Why LSU?

Hi there; Birdie here!

I'm finally getting around to the Blog Topic of the Week based off my suggestion: How did you choose which school to attend? What things do you like and dislike about your school's location?I know some class of 2018ers are still making their decisions so I thought it would be a helpful topic for them. :)

The way I went about taking my pre-reqs was to take everything that was required for my IS (in-state = LSU), plus some random interesting classes that counted for my biology major: immunology, comparative vertebrate physiology, bacterial pathogenesis. Mostly, I figured if I had the prereqs for LSU, I would be able to apply to most if not all vet schools. Turns out, that's not exactly the case. I did not take genetics in undergrad, which narrowed down the schools I was eligible for application to 9. With just a little more narrowing, I picked 5 schools to apply to: LSU (of course), UPenn, Cornell, VMRCVM, and Missouri.

VMRCVM was easy to decide not to go to, since they rejected me outright without even an interview. I decided I would rather not stay so far up north where I would have to drive in snow--especially when my accepted candidates day at Cornell was the weekend of that big winter storm last January/February (I don't remember which). That left the two I was really deciding between: Mizzou and LSU.

LSU, of course, was one of my top choices purely because it's my in-state. That means in-state tuition, which is tens of thousands of dollars less expensive than, say, Cornell. There was also a little bit of the fact that I'd be close to my family, but that wasn't a huge concern for me--I'd spent 4 years in upstate New York far from my parents in Louisiana without really being homesick, which supported my hypothesis from undergrad applications that being at a school I like and really want to be at is more important than being able to go home for a weekend. Oh, also my dad pointed out that if I was going to practice in Louisiana (which I'm not sure whether I will), people might not want to go to a vet who wasn't an LSU vet. I don't know how many people that applies to or how true that is, but it was a factor.

If I was picking my vet school like I picked undergrad, I would have chosen Mizzou. The environment at that school seemed super positive: faculty super helpful, students really supportive of each other...there were even pictures of students and faculty with their pets all over the halls of the vet school! Plus a couple of other SDNers that I had become friendly with during applications had picked Mizzou, and I thought it would be nice to know a couple of other students going in. That school also has a 2+2 program--2 years in the classroom followed by 2 years in clinics, rather than the usual 3+1. That means 1) more experience with clinical skills, aka what I will likely be doing as a private practitioner, and 2) likely more opportunities for externships: rotations at practices/institutions outside of the vet school, which could lead to potential jobs. Given the poor climate for job availability, that was really appealing to me. Mizzou also has a canine blood donor program (somewhat similar to the one I learned about at Penn) that I would have loved to get involved in. In fact, I would have liked to adopt one of their blood donor greyhounds (my favorite dog breed) after its 2-year donation period was up. As for tuition, yes, it would be out of state and more expensive--but only for the first year. Mizzou lets students change residency status after matriculation, which translates to in-state tuition after the first year. It does require things like making a certain amount of money in the state and not leaving the state for more than...something like two to four weeks out of the year. The job was almost a positive for me: I could get a job in the clin path lab or with summer research, which would be great experience. The restriction on leaving the state was the biggest drawback for me.

In the end, that drawback was big enough. Particularly for reasons that I don't need to get into right now (and that are now actually completely irrelevant), I chose the school where I could spend the summer wherever I wanted. In all honesty, I probably knew from the time I applied that if I got into LSU, that was where Iwould go. But with all the positives about Mizzou and the fact that I had specifically not wanted to go to LSU for undergrad (I picked a small liberal arts school for a reason), I had a hard time making that decision. Towards the end I actually had an email conversation with an LSU professor who happened to have graduated from my undergrad, and that was what made me okay with my decision.

Now, even though the real reason I made the decision is no longer relevant, I'm glad I chose LSU over Mizzou. For one thing, I've seen the postings from Mizzou students: 2+2 programs mean far too much 3-exams-in-one-week. For another, I was terrified enough of driving on icy roads when we had our 3 snow days: I can't really imagine actually needing to drive it if everything didn't shut down. Being able to go see my parents (and little brother!) in Covington has been a bigger plus than I expected, plus I can easily get to New Orleans for conventions or shows (like the live Welcome to Night Vale show I saw last night), and visit my sister at her undergrad while I'm there. Despite what my next paragraph might indicate, I'm really not miserable here. It's clearly worse than undergrad, but undergrad was awesome. And at this point I don't know what it would be like to be anywhere but here. Having some friends and things to do with people besides sit in class, I'm almost at the point where I don't regret anything because I'm too happy where I am. Being able to stay in touch with my undergrad friends helps, too, even if I still miss them. Overall, I'm not sure I made the right decision, but it's definitely one I'm having less than trouble living with. I can definitely say it was a good decision.

This last paragraph is directed at those making a decision, but it's going to sound a little bitter, starry-eyed new acceptances might not want to read it:
My honest advice for anyone making a decision about vet school is, yes, go where it's cheapest. But not just because crushing debt is terrible (don't get me wrong, it totally is, even if I haven't started to experience the reality of paying it back yet). In the bluntest of terms: vet school sucks wherever you go. Maybe warm weather will make you a little less miserable, but no one likes the constant stressful studying wherever you are (and idk about other schools, but mine doesn't even have windows in the first-year classroom, so weather hardly matters to me). If you can get PBL at your school, great, and I would definitely advise getting involved with clubs or other experiential activities to remind you why you're really in vet school. But you'll get a great education regardless at any accredited school. And if there's one thing I've learned in vet school (besides, you know, anatomy, physiology, immunology, neuroscience, diagnostic imaging, and a billion other things) it's that unlike undergrad (which I was in, in large part, for the experience) vet school is pretty much just a means to an end. It's not there so you can enjoy it (if it was, it should be another year so we might have multiple weeks a semester without an exam)--it's there so when you get out you can have a career you can enjoy and find fullfilling, in whatever aspect of vet med you choose/can find a job in.

This is probably a bad idea

Hi there; Birdie here!

If you're wondering what the title is about, it's NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what that is...well, you can google it, but I'll give you the short version. It's a Thing on the Internet in which people all over the world try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Considering I'm also in vet school, you can see why this could be a very bad idea. But I'm going to do it anyway. I won every year in undergrad and I have an idea I really want to write, so I'm trying to keep it up. Still haven't started a single word for today, the day it starts, of course...

I helped sell a few bandanas for Josh Project at the picnic last Friday. One woman who came to look at our stuff was wearing a class ring from my high school, so we chatted a bit. Our class also had a Halloween party on Friday. I wasn't going to go, but at the last minute I threw together a costume (Time Traveler: frilly shirt from a convention outfit with skinny jeans and boots, accessorized with a bulky pair of steampunk-style goggles and a space-patterned ribbon tied in a big bow around my neck). Everyone's costumes reminded me of conventions quite a lot, actually--we had people dressed as the girl from Archer, Miley Cyrus from Wrecking Ball, a pirate, and quite a few superheroes (plus one Clark Kent).

Sunday was my second Spay Day, and the last one of the semester. I was in recovery this time. We basically had a line of cats we were watching, turning over every once in a while, and putting back in their carriers when they woke up. Part of the recovery station also dealt with tattooing and ear notching, but I didn't do that part. We had a lot fewer volunteers than last time; only about 30 people signed up. We still managed to spay and neuter something like 155 cats, though! With that and the mandatory SCAVMA meeting on Tuesday, I have all the SCAVMA points I need for the whole year! I'm actually considering getting more involved in SCAVMA. I'm not a fan of the AVMA and how they don't seem to be addressing our overcapacity and rising debt concerns, but maybe I could help fix that from the inside. Eh, probably not...it's just an idea.

I did wind up with a leadership position in a club anyway, though: historian for diagnostic imaging club. We had elections at the meeting today, and people were nominated for president, VP, etc. but no one stepped up for historian. One of the current officers said "she wants to do it," gesturing sort of at me, so I said "sure, I'll do it." It means I'm in charge of taking pictures at wetlabs and organizing our display in the hallway--not too bad, and probably kind of fun! The meeting today was pretty awesome, actually. We played diagnostic imaging jeopardy. I think I was the only first year on my team, but I managed to get a couple of the questions right for my team, starting with the very first one! Luckily "basics" (aka everything we just covered for our exam) was one of the categories. The final jeopardy question was an anatomy one: name the indicated structure (trochanteric fossa of the femur) and three muscles that attach there. We were freaking out on time, so we only got two of the three, but I feel good that I personally steered us away from a totally wrong answer and got one of the right muscles. It was very close--314 to 310--but my team won! I really like DIC--if I'm going to have a position in a club, I'm pretty happy with it being that one. Diagnostic imaging has always been one of the things I'm really excited about learning in vet school. I'm actually going to an abdominal ultrasound wetlab with them on Sunday, so that should be good.

I'm also feeding a bird again this week. I have BAMF again. Even though I'm more confident that I know how to fist them, I still haven't successfully got him. He keeps flying away every time I try. My friend, who has Professor this week, tried fisting BAMF and got him for a few seconds at least, which is more than I did. But I feel a little better because I was able to fist Professor 3 times when she was having trouble with him.

I have two tests next week: physiology on Monday and histology Tuesday. I'm more worried about physio, mostly just that I won't have the time I need to sit with it in order to memorize all the pressures and formulas for the exam. It's cardiovascular physiology right now. I'm surprised how useful my physics II class is for this. I really didn't see how all that electrical stuff would be relevant in vet school, but blood flow is basically a circuit. One of the things we have to know is a form of Ohm's Law, and another is basically resistance when vessels are in series or in parallel. So if you're a pre-vet in physics wondering why you have to take this stupid class...it actually is helpful in your vet school classes for you to know.

What I'm even more worried about is anatomy. This is the first time that we have just literally not had enough time for anatomy lab. Suddenly we have a ton of lectures, and we're also covering probably 2-4 times as much information as either of the previous exams. This is the blood vessels and nerves exam--for pelvic limb, thoracic limb, thorax, abdomen, and probably pelvis--PLUS all the internal organs. It doesn't help at all that the exam is happening right after fall break. I was planning to go home for the two days off AND the weekend, but now I'm thinking I might need to spend both days of the weekend back here so that my partner and I can finish the dissection--I really need at least that one day before the exam to review! Luckily my partner is an out-of-stater and will be here over the break to work with me. So trying to learn all the information for that is going to be a problem, but it's one I can't worry about until after these two exams coming up.

Which I'm now going to ignore for a while longer to try and get some novelling done. Like I said, probably a bad idea.