discuss

7/7/2008 10:30:43 PM

if you're one of those "horse people"

otherwise

that's a lot of school and debt for such little pay.

7/8/2008 12:13:10 PM

depends
I'm not sure if I'd do it again, but its going pretty well so far
Personally, I dont know if I could do it, knowing that I would spend the rest of my life dealing with crazy pet owners(i'm not a small animal person)
There are options w/in vet medicine that provide for a better lifestyle than typical dog/cat practice, and that's what I did

and btw, "horse people" start off at pretty low salaries, for the most part
a lot lower than I did, at least

debt, yep there's a lot of that. i believe the average is around 100,000 per student at graduation. There are programs where the state will pretty much pay for all of vet school tuition, provided that you work in large animal practice in NC upon graduation. I did this, but ended up not working in NC, so I have to pay that back

[Edited on July 9, 2008 at 12:35 AM. Reason : debt]

7/9/2008 12:33:10 AM

by do it again...you mean the schooling? work? or what

please explain

and yea, food animal program you mean

7/9/2008 1:04:43 AM

As my cousin said to me: "If you can see yourself doing anything else, do it."

7/9/2008 7:05:04 AM

Quote :

"and btw, "horse people" start off at pretty low salaries, for the most part"

I mentioned "horse people" because they are incompatible with normal people in any other work environment.

Basically they are really fucking weird.

7/9/2008 2:41:10 PM

Quote :

"by do it again...you mean the schooling? work? or what please explain and yea, food animal program you mean"

the schooling. I would probably be considered one of the slackers in my class. here's what the average day was like:

wake up at 7
sit in class till about 4-5
i'd come home and nap for a couple of hours, wake up, eat, then study from 6 till 2 or 3 in the morning.
I spent many saturdays and sundays studying. not all of em, but a lot.
If you imagine taking 18-22 hours of class semester, all w/ the same amount of work, or more, as BCH 451, and much more complicated material requiring actual understanding, not memorization, then that is pretty close to vet school.

also vet school is real good at tearing up relationships. I was lucky and didnt have to deal w/ it. But there is a significant number of people that broke up during the first semester. And, from everything i've heard, is not that uncommon.

Honestly, if you have to ask if its worth it, its probably not to you. There were several in my class that went through all the work to get in and decided to just quit and do something else, after they had started vet school. These were people who thought it was worth it in advance of school, and changed their minds once they started. Thats a reasonably expensive change of mind, in time and money.

Quote :

"I mentioned "horse people" because they are incompatible with normal people in any other work environment. Basically they are really fucking weird. "

That tells me you've met a few horse people in your life. they are a bunch of kooks.
putting on a bunch of fancy clothes, that no one else would dare to wear in public, only to go sit perfectly upright on top of a smelly, sweaty beast, and let someone judge em. There's some wires crossed somewhere

7/9/2008 7:19:42 PM

one more thing, if you're considering doing food animal stuff, I would consider going to vet school elsewhere

that's an entirely different thread, though

7/9/2008 8:09:34 PM

^ so what kind of work do you do?

curious

7/10/2008 8:55:35 PM

food animal medicine

7/10/2008 9:35:22 PM

I can't really speak for vet school specifically....

but it's a graduate program, so I can speak from that standpoint:

It's going to be a lot of bullshit work. I'm not saying that the work that you will do doesn't mean anything. I'm just saying that you will do work that is very redundant for the simple purpose of drilling information into your head.

Also, there will be a lot of course work that many people just aren't prepared for. In graduate school your classes are pretty intense. While I attended NCSU for my undergraduate, I can honestly say that there were a lot of classes that I could sleep through. Not too much effort was involved with reading the text the night before a test, and getting an A+ on the exam.
Graduate school was a completely different story thought (though I was prepared for it, and expected it). It was a situation where you had to study days ahead of time in order to be prepared for class. Not to mention some of the exams.....
Some of the exams lasted an entire weekend. Literally, I would get the exam on friday during class (and finish the in-class portion). Then the professor would send us the take home portion via email to do over the weekend to turn in sunday before noon. Now, I know what you're thinking...."take home exam....I can use the book...it'll be easy". You are 100% correct because you can use all of your texts/articles. But the exam used more applied knowledge, so the texts were of minimal assistance. It really did take an entire weekend to research, compose knowledge, and answer a 3 line question with 40 pages of well documentation. This text that you turned in was to be graded extremely hard for the simple fact that you got to "take it home", hahah.

You also spend a good deal of your life in school...in a lab...or doing other 'maintenance'. That's probably why, as quacko said, most relationships end during graduate school. You really have to compete to be the best in this environment.


I only say this as a warning. Because if you're not on top of your game, you can easily slip and lose. It's a commitment that you have to be prepared for.

7/10/2008 11:01:03 PM

previous post was too many words, but i'd underscore this statement regarding grad programs about 500 times. at least 500. maybe 1000.

Quote :

"It's a commitment that you have to be prepared for."

7/10/2008 11:34:07 PM

Sounds like if you have to ask people's opinions, you may want to reconsider. Speaking for myself, I didn't do very well at anything until I figured out exactly what I wanted, and then I didn't need to ask anyone...I knew.

7/10/2008 11:59:37 PM

Quote :

"food animal medicine"

so what does that mean?

you "take care" of animals that are going to be slaughtered for food?

what kind of company do you work for?

7/11/2008 1:04:33 AM

If I had to go though vet school again I probably would do it. But it isn't as great as I thought it would be when I first started (NCSU-CVM Grad 2006). And several of my classmates and internmates have already either switch jobs several times or have already considered careers in other fields. I would recommend talking to several vets in your area and spend time shadowing them before you make any decisions. It isn't a bad profession, just make sure you know what you are getting into.

The actual vet school part is great. It is like 4 more years of undergrad with a little harder school work. You still have plently of time to go out, play intramurals, work a job, do whatever you want too. And while demanding it is definitely possible to maintain a normal life.

If you have any specific questions email me directly and I will be glad to answer them.

7/11/2008 1:34:05 AM

EMCE

What do you go to grad school for?

7/11/2008 6:18:11 AM

human factors engineering psychology / cognitive psychology

[Edited on July 11, 2008 at 8:30 AM. Reason : d]

7/11/2008 8:30:37 AM

Ph.D. or masters?

Did you graduate?

7/11/2008 2:36:20 PM

Masters.
Yeah, I graduated already.
I might go back for my Ph.D later, but I decided to work after I got my MS. So I'm going to do this job thing for a while. I guess the nice thing is that my job will pay me like $20,000 a year to get my Ph.D.....and bring instructors into work to teach, haha

7/11/2008 4:04:33 PM

Yeah they'll pay for it, but it'd suck having to work full time and get a Ph.D.

7/11/2008 4:29:45 PM

the degree would be from Cornell though

the other option would be to get another bachelors (I would probably do engineering) in a similar fashion. They would pay for that as well at work

7/11/2008 6:03:36 PM

Quote :

"so what does that mean? you "take care" of animals that are going to be slaughtered for food? what kind of company do you work for?"

I've heard much of this sentiment from many of the vet school professors, who view food animal medicine as "not being a real vet", as I've heard more than once.

Dead animals dont get accepted at packing plants. Neither do sick animals. Thus, my job is to provide healthy animals to the packing plant that result in safe, wholesome protein for people. Its obviously best accomplished by instituting necessary protocols that prevent disease in the first place, be it by biosecurity principles or alteration of immune status.
When animals do get sick, treating them becomes necessary, not only from a welfare status, but from an economic status(dead/sick animals dont get accepted into packing plants)
Food safety is also a big issue as I ensure that these animals are free of violative residues, to ensure food safety for consumers, as well as free of any potential zoonotic disease. In short, I work in concert w/ vets of other companies, and in private practice, to ensure a steady, safe, and wholesome supply of meat to consumers in America and around the world.

I work for a company that owns animals, packing plants, and brand names. They market fresh meat to food service/restaurants, as well to retail markets.

7/11/2008 11:40:30 PM

i wasn't being critical, although i can see how it may have read that way. .... i was actually curious.

i've always been interested in veterinary medicine, just never had the motivation to pursue it as a career.

7/13/2008 2:43:16 AM

Isn't vet school extremely hard to get in?

What quako described was pretty much law school in a nutshell. It is hell, lots of marriages break up and people become a bit crazy.

[Edited on July 13, 2008 at 9:35 AM. Reason : jk]

7/13/2008 9:32:20 AM

Vet School is *orders of magnitude* harder to get in than Law School.

any bonehead can study up for the LSAT and get into Law School.

It's even harder to get into than Medical School.

7/13/2008 2:27:02 PM

exactly

there's about 33 or 34 vet schools in the country.
There's 5 or 6 law schools and 5 or 6 med schools in North Carolina alone.

i think the application numbers have decreased recently, but at one time i think there was about 1000-1500 applications at NC State for 76 class slots

seems like its down to about 400-500/year now

7/13/2008 2:56:39 PM

If you're thinking of going to Vet School, seriously wanting to study to become a Vet, I advise you to be applying to out of state schools as well. 3 or 4 others besides NC State.

Is it worth it? I cannot speak on that, sorry.

7/15/2008 4:23:54 PM