Welcome to the ninth year of vet school!

Since I am, in essence, dropping off the face of the earth for next year and a little bit, I thought it might be a good idea to fill everyone in on what I’m going to be doing and where I’m going to be. It’s self indulgent, for sure, but since I am already missing my friends and family, I thought it might be a good way to stay in touch. As you know, I’ve been a combined degree veterinary/PhD student for the past 7 or so years. I started out doing two years of the veterinary curriculum, supplemented with lab rotations during the first two summers. I then transitioned into PhD-land full time, finishing rotations, developing a thesis project, going through a prelim exam (quite possibly the worst period of my life), and then working on my thesis project for the next few years. I’m now finishing up that project and transitioning back into the veterinary curriculum, which is going to keep me busy for the next year or so.

How the vet schedule works:
Halfway through third year, students leave traditional classes and start transitioning into clinics. January through February is set aside for Large Animal Block, which is an intensive group of classes and labs held at New Bolton Center. From March through the first week of May is Small Animal Block, which is basically the same thing but in the small animal hospital (VHUP). After that point, all the students enter clinical rotations. Basically, the entire year (May to May) is made up of 2 week rotation slots. There are 25 rotations in the year, with an additional two week holiday rotation. There are a number of CORE rotations that every student has to take. These include: Small Animal Medicine (4 weeks), Small Animal Surgery (2 weeks), Large Animal Medicine (2 weeks), Large Animal Surgery (2 weeks), and Large Animal Emergency and Critical Care (2 weeks). There are also rotations required for each major. Major options are Small Animal, Mixed Animal, Large Animal, Equine, and Food Animal. In addition, students can take many elective rotations as well as extramural rotations (rotations at other veterinary schools or private practices). Some students elect to skip either Large or Small Animal Block, and start rotations early instead. In my case, I’ve decided to take Large Animal Block and skip Small Animal Block.

My schedule for this spring looks like this:

• January 2012 and February- Large Animal Block at New Bolton Center in Kennett Square PA
• 1st week of March- Thesis Writing
• 2nd and 3rd weeks of March- Food and Fiber Animal Medicine at Ohio State
• 4th week of March- Thesis defense- March 28th at noon
• 1st week of April- Beef Cattle Calving in Nebraska
• 2nd two weeks in April- Large Animal Emergency and Critical Care at New Bolton
• Last week of April and first week of May- Small Animal Radiology at VHUP

While I’ve submitted our rotation requests for my 4th(9th) year, I don’t get my actually schedule until sometime in April. There are a few rotations that I’ve chosen that are already scheduled, but the remainder will be filled in whenever they fit!