So, okay. Summer is here and work is light. This means I should be enjoying myself, right? Well, I am, though I’m experiencing a certain amount of angst and nervousness. I’m looking up textbooks I need to buy, places I can check out to living, and student organizations that might want to join. I’m also reading the blog of someone who’s going to soon be a second-year veterinarian student.

As to the latter, according to this vet student, there are two types of vet students. One believes that one should study endlessly. The harder you study, the better you’ll do. Therefore, the better jobs will be available to you once you graduate. Work hard, and you’ll do fine. That’s about it. The other school of thought is that you shouldn’t just focus on studying, but should also get out there and join as many organizations as possible, so that you get as much experience as you can. Grades are only secondary.

Personally, I bet I’m somewhere in the middle of that. However, as I previously said, there are these two schools of thought, and you can’t always simply split yourself between the two. As I look back on my past, I can see that I simply drifted through high school. I didn’t care much about grades, but got A’s in most of my classes regardless. As an undergrad, I didn’t think grades were all that important, but whether or not I fully grasped the material was what mattered. I did do that, even though my grades didn’t always reflect that. After that, I graduated, worked for a couple of years, and this brings me to the present.

What do YOU think? Book Smart is more important, or Street Smart?

There are a lot of things I want to do it as a student in vet school. I want to go horseback riding again. I want to join up with a wildlife medical center. This center takes orphaned wildlife babies and injured animals in, then nurses them back to health so that they can be re-released back into the wild. There are also some clubs that look like fun and that I might like to join. Between these types of activities (apparently, the wildlife center will take a lot of my time), I’ll also need to find the time to learn a lot of information. Now, I don’t consider myself biased, but veterinary students have to learn as much as and more than medical students do. Besides that, they also have to learn several other different animal species. And of course, they have to be smart enough to keep them all straight. That can be a lot of information for a poor noggin to store.

Given this, all of that information is pretty important. Animals that haven’t even been born yet will need to have me know that this is what a vitamin A., D. or E deficiency looks like. In other words, this time around, grades really do matter. (I’ve also found that grades really mattered in college, too, but I came out just fine and also have a very comprehensive education, all things considered.) I want to be near the top of my class so that my choice of internships will really come to me, as will the job and salary I want.

How, then, can I find time to do everything? Well, perhaps sleep is going to have to suffer, but maybe not too much.

Contributior: Tom Phelps