Well, it's the end of day 1 of orientation. It started with everyone milling around in the grass, slowly lining up in alphabetical order. 101 out of the 102 students showed up and got in line by 1pm, to my surprise. We all sat down and listened to some opening remarks by the dean of the college, and then they called us up one by one to receive our blue coats... kind of a formal "welcome to veterinary medicine." The ceremony and the meaning was nice, as was the blue coat.. It will be useful to leave in anatomy lab, when everyone is smelling like formaldehyde.
I met many of my classmates and remember few of their names. It's going to be cliquish, I can already tell that groups are forming. A good number of people (maybe 20% of the class?) are married or engaged, which I found interesting. There is also an older man in the class whom I remember seeing at interview day. I admire the older students for coming back to school and pursuing their dream... one woman has a son starting his freshman year at the same university.
The only other important thing was an expectations discussion, where the 2nd year students answered a lot of our questions and added in their own $0.02. Yes, you can have a social life. Yes, you'll need to study a lot. I found out the college gives students a 50% discount on veterinary services (except wellness checkups). Also, the one big emphasis was to work together and not be competitive... everyone will be a veterinarian at the end, so please help one another out. I'm hopeful that our class will be friendly... I guess time will tell.