So, I'm a 3rd semester mixed animal tracker at my school, which means that for my 4th year I will have a required equine facility clerkship, an extra large animal clinical services (LACS) clerkship, and a mixed animal private practice clerkship (+ 3 elective clerkships) to go with the 8 required clerkships at my school. So far in my classes, I have taken mostly small animal courses with the exception of electives in advanced epidemiology and wildlife med.
I'm considering switching my track to small animal, which will take away the LACS, equine, and mixed private practice clerkships and put more small animal clerkships into my 4th year. The reason I'm reconsidering is because I used to be more interested in pursuing a residency in something like Pathology, but now I'm feeling more like I want to be in the best position experience-wise for small animal private practice when I graduate. The other major interest I've kept since starting school is Shelter Medicine, which is mostly small animal, too.
In the back of my mind, I chose the mixed animal track because I thought it would be good to diversify my 4th year experience and get more hands-on work with horses/food animals, but now I feel like it's better to play it safe. The last reason I thought switching to small would be good would be because my gf of 2 years (and likely fiancee) wants to move down here during my 4th year and the mixed track has 5 external blocks (15 weeks), whereas the small animal has only 3 external blocks (9 weeks). If my gf plans to come down to Blacksburg and live with me, I'd hate to have her move down only to be gone for almost 4 months instead of just over 2 months.
Do any of you think any of this rationale is off? I wanted vet school to expose me more to different species and types of veterinary medicine, which it has, but I also feel like I have to think more practically and keep my costs down by reducing external blocks and keep my sanity by having the opportunity to spend more time with my SO.
I'm considering switching my track to small animal, which will take away the LACS, equine, and mixed private practice clerkships and put more small animal clerkships into my 4th year. The reason I'm reconsidering is because I used to be more interested in pursuing a residency in something like Pathology, but now I'm feeling more like I want to be in the best position experience-wise for small animal private practice when I graduate. The other major interest I've kept since starting school is Shelter Medicine, which is mostly small animal, too.
In the back of my mind, I chose the mixed animal track because I thought it would be good to diversify my 4th year experience and get more hands-on work with horses/food animals, but now I feel like it's better to play it safe. The last reason I thought switching to small would be good would be because my gf of 2 years (and likely fiancee) wants to move down here during my 4th year and the mixed track has 5 external blocks (15 weeks), whereas the small animal has only 3 external blocks (9 weeks). If my gf plans to come down to Blacksburg and live with me, I'd hate to have her move down only to be gone for almost 4 months instead of just over 2 months.
Do any of you think any of this rationale is off? I wanted vet school to expose me more to different species and types of veterinary medicine, which it has, but I also feel like I have to think more practically and keep my costs down by reducing external blocks and keep my sanity by having the opportunity to spend more time with my SO.
