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Thoughts, mostly for myself, but feel free to read 'em if you feel like it.
Difficulty
I have now heard from multiple sources that getting into a veterinary medicine program is harder than getting into (human-) med school. I don't know whether it "needs to be" harder in order to screen for the difficulty of the schooling itself, but there are certainly fewer schools available and fewer seats available. Yikes. I honestly am not sure I'm up for that level of challenge. Hell, I thought a lot of myself when I was coming out of high school and I was intimidated by it back then!
O'course, multiple sources could still be wrong. And it's possible that my utterly appalling undergraduate grades would mean a lot less now than they would have meant in 1989. I will work like crazy to kick some serious butt on the entrance exams (GRE, MCAT, whatever, I'll do what needs doing) and I will work like crazy to get good grades in the preparatory undergraduate courses I know I need.
I suspect once I'm in I'll be okay. I may not graduate top in my class; I'm not twenty, I'm not perfectly healthy, I've already pulled all the all-nighters I want to pull in this lifetime, I may have a significant commute to and from school, and I don't have somebody else footing the bill. But I won't be last in my class either. If I get in, I believe I can become a good AND competent veterinarian. I'm also ethical enough that if I can't become competent I'll stop. But that first step is a doozy.
Squeamishness
Long-time readers, remember that bit about passing out when giving blood? That bit about feeling woozy when my doctor described the laparoscopic surgery I was going to get? That bit about having to go lie down when watching my cat get subcutaneous fluids? Um. As an employee evaluation might put it, "this area needs work."
On the other hand, many people have assured me that this is the kind of thing that can be overcome. My gynecologist, who is also a surgeon, assures me he used to get woozy. My aunt Helen, a registered nurse, passed out cold at the first surgery she attended. (Hit her head hard if I remember the story right. Nobody was watching the students; they were quite rightly watching the surgeon and his patient.) These people went on to have long and fine careers in medicine. It can be done.
On the other other hand I don't exactly look forward to it.
Commitment
When people ask me about my desire to do this, the best answer I can give them is that it's obvious this is what I should have done the first time around.
Perhaps that means I owe it to myself to try. BUT.
Rob and I, as a couple, come first.
I can't guarantee I'll get into any of my top few choices of schools. ANY school I attend will mean selling the house, moving, Rob drastically changing or even dumping his flight instructor career and improvising some way he can make money in aviation or out of it, and years of me pulling eighty-hour weeks and stressing out a lot. He's said he'll be supportive of whichever decision I make, but I must also in good conscience take a look at what that will cost him. If it costs us each other, directly or indirectly, that's too high a price. If managed badly, I know that that could indeed be the price. Caution required.
I also won't be able to keep going with the high-tech career for very much longer if I head down this path. A year, sure; I'll be studying, taking a class or two, volunteering. More than two years... very unlikely. I'll be in classes AND studying for the entrance exams AND working at a clinic (if I can) AND trying to figure out in which state I'll need to establish residency, and maybe even going there while Rob sells the house. So my current career will get ditched early in the process, long before I know I'll succeed on the new path. It could get picked up again, although re-buying the house (if already sold) would be a bit of a toughie.
It all kind of feels like a leap off a cliff.
On the other hand, damn if it isn't exciting. Rob, I'm sorry, I really am.
*sigh*
So far I'm giving it somewhere around a 35% chance I'll make the leap. That's probably higher than it's been before.
Difficulty
I have now heard from multiple sources that getting into a veterinary medicine program is harder than getting into (human-) med school. I don't know whether it "needs to be" harder in order to screen for the difficulty of the schooling itself, but there are certainly fewer schools available and fewer seats available. Yikes. I honestly am not sure I'm up for that level of challenge. Hell, I thought a lot of myself when I was coming out of high school and I was intimidated by it back then!
O'course, multiple sources could still be wrong. And it's possible that my utterly appalling undergraduate grades would mean a lot less now than they would have meant in 1989. I will work like crazy to kick some serious butt on the entrance exams (GRE, MCAT, whatever, I'll do what needs doing) and I will work like crazy to get good grades in the preparatory undergraduate courses I know I need.
I suspect once I'm in I'll be okay. I may not graduate top in my class; I'm not twenty, I'm not perfectly healthy, I've already pulled all the all-nighters I want to pull in this lifetime, I may have a significant commute to and from school, and I don't have somebody else footing the bill. But I won't be last in my class either. If I get in, I believe I can become a good AND competent veterinarian. I'm also ethical enough that if I can't become competent I'll stop. But that first step is a doozy.
Squeamishness
Long-time readers, remember that bit about passing out when giving blood? That bit about feeling woozy when my doctor described the laparoscopic surgery I was going to get? That bit about having to go lie down when watching my cat get subcutaneous fluids? Um. As an employee evaluation might put it, "this area needs work."
On the other hand, many people have assured me that this is the kind of thing that can be overcome. My gynecologist, who is also a surgeon, assures me he used to get woozy. My aunt Helen, a registered nurse, passed out cold at the first surgery she attended. (Hit her head hard if I remember the story right. Nobody was watching the students; they were quite rightly watching the surgeon and his patient.) These people went on to have long and fine careers in medicine. It can be done.
On the other other hand I don't exactly look forward to it.
Commitment
When people ask me about my desire to do this, the best answer I can give them is that it's obvious this is what I should have done the first time around.
Perhaps that means I owe it to myself to try. BUT.
Rob and I, as a couple, come first.
I can't guarantee I'll get into any of my top few choices of schools. ANY school I attend will mean selling the house, moving, Rob drastically changing or even dumping his flight instructor career and improvising some way he can make money in aviation or out of it, and years of me pulling eighty-hour weeks and stressing out a lot. He's said he'll be supportive of whichever decision I make, but I must also in good conscience take a look at what that will cost him. If it costs us each other, directly or indirectly, that's too high a price. If managed badly, I know that that could indeed be the price. Caution required.
I also won't be able to keep going with the high-tech career for very much longer if I head down this path. A year, sure; I'll be studying, taking a class or two, volunteering. More than two years... very unlikely. I'll be in classes AND studying for the entrance exams AND working at a clinic (if I can) AND trying to figure out in which state I'll need to establish residency, and maybe even going there while Rob sells the house. So my current career will get ditched early in the process, long before I know I'll succeed on the new path. It could get picked up again, although re-buying the house (if already sold) would be a bit of a toughie.
It all kind of feels like a leap off a cliff.
On the other hand, damn if it isn't exciting. Rob, I'm sorry, I really am.
*sigh*
So far I'm giving it somewhere around a 35% chance I'll make the leap. That's probably higher than it's been before.
no subject
http://grove.ufl.edu/~prevet/interviews.htm
Pre-professional Requirements for Admission to the College of Veterinary Medicine.*
A. Biology -- a minimum of 15 semester credits including two semesters of Animal Biology or Zoology (lecture and laboratory), 1 semester of Genetics, and one semester of Microbiology (lecture and laboratory).
B. Chemistry -- a minimum of 19 semester credits including two semesters of Inorganic Chemistry (general and qualitative), (lecture and laboratory), 2 semesters of Organic Chemistry (lecture and laboratory), and 1 semester of Biochemistry.
C. Physics -- a minimum of 8 semester credits including 2 semesters of lecture and laboratory.
D. Mathematics -- a minimum of 6 semester credits. One semester of Calculus and 1 semester of Statistics.
E. Animal Science -- a minimum of 6 semester credits. One semester of Introduction to Animal Science and 1 semester of Animal Nutrition.
F. Humanities -- a minimum of 9 semester credits.
G. Social Science -- a minimum of 6 semester credits.
H. English -- a minimum of 6 semester credits, including two semesters of English Composition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vet School is INSANE. We had LOTS of vet school friends in Gainesville. We saw them about every six weeks during the school year.
The only way to get through it is to really believe that there is nothing else on earth you can be happy doing, because after you have your arm shoved up a cow's ass, reek of pig piss, and still have to go to the lab to study xrays all night, you better be having the time of your life.
no subject
A lot of this I have, a few are things I don't have but will vary from school to school (Colorado doesn't require Animal Nutrition for example), and the rest I'll have to get. I figure it'll be two years of course work.
Definitely insane. The two veterinarians (ok, one still a student) I've exchanged e-mail with so far have given me an overview of approximately how insane. I never thought I'd be grateful for having worked at startups, but I am now, because at least I know I can pull eighty-hour weeks for months if I have to.