For all of you current wsu vet students, I was wondering if you could give us an idea of how the first year will go? How much time do you spend in class, how much "free" time do you have (if any lol). Would you say it's akin to a fulltime job in terms of hours?
Thanks so much!
I think it is all relative to what you are used to. Time management is pretty important, but there is plenty of time to play. First semester honestly isn't that bad if you know how you need to study. Anatomy is a bit of a pain, but you'll get through it.
Class time will depend on your lab sections. The lab schedule is a little awkward first year, so there may be some gaps where you are on campus waiting for a class. The best day I had first semester, I could leave by noon, and the worst not until 5.
Free time is also pretty variable. Some weeks, you won't have any (usually due to pesky exams
🙁). Others, you might get bored. Class is only part of vet school -most of us stay busy with clubs, extracurricular stuff, and the vet school festivities that tend to go on during the weekends.
Adding the Intro to Surgery to the first year was a actually great move. It lets us learn something clinical to start off, and opens up a lot of opportunities in externships, and in the hospital if you are in the right place at the right time. The downside is that junior surgery is coming down the tracks really fast for my class, and it's been a long time since we learned that stuff. However, some of the surgeons have put together a "practice" curriculum, where we do closures/lumpectomies/anastomoses, etc. I'm fairly sure that this will continue for other classes.
It's really hard to describe first year (barring specific questions). It's a culture shock, at times way better and and at times way worse than undergrad, but I never had a day where I wanted to be anywhere else. The best advice I can give you is to Not Stress!
