MIND THE GAP: Advice On The Transition From USU To WSU

When students in Utah State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine complete their second year, they transfer to Washington State University’s (WSU) Pullman campus as part of the WIMU Regional Program in Veterinary Medicine. The change can be a big one for students who are already facing the rigors of vet school, but Heather Hamblin and Matthew Barnes of the Class of 2023 and Ty Carpenter of the Class of 2024 have made the transition — and thrived in the process.

How are you doing at WSU? What’s the experience of your third and fourth years been like?

Hamblin: Overall, my experience at WSU has been great. I’ve learned a lot, had great professors, and enjoyed opportunities in the teaching hospital.

Third year was definitely challenging in terms of academic rigor, but I feel like I was well-prepared by my professors at USU.

What surprised you most about Pullman?

Hamblin: Honestly, I was surprised by how isolated the town is, and how much the town revolves around the school. While I don’t like being so far away from everything, I appreciate how the town rallies around the school and the students. It feels like the students and faculty make up a good portion of the population here, and you can hardly go anywhere without running into another student, professor, or someone else related to the vet school.

Carpenter: We moved up in the latter part of the summer, so the university crowd wasn't here yet, and it wasn't as lively as you’d think a university town would be. When the semester started up, life came back and things were

30 in a class to 120. It's overwhelming, especially that first month, but as you get into it, you start to figure things out. And now we're 10 or 12 tests in to this semester, right in the thick of it, but I think we figured it out. And I'm doing well.

Barnes: I’m doing well at WSU. Third year was a challenge mostly because we had a lot of different classes. I think we had two tests per week a little more like I expected. But for a city that houses a D-1 school, there just weren’t as many people as you’d expect from the outside looking in.

Carpenter: I’m doing good so far. It's a lot, moving from an area that you know relatively well into an area that you don't. And then there’s going from throughout most of that time, so it was important to stay on top of studying and not get behind. However, I enjoyed those classes more than a lot of the courses we had in first and second year because we were learning the fun part of medicine: diagnosing and treating problems.

I’ve also really enjoyed my fourth year. It’s very hands-on since it’s all rotations, and the residents and faculty have all been really fun to work with. If we show interest in something, they’re always willing to teach us how to do more. It’s just important to ask if you can get involved since they will assume you don’t have an interest otherwise.

Even so, it’s a fun city to be a part of. Between Pullman and Moscow, Idaho across the border, there's an almost innumerable number of places to eat or to go out. I think you could find a different place to go out every week for two years between them, and there's everything from Asian to Hawaiian. There are also a lot of churches and religious communities around Pullman and Moscow, and they do fun things we’ve able to participate in, like trunk-or-treat.

Coming out here, you see there are no trees, just rolling hills of wheat. There are no irrigation systems out in the hills, so you wonder where the water comes from. And then all of a sudden, the rain hits, and there's water everywhere. It's different from the Mountain West.

Barnes: The winter weather conditions surprised me. I was used to Nevada and Utah roads where they are great about plowing and getting salt down. In Pullman and Moscow, they do plow some of the roads, but a good majority of them are snow-packed. On the roads that do get plowed, the snow is generally pushed into the center of the roads and then removed at a later date. They also don’t usually put salt out that I have noticed. Instead, they use what I would describe as pea gravel. The roads are travelable and usually aren’t too bad unless we get a good storm, but it was still a surprise.

How did USU prepare you for your final two years in the WIMU program?

Hamblin: USU helped me prepare for my final two years by teaching me how to study, work hard, and persevere. The professors at USU were kind and compassionate, but they know how to challenge students to help us develop into hard-working veterinary professionals.

The small class size also gave me an amazing group of colleagues with whom I was very close, and that has been so helpful in the transition to WSU. The amount of hands-on experience and opportunities to see how things work “in real life” has proved invaluable in developing my clinical knowledge.

Carpenter: The best thing USU does is starting students off in a smaller, more intimate setting. There are only 30 students in a class, and the staff and faculty get to know you by sight. You feel like you can approach them with any question you have. It’s an environment that fosters learning just a little bit easier, and the student community you develop in Utah follows you up to Pullman. When I got here, I knew I had 30 other students that I could approach and hang out with rather than starting cold turkey.

Barnes: USU helped me ask questions and build a relationship with my professors. At USU, the class size is so small that fading into the background isn’t an option. Our professors knew us by name, and the smaller class size made me feel more comfortable asking questions. We were also able to go into more depth on topics we were interested in.

I think the professors at USU were teachers first and researchers second, by which I mean every professor had a true passion for teaching students, and they were all very good at it! They were excited about their topics and engaging in lectures. Most of them seemed like they were having a conversation with us rather than giving a rehearsed speech. That helped me learn better, and I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of each topic.

What one piece of advice would you give to students looking ahead to their time at WSU?

Hamblin: My advice is to make the most of your time here. Don’t be afraid to find time to explore campus and the surrounding cities. There are a lot of unique experiences in this part of the country, you just have to be willing to go out and find them.

Also, take the initiative to join clubs, go into the teaching hospital, and get involved in the vet school. Don’t feel bad that all your WSU cohort colleagues are more familiar with it all.

Carpenter: Stay close to your Utah community. They can be the base that you can go back to while you reach out and make more friends with the other 90 other students that you have fun with.

Also, don't freak out. Unless you’re from the area, your initial thought when you get here is probably going to be that this place is different from anything you've ever experienced. But something really cool that my wife says is that while it's scary, it's roller coaster scary, not haunted house scary. When you're going up that hill on a roller coaster and you come down, it’s a little bit scary, but it’s also fun, and you just embrace it.

By: Ethan Brightbill

Barnes: The best advice I can give is to take every opportunity to interact with the professors, especially in one-on-one or small group situations. Getting to know them well can open up a lot of opportunities that might not otherwise be available. During my first month in Pullman, I agreed to help on a research project outside of class on racehorses. I got paid for helping, which was nice, but I also had the opportunity to exercise the race horses and breeze them, which involves letting them run as fast as they can like in a race. It was a fun experience.

I also got to know the researcher, who is an internationally renowned equine exercise veterinarian, quite well. That allowed me to learn and do things I will likely never have the opportunity to try again. I then got to know other faculty through him, which opened even more learning opportunities, like drawing blood and placing catheters in horses, which I now feel very comfortable doing. So definitely try to venture outside your comfort zone, because you never know what opportunities will become available through those experiences. •