So currently the curriculum is around 9am-5pm classes/labs everyday, with some days ending earlier at around 3 pm or so. It varies from semester to semester, and second semester first year starts off with a lot of down time. However, there’s a curriculum redesign in process so things will change soon and what I said won’t apply anymore.
Working this many hours isn’t practical in vet school, not just Penn, but any vet school. Some people will take jobs in the library or something super flexible like that, but most people don’t work at all except for summer breaks. It’s really not that the material is particularly difficult, it’s the volume of material you get in a short time. I think my entire undergrad semester of biochemistry was covered in about 3 days in vet school, and then we had several weeks of new material on top of that.
Just to add a little to what has already been said, there will be things that are required outside normal class hours like shadowing shifts/labs etc. at the small and large animal hospitals. Shifts may be either 7-9 am or 5-8 pm on weekdays as well as all day on some weekends. Working a job that requires that many hours probably wouldn't allow you to manage the "after class" obligations that come up here and there in vet school. I work one of the small jobs through the school that's just a few hours/a couple days per week and even that can take some juggling with the required weekend and evening/morning hospital shifts that come up. So even ignoring the workload/studying aspect, I think something that required 2-3 hours a night and 5-10 hours on Saturdays would be next to impossible.
I remember after one anatomy practical my friend excitedly told me that she finally had time to cut her toe nails. Same friend bought underwear online because she didn’t have time to do laundry (I completely understood both of these things at the time. I was/am not judging her at all!)
True that. Everyone walks in being like Imma crush this ****. First make sure you can pass all your classes 😆
Can only speak for first year: it’s mildly hands on, if you mean live animals. You have a few intro to clinical vet med labs that give you experience handling and examining cats, dogs, and large animals. These labs continue as the course does throughout your first years.
