In other news, I'm still taking the on-campus veterinary public health course. One of our assignments was that we had to prepare posters and do presentations about zoonotic bioterrorism agents. My group did a presentation on Hantavirus. Halfway through doing the project, I started to get paranoid about ECHELON picking up suspicious keywords from my google searches, and considered typing "its ok, I'm a vet student" into google. Then I realized how ridiculous that was. Or is it?
I'm working on filing up my 4th year rotation spots right now. It's so stressful trying to plan out your future over a year in advance. I think I've figured out a general schedule of how I want things. Since some of the specialties I want to rotate through don't have good Colorado spots, it looks like I'll be alternating a month in Colorado, then a month in a hotel room in another state. Lather, rinse, repeat for the whole year. It's so exciting, and so terrifying at the same time.
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You may have explained this in an earlier post that I missed, but I am curious... when you do rotations in other states, are the students responsible for their own housing/meals/transportation?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I understand:
ReplyDelete3rd year, if we have a rotation outside of California, the school pays for all transportation + housing. If the rotation is more than 60 miles from the school, the school pays for a hotel.
4th year, we have a slightly higher student loan budget than previous years. (I haven't looked up the exact numbers, but it should be on westernu's website.) That increased budget is supposed to be used for us to pay for travel/housing. But it's loan money, so any increase in travel spending accrues interest and will add to what we have to pay back.
Ah, I see! Thanks a bunch!
DeleteKarin, how is third year going? I've heard mixed opinions on whether it is harder or easier than year 1 and 2. Just wondering! Thanks!
DeleteI feel like it's a combination of harder and easier in some ways. Keep in mind I've only done large animal and on campus, so I've only heard rumors about small animal and misc. blocks.
DeleteHarder: Long days. Don't expect practices to hold to their "1/2 in clinics, 1/2 study time" thing. You do get that sometimes, but you also get 10-12 hour days where you have to go home afterwards to study. Some of the tests are brutal. (I'm looking at you Livestock II test, with a class average of 64%)
Easier: So far on-campus has been a breeze. One of the hardest parts is combatting the fact that PBL has pretty much destroyed everybody's ability to sit still and listen to a lecture. The rotations: you're actually doing clinical things, and putting the information you've learned in the past 2 years into context. At this point, you're worried about more practical information, and not so much molecular mechanisms.
Time has been flying, and by and large, 3rd year has been highly enjoyable. There has been one rotation where I had to give myself a pep-talk in order to get up in the morning, but if you can get good rotations, and not slack off, you'll be fine. And feel free to contact me when you get close to scheduling your 3rd year and I can tell you which rotation sites to avoid like the plague.
Thank you, I'll keep that in mind! I hope it continues to go well for you. I'm guessing you still just have end of block exams (back on campus)? How do they guide what you should study for when you're at clinics, do the rotation sites know how to guide you?
ReplyDeleteAlso, in PBL I'm always drawn to look up more clinical things and I know everyone keeps saying we don't need to worry about those, especially 1st year. But do you think doing those things now will help me later, or that it's not worth my time?
Thanks again!