Toughest Year

[su_grad2007]

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1st year - easy

2nd year - first semester was tough. second semester was less annoying and more interesting.

3rd year - first semester made me want to die. second semester was nice.

4th year - (full year) Right now I'm halfway through and I'm working on my core SA reqs. I'm in the hospital 80+ hours a week and I hate it. I never have time to do basic home functions (cook food, go to post office, take the car to the shop, use the bank). You never get out at a reasonable hour and you're always in before 7am. School owns your ass. You don't even get weekends off with ER shifts and patient care. Worst year yet. Yes, the hands on experience is nice but your regular life gets completely, utterly screwed over to the max. Some rotations make me truly regret wanting to be a vet.

Does anyone know if all of 4th year is like that, or are some rotations worse than oters?

 

[breenie]

Does anyone know if all of 4th year is like that, or are some rotations worse than oters?

Some are worse than others, but I think it's consistently difficult.

 

[Chinola]

Does anyone know if all of 4th year is like that, or are some rotations worse than oters?

From what I've heard from juniors and seniors at UF some rotations are really tough, others not so much. At UF small animal medicine which is a 4 week rotation is supposed to be hell. Really long hours, tons of stress. But pathology is supposed to be awesome and relaxed. The rest of the rotations are somewhere in between. The third years are excited to get the break from clinics to catch up on sleep in January but when they're fourth years they're excited to get back into clinics. From what I hear it's still better than 1st and 2nd years!

 

[chickenlittle]

From what I've heard from juniors and seniors at UF some rotations are really tough, others not so much. At UF small animal medicine which is a 4 week rotation is supposed to be hell. Really long hours, tons of stress. But pathology is supposed to be awesome and relaxed. The rest of the rotations are somewhere in between. The third years are excited to get the break from clinics to catch up on sleep in January but when they're fourth years they're excited to get back into clinics. From what I hear it's still better than 1st and 2nd years!

UF grad here. Clinical rotations varied a lot - some were killer, while others practically felt like a vacation. My longest week was 96 hours on equine medicine... but radiology & pathology probably only involved 40-45 hrs/week at the vet school (plus some additional time at home studying & doing case reports). I'd estimate that an average week on clinics was probably about 60-70 hrs of being at the hospital, but there weren't many "average" weeks 🙂

 

[lailanni]

UF grad here. Clinical rotations varied a lot - some were killer, while others practically felt like a vacation. My longest week was 96 hours on equine medicine... but radiology & pathology probably only involved 40-45 hrs/week at the vet school (plus some additional time at home studying & doing case reports). I'd estimate that an average week on clinics was probably about 60-70 hrs of being at the hospital, but there weren't many "average" weeks 🙂

Ditto.

Some are worse than others. We get some rotations off campus and some vacation, so you're not totally stuck at school for an entire year. But I have been to school for about 50 days in a row (you have to come in for AM and PM for patient care on the weekends, plus ER shifts) so it wears on you after a while.

For example, our internal medicine rotation is very time consuming. I'd arrive for patient care at 6:30am, be busy for the day (no real lunch or dinner time), finish with patient care around 7pm, then have SOAPS until usually midnight. Several times I was up after 2am with paperwork. A few times I was ER/ICU on-call during the night, so I could get called in from 11pm to 8am. Then 2-4 times per rotation you have scheduled ER/ICU shifts on top of your regular work.

Another bad one is the ICU overnight week. You are at school 8PM to 8am, 7 days in a row. You may need to stay longer if the case load is high. When you are finished on Sunday morning you're due back at school Monday morning. No time to transition back unless you use your own personal vacation time.

On the other hand, radiology is 8-5 monday through friday with no patient care, on-call, or emergency shifts. (aka the radiation vacation).

Exotics is similar to radiology, but you still have weekend patient care.

I have most of my core requirements done by the end of November and I'll start more of my electives. Core rotations are usually fairly time consuming. I think I will enjoy school more when that finally happens. People tend to really enjoy their off-campus experiences. I have a friend who spent 6 weeks at the San Diego zoo. I got to spend 4 weeks in Seattle doing lab animal stuff. It's just when you've been in hospital for a long time it gets real old.

 

[twelvetigers]

Plus, you are SO CLOSE to being done! Member of the c/o 2012... it's almost 2012! And it will be amazing when you finally finish! 🙂

 

[skittles12]

Can I change my vote to first semester of second year? We are about to finish our brutal stretch of 8 exams (9 maybe? Lost count a long time ago.) in 4 weeks. I think the entire class is at the point of snapping, except for a few who seem to keep an optimistic "I love vet school" outlook. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to be here in vet school, but being thankful is NOT the same thing as enjoying it. If I'm starving and someone gives me brussel sprouts, I'll be thankful, but I won't enjoy eating it.

It's hard to enjoy things when you study and study and study and your grades don't reflect it. Then another exam comes and gives you another beatdown. I've heard second semester is a lot better, and third year...I'm hoping that's true.

 

[lareinesoleil]

Can I change my vote to first semester of second year? We are about to finish our brutal stretch of 8 exams (9 maybe? Lost count a long time ago.) in 4 weeks. I think the entire class is at the point of snapping, except for a few who seem to keep an optimistic "I love vet school" outlook. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to be here in vet school, but being thankful is NOT the same thing as enjoying it. If I'm starving and someone gives me brussel sprouts, I'll be thankful, but I won't enjoy eating it.

It's hard to enjoy things when you study and study and study and your grades don't reflect it. Then another exam comes and gives you another beatdown. I've heard second semester is a lot better, and third year...I'm hoping that's true.

+1

I'm only in my first semester, but I have a feeling I will look back and say this is the worst one - I came right out of the gate with a terrible anatomy grade, and have been sweating ever since, since we only have 3 tests. I have a decent clinical background, but as a non-trad, I don't have the bajillion science classes under my belt like some people do. So I have a feeling that this year, when the clinical stuff you know counts for nothing because it's all foundation building, and you have to learn to study (and to top it off, the classes aren't really all that interesting) will be my worst. Maybe it will get harder with more tests...but I can see myself possibly enjoying it more. I hope.

 

[BlacKAT33]

Can I change my vote to first semester of second year? We are about to finish our brutal stretch of 8 exams (9 maybe? Lost count a long time ago.) in 4 weeks. I think the entire class is at the point of snapping, .........

This is exactly what we're in now lol. I'm passed the point of "I don't want to study" and it is now becoming mentally impossible to retain all the info for each upcoming exam. My goal for grades I want is changing haha

I'm going to slightly update my post here:
1st semester 1st year--physically and mentally the most difficult because not fully adapted to vet school, crying spells, fear of failing, "i just want to pass" phase etc...

1st semester 2nd year--10X more info, brain not capable of remembering all the info needed, still doing well in classes so not worried about failing. Love the subjects, hate the speed and amount of info. Mental overload. Exams every week are impacting my social life and decreasing morale. Clinical rotation class boosts my morale (but only temporary).

 

[NittanyKitty]

I will cast my vote again for second year. This semester we'll have completed 30 quizzes and exams, six surgeries, a group presentation, a necropsy report, and a case write-up in a 15 week period. I. Can't. Wait. For. Thanksgiving!!!