Western College of Veterinary Medicine (USask)

[TangerineKik]

Does anyone here go to WCVM? Would you be able to tell me a bit about the curriculum? I've been looking all over but the USask links are broken and I can't figure out the general idea of what you're learning. I mean, do you focus evenly on small and large animals? What about exotic? In the last two years you have clinical right - does that mean you actually go off campus or is it at the oncampus hospital etc? I'm confused.

Thanks a lot!

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[lcarter103]

I'm just finishing up second year at WCVM. Our class is actually the first class in which a brand new curriculum was implemented. The new curriculum is a core-elective program. That means that for the first two years, we all take the exact same courses (first year: anatomy, physiology etc, second year: pathology, microbiology, virology etc). The fun comes in third year, when we get to take electives that we choose. I'm not quite sure how it's going to work yet, as there still are required "core" courses in third year as well (large animal and small animal medicine and surgery, etc), but in addition to those, we get the option of taking relevant courses that we're interested in. For example, there are elective courses in advanced small animal radiology, bovine procedures, small animal nutrition, equine surgery, etc. That gives us the option of "streamlining" our curriculum a little in 3rd year. I know there is a core exotics medicine/surgery course in 3rd year, but I'm not sure if there will be an exotics elective as well.

The 4th year is our clinical year, where we spend the whole year doing rotations at the teaching hospital at WCVM. There are a few external rotations that we can take, and you can do externships, but most of the rotations are at the college. There is the ability to pick and choose which rotations you want to take as well, although there are a few core rotations (like large animal surgery/medicine, small animal surgery/medicine, anesthesiology, etc).

So basically, for the first 3 and a half-ish years, you focus pretty evenly on small and large animals, and then after that you do have the option to pick courses/rotations that are in your area of interest, to some degree.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[TangerineKik]

Thank you that's really helpful. I'll certainly let you know if I think of anything else.

 

[wildwo2]

I'm just finishing up second year at WCVM. Our class is actually the first class in which a brand new curriculum was implemented. The new curriculum is a core-elective program. That means that for the first two years, we all take the exact same courses (first year: anatomy, physiology etc, second year: pathology, microbiology, virology etc). The fun comes in third year, when we get to take electives that we choose. I'm not quite sure how it's going to work yet, as there still are required "core" courses in third year as well (large animal and small animal medicine and surgery, etc), but in addition to those, we get the option of taking relevant courses that we're interested in. For example, there are elective courses in advanced small animal radiology, bovine procedures, small animal nutrition, equine surgery, etc. That gives us the option of "streamlining" our curriculum a little in 3rd year. I know there is a core exotics medicine/surgery course in 3rd year, but I'm not sure if there will be an exotics elective as well.

The 4th year is our clinical year, where we spend the whole year doing rotations at the teaching hospital at WCVM. There are a few external rotations that we can take, and you can do externships, but most of the rotations are at the college. There is the ability to pick and choose which rotations you want to take as well, although there are a few core rotations (like large animal surgery/medicine, small animal surgery/medicine, anesthesiology, etc).

So basically, for the first 3 and a half-ish years, you focus pretty evenly on small and large animals, and then after that you do have the option to pick courses/rotations that are in your area of interest, to some degree.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

How competitive is this school to get into? How many hours of animal experience should I have?

 

[Braki]

Competitiveness depends on the province you're from. Alberta and BC are the most competitive provinces. There is a stats page here: http://explore.usask.ca/programs/nondirect/vm/#stats showing applicants for the last two years.

They don't concentrate as much on the set number of hours you have as they do on what you learn during your experiences. I got in with ~400 hours of small animal experience. Interviews are mainly decided based on grades, and they interview about 2x the quota.

They try to keep it fairly evenly split between large and small animal, but first year does seem to have a small bias towards large animals (due to nutrition and behaviour specifically).