I've been so busy the past few weeks, I've felt like I hardly have had time to breath. I'm holding my grades, but having to juggle my busy schedule which mostly involves classes, labs, discussions and the biggy, studying. I think studying is what really consumes my life. In addition to having classes from 9am-5pm five days a week, I spend about 3-4 hours studying a day (at least). Some days, I take some time, like on Monday, I went to the Corn Maize in Dixon with some of my friends and family. It was a blast, we spent an hour and a half winding through the maze in the dark. Later in the week, I find myself trying to catch up. It's an endurance race with an exam every week.
I am taking some time this weekend to celebrate my birthday with Alex in Monterrey. We plan to visit the aquarium and go on a whale watching trip. I know I will have to take my study materials with me, but if the weather holds, I plan to be laying on the beach when I'm studying. Thank God for Davis being relatively close to the ocean as well as the mountains.
I think the important thing in vet school is to take time to live. Life is short, time for studying is short, but you can make it happen. I try to ride at least once a week, working with the horses reminds me why I am working so hard in veterinary school.
On Monday, I had the opportunity to speak with a freshman class career discovery group on main campus. They were all interested in careers with animals, I'm sure at lease 2/3 wanted to go to vet school. It was meet the "upper classmen" day and they were overly excited to be able to speak to a real veterinary student. They asked really good questions about getting adequate experiences and how to improve their chances of getting in to veterinary school. They wanted to know everything about my experiences applying and beginning vet school.
Upon leaving, I thought about how I was in their shoes just five years ago when I enrolled at Sierra Community College. I was determined to succeed in my classes and prepare myself for veterinary school. I thought a lot about all my internship and learning experiences which have really stacked up to lead me to where I am now. I thought it would be a good idea for those following my blog and those who are interested in pursuing veterinary school might find it interesting to learn about my personal experiences that have contributed to my knowledge and skill set today.
First of all, on the application for veterinary school, experiences are divided into several categories for documentation of experience hours. I highly recommend anyone interested in applying to veterinary school in the future begin documenting these hours NOW. Make sure you record the number of hours, where the experience took place, who lead the experience, and a short explanation of what you did. This will greatly help you when you go to fill out your veterinary school application. Trust me, it's a LONG application, save all your time and energy by preparing yourself ahead of time.
Second, I recommend that you get a broad range of experiences. Don't limit yourself because you are scared to try something new or don't know how to get involved. The resources are out there, use your Google skills, join clubs (even if you can't make the meetings), they will put you on list serves that will be invaluable to getting experience for veterinary school.
Third, remember that veterinary school requires 180 hours of veterinary experience, but most applicants have 3,000-3,500 hours!
Other application tips: http://vetmedicine.about.com/library/viewers/uc-apptips.htm
Please look for my future post on my specific experiences
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