Which classes helped (or would have helped) you most prior to vet school?

[Mythical]

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For all the vet students (present and past) out there, which classes do you think helped you the most prior to your first year in vet school? Or in retrospect, which classes do you think would have helped you prior to first year?

I've heard from many vet students (and vets) that an anatomy course was really helpful to have prior to first year of vet school so you can start to get familiar with all the names of bones, nerves, muscles, etc., you will need to learn.

I really appreciate your advice. Thank you!

 

[Lab Vet]

Anatomy (human or animal- makes no difference) or comparative vertebrate morphology. ANY class that would provide exposure to the process of learning anatomy would have been very helpful to me prior to vet school. Best would be with a lab/dissection component (to expose you to the structure/speed of practical exams). Lecture alone would also be useful. Anatomy is its own beast- prior study methods that had proved successful with all other science subjects didn't work for me in anatomy (had to devise a method that worked for me from the ground up). It would have been a great boon to have some exposure in the undergrad years prior to diving into the deep end of the vet school pool.

 

[cdo96]

Histology for me! To me, anatomy was a pain, but I did anatomy in HS. I really wish I would’ve taken histology because histology hit me really hard because it’s all pink and purple stuff and nothing made sense.

 

[Ashgirl]

For all the vet students (present and past) out there, which classes do you think helped you the most prior to your first year in vet school? Or in retrospect, which classes do you think would have helped you prior to first year?

I've heard from many vet students (and vets) that an anatomy course was really helpful to have prior to first year of vet school so you can start to get familiar with all the names of bones, nerves, muscles, etc., you will need to learn.

I really appreciate your advice. Thank you!

Some old threads to read at your leisure: 🙂

Classes that are not required but helpful

What are the best classes to take as prerequisite electives during undergrad?


For me repro physiology was extraordinarily helpful, along with microbiology. Other classes that could be useful include immunology, histology, anatomy, physiology.

 

[racccjlm]

Anatomy, microbiology, immunology, histology, parasitology...all come with their basic terminology. Just being familiar with the terminology helped me immensely.

 

[thelemonzest]

Physiology and histology for sure. Wish I'd had taken some kind of microbiology.

 

[Coquette22]

Histology and biochemistry. Some sort of dev bio or embryology would have helped too.

 

[battie]

No joke, stained glass. Kept me sane. Low key wish I had time/location where I could still paint or do stained glass.

 

[Lab Vet]

Some sort of dev bio or embryology would have helped too.

Second this. Would have been super helpful for anatomy.

 

[Lab Vet]

No joke, stained glass. Kept me sane. Low key wish I had time/location where I could still paint or do stained glass.

That sounds awesome!

 

[finnickthedog]

I took histology in undergrad. I'm not sure how much it actually helped me because effectively all it did was give me a good excuse not to attend the lab.

Then again, perhaps the fact that I was able to recognize things despite spending very little time looking at the pictures and almost never going to the lab is an indicator that my undergrad class did help me--still struggled with the some of the lecture material though.

 

[twelvetigers]

No joke, stained glass. Kept me sane. Low key wish I had time/location where I could still paint or do stained glass.

@Skimble 🙂

 

[Vannandy]

I think if I could only pick one class it would be immunology. The way I learned it in undergrad was through an infectious diseases course so it helped even more.

 

[battie]

That sounds awesome!

Was able to take stained glass 1 and 2 at my undergrad!!! Loved it!!! All the windows were of dogs, of course. Lol

 

[Skimble]

Was able to take stained glass 1 and 2 at my undergrad!!! Loved it!!! All the windows were of dogs, of course. Lol

My dad taught me stained glass when I was in high school, and in the past three months I have done two stained glass pieces for vet school assignments!

This one represents a horse leg bone with lag screws.

And this is a cross section of a dog head showing the muscles of mastication.

 

[supershorty]

My dad taught me stained glass when I was in high school, and in the past three months I have done two stained glass pieces for vet school assignments!

This one represents a horse bone with lag screws.

View attachment 232974

And this is a cross section of a dog head showing the muscles of mastication.
View attachment 232975

Holy cow, those are super neat.

 

[JustPaws]

My dad taught me stained glass when I was in high school, and in the past three months I have done two stained glass pieces for vet school assignments!

This one represents a horse bone with lag screws.

View attachment 232974

And this is a cross section of a dog head showing the muscles of mastication.
View attachment 232975

Beautiful!! ️️
My mom taught me stained glass in high school too. This are a brilliant idea for design with meaning

 

[pp9]

I took anatomy (high school and undergrad), microbio, genetics, developmental bio, cell biology, etc etc. Cannot honestly say that any single class made the same subject in vet school any easier for me. You will simply not cover the material as in depth as you will in vet school, and an undergrad course won't teach the subject the way a veterinary course will. Or, in some cases, you will cover the subject ridiculously in depth in undergrad and breeze over in in vet school (genetics, biochem, parasit come to mind). Every vet school is different, but that's just what I can say from my own experience + what classmates have said.

In undergrad, anatomy for me was always 'ID this. ID that.' In vet school, there's a lot of 'ID this. List the nerve/blood supply. Describe what happens if x is cut. Look at this picture of an animal and tell me what specific structure is damaged to cause these clinical signs. List all the muscles involved in a certain motion.' and so on. Just a lot more in depth knowledge and spatial orientation required for obvious reasons. Maybe there are better anatomy courses out there compared to what I took, but I took comparative anatomy (cat, shark, and some other creatures) and it was only helpful for the comparative zoo anatomy elective I took in vet school, lol.

It obv won't hurt to take any of these courses, but a few of my classmates were super stressing first year because it was their first anatomy experience and they did fine. Don't bog yourself down in undergrad with electives assuming you will be super ready for vet school because of them. Take them if you need the elective credits/they fit into a reasonable schedule load for you, but I wouldn't necessarily say you should go out of your way to make sure you get these courses in during undergrad. If they aren't a pre-req, there's a reason for that.

Caveat: I have heard that an immuno course can be helpful in vet school. I didn't take an immuno course and it was hella hard in 2nd year, but it was hella hard for those that did take immuno in undergrad too, they just spent less time on studying the basics because the first few lectures were a refresher for them.

 

[Vannandy]

Yea I say immunology because its not a class that can be taught/understood linearly like our other courses. If you go into vet schools with a solid foundation in immunology it'll be loads easier.

 

[Skimble]

Beautiful!! ️️
My mom taught me stained glass in high school too. This are a brilliant idea for design with meaning

My first stained glass piece was actually a cell for my biology class. My teacher liked it so much, she asked to keep it. I hope she kept it on display for many years! Sometimes I want to go visit to see if it's still there, but my high school split into two, and I'm not sure which school it would be in, or who I could even ask about it.

 

[Teepster87]

I think I took 3-5 classes that were either immunology or immuno-related. Definitely made 1 or 2 classes in vet school easier.

As someone with not much large animal background (mostly cows), it would have probably helped me out to know equine leg crap. There's too many lay terms and I can never keep track of anything.

 

[SkiOtter]

I think I took 3-5 classes that were either immunology or immuno-related. Definitely made 1 or 2 classes in vet school easier.

As someone with not much large animal background (mostly cows), it would have probably helped me out to know equine leg crap. There's too many lay terms and I can never keep track of anything.

I’m a pony person and can lowkey not keep some of the lay terms straight so

 

[Pocahontas2015]

Repro Phys, Anatomy. Any animal science course. I felt miles ahead of my classmates that majored in something other than AS.

 

[TerraVet]

Neuro, biochem, anatomy/physiology, immunology.

 

[PigFarmer25]

Like previously mentioned, anatomy and histology/cell biology courses would help a lot! I didn't take anatomy before vet school (animal anatomy wasn't offered at my undergrad) and I really wish I would have taken the human one at least! Surprisingly, my lactation course was really helpful during first year. It had a lot of cell biology in it so I think that is what made it useful for microbiology.

Another course I'd suggest taking is repro! A lot of my classmates struggled with it who hadn't taken it before since we only had a week of it in the fall and spent a little more time on it in the spring (but that was a mess so it didn't help them much more). We have a repro course in third year but that doesn't help anyone in the meantime. I think it's really important to at least understand the basics of reproduction no matter what animals you want to work with, because even as a small animal vet you might work with dog breeders.

 

[hygebeorht]

Anatomy, endocrinology, physiology (took twice before vet school), neurobiology, immunology, toxicology are the ones that come to mind. If you can take one or two, pick between anatomy, physio, and endocrinology imo.