1) Were you happy/satisfied with the university's response/handling of COVID? Why or why not?
2) How will the pandemic affect the upcoming year? Any plan of action? For example, Michigan is offering a hybrid curriculum of distance classrooms and in person labs in small groups and PPE.
3) Seems like Wisconsin has more of a traditional lecture based curriculum. Do you like it? Do you like your professors? Anything you wish was different or improved for the program?
4) What resources are there for students? I know about the school therapist. Any others?
5) Do you feel well supported by the program and administration?
6) Do you enjoy living in Madison? If so, why? Do you find the cost of living and quality of life there to be reasonable?
7) I feel like in the past two months I've been hearing a lot of scandals from UW in general in regards to sexual harassment or racism from one of their departments, which makes me nervous as a non-white woman. Do you feel as if the university appropriately handled these incidences and supported the victims of these incidences?
8) How much financial support does the university give? Any opportunities for out of state students to receive in state tuition?
For what it's worth, everyone I talked to who ever visited or lived in Madison tells me how much they love it. Would love a vet student perspective on it 🙂
1)
I thought that the handling of COVID was appropriate last year. It was pretty identical to other schools. I thought most of the courses adapted fairly well to online (with the exception of Large Animal Anatomy).
2) We still need to receive more information regarding this upcoming school year, but they will be requiring masks for any in-person classes. There is still more than they need to discuss, but there's a fair amount of information here:
Planning a Smart Restart for UW-Madison
3) I do like the lecture-based curriculum. I believe that MSU is pretty self-guided, and that makes me nervous from an accountability aspect. I like the lectures because I can go and ask questions and it is a style of learning that works for me. I absolutely loved most of our professors. There are certainly some that weren't perfect, but I think that will be the case anywhere. Several times our classes would end at like 5ish and some would go into the anatomy lab to study. Our anatomy professors would either come in without being asked, or be willing to stay late if you asked, to go over material. They really do want you to learn.
4) I'm not the most knowledgeable about that, as I don't utilize any of it. But I know some of my classmates do and from what I've heard, there are plenty of resources available. They are heavily focused on trying to ensure we stay healthy mentally.
5) I certainly feel very well supported! They do want you to succeed. If they notice anybody struggling, they will reach out at the first sign of trouble. When we transitioned to online, I forgot about an online quiz that we had to do. The next day, the professor emailed me and wanted to make sure that I was ok, then she let me retake the quiz with no points taken off.
6) I love Madison. There's so much to do over the summer - tons of outdoors activities, an amazing farmers market, a couple of lakes nearby, and more. Although, without my amazing classmates, it definitely wouldn't be as fun ( so it is very dependent on your friends). In terms of cost of living, it's slightly more expensive than I was used to in undergrad. We pay $1530 for a 3 bed/2 bath apartment and that's a cheaper option, but it is definitely an older apartment. I have no problem with my quality of life, I do wish the apartment was a little nicer, that's just because I came from a privileged life. I could get a nicer apartment, I would just be paying more.
7) I know that they have had a few scandals, I've never felt uncomfortable at the vet school, but I'm also a white male. At the vet school, Madison is taking down the class pictures and digitizing them, they are also removing the busts of our past white, male deans in an attempt to make the space more inclusive.
8) There are no opportunities for out of state students to get in state tuition, unfortunately. But the financial aid has been substantial. Everybody that I spoke to received at least one scholarship. I'm an in-state student and I took the full amount that the government offered (40,000), but the estimated cost of attendance is about $55,000 for in-state students. With the scholarships, I didn't ever feel like I was financially pressured.
)
