Sunday, September 21, 2003
The Morning Ride
On weekdays:
The Vet Med Basic Sciences Building
On weekends, when I have a chance to be a "civilian":
The Quad
Can you see the Chicken and the pig in this sculpture?
"Growing in Illinois" by Richard Hunt
Balancing Academics and Whatever Else:
A Rebuttal (yes, a rant) to Crappy Advice
I've been getting advice, albeit not always good or sensible, from many of the second year students (recall they are always putting their two cents in for the benefit of us naive freshman--unfortunately the two cents are often tinged with bitterness or general negativity). They bitch repeatedly about professors and how impossible they'll be or "Yes, you feel okay now, but wait until
after you take the exam." Isn't that a shi**y thing to say to someone an hour before they take a first exam?
Then there's the "practical experience" advice telling us that doing well in classes doesn't guarantee strong practical skills. Duh! Most of us have already spent time in the veterinary clinical setting--I think that was a prerequisite to get in--so we already know the importance of practical experience. Doing well in classes won't make you a crappy practitioner, either. In fact, GPA is quite important for those of us considering internships, fellowships, residencies and the like.
I've also heard "I'm not here for the classes, I'm here for the clubs. Join clubs, you'll learn more than you will in all of your classes." Well heck, what are you paying tuition for? Yes, you do learn and remember more practical techniques doing hands-on stuff and it
is important, but to me, understanding what's going on in my classes is just as important. Just because someone says they forgot everything
they learned in Physiology doesn't necessarily mean I will. I
love physiology--I remember much of it from a class I took over two years ago. Seriously--physiology is HOW THE BODY FUNCTIONS. If you can't get interested in it and grasp the concepts, how can you practice medicine?
The reason this advice makes me so mad is because I assumed that these people were talking about
balancing academics with extracurriculars, but as I kept listening to their griping, I found that these are people who missed about half their classes first year (due to involvement in clubs and organizations? don't know) and/or never put much time into studying and are now on the verge of academic probation. I'm not sure these are people I should be taking advice from . . .
Granted, there are a handful of folks who can skip every other class because they learn more studying on their own time. . .and then there are the folks who are just geniuses and don't have to study much to understand this stuff--but I need to physically be in class to hear professors talk AND read and re-read at home AND review
and put extra time in lab
and draw diagrams
and make charts and make lists
and solve practice problems
and re-read and review and study more. I have to do all that just to maintain a "B" in some classes. That's me, and that's how I have to do things to keep my head above the academic waters, so that's what I'll do. I do make time to volunteer at the Wildlife Medical Clinic and be a tour guide over lunch hours and join other clubs/organizations with low-maintenance memberships, but to be honest, since I've already had a few years of small animal and wildlife practical experience, I'll budget less time for the extra curriculars if my grades start to slip.
I know that U of I is known amongst vet schools to be an "egghead" school, and I can see where people get that, but that doesn"t have to be a bad thing. The curriculum is traditional lab and lecture here, unlike the more experiential case-based curricula at more progressive schools like Cornell. Lab and lecture works well on several levels, though. Just like any other school experience, what you get out of vet school is up to you. Yes, practical experience is important, but so are classes and academics. Especially this first year--we are learning the basics, the foundations for much of the stuff we'll be learning later when our classes will seem more pertinent to medical clinical applications. I think it's just dandy if someone wants to put clubs at the top of their priority list, but I think it's very unwise to assume that's good for everyone, or to make colleagues feel bad for putting academics first.
No, I'm not going to beat myself up over a poor test score, or even a poor grade in one class. But I'm not going to settle for a 2.5 GPA either, especially after all I had to go through just to get here. If I'm an egghead because of this, so be it; I know in the end I will learn and
keep learning what I need--academic, technical
and practical. I don't think there's anything wrong with actually attending the classes I'm going into debt to pay for, or actually setting time aside to read my $400 worth of textbooks.
Oh--I must mention that not all the advice from sophomores and upperclassmen is negative or bitter; some colleagues have been more positive and supportive. I
have heard that the first set of exams are the toughest and the following exams are more manageable, and I've also heard that if you can get through the first semester okay, the second semester is not so bad. Thanks, guys!
