Vet AP Residency - UGA vs UPenn vs Johns Hopkins

[weakassistance]

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Hi, everyone! I'm a current vet student interested in pursuing an anatomic pathology residency. I'm having a hard time finding any information on personal experiences and reputations of residencies, and I was wondering if anyone has any insight on UGA, UPenn, and JH. Any information would be greatly appreciated, specifically workload, living in these cities, reputations, etc. TIA!

 

[supershorty]

@weakassistance You might want to edit your title to indicate you're asking about path residencies, people might think this is in the wrong forum because they won't think of Hopkins as being vet-related otherwise.

Tagging @WhtsThFrequency and @awesomenessity in case they have any thoughts on these programs.

 

[battie]

One of my besties is an AP and I'm pretty sure she did her residency at UGA. I'll let you know what she says

 

[weakassistance]

One of my besties is an AP and I'm pretty sure she did her residency at UGA. I'll let you know what she says

Thank you so much!

 

[battie]

Sent you a DM

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

One of my besties is an AP and I'm pretty sure she did her residency at UGA. I'll let you know what she says

Do we have the same bestie lol? Mine did too and had nothing but good things to say about UGA. My closest resident-mate from Texas A&M is there now as faculty as well I believe <3. If you end up there, you'll be in good hands OP.

I know you didn't mention it, but I personally will always HIGHLY recommend A&M where I did mine as well - could not have asked for a better experience and it was such a wonderfully structured, close-knit and friendly program - they work you hard but support you fully the whole way. If I had to do it all over again I would go there again without question, even though I didn't much like Texas as a state/place to live (I don't do well in hot weather). There is a reason their first-time boards pass rate is phenomenal. If you want more info on TAMU feel free to drop me a line.

UPenn I don't know as much about, but a friend of mine went there for vet school and said the pathology department as a whole was friendly and supportive. JH I don't know that much about except I would be curious how the caseload is distributed and what species they see - I imagine it is mostly lab animal heavy unless they contract you out to go do things at state labs.

 

[battie]

Do we have the same bestie lol? Mine did too and had nothing but good things to say about UGA. My closest resident-mate from Texas A&M is there now as faculty as well I believe <3. If you end up there, you'll be in good hands OP.

Probs not cause we graduated vet school in 2021 🤣

 

[weakassistance]

Do we have the same bestie lol? Mine did too and had nothing but good things to say about UGA. My closest resident-mate from Texas A&M is there now as faculty as well I believe <3. If you end up there, you'll be in good hands OP.

I know you didn't mention it, but I personally will always HIGHLY recommend A&M where I did mine as well - could not have asked for a better experience and it was such a wonderfully structured, close-knit and friendly program - they work you hard but support you fully the whole way. If I had to do it all over again I would go there again without question, even though I didn't much like Texas as a state/place to live (I don't do well in hot weather). There is a reason their first-time boards pass rate is phenomenal. If you want more info on TAMU feel free to drop me a line.

UPenn I don't know as much about, but a friend of mine went there for vet school and said the pathology department as a whole was friendly and supportive. JH I don't know that much about except I would be curious how the caseload is distributed and what species they see - I imagine it is mostly lab animal heavy unless they contract you out to go do things at state labs.

Thank you! I haven't looked into A&M but I will definitely check out their program

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Probs not cause we graduated vet school in 2021 🤣

 

[battie]

View attachment 418647

I'm literally LOLing right now 🤣

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

To be fair I was 2010 so it isn’t THAT bad 😂 but I couldn’t resist. One of the narrative comments on my recent student evaluations was that I had “Gen Z energy”, and I could only think well, my brain says sure 😎 but my lower back begs to differ 💀

 

[battie]

To be fair I was 2010 so it isn’t THAT bad 😂 but I couldn’t resist. One of the narrative comments on my recent student evaluations was that I had “Gen Z energy”, and I could only think well, my brain says sure 😎 but my lower back begs to differ 💀

That's when I graduated high school 😶

So many of my assistants are Gen Z and I use slang at home. My husband gives me side eye 🤣

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

That's when I graduated high school 😶

So many of my assistants are Gen Z and I use slang at home. My husband gives me side eye 🤣

Upside of an elder Millennial 2008-2002 high school experience - our phones didn’t all have cameras that could permanently record all our misbehavior until the end of time 😈 although lemme tell you bout all the MySpace drama! Aight I’ll go back to my bog witch cave now, I think it’s time to eat my pudding and put Icy Hot on my knees 😭😂

I’ve picked up a lot of the current slang too. Academia keeps you young in some ways, it really does.

 

[#LetsDoThis]

Hi, I am a rising 3rd year AP resident at Johns Hopkins. I externed at several schools during vet school, including Texas A&M, UC Davis, and Oregon State, prior to applying to residency- I would HIGHLY recommend doing that to get a feel for the program. We do take externs here, and I can get you contact info if interested. JH fits a very specific type of person; you must be able to work independently and handle a fairly high case load right from the start. Most of us are on an NIH T-32 grant and paid on the NIH postdoc pay scale, meaning we are among the highest-paid residencies for AP in the country, if not the highest. It also means individuals applying for this position must be interested in research and/or in pursuing a PhD, if they don't have one yet. Most of your cases are acquired in your first year when you are on call the most, and then your on-call schedule is throttled back while you are doing PhD things. Not sure how future employers feel about our pathology training program, but I do think a benefit of this program is a highly regarded PhD from the school of medicine (generally in Pathobiology or Cellular and Molecular Medicine).

My case distribution is ~50% lab animals, ~48% zoo/exotics from the zoo and aquarium, and ~2% companion animals (including biopsies- I have had a total of 2 canines and 0 feline necropsies). Lab animals include monkeys (mostly rhesus macaques and marmoset but a few others too), rats, mice, small ruminants, pigs, rabbits, amphibians, fish, etc. Zoo and aquatic animals are *wildly* variable- pun intended.

Baltimore is called Charm City... That being said, the amount of "charm" varies from street to street. It can be very nice and friendly sometimes, and other times I am peeking through my window blinds watching the crazy ensue.

Hi, everyone! I'm a current vet student interested in pursuing an anatomic pathology residency. I'm having a hard time finding any information on personal experiences and reputations of residencies, and I was wondering if anyone has any insight on UGA, UPenn, and JH. Any information would be greatly appreciated, specifically workload, living in these cities, reputations, etc. TIA!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

@#LetsDoThis I've always been curious about how the caseload and species distribution at JH works with Phase II of the board exam, which is anywhere from 50-70% domestic species (dog, cat, horse, cow etc). How does your program support you in gaining competency in these species for the purposes of boards? Is it mostly self-driven/what resources are provided?

On the flip side I am jealous of your exotics exposure! Whenever I get a reptile or a fish on the floor or thru biopsy, I have to crack open the books for sure 😆

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Hi, I am a rising 3rd year AP resident at Johns Hopkins. I externed at several schools during vet school, including Texas A&M, UC Davis, and Oregon State, prior to applying to residency- I would HIGHLY recommend doing that to get a feel for the program. We do take externs here, and I can get you contact info if interested. JH fits a very specific type of person; you must be able to work independently and handle a fairly high case load right from the start. Most of us are on an NIH T-32 grant and paid on the NIH postdoc pay scale, meaning we are among the highest-paid residencies for AP in the country, if not the highest. It also means individuals applying for this position must be interested in research and/or in pursuing a PhD, if they don't have one yet. Most of your cases are acquired in your first year when you are on call the most, and then your on-call schedule is throttled back while you are doing PhD things. Not sure how future employers feel about our pathology training program, but I do think a benefit of this program is a highly regarded PhD from the school of medicine (generally in Pathobiology or Cellular and Molecular Medicine).

I forgot to also highlight this - excellent point and I could not agree more. Not only does it help put a face to a name for the program itself, but applicants can get a much better "real world" view of the program itself. Especially if you are able to work closely with the residents and get their feelings on the program directly.