School has been out for a couple weeks now, so I am already
getting that stressed-induced itch to get going. Since I’m afraid the copy of
calculus book I have is outdated, and the chemistry PDF keeps crashing my
computer, there really is not any school work that I can do while Sean and I
are still up here in Oregon.
That leaves my restless mind to look forward into the future.
I have been trolling Student Doctor Network like a fiend, soaking in every
ounce of new information I can find. Some of it is helpful, some of it is
confusing. The two main topics I have been mulling over are what schools I want
to look into, and how I want to write my personal statement.
UC Davis – I am
pretty sure I do not want to go to the UC Davis vet school, even though I will
be getting my undergrad there. I will probably apply, because of both in state
priority and the obvious preference they give their own students, but I am not
interested in research and I am not thrilled about the idea of minimal hands on
for the first two years. One plus would be we would already be living in Davis,
and Sean would not have to switch jobs again. That could become a very big
plus, depending on where his career is by then. We will be visiting Davis on
Monday, hopefully we can tour the vet school area as well as the main campus.
Oregon
State – I love the idea of going to school at Oregon State, even
though it literally is ranked the lowest in all of the North American veterinary
schools. Somehow that does not deter me; I am not interested in having a
prestigious degree, I just want the ability to spay and neuter, to help, to
make a difference. I do not know too much about the curriculum at OSU, whether
it is more hands on or not in those first couple years. We visited last week
for about half an hour. We were in the vet school area I am pretty sure, at
least we found the teaching hospital, the cow with the hole in the stomach, and
the poultry building.
Western – I am
probably the most confused and intrigued with Western University. It is a
school in California, so you would think it would have in state priority;
however, it is a private veterinary school and therefore gives no state preferences.
They call themselves the school without walls, which I find extremely
attractive, especially after getting my adventurous side going thinking I could
go to vet school in Australia or Grenada. One issue (or non-issue) is that the
tuition is $47,000 per year. I do not know if that is normal, or if it is high
due to Western being private. If the Army pays for three years, and we
carefully save every penny of the stipend, we could make it out of vet school
with little to no debt still. A huge plus for me is that they say they are
hands on from day one; that is very important to me. I also like that Western
is very close to our current home, so we could visit and tour the campus and
really get a feel for whether we like it or not. As of now, however, we have
never been there.
Then, of course, there is the personal statement. I love to
write, but cramming my entire life into 500 words, and trying to make it stand out against a thousand other personal
statements just seems overwhelming. Sometimes I think about trying to find the
PS I wrote for the Greenleaf Scholarship back in high school, when I was
thinking I would get my baby college degree at Copper Mountain. That one was
good! I got second place, but that is only because the girl who won was
unbeatable. Those were good times, working for hours on that scholarship. My
high school English teacher was so inspiring, really made me feel like I could
amount to something, someday. I should blame him for these crazy dreams! ;)
I have two years to work on it, so maybe after writing and
rewriting it a hundred thousand times and showing it to my professors and
anyone else I respect and trust enough to read it, it will turn out okay. In
the meantime, better get to writing!
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