University of Georgia

[smilin1590]

I was interested in hearing what people think about the University of Georgia Vet school. I just would like to know the pros and cons if any. Thanks!

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[BayleeVet2B]

I was interested in hearing what people think about the University of Georgia Vet school. I just would like to know the pros and cons if any. Thanks!

PRO: They accepted ME!!

When I visited....EVERYONE I met was very friendly and welcoming. I was impressed with the facilities at the CVM and the campus. I've been several times back to Athens to look for a place to live and LOVE the area, except for the tornado siren that we experienced the one weekend we were there!
Will get back to you with more after I start in August!

 

[projekt]

Pro: Friendly professors, good students, plenty of activities (we have a very active and well funded SCAVMA), Clinicals from march of junior year to may of senior year, plenty of externships, lots of love for public health and research. Junior surgery starts march of sophomore year.

Con: Traditional memorization-based curriculum, several tricky professors, dwindling support from state government and university during economic crisis, hospital shows its age and the new one probably won't be finished until 2014. Also, if you like pomp and circumstance, they don't seem to be very much aware of how to do it

 

[LVT2DVM]

several "tricky" professors

Care to elaborate projekt?

 

[almostglue]

several tricky professors

To be honest (and I hope everyone realizes this), you're going to have good professors and bad professors at every school. You're also going to have the 'tricky' professors that you learn the most from even if your grade wasn't stellar. (Not to mention some people may think an exam was completely fair while others thought it was tricky). Maybe projekt has a different definition of tricky and I misinterpreted wrong, but I just wanted the throw this out there - this kind of thing will be the same everywhere!

I like Georgia. I do think the professors are very friendly and very helpful for planning your future. If you have any specific topics you'd like to know more about I can try and help you.

ps - projekt: what kind of pomp and circumstance would you like, just out of curiosity? (I have nothing to compare it to, so I'm interested to know what I'm missing out on! )

 

[BayleeVet2B]

Pros:
High-ranked.
Generally good weather.
Lots of specialists.
Thorough curriculum.
Anatomy lab has both structured and unstructured times.
Students do both large and small animal dissections.
High-quality histology lab.
Generally bike friendly, but very hilly.
Scooters are encouraged and park for free.
Parking is available and the waiting list is short, but it's $20-40/month.
Athens is a fun place.
Lots of clubs, but 1st years don't have much time.
Elective courses are cool.
Faculty are generally excited about students.
Mentoring program.
No required technology. You can come here without a computer, but it's harder.
Special non-profit bookstore.

Cons:
96 students/class (I consider that LARGE!)
Uncomfortable lecture halls.
Hospital is aging and won't be replaced until after I leave.
Republican state government thinks it's a good idea to de-fund education during an economic downturn.
Attendance is mandatory.
Most teachers just read their notes to you, making mandatory attendance that much more dreary.
No live animals in 1st year except the palpation dogs.
Very little case-based learning.

 

[LVT2DVM]

Cons:
96 students/class (I consider that LARGE!)
Uncomfortable lecture halls.
Hospital is aging and won't be replaced until after I leave.
Republican state government thinks it's a good idea to de-fund education during an economic downturn.
Attendance is mandatory.
Most teachers just read their notes to you, making mandatory attendance that much more dreary.
No live animals in 1st year except the palpation dogs.
Very little case-based learning

I'll add to these things Ive heard: Campus is not technologically advanced (registration system antiquated and time consuming, poor access to AC plug-ins and space for laptops/tablets in lecture halls, not all lecture notes and PP slides are computer accessible.)

Okay, since there really isnt much we can do about GA's govt, and at least they're working on funding/building a new facility (even though our class wont get to take advantage of it)....Can I ask if any of the current students; has anyone ever commented, say to the dean of students, on the issues in black and how did they respond? I guess what Im asking is how amendable to suggestions are the powers that be or is it more like "if you dont like, lump it, be happy your here" kind of atmosphere.

 

[237397]

I've been in most of the lecture halls in the vet school at UGA. The first-year room is just chairs with fold-out mini-desks attached to the chairs... it really isn't very laptop-friendly, but they've got extension cords strewn all over the room so everyone who wants to use their laptop can plug it in. Yeah, it sounds kind of like a fire hazard, but it seems to work.

The other lecture halls are well-equipped with outlets in the desks between the seats. So after your first year, you'll be much more comfortable.

I can't answer for the PPs and notes... but I can vouch for the Southern hospitality mentioned earlier. Georgia has a certain Southern charm that I didn't really recognize until I started my internship in Orlando. (Big city, not very friendly. Apparently you're not supposed to make eye contact with people you pass on the sidewalk. Oops.) Atlanta isn't quite as friendly, but you'll hear about it when someone violates the Georgia hospitality code in Athens.

And if you want a real taste of down-home Georgia, take a side trip to Watkinsville. <3!

 

[almostglue]

I'll add to these things Ive heard: Campus is not technologically advanced (registration system antiquated and time consuming, poor access to AC plug-ins and space for laptops/tablets in lecture halls, not all lecture notes and PP slides are computer accessible.)

Okay, since there really isnt much we can do about GA's govt, and at least they're working on funding/building a new facility (even though our class wont get to take advantage of it)....Can I ask if any of the current students; has anyone ever commented, say to the dean of students, on the issues in black and how did they respond? I guess what Im asking is how amendable to suggestions are the powers that be or is it more like "if you dont like, lump it, be happy your here" kind of atmosphere.

For the large majority, the lecture notes and PPTs/PDFs are online. There's a few teachers that refuse to post their notes (they have their reasons, even if I can't understand them), but those are few and far between. In fact I can only think of 1 course where we had that problem (although, it's been awhile so projekt may have something different to say). I tend to remember things like that, and usually if you ask the professor to post the notes in a different format or whatever they're pretty good about it.

As far as professors just reading the ppt's - once again: that's something that's going to happen everywhere and I honestly wouldn't say it's that terrible at UGA. Maybe first year it is, but once you get into the more clinical stuff it gets better. And your really good teacher's don't hardly even look at the ppt's at all - they engage the class and tell stories about cases that demonstrate what they're talking about. It's kind of the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher (at least a major factor). I'm not gonna lie - there's some ridiculously boring classes you have to sit through, but don't rule out UGA to avoid them (unfortunately they're everywhere).

There are live animals first year. It's not much, but it's something. You'll have palpator dogs in canine anatomy first semester and equine palpation on blood donor horses second semester for LA anatomy. Additionally second semester, you take a class called Physical Diagnosis where you get some interaction with all different species (cats, dogs, sheep, goats, horses, cows). Probably the only time I'll ever touch a sheep, to be honest, but I digress. It's a pretty fun class. The dogs and cats are from the shelters so you do a physical exam, practice drawing blood for HW/FeLV/FIV tests and give vaccinations. The large animal stuff is also physical exam, putting on a halter, IDing breeds, etc. It's a nice break from the classroom, I thought. It's at least a good start at getting some hands on experience.

The curriculum is not set up as PBL. We have made progress in that there's an elective course in small animal (albeit the numbers that get in are very small ~20 people) that is a PBL type thing. There's also an elective for the LA folks that's similar. It's a start and hopefully it will continue into becoming a more core part of the curriculum. I do wish that we had at least one course each semester that was case based (I know there's a lot of schools that have at least that level of PBL). However, I must say - I don't feel like the learning style at UGA without PBL has hindered me at all from succeeding in clinics. I don't think I would do well with a strictly PBL curriculum such as at Cornell or Western, but some degree of it would be nice.

As far as mandatory attendance - that's a battle you're never going to win. Honestly, I don't blame the administration. However, I suppose if you want to waste the money you're paying on tuition by skipping class that's up to you, but on the other hand you may miss something important that one day could help you save a patient's life. It's probably not that dramatic, but I think you should sit through class out of respect for the lives you'll be responsible for some day. But that's my opinion and I've never skipped a class in my entire life so maybe I'm just a dork.

Each class president has a student/faculty liaison meeting once a month. You can talk to your class president about your concerns and they bring them up in the meeting with the administration and other key people. I'm not sure how much it helps - it really depends on the issue. The admins can tell teachers to liven up their lectures, but really, how effective do you think that would be? It's not going to come down to firing them, that's for sure. So I think you just voice what you can, fill out the evals, and move on. You also have a curriculum committee member in each class and I know that adding some PBL into the curriculum has been brought up, and I've actually seen that change as the SA PBL elective was brand new my first year. Curriculum changes are really slow, however. But they are occurring. I think university bureaucracy is going to be the same everywhere - really slow progress on anything of major importance and even things of minor importance.

Anyway, sorry for the novel. Hopefully it was helpful for you, let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[LVT2DVM]

As far as mandatory attendance - that's a battle you're never going to win. Honestly, I don't blame the administration. However, I suppose if you want to waste the money you're paying on tuition by skipping class that's up to you, but on the other hand you may miss something important that one day could help you save a patient's life. It's probably not that dramatic, but I think you should sit through class out of respect for the lives you'll be responsible for some day. But that's my opinion and I've never skipped a class in my entire life so maybe I'm just a dork.quote]

Actually, I totally agree with you. I HATE missing classes. Mostly, what concerned me with bayleevet's statement was, as a mom, sometimes things happen with you kids that are unexpected. What happens in those circumstances. With my DH taking on a new job, I cant imagine him being able to take multiple days off if someone has an illness or whatever.

 

[BayleeVet2B]

Actually, I totally agree with you. I HATE missing classes. Mostly, what concerned me with bayleevet's statement was, as a mom, sometimes things happen with you kids that are unexpected. What happens in those circumstances. With my DH taking on a new job, I cant imagine him being able to take multiple days off if someone has an illness or whatever.

What did I say?!?!?!?

 

[LVT2DVM]

Sorry Baylee, poor choice of words. I didnt mean it personally. I was referring to your post that had the mandatory attendance comment listed as a UGA CON.

 

[almostglue]

There's always excused absences for those kinds of situations. Plus, no one takes attendance unless it's a lab session and the professors are generally very understanding of situations like that. Additionally, if it's something that can be somewhat planned usually a classmate can switch with you (make friends with people in different lab groups if you have to!).

I think the current freshman class had a major problem with attendance (as in tons of people didn't show up the professors got mad) and now have taken it upon themselves to take attendance, but it's the class officers that set that up. One would hope it shouldn't come to this every year... But if you have a valid reason no one's going to fire you (and most people won't even notice). It's just when large numbers of people are missing from a class that it becomes a specific problem.

 

[BayleeVet2B]

Sorry Baylee, poor choice of words. I didnt mean it personally. I was referring to your post that had the mandatory attendance comment listed as a UGA CON.

hehe...no problem! That wasn't even my original post! Just adding it from the discussion that went over factors when deciding a school!
So far...UGA has only PRO comments from me!!

 

[projekt]

I think the current freshman class had a major problem with attendance (as in tons of people didn't show up the professors got mad) and now have taken it upon themselves to take attendance, but it's the class officers that set that up.

They didn't take attendance, the secretary did a headcount a little after 8AM and again at 10AM so that we would have real numbers to talk about when discussing it with the administration. The admin wanted our class officers to try to enforce compliance with the attendance policy and the numbers enabled them to argue that compliance is as good as it has ever been. The head count also reduced the number of pop quizzes professors wanted to give to our class.

Several people never come to class, and a bunch always miss 8AM classes.

In re your earlier thing about tricky professors, I mean the ones who don't feel like writing an exam that tests your knowledge and just write ones that they know people will do poorly at. I won't mention any names, but I think exams should test knowledge you were expected to have learned, not things you may have discovered in your experience and vast reading of the subject. Also, if you are focusing on something in one class, asking memorization material from a different class that wasn't mentioned is a bit unfair. It would be one thing if it were a clinically-oriented class like emergency or or clinical thinking, but when it's not, that's unfair and tricky.

The main problem I have with UGA's teaching style is that it wastes our time being read to by professors the same exact material we have in our notes. We should have fewer lecture sessions with fewer students where we are already expected to have read the material and are ready to discuss it. I think we would accomplish a lot more and it would be less demoralizing.

When we get going we have about 7 mandatory hours of class a day. For those of us who are not good auditory learners, it's a complete waste of time. It is highly unlikely that I will be able to regurg any of that later.

 

[projekt]

I'll add to these things Ive heard: Campus is not technologically advanced (registration system antiquated and time consuming, poor access to AC plug-ins and space for laptops/tablets in lecture halls, not all lecture notes and PP slides are computer accessible.)

Can I ask if any of the current students; has anyone ever commented, say to the dean of students, on the issues in black and how did they respond?

The attendance thing seems to be non-negotiable. Some of the stuff is not going to change because there's no money. The registration system is fine, in my opinion. Not as good as some schools, but not the worst. We don't deal directly with OASIS, but we use SOCRATES and someone in the academic affairs office handles add/drop.

I don't know if they want to add more case-based learning. I would like it, but it doesn't seem to be a priority. I would think it would be good to do an honest assessment of other schools' approaches and see what can be done to change our curriculum, but the metrics are fine at UGA. People are passing boards at a good rate and that's really what matters, unless better metrics are devised.