First year here. I really genuinely like the school. The professors are overall very good, they want you to pass all your classes and understand the material, and while there a lectures that don’t really make sense you can always watch them again online and review the material. Penn isn’t in the business of taking your money and leaving you to fail out. They throw a ton of credits and work at you first semester and then it calms down apparently. Anatomy is really my only complaint in that it’s a ton of material with your main source of guidance being the textbook, but it’s honestly fine. It’s a beast of a class at every school and if you put in the hours in lab to understand the material then you’ll learn. We do it very quickly (all of the dog minus the head in around 5-6 weeks) so that’s difficult. But manageable.
There’s also a great sense of camaraderie and it’s not competitive at all. Rankings are a thing but no one cares yet, and upperclassmen have said no one ends up caring when they’re released anyway (save for a few people). Everyone is in it together and is very helpful. People share notes, old exams, and quizlets to give everyone a chance to do well together. We also have a free Happy Hour in the student lounge every Friday after class when people go and get up to three drinks (beer, cider, white claw type drinks) for free. Professors go too and guests are welcome. It’s really awesome to just unwind with your classmates and hang out in a setting where nothing matters. This is something that I haven’t heard of at other schools. Not necessarily a main selling point but it’s really cool hahaha.
I would honestly say vet school sounds extremely difficult and taxing everywhere. I’ve also heard from other first years that so far, it’s less work at their school than it is here. But that varies from semester to semester. Penn has been doing this for a very long time, and they know how to make good vets. You get lots of opportunities to shadow the different departments at the hospital and get into clinical settings. You can do it as much as you want. So far, emergency services, neurology, onco, and surgery have shadowing availability. There are other departments you can get into for rounds if you want as well. I haven’t been doing this recently because of exams, but it’s really cool to work with the fourth years, interns, residents, and attendings in a clinical setting as early as your second week.
Once you come to penn and see what it’s like, you’ll fall in love with it. It’s a cool setting in that it’s smack dab in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the country. New Bolton Center is out in the country sort of and is a much different setting for the large animal facility. The school has some very new state of the art facilities but also some very old (like, over a century old) facilities that are charming and have a lot of history associated with them. It’s very interesting and reminds you of where you are and who came before you. I can’t see myself at any other school, and I’m very happy I chose Penn. If you have any specific questions, let me know!
