016: What To Expect From Your First Year In Vet School w/ Zach Lake
Remember your first year in vet school? How about the application process? Everyone has a different path that leads them to vet school, but once there, we all go through the same classes, lectures, and labs. Today we talk to Zach Lake, a first-year vet student, about his fresh off the press experience and how he gets through it.
Listen Now
Show Notes:
Zach is a first-year veterinary student at CSU, where he also got his undergraduate degree in zoology in 3 years. Today he talks to us about how he approached the application process, takes us behind the scenes on the first week at CSU’s vet school, and how the program talks to students about finances.
We discuss the diversity of people who end up together in vet school, and the balance of competition with collaboration among them. Zach also opens up about his journey with OCD and how he strives to find balance alongside productivity. He gives his advice to future vet students about everything from the application and interview to balancing studies with hobbies and getting through the first year.
In this episode:
- How to leverage free time in undergrad to prep yourself for vet school
- The rumored recommended number of vet experience hours to be competitive on your application
- The importance of making time for hobbies while in a competitive program
- An in-depth view of what the interview process is like at CSU
- How his class finds a balance between competition and collaboration
Quotes:
If I’m only doing [school], I’m also not spending my time efficiently, because I’m not going to have a life. 22:30
“Get up and walk around, because if you don’t, you’re just sitting at that desk all day, same seat, same lecture hall. You’ve got to get up and move around because that first day felt like a million hours long.” 44:40
“Even though you’re competing with these people to get in, eventually everyone is going to be colleagues.” 1:00:55