go hang on, I'm the adult in the room? When did that happen and who allowed this??
 
supershorty said:
I wonder if imposter syndrome ever goes away. I got my committee meeting summary and my chair wrote glowing comments and said I'm positioned well to graduate "in the near future," and yet my brain was like HA FOOLED THEM AGAIN.

I feel like I'm going to graduate and still think I'm actually an idiot and just really good at tricking everyone 🤣
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I've been in an ongoing panic for months thinking that my boss - the same one who drove me back and forth to the hospital and picked my mother up from the airport for me - secretly hates me and thinks I'm stupid.

Anyway having brains is stupid
 
supershorty said:
I wonder if imposter syndrome ever goes away.
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I’ve been practicing for 5 years and I’ve finally reached the point where I don’t automatically assume that the crazy thing an owner is asking me is just something that I miraculously managed to miss during my long veterinary education. So maybe? It does go away?
 
Idk if any of you were at NAVS and/or NVSS this year, if so, oops I should have said something before it happened

I thought I found my PhD lab this summer but my mentor doesn't feel I'm a good fit. Said I'm great with animals, clearly am passionate about them, but don't seem passionate about research. Ok, I get it. I appreciate the honest feedback but I'm still pretty heartbroken. I worked really hard this summer and enjoyed the work quite a bit.

Now I'm a very-soon-to-be full time PhD student and will still be rotating. It's fine, I'm just sad. Also have symptomatic COVID so that's great.

Hope you're all doing well!
 
sheltermed said:
I thought I found my PhD lab this summer but my mentor doesn't feel I'm a good fit. Said I'm great with animals, clearly am passionate about them, but don't seem passionate about research. Ok, I get it. I appreciate the honest feedback but I'm still pretty heartbroken. I worked really hard this summer and enjoyed the work quite a bit.
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I'm really sorry to hear this happened. There's no shame in doing an extra rotation - finding a lab where you're a good fit with your mentor is super important, and it'll be worth any extra time it adds to find someone you really click with.

I know it's discouraging right now, but I hope your next rotation helps you find a lab that's a great fit and where you get set up with a mentor who really wants to help you succeed as an independent investigator <3
 
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To my fellow dual degree students: were/are you a member of SAVMA? If so, how was your membership handled when you were in the PhD portion of your program? I paid for 4 years of membership in first year. They want me to pay for additional years if I want to continue having access to JAVMA which seems a bit ridiculous to me. I obviously have access to other journals through my school, but as one of the supposed future innovators of the profession it seems counterintuitive that they would restrict my (our) access to primary literature. I'm certainly going to look into other funding sources and I recognize that $35/year isn't much, but it's just the principle for me. 🤷‍♀️
 
sheltermed said:
To my fellow dual degree students: were/are you a member of SAVMA? If so, how was your membership handled when you were in the PhD portion of your program? I paid for 4 years of membership in first year. They want me to pay for additional years if I want to continue having access to JAVMA which seems a bit ridiculous to me. I obviously have access to other journals through my school, but as one of the supposed future innovators of the profession it seems counterintuitive that they would restrict my (our) access to primary literature. I'm certainly going to look into other funding sources and I recognize that $35/year isn't much, but it's just the principle for me. 🤷‍♀️
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Pretty sure my SAVMA membership is on hiatus while I’m in PhD land
 
sheltermed said:
To my fellow dual degree students: were/are you a member of SAVMA? If so, how was your membership handled when you were in the PhD portion of your program? I paid for 4 years of membership in first year. They want me to pay for additional years if I want to continue having access to JAVMA which seems a bit ridiculous to me. I obviously have access to other journals through my school, but as one of the supposed future innovators of the profession it seems counterintuitive that they would restrict my (our) access to primary literature. I'm certainly going to look into other funding sources and I recognize that $35/year isn't much, but it's just the principle for me. 🤷‍♀️
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I'm not helpful here since our program is sequential. So basically did the usual 4 years as a student while doing the DVM program and then did the transition to regular AVMA membership. I don't think they do intern/resident discounts outside of the general new grad discount, so makes sense they wouldn't do it for PhD students either (not saying that's right).

If your school doesn't already provide JAVMA access perhaps you can talk to them about acquiring it. I pay for the print editions because I'm a hoarder but we have access through the school library to the online version.
 
sheltermed said:
To my fellow dual degree students: were/are you a member of SAVMA? If so, how was your membership handled when you were in the PhD portion of your program? I paid for 4 years of membership in first year. They want me to pay for additional years if I want to continue having access to JAVMA which seems a bit ridiculous to me. I obviously have access to other journals through my school, but as one of the supposed future innovators of the profession it seems counterintuitive that they would restrict my (our) access to primary literature. I'm certainly going to look into other funding sources and I recognize that $35/year isn't much, but it's just the principle for me. 🤷‍♀️
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I don't understand why you find this ridiculous.

You paid for 4 years of membership. Access to JAVMA is a membership benefit. Of course they want you to pay for additional years if you exceed the years you paid for. And it sounds like it's still discounted (student) rate as opposed to what a veterinarian would be paying for the same resource.

I guess I don't understand why you think you should get a resource for free that other students have to pay for. Maybe I'm remembering wrong but didn't you say your dual degree program is also funded? Including the DVM years?
 
WildZoo said:
doesn't already provide JAVMA access
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I hadn't thought of this and it's very likely that they do. That's my next step to investigate 😂 thank you!


finnickthedog said:
I don't understand why you find this ridiculous.

You paid for 4 years of membership. Access to JAVMA is a membership benefit. Of course they want you to pay for additional years if you exceed the years you paid for. And it sounds like it's still discounted (student) rate as opposed to what a veterinarian would be paying for the same resource.

I guess I don't understand why you think you should get a resource for free that other students have to pay for. Maybe I'm remembering wrong but didn't you say your dual degree program is also funded? Including the DVM years?
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I had a feeling one of you would chime in with something like this and frankly it's hurtful and unhelpful for you to insinuate I'm trying to take advantage of the system. I appreciate the advice given above and I won't engage further in the topic. Thank you for understanding.
 
I will say that there are other organizations I'm a part of as a student member that have extended the student membership for me in my dual program (VSSO in particular), but that's not a situation of "pay x amount for x number of years."

We don't have the option of not joining SAVMA at UMN, so :shrug:
 
Alright, I am officially 50% of the way through writing my dissertation.

If I stay on schedule, which I inevitably won't, I will be done writing this in 19 days.

but that's not thinking about that I still have 2 experiments to do for the manuscript that makes up Chapter 4
shhhhhh
 
supershorty said:
Alright, I am officially 50% of the way through writing my dissertation.

If I stay on schedule, which I inevitably won't, I will be done writing this in 19 days.

but that's not thinking about that I still have 2 experiments to do for the manuscript that makes up Chapter 4
shhhhhh
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Finish the experiments pls
 
I have what is hopefully my final committee meeting today, and my anxiety is through the roof.

They always go fine, but this is the one where I either get the okay or the nokay for defending in a few months, and even though I know my committee is supportive of that plan, I'm still stressing about it.
 
Okay well, I'm glad I spent the entire morning panicking about not having done enough for my thesis to be able to graduate, because my committee felt that I've done the work of 2 theses in 1 lolol

Scheduling my defense for sometime in December

meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
 
I finally get to post in here! I'm just about half way done with my first semester of my Master's in Veterinary Science. I was a little apprehensive because it's an online program, but the department put so much work into making sure we feel connected.

It's gone both faster and slower than I expected if that makes sense? We crammed 8 body systems into 7 weeks, so week to week feels fast. But I also worked incredibly hard to get here so I'm trying to enjoy all of it. Super curious to see how this affects my Vet school application when I get there. I'd have to imagine it shows a serious dedication to the field, but I also know admissions committees a fickle beasts who can make weird decisions.
 
My enormous manuscript has been sent out to all the other authors to review before I submit it. Graduation is so close I can taste it.

I'm almost starting to feel a little sad about leaving my lab, but I'm mostly just excited to be done and get out of here.
My adviser is really great and I've been working for him for 8 years, so that chapter coming to a close makes me feel things.
 
Kinda wish we had any dual degree students on here who did the degrees concurrently like I am because that transition back into vet school in January is looking hella scary to me right now, and very few people at UMN do it this way, so I don't have anyone to pester about how they survived it lol
 
supershorty said:
Kinda wish we had any dual degree students on here who did the degrees concurrently like I am because that transition back into vet school in January is looking hella scary to me right now, and very few people at UMN do it this way, so I don't have anyone to pester about how they survived it lol
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You got this!

I know it’s different, but I transitioned back to full time vet work after grad school. It took a few weeks for me to get back into the swing of things. I’d there any way you could shadow while you’re finishing up the PhD?
 
Musicandhorses said:
You got this!

I know it’s different, but I transitioned back to full time vet work after grad school. It took a few weeks for me to get back into the swing of things. I’d there any way you could shadow while you’re finishing up the PhD?
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I don't think I have time 🙁 as it is, I feel completely overwhelmed with everything I need to get done in the next month or so
 
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