What to say to a younger version of yourself in vet school?

[huevosgood]

So this question I already asked in the vet forums, but I believe it is applicable here as well given that so many current vets and vet students typically peruse through here too! Anyone is more than welcome to give their input!

If you had a chance to say/advise a younger version of yourself still in your first year of vet school (or even undergrad), what would you say? (e.g. study less and enjoy your social life, study more and forsake your social life, go get a life, etc.) Any kind of personal advice pertaining to you only would be fine as well! (e.g. don't visit the bar during midterms week in 2nd semester, it will not end pleasantly the morning after!)

This thread is mostly to help advise us new/just beginning vet students on what to expect coming into such a rigorous graduate program, but I thought putting the question in this format might lead to some insightful and/or entertaining posts! Feel free to post whatever you guys wish and thanks ahead of time for all the input!

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[jmo1012]

I would talk my younger self out of going to vet school. Seriously.

That said, I highly encourage all the newbies or soon to bes to save some time to have fun! As someone who took the time to enjoy my life in addition to studying, I don't regret it for a minute! I did very well. I definitely could have done better, but I am overall satisfied with how I did and I made so many amazing memories taking the time to learn new skills and have fun. Even for the residency bound, it's important to enjoy life. Believe it or not, taking the time to have fun will make you a more interesting candidate! It will also teach you to develop good coping skills, which are a must for vet school, rigorous training, and just being in this field in general.

I forget what else I was going to say. Oops.

 

[Coquette22]

Don't pigeon hole yourself. Keep your options open. Don't live with the crazy chick.

 

[Ashgirl]

One piece of advice for myself would be:

Stop worrying about making friends so much. Yes, everything and everyone is new, and yes, the first few interactions with people might be a little awkward, but you will find "your people," and you wouldn't trade them for the world. So stop obsessing about where to sit in lecture, or how to approach someone in anatomy lab, because all in all, it will work out, and everyone in your class is all in this together.

And another that I am still struggling with:

Don't be afraid to approach professors and ask them questions or send them a quick email. Just because I think my question is stupid, doesn't mean that they will. They've been right where you are at, so stop hesitating, they are here for you, after-all.

And last but not least (probably the thing I struggled with the most):

The first semester (and beyond), you will struggle with balance. You think you won't have time to go to school, study everything, eat healthy, workout, go to all the club events, and have a social life. There will be times when something you are trying to desperately juggle will come crashing to the ground. You might fail an exam. You might break up with your boyfriend. You might get in a car accident and your world is turned upside down for a while. You might not be able to keep up with lectures. Life happens. And that's okay. It's okay to not know everything, and it's okay to not being able to balance everything at first. I promise, it's okay. Pick the pieces up, and try again. Each time you drop something, you will get better at keeping it up in the air the next time around.

 

[equinerider26]

Oh boy, this is a good one. I'd say:

You're not great at studying. You've never had to suck it up and sit down and really try before. So studying will be hard but you need to do it. It will prevent a massive meltdown over histology.

Do not settle for the "C's get degrees" business. Just because you started vet school with the plan of graduating and going to general practice doesn't mean that's what you'll want to do later. Inevitably, you'll fall in love with an extremely competitive specialty and not be competitive.

A positive one: I'm really proud of you for asking your friends for help studying. As hard as it is to admit you're struggling in class (both to yourself and to others), it's better to speak up and be able to correct the problem, rather than be trapped in a hole you can't pull yourself out of.

 

[jmo1012]

It's definitely okay to fail an exam. I failed several in vet school and never got less than a B overall in a class. My gpa isn't perfect, but I'm pretty darn happy and I'm still competitive for residencies. So definitely,don't sweat that (failing an exam here and there is more common I'm vet school just because of the amount of material you need to know. Also depends on your curriculum layout)

 

[bunnity]

You will survive.
One day it will end.
(Don't live with the crazy chick).

 

[DVMDream]

Don't be the crazy chick. Or be the crazy chick. I haven't figured out which way to go yet...

 

[that redhead]

For undergrad: study hard and get into your IS.

For vet school: don't pigeon-hole yourself (or have your rotations be too narrow).

 

[LetItSnow]

For LIS the undergrad: It's not as hard as it feels and as you're making it out to be, even though I know it seems like it is. Try harder. When you say "but I don't have time to study more" take a step back and look objectively at how you're spending your time and ask if it's REALLY true.

For LIS the vet student: Quit stressing about boards. You're going to give yourself an ulcer over something that, like, 90-some percent of people pass, and you've never really been consistently in the lowest 10% of class in vet school anyway. So quit whining about it. Enjoy rotations more and quit worrying about being 'wrong'. You're always going to be wrong about something.

 

[LetItSnow]

This is what @Minnerbelle posted over in the Veterinary forum and it's a worthy response, so I'm dumping it in here completely without her permission.

While you're in the thick of it, the didactic years of vet school is going to seem like a gargantuan feat, and you're going to feel like the protagonist hero of some amazing novel. But those years end up not being all that important at the end of the day. They are a means to an end. You just gain the minimal basic knowledge you need to start a lifetime of actual learning as a doctor that kicks off with clinics. To anyone on the outside, you're just some person not really doing anything to contribute to the world. Just some person who is spending three years or so memorizing a bunch of stuff. The "rigorous graduate program" does not give you license to be anything but a good person.

Keep that in perspective and don't sweat the little stuff. Don't be the dingus who thinks they are gods gift to exotics or whatever. Don't be the douche who spends all their effort exerting how brilliant you are at anatomy and obsessing about it. After first year, no one gives a damn. Be kind to your classmates and take care of each other. Be kind to others in your life. Shrugging away other life responsibilities because of how absorbed you are in vet school is not worth it. If you want to become a specialist in the future, you will be able to even if you aren't a type a tightwad.

Know that getting A's in these years means that you've memorized all the little bits of minutiae that won't ever matter to how you practice as a clinician, and you will forget a good chunk of that stuff. Like the name of some screw used in a referral only orthopedic surgery and exactly what steps it takes to put it correctly in a plate. It's much more important to deeply understand the underlying principles that you can apply, because the little stuff that gets you extra points on exams are things you can always look up if you need it. And I promise, this isn't coming from someone who is defensive about her shortcomings on exams. I'm someone who tests well and rarely got below As on exams. I don't think any of that makes me a better clinician today.

What makes me a better clinician is my people skills; detail orientedness in how I manage my cases which mostly come down to communicating well with owners, the technicians, the receptionists, and good record keeping; ability to know where to find info I don't know (this is a huge one for those in vet schools who rely on being spoonfed info from ppt slides, lecture notes, and syllabi); always looking up things myself from multiple sources to ensure I am providing the best care; and being proactive about gaining/bettering skills in things like surgery and dentistry that vet schools don't do a good job giving you experience. Those are things that aren't required at all to ace the first three years of vet school. So just relying on your grades to tell you how well you're doing would be doing you a disservice.

 

[HorsesRLife]

For LIS the undergrad: It's not as hard as it feels and as you're making it out to be, even though I know it seems like it is. Try harder. When you say "but I don't have time to study more" take a step back and look objectively at how you're spending your time and ask if it's REALLY true.

For LIS the vet student: Quit stressing about boards. You're going to give yourself an ulcer over something that, like, 90-some percent of people pass, and you've never really been consistently in the lowest 10% of class in vet school anyway. So quit whining about it. Enjoy rotations more and quit worrying about being 'wrong'. You're always going to be wrong about something.

Best advice ever

 

[that redhead]

This is what @Minnerbelle posted over in the Veterinary forum and it's a worthy response, so I'm dumping it in here completely without her permission.

/thread.

 

[Minnerbelle]

This is what @Minnerbelle posted over in the Veterinary forum and it's a worthy response, so I'm dumping it in here completely without her permission.

Lol, it ain't copyrighted or anything. I didn't realize it was cross posted (which is against the TOS of SDN - tisk tisk)

 

[LetItSnow]

Lol, it ain't copyrighted or anything. I didn't realize it was cross posted (which is against the TOS of SDN - tisk tisk)

I know it is. But it was good advice and hardly violating the spirit of spammage. So if I get yelled at for it I'll take my lumps happily. It's probably about time for another warning for me from the mods.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I know it is. But it was good advice and hardly violating the spirit of spammage. So if I get yelled at for it I'll take my lumps happily. It's probably about time for another warning for me from the mods.

Haha the tisk tisk was not directed at you, it was for the OP.

 

[Trilt]

Chill out a bit more first year, and look into externships a bit more during second year.

Skip class more and go hang out in the clinic. Lecture capture exists for a reason, and maybe you won't feel like nearly as much of an idiot starting fourth year if you at least know where more things are.

 

[psilovethomas]

Dear 1st year PSILT: quit vet school, go get a degree in mechanical engineering. It may be rough, and people will judge you, and your parents might disown you, but it'll be fine in the end.

 

[Doktor Timo]

I would tell undergrad/first year me to spend some time trying to get a general idea of the different classes of antibiotics so Pharmacology won't be such a fracking nightmare for the entirety of second year...

 

[DVMDream]

Don't worry about looking like an idiot, you won't be alone. Embrace your idiocy with your fellow classmates.

Don't stress out about things that haven't happened yet.

The things that you learn in first year, will be long gone by the start of second year if they last past summer break. Don't expect to remember a whole bunch of anatomy or pharmacology or immunology or parasitology come final year... because you won't. You will have to look things up again, but so will everyone else.

As time progresses, you lose a lot of motivation, don't let it get to you, but try to keep chugging along and learning as best you can.

Also be the crazy girl.

 

[StartingoverVet]

1) "this too will pass".

and 2) "you won't always smell like that"

Finally 3) Please don't notice that those trees with the really horizontal branches coming out of them look like the aorta and its branches, cause 5 years later you are still going to remember that, and you really don't need to be reminded of anatomy every time you see trees.

and people think I give bad advice?

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Haven't started vet school yet, but I'd tell my undergrad self this:

Yes, working to pay your bills was very important. But was it really necessary to push yourself that hard in two jobs plus volunteering? Would you have had a higher GPA and been accepted into your IS? Would you be crying yourself to sleep over the debt you're about to face? Did any schools care that you worked that much? No, probably not. Maybe it would have been smarter to take out a few small loans during undergrad in hopes that my IS chances would have been higher, and I would have had less debt overall.

Of course, I can't possibly say that working less hours would directly lead to a higher GPA. I would have had more sleep/study time, that's for sure. I have trouble looking very far ahead in my life. I've had tunnel vision since I was 6. I'd tell myself to take a step back and really think about every decision I make.

 

[Caia]

I'd tell my younger vet school self that if something seems wrong, seek help sooner. Health is important too and self awareness is key.

 

[hazelmoo]

I love this thread so I am going to bump it back to the top.
TO MY EARLY UNDERGRAD SELF: Use summers to do cool internships and travel. I waited until my 3rd summer to do something really cool, and once I did that, it opened up so many doors for future things. I wish I would have done it sooner, so that way I could have had more cool animal-related (not necessarily vet related) experiences while I still could!

 

[bbeventer]

No words necessary.

 

[battie]

To undergrad self: Do the major you wanted to do deep down inside that you refused to acknowledge and get the bio minor on the side; you would have been happier, you would have done better, and you would have maybe gotten in sooner. Also take O-Chem and physics anywhere but CSC. However, do become an RA because that was the best college decision you ever made. Also, don't average as many credits as you did. Take stained glass as an independent study and demand it be a 4 credit class because you'll devote way to much time for it to be deemed 1 credit. LDR was totes worth it, so go for it as the other options at school probably would not have been half as good as the LDR. Don't fight over shirts in Pre-Vet club (it gets western way too quick for dumb reasons, some of which you won't know for three or four years).

Post undergrad self: Don't work at MAH as the vet there is completely psychotic and sucked out your soul (you should have done more hours at CVC or found a different clinic out that list of 100 you made); don't take classes at metro except for Biochem I and II and Physics I and II. If you don't get into vet school on the first (or second) try, call Laurie at DDR and go get the best job you've ever had sooner.

General: Do the major you want to do, do well in it, have a backup plan just in case, and have fun. If the VAST majority of people say x professor of y class is a horrible teacher and he is on probation several times, take that class anywhere else or with any other teacher (don't try to be a hero).

 

[wildlifer]

I love this thread so I am going to bump it back to the top.
TO MY EARLY UNDERGRAD SELF: Use summers to do cool internships and travel. I waited until my 3rd summer to do something really cool, and once I did that, it opened up so many doors for future things. I wish I would have done it sooner, so that way I could have had more cool animal-related (not necessarily vet related) experiences while I still could!

This! If I knew about all the opportunities that I now know about, I would have jumped on them before I really had financial obligations! There is so much out there in terms of volunteering, internships, field courses, etc.

I also would have tried to take more classes at a CC to reduce the cost more.