Hello World

It occurred to me that I actually have a lot of stories from my time in vet school, and as I have another three and a half years to go, they're only going to pile up. In the interest of not forgetting them, I decided to start chronicling them. Talking to non-vet friends has led me to realise that normal people do not often consider the kinds of things one actually does in vet school.

First, there are some important things you need to know. The program here is 4.5 years long, so that puts me having completed one semester ("first year") and so now I'm in second year, and there are a bit over 100 people in my class. Another important fact is that here, it's an undergraduate degree. In case it comes up in a later story, remember that most of my classmates are freshly out of high school and this is their first degree. These two facts sort of come together in that domestic students have to go through a "pre-selection" semester (the extra 0.5 that would make it 5 years total), where their grades determine whether or not they make it into the vet program. And they totally don't find out until like a week before vet school starts. If you don't get in, which is likely since it's something like 300 people for 75 seats, you suddenly have an empty half a year staring you in the face.

Fortunately, that stuff doesn't apply to me. I'm an international student and I got my bachelors in biochemistry and molecular biology. I didn't have to do the stupid pre-selection thing, but I guess I got my fair share of stress involved with applying anyway. For instance, the GREs are a total scam. They are the most worthless test ever, checking to see if you memorized completely archaic facts on ancient computers with a horrible interface and in a creepy quiet, cold room, where all you can hear is other people typing. Then the questions are completely absurd and abstract, and you start panicking, because you know the grading system makes no sense and the first questions are weighted way more for some reason.

I don't know why they cost so much to take. I don't remember how much it was, but it was way more than I can possibly justify a test needing to cost. Then, every grad school wants your GRE scores, even if they don't really care what you got. So I think it's a plot, and someone out there is sitting there very smugly and making lots of money off of other people's pain.

Now, like I said, I'm not at the beginning. I'll share stories from last year as I think of them, but they probably won't be in order.