With the end of my first year of veterinary medicine finally coming to a close it seemed fitting to share 8 steps I used to help me have the best first year of vet school!

Don’t work too hard 

• Hard work is amazing. Never run away from hard work; you get out of it what you put into it. You’ll need to study, memorize, practice, learn every day in vet school. But I hear classes only get harder and the schedule gets busier, so don’t destroy yourself in first year trying to keep up.

Make sure you make good friends with lots of people

• One day these friends will turn into co-workers! For right now they are study buddies, best friends, network contacts, etc. University days are supposed to be the best days of your life–and good friends help with that!

Get involved with clubs, exec, off campus activities

• This was something I did in my undergrad degree and it generated a lot of favourite memories. Becoming a part of a club or team will allow you to get to know people better and make more friends. I also found it really important to have friends outside of vet.

Get to know your profs quickly

• Believe me, this will help when it comes to networking or studying, or feeling like you belong. You can be friends with your profs! If a professor knows who you are they will better be able to answer questions or frustrations you may send them while studying; they’ll also be more willing to offer up industry contacts or experience.

Don’t share your grades with friends

• This might not be helpful for you, but for me–I’m ridiculously competitive. By not sharing my grades with other people I’m keeping my stress levels down. I’m working hard on studying, getting grades that I’m satisfied with and not constantly trying to outdo everyone just for the fun of it (this has made for a much more relaxing school year).

Change your study habits

• I have found that there is a lot of students who have entered vet without an appropriate study technique. These students definitely need to speak to other classmates and professors to find the best way to learn material. I was confident in my study habits, but I changed some of them up for something new —it gets a bit boring when you’ve been studying the same way for 5 or 6 years. It is also important to recognize that different classes may need to be studied for in different ways. Example: class A would be great to learn via flash cards; class B would be great to learn via straight memorization; class C would be great to learn by drawing out flow charts, time-lines, and summaries.

Keep your doors open

• So many students come in to vet knowing that they want to do cats and dogs or large animals. (Right now I want to do large animals when I graduate!) However, I think that everyone should embrace the wide range of knowledge and opportunities gifted to us in school. Try and learn about all animals and don’t discount something because you do not believe you’ll ever work in that field. The amount of vets who graduated and then completely changed their area of interest is huge!

Never forget where you are!

• In case you didn’t notice: YOU ARE IN VET SCHOOL. How hard was it to get here? How long have you been working for this? Would you want to do anything else with your life? When exams and papers and lower grades feel like they are piling up just remember that one day you’ll be a doctor (and that is a HUGE accomplishment)!