Veterinarry medicine

arthistory

Hi , I'm hoping to do veterinary medicine next year, if my results are good enough!! Just wondering is there an introduction week or something?? I was up in UCD and I don't know how I'm ever going find my way around!!! Any advice on veterinary in general? Thanks in advance:)

Kianna

After you accept a place you'll get a pile of stuff in the post, it'll tell you about orientation week, you can get a campus tour and meet your class and stuff, they have barbeques and stuff in the evening (though I went to all of the evening events with friends that were going to a different university anyway)
I don't do vet, so I can't really help you there, but it seems to be a really sociable course, everyone goes out together and with different years and stuff, so you should have a ball!

milktwosugars

Hi, I was a first year this year just gone and I felt the exact same. It can be quite daunting but there is an orientation week where you'll be given a great tour with your class. It's all very well organised.

One of the main things I'd recommend is on campus accommodation. It's a great opportunity to socialise with people from within and outside your course.

Thankfully the vet college is a almost a college contained within UCD. Everything you'll need is in the same centre, the vet hospital, library, canteen, computer rooms and lecture halls. Whatsmore there is a great "buddy" service offered where guided tours of the whole campus and of the vet centre are given. The whole vet college is very friendly, there's mad night outs with the other years, your own year, etc.

In terms of veterinary, enjoy your first year. It actually is straight into work immediately, I mean on our first day we were learning histology slides. It's really not too difficult, but try and keep a general grasp on things as you're going along. That being said, leave the leaving cert mentality behind and don't forget to socialise!!

Best of luck with the results, hope to see you around college!!!

arthistory

Thanks so much to you both for your helpful replys...made me feel a lot better!!!!!!!!!!!

acm

see you there, deferred entry starting 2009!

milktwosugars

Well best of luck to both of ye with it all, PM me if you've any questions come August or September!!

Anthony16

Iv been thinking about doing veterinary for a while now and have a few questions about the course.Firstly, how many hours study does it involve every night,and also,are the vet students and lecturers generally nice people?I dunno if ill get the pts for it though and may well havto repeat but any help is appreciated

caroline1111

I too want to do veterinary and would appreciate any info. How hard is the course, say in comparison to the leaving? How much work experience is done during the five years? How enjoyable is the course if you have a big interest in animals and science?

milktwosugars

Oh, wow, I'm so glad I could help. I had so many questions too, it's a bit of a odd course, there's really nothing quite like it. Ok, so I'll try and answer you're questions.....

how many hours study does it involve every night?
I think really if you like the course, realise it's a means to an end and you really want to be a vet, it won't seem as bad. But ya, it does envolve some work. You'll be taking about 6 subjects a semester, everyone will have their own favourite, one they don't like, ones that will requre more or less work, etc. Even though it's so subjective really, if you spent 1 hour an evening going over things then studied before exams you'll do fine. The lecturers are so helpfull, as are older years. Don't worry, there's alot but it's not hugely difficult. Apparently 3rd year is horrible, that's the one to look out for.

are the vet students and lecturers generally nice people?
Ya, i'd like to think so. In my own opinion the course attracts a specific type of people, most are a bit mad, all love animals and are all kinda boggers at heart. It's great fun, there's a huge social aspect to it. It's all very close knit.
Some of the lecturers are pricks....some are lovely. Again, it'll depend on the person. It's just like school, but a little bit more academic. I won't name names...but...you'd see yourself. It reminds me of Hogwarts, there's Dumbledores and Snapes.

How hard is the course, say in comparison to the leaving?
It's totally different, it's not the same, but the study skills from leaving cert will be handy. It's not very hard but there is alot to it though. Try to go to lectues, listen and keep in touch with your classmates. If you like science and animals you're off to a pretty good start.
There's these things called MCQ, multiple choice questions, that's a huge difference once you get into first year. It's a bit tough because a load of them have negative marking, if you answer an question wrong you get minus a mark. It's to help develop your stratagising, thinking, etc.

How much work experience is done during the five years?
Lots. It's a very practical course. You're entire 5th year will be more or less, learning out of the classrooms and in the veterinarian environment. You're interviewd early on in first year, it'll be all about your experience with animals. Do you have a farm? Do you have a dog or cat? Then in first and second year you've to complete up to ten weeks of work experience.

How enjoyable is the course if you have a big interest animals and science?
About as enjoyable as it can get!! Its well taught, there's great facilities and it's interesting. Just for some examples, in semester two of your first year you'll spend you're tuesdays on a farm. On thursdays you'll have anatomy classes, which can be gross, but are incredibly interesting. You'll have labs dealing with more scientific subjects every now and again.

Ok, so that's all I have!! If you want to know anything else, just let me know!!!:)

Anthony16

Thanks for answering our questions. I just have 1 more.My dad is a vet and i wz wonderin if i could do a lot of the work experience wit him,as opposed to doing it further away 4rm home.thanks

Ado86

Hey guys,

Just thought I might add my tupence into the conversation. Im heading into my 4th year in vet (quite scary considering I feel like I only started first year a few months ago)...the time absolutely flies past, despite the fact that the course is 5 yrs long.
I would definitely agree with what has been said above. It is a tough course but if you enjoy it you'll be bothered to put the effort in, if you keep up to an extent during the year and then study properly for the exams at the end of each semester you should be good. UCD have exams twice a year, something to bear in mind, before the Christmas holidays and also at the start of May...but that means the summer gets off to an early start.
In the early years of the course your summers are your own...ie 1st and 2nd year...so make the most of them, get a summer job and get away from veterinary for the summer. I find it can be quite an intense year, so the summer is the time to get away from it all and realise that there is definitely more to life than veterinary (which can be hard to see at times!)
The mental attitude required for the course is quite different from that of the leaving cert. A lot of things require self-learning and things are not generally revisited...if you dont grasp something its either up to you to figure it out or seek the help from lecturers. And as mentioned above, MCQs are a big part of exams in 1st and 2nd year. They can be quite tough, until you get the hang of them they can be daunting. And with negative marking...if you dont know the answer, dont guess because you will lose marks, and thus the questions you answered correctly will be negated. This is to get you into the habit of not answering questions to which you dont know the answer to, because in the real world life of medicine (human or veterinary) that is something that can cost lives.
First and second year are the pre-clinical years. They aim to provide a basis in the fundamentals of the course: anatomy, physiology, animal husbandry, genetics, animal behaviour etc.
Third year is a tough year, to get through 3rd year requires a lot of work, its tough. Not exactly difficult to learn but the massive volume of work is overwhelming at times. And then from there on the course takes a "Systems" approach....each body system is dealt with and all aspects of it are dealt with...for example, the digestive system - you revise the anatomy, physiology and then learn about the medical diseases, surgery, diagnostics and how to treat the conditions...so you basically learn all about each condition from all the different disciplines! It is a good approach to learning I feel, you learn to integrate information and it gets you thinking clinically...which i suppose is the ultimate outcome of the course to become a clinician.
Then from the christmas holidays of 3rd you have to start "Seeing practice"- basically going to a vets and shadowing them to get experience of consultations and surgery, and bascially the work that a vet does (both large animal and small animal).
One thing I would advise is that dont go in with an idea of the type of vet you want to be, be open to all aspects of the job. I am from a city background with no farming background or knowledge of the countryside but am finding that I would like to go into large animal practice, even though I would never have thought that before I started the course...to be honest I had only thought of cats and dogs.
Thats just a few thoughts I have on the course, if you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

acm

hey guys thanks for all the help so far, but I've another one for you I was at the open house yesterday at ucd and they were talking about choosing modules. Do vet med students have to pick modules in first year or is that only for art students and the like?

cheers

caroline1111

Thanks for all the info, one more question, does anyone have any idea what the starting pay is for vets, and then the average pay for an experienced one? I'm obviously not doing it for the money, just wondering. Thanks.

Ado86

Electives dont really feature majorly in vet med, to be honest they are more of a pain than anything. Within our course in 1st year, most of your modules are pre-selected for you and are compulsory. Each semester in first year you will have 6 modules, 5 of which will be compulsory/core vet modules, and then you can choose 1 elective module from any other course that fits with your timetable. There are a small number of vet electives offered, but places are normally limited and they arent very interesting. Personally I did language electives which I found were good to get me out of the vet building, meet people from other courses and do something non-vet related. I would advise picking something easy because at the end of the year, there is enough to be learnt without having a challenging elective!

Ado86

caroline1111 wrote: »

Thanks for all the info, one more question, does anyone have any idea what the starting pay is for vets, and then the average pay for an experienced one? I'm obviously not doing it for the money, just wondering. Thanks.

The salary scale is very variable, it really depends on how much experience you have, type of experience and how wealthy your practice is. But ballpark figures start from about 28,000euro. You work very long hours, and on-call so when equated with the hours that other people work, vets dont really make that much money, despite the fact that everyone thinks that vets are minted!!