Blog Entry #1

Mariana Acosta’s Introduction to Vets in Progress

02/02/18

Through this capstone project I am hoping to discover the most reliable and successful path to
become a veterinarian. I am hoping to experience veterinary medicine first hand, and be able to
shadow a vet, which would not only gave me an edge on college apps but it would also give me
an insight on the job itself. So far I have mostly conducted online research through which i found
several colleges promoting their graduate school as top choice. Some colleges, like Penn State,
gave helpful information in ways to conduct a thorough search for the “perfect school”. It stated
to make a checklist of necessities that a student would be looking for as well as a score sheet to
rank the colleges as the student visits each on to help make a final decision. I have yet to find a
complete list of requirements to become a veterinarian, mostly because each graduate school
require the same courses, some a slightly different. There is also the factor of competition with
graduate school as well. I have also contacted several veterinary clinics around the area but
have only heard back from one, and they denied me. I may have to try clinics more toward
Moreno Valley but I don’t mind the area. I also have a family friend who is a successful
veterinarian, however he lives out of state, I can always interview him over the phone through. I
am pretty excited to work at a clinic because no matter what it will be an eye opener for me as i
get to see what really goes on and I can figure out if this profession is right for me.
The process is slow but I know I’ll get there, slowly but surely.
Blog Entry #2
Mariana Acosta’s Vets in Progress
03/14/18

I have found that quite a few people as also trying to conduct a study for veterinary medicine, so
finding a clinic to job shadow is a problem. However, i reached out to some family and found
some veterinarian professors that studied at Colorado State University and now teaches at
University of Georgia. I have corresponded with her and she has been very helpful on giving me
some insight on the different programs and path to choose from when conducting my studies. I
was also put in touch with a professor at CSU who is also in the agricultural department and is
willing to set up an appointment to meet with me and discuss the pre-vet program at CSU. I will
be visiting the Colorado and the college over the spring break and plan on meeting with the
professor in hopes of getting more details on the paths of education. The professor in Georgia
told me that there is a two year break to obtain the PhD and then continue for the DVM (Doctor
of Veterinary Medicine), she stated it is difficult to switch back between courses and then jump
back into the motion. I would like to get my PhD in this field but this new information has set me
back to think some more. I am not trying to volunteer at an adoption center but the next
orientation is not until April 7, which poses a problem because I will still be in Colorado at that
time. I am also taking my dog to get his second round of shots at a clinic, maybe I can ask about
shadow work or volunteer work then.
The process is slow but I know I’ll get there, slowly but surely.

Below is email correspondence

Please see below

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: "Brandy A Burgess" <​Brandy.Burgess@uga.edu​>
Date: Mar 7, 2018 3:43 PM
Subject: vet school info
To: "​yolanda.gauna@gmail.com​" <​yolanda.gauna@gmail.com​>
Cc:

Hi Yolanda!

How’s Wisconsin treating ya? Enjoying all the snow I hope! We are in Georgia now – winter is pretty warm so
that’s nice, but summers are pretty humid which is a little un-fun!

Now to your question… There are currently 30 veterinary schools in the U.S. – most are traditional with a
veterinary teaching hospital, a few use a distributive model for clinical training (i.e., students do clinical
rotations in private practices).

A few things to consider:

1.​ ​In-state vs out-of-state tuition – there is a BIG difference. If they select a school that is out-of-state have
them check what the rules are for establishing residency in that state. Some will not allow you to establish
residency while you are in an undergraduate program. Others will as long as your driver’s license, license
plates, and voter registration are in that state.
2.​ ​Consider if she may be interested in also doing a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree in addition to a
DVM (in other words interested in veterinary public health). There are quite a few DVM programs that allow
you to do a combined program and depending on what she may want to do this may be appealing.
3.​ ​Many DVM programs let you track small animal, large animal, general, or public/corporate. If she is
interested in veterinary public health then a vet school that offers a public/corporate track would probably be a
good idea (these also tend to offer combined DVM-MPH degree).
4.​ ​I would stay away from the schools that do not have a traditional veterinary teaching hospital – the
distributive model is somewhat new and I would expect these students to struggle a bit in passing the national
boards (NAVLE).
5.​ ​Many schools, CSU is one, have a DVM-PhD program. I would stay away from these programs. CSU
has you do 1 yr PhD, 2 yrs DVM, 2 yrs PhD, then final 2 yrs of DVM. In my opinion this is setting students up
to fail because a lot of life can happen in 7 years and a lot can change in the DVM curriculum so taking 2
years away to complete a PhD can be somewhat problematic as the student is generally responsible to learn
any material they may have missed.

With respect to U.S. schools I have attended/worked:

·​ ​I went to vet school at Colorado State University – historically has a good ag program and DVM program
(consistently ranked in top 3). CSU has a pretty good caseload in hospital so you are pretty busy and see a
lot during clinical training. At CSU you take course work the first 2-years, then spend some time in classroom
and clinics the 3​rd​ year, and the 4​th​ year is in the clinic. Class size is ~140, which is a lot but many vet schools
keep increasing class size.
·​ ​My first faculty appointment was at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. The vet school is typically ranked around
26 (so low) but this is likely related to a lower level of research which figures into the rankings. The VTH has a
pretty low caseload compared to CSU so will have less exposure to cases. VT is currently going through a
curriculum change, so students take courses years 1 and 2 and first half of year 3; then go into clinics for
about 3 months; then back into classroom for about 3 months; then 4​th​ year is in clinics. Spending time in
clinics early in theory should provide more context to coursework. VT is an engineering school, so not
necessarily known for its ag program. Class size is ~125. At VT I taught veterinary epidemiology to first year
DVM students; and infectious disease epidemiology and advanced epidemiology in the MPH program.
·​ ​Now I am at University of Georgia. UGA is an ag school and the vet school is consistently ranked in top
10. At UGA students have coursework years 1 and 2 and ¾ of year 3; then enter the clinics for the rest of
year 3 and year 4. Caseload is really good and the VTH was built 3-years ago. Class size is ~115. At UGA I
teach epidemiology and preventive medicine to the 2​nd​ year veterinary students; and I am the director of
infection control in the VTH.

Let me know what other schools they are looking at and I can try to drum up more info for you.

They can also contact me directly if they would like.

Best,
Brandy

=====================================
Brandy A. Burgess, DVM, MSc, PhD, DACVIM, DACVPM
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology & Infection Control
Dept. of Population Health / College of Veterinary Medicine
Director of Infection Control / Veterinary Teaching Hospital
University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Blog Entry #3
Mariana Acosta’s Vets in Progress
4/27/18

Hello, for my senior capstone project I had took up the task of discovering a path to successfully
become a veterinarian. I choose this as a topic because it allowed my to further knowledge of
veterinary schooling and the upcoming choices I or others are going to have to make. I was
hoping to create some kind of guide that allowed other students to looking at some choices and
to see further down the path of veterinary medicine that our counselors allowed us to see. My
solution would be what i have stated before, after having interviewed local and distant
veterinarians, I would create a compact forum of theirs and advice to college life and life after
graduate school. Through this process I hoped to discover alternate means of schooling choices
and different specialties I can further invest my time in when studying.
The first steps I planned on taking was emailing vet clinics and getting in touch with their
vets and vet techs. The very first obstacle was getting an email back. I received a lot of robot
responses saying that they would get back to me as soon as possible, that day has still not come.
The responses I did recieve was denials explaining that they had full clinics with volunteers. So
after all the denials I had finally gotten through to my aunt’s friend who graduated from
Colorado State University, Ms. Yolanda Gauna. Through her I found out a lot of informations
about the college I will be attending this fall, but I was also able to reach Ms. Brandi Burgess.
Burgess a Professor at the University of Georgia, Athens, teaches at the College of Veterinary
Medicine and is the Director of Infectious Diseases at the veterinary teaching hospital. She put
together an email of academic paths that she took and what her students are taking, along with
the advantages and disadvantages of attending certains schools within the United States.
Through this process I discovered the “truth” of a veterinary academic path and the
different doctorates available to the students. I have learned that vet med is not a one way street
but more like a freeway with different exits for each destination. Personally, I discovered that
being straight forward will get me farther in life than beating around a bush or assuming people
know what I need. I am proud that I chose this topic and furthered my knowledge on my college
and career choice. I wish I had known about capstone sooner so I could have spent time with a
family friend who is a veterinarian. I also wish i had signed up for the Veterinary Medicine tour
at Colorado State to tour the facility and spent time with vets at local clinics at Ft. Collins, sadly
time did not allow for that to happen..
I was able to take a step in solving the problem of being clueless in academic career paths
because I was able to find first hand sources that explained the different situations to me. If i had
more time I would definitely consider continuing and finding more graduates and vets to discuss
their choice of school.
I would tell incoming seniors to just know their own work ethic and base your topic of
how extravagant they are willing to go for their project. Its okay to do something huge but just
make sure they are able to handle the workload.
I’d like to close off by saying that although this project was difficult to organize I did
learn a lot about the choices I have for college and becoming an adult to handle business on my
own and gather information from other adults. It was a good experience overall.