University of Calgary (UCVM) vs WCVM- looking for more info

[horseygurl]

Hi everyone! I just joined this forumn! I was wondering if anyone wanted to share their experiences with UCVM. I applied this year and interviewed yesterday. Any one else interview yesterday? How did you do? I felt it went well except for I might have struggled with the essay slightly. I applied there as a back up to WCVM. I was under the impression it was a sub par school in comparision to WCVM but after touring the facilities I am wondering if I have been misinformed. I was just wondering if any current students or any other applicants wanted to share any information about their program. I am just playing the what if I get into both schools ( yes I know that is months away and there are no guarentees) but it was just something that has crossed my mind. I have seen both schools and looked up both programs but looking for first hand advice. I noticed that UCVM is more hands on then WCVM, so i wonder do the UCVM students graduate with better technical skills but lack the knowledge of the WCVM grads?

Any thoughts?

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[Braki]

I'm a student at WCVM, and I chose it over UCVM, so my reply is obviously going to be a bit biased, but I will try my best to give a balanced perspective. In all honesty, both schools are accredited by the AVMA and in the end, no matter what each school says about the other, they are both going to produce fine graduates.

UCVM's clinical skills building tour is very impressive. Despite being certain I wanted to go to WCVM, after that tour I was uncertain and thought about choosing UCVM, despite the fact that I wanted to do exclusively small animals once I graduated and UCVM not having a branch for small animals.

You have to think a lot about what you want to do and what learning style fits you best. UCVM does have more hands-on and has more communication and professional skills training. WCVM's aim for our class is to have about 100 hours in communications training by the time we graduate, but that is not as much as what is offered at UCVM and OVC. UCVM also uses a distributed learning system, which includes a lot of travelling. You have to think about whether you would like to travel a lot in fourth year, or have the option of doing occasional externships at WCVM but spend the majority of your rotations at the teaching hospital.

Electives-wise, I do think WCVM has more electives and allows for a more flexible curriculum than UCVM. WCVM's electives start in third year, and you can choose all small animal electives or all large animal electives or a mix of both, and I believe there's other electives that include poultry or fish. In fourth year, you have a few required rotations, but you get a lot of choice, and can again do mostly small animal/large animal/both. Last year, the UCVM dean mentioned that fourth year rotations can have a maximum of 50% small animal.

Last year when I interviewed, the UCVM dean also mentioned a "mandate" for UCVM to do mixed practice and for WCVM to lean towards small animal. This is not true, or if it is, it's not being applied. First year at WCVM has had a slight large animal slant if anything. Their large animal department is very well-developed. I was born and raised in Calgary, and when UCVM started all the rumours were that you should go to UCVM for mixed practice and WCVM for small animal. I carried this notion with me when I started at WCVM, and I have been proven very wrong.

If cost is an issue, UCVM is more expensive. They will offer you a scholarship if you get in, and if you're particularly high-ranking they'll offer even more. For their normal scholarship, tuition would still be more expensive than at WCVM. However, the clinical skills building is new and has a lot of nice technology, and some of the stuff at WCVM is fairly old. UCVM's anatomy lab is definitely nicer.

At the end of the day, both schools will produce fine graduates, and it's up to you to weigh the differences and decide which school you would like the best.

 

[thnythe]

A few more points to think about:

Based on the information I received from UCVM students and professors, I think that the UCVM program has the potential to be a better fit if you are specifically interested in one of their four areas of focus. After all, those are the niches in vetmed that the UCVM was originally looking to fill. Their smaller class size may also be beneficial.

In addition to the teaching hospital, the WCVM also works with Prairie Diagnostic Services that runs out of the school. This is a great resource for learning pathology and having a lot of hands-on experience. Also, the WCVM has been building resources for over 20 years, so there may be more available in terms of books, anatomy/pathology specimens, learning tools, etc.

With the WCVM you also have the benefit of knowing the track record of a very high success rate on the NAVLE. As UCVM will graduate their first class in 2012, that information isn't available yet. However, I am sure that their graduating classes will also be successful.

If you end up getting into both schools, I would advise talking to current students about their experience. That way you can ask questions related to your own interests and get the best fit for you. Good luck!

 

[horseygurl]

Thank you very much for the info! I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. At WCVM how much clinical exposure and animal exposure do you gain during the first couple years? I am interested in large animal medicine and that is why I considered UCVM because I too was informed that the Alberta seats at WCVM were for small animal students. But I grew up always dreaming of attending WCVM so thats why I was suprised when I toured UCVM that I began to actually want to go there as before I only applied as a back up to WCVM. I have also been told that WCVM accepts more elite students and have higher GPAs when compared to UCVM. In the class of 2014 my academic advisor told me that a student at UCVM was accepted with a 3.11.... that seemed very low to me. Would WCVM even interview an applicant that low? I know on the weekend UCVM interviewed over 120 applicants and turned down applicants that met the min requirements for admission. So it does not appear that they are hurting for applicants but I wonder about the quality of vets they will produce if they accept students at a 3.0 gpa. I always thought students in that range should be considering AHT. Not to offend any students in that range, I guess I am wondering if WCVM interviews that low in to the applicant pool or not.

Any UCVM students care to offer some insight?

 

[Braki]

This website says the mean GPA for UCVM students in 2008 was 3.5. UCVM does interview a lot of people. WCVM will interview approximately twice the number of students that they will accept. The GPA needed to get an interview will vary by year and by province, but in Alberta, generally you would need a 3.4 in order to get an interview with WCVM.

Frankly, in the first two years, you do not get a lot of clinical experience in WCVM's curriculum. In the first semester of first year, we have animal behaviour, which is mostly focused on large animal behaviour. For the first two months or so of first year, you get to do animal behaviour labs, and most of them involve handling cows and horses, although they do try to add in other species like chickens, rodents, pet birds, sheep, pigs, etc. After that, I don't think there is a whole lot of animal handling until third year. However, having said this, there are a lot of student clubs at WCVM that can fill in on a lot of that. There is a bovine club and an equine club. I didn't join them, but from what I've seen they do try to get a lot of hands-on experience. Just last weekend some of my classmates spent the weekend at a large animal vet's and went out with him during his calving calls. As for my experience, I have been able to do some pretty fun small animal labs. There was a pretty cool lab teaching dental nerve blocks in cats, and an absolutely awesome lab from the emergency/critical care club where we learned how to do closed and open chest CPR.

And once again to emphasize that WCVM is not a small animal school: in my class, when we did a poll to see what people wanted to go into, the results were about 40% mixed animal, 20% equine, 30% small animal, and 10% other (wildlife/zoo/poultry/avian and exotics/etc.).

 

[thnythe]

I agree, in terms of in-class hands on time there isn't too much in the first two years. But as Braki mentioned there are a lot of clubs with labs! Additionally students are free to attend large animal rounds each morning, and free to visit the teaching hospital whenever you want (or have the time!).

As for second year, it is mostly hands on with dead things for pathology, lol. But in the last quarter (Feb-April) there are a ton of fun labs. The clinical exam and diagnosis class has a lab every week on how to perform a physical exam of all the species, how to perform a neurological exam, respiratory exam, etc.

There is also a surgical skills lab every week, which is my favourite. Every week we scrub into surgeries and practice different procedures on cadavers. It doesn't include live animals, but it is still really interesting (and applicable) to be able to perform an exploratory laparotomy, biopsies, splenectomy, etc.