The last few days have been busy, fun, and a little scary. Yesterday we started having full days of courses, instead of little lectures tucked in between tours and paperwork. Since it’s only been two month since my last classes and graduation, I still feel a little tired when it comes to studying, whereas a lot of the other students took of a year or more before starting at the Dick Vet. But it’s vet school! I made it! Even as the professor shouts out names of bones that I struggle to write down in time, I’m excited to be allowed to sit and listen.
Most exciting so far, however, was our first dissection today. Dissection is a terribly frustrating and tedious activity, but when you get it right you can’t help but feel proud. We worked in teams of three to remove part of the skin from canine cadavers, and it took us 90 minutes to do it! Some of the groups were lucky enough to get some nice specimens, but our poor mastiff hadn’t been preserved quite completely, so there was a lot of proteinaceous fluid around the elbow, which made the whole process quite messy. We had just finished with removing the skin and were slowly cutting away the connective tissue covering the muscles, when it was time to clean up.
Somehow, while putting our specimen back in its bag, a bit of formaldehyde-tainted fluid flew in my mouth. I had been so concerned with not cutting myself or my neighbours with the (fantastically) sharp scalpel blade that I forgot to shut my trap. Oh well: something this disgusting was bound to happen at some point. There’s a strange stain on my shoes that looks suspiciously like a splatter that showed up today, so I guess I’m covered in the fluid anyway. I’m a real vet student.
During the dissection, I was very upset when (a) I accidentally cut through a muscle instead of separating the skin in the smooth, perfect strokes that the professors showed us, and (b) I couldn’t quite understand the diagrammes provided in the textbook someone had set out, but I think I need to take it easy on myself. It’s my first day at vet school, and I shouldn’t be perfect on the first try. Passing requires 50% and every vet student I’ve talked to says to get over being a perfectionist, so I’ve got to leave my super high standards at the door. That being said, I still need to pass. Give me a month: I’ll be a complete mess by then.
But for tonight, I’m meeting my mentoring students (my mummies) and having some pints at The Pear Tree. My last weekend of freedom!
Yesterday and today have been quite busy, with classes starting and lots of silly bureaucratic shenanigans to sort through.
I started this blog after I couldn’t find any first-hand experience from other American students studying at the Dick Vet, with the primary intention to maybe provide a little advice to future generations of students. Today, I present the first truly useful bit of information that I wish I had known about before coming here. Those not interested should skip ahead, to where I will post lots of pretty pictures.
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The U of Edinburgh requires students to pay fees in full upon matriculation (orientation). Fees for GEP students starting in 2008-2009 are fixed at £19,950, or roughly $37,905 at the time of this posting.
The majority of US students will take out Stafford loans, Graduate PLUS loans, and perhaps private loans to cover the cost of education. However, these loans disburse in two installments: one in early August, and another in January. You will not be able to cover tuition in full, much less cost of living, with the first disbursement.
The University does agree to accept payment by installment, with an initial payment of roughly 1/3 the full cost, and then a second installment in January and a third later in the semester. However, you must have a UK bank account with debit access to do this. American students, like myself, face a lot of bumps when trying to set up an account with a UK bank, and account set-up during this low season takes 2-3 weeks, at least.
Fact is, you won’t have a bank account ready by the time you matriculate (enroll) and you won’t be able to pay in full. What do you do? The school website offers no obvious solution to this problem. It wasn’t until matriculation that the solution was explained to me.
At the Registry for matriculation, the school will ask you to endorse your checks so that they may cash them. They will take roughly half the cost of tuition (minus the deposit paid earlier to reserve your spot) and in a few weeks time, return the balance to you. This leaves enough to (hopefully) maintain the cost of living while not losing your place at the University. Hopefully, by the time your next payment is due in January for the second half of fees, you will be able to deposit the loan checks into your shiny new UK bank account, and set-up a payment by debit.
None of this was made aware to me, and my emails to the Fees department are as yet unanswered. I hope future Dick Vet GEPs can rest a little easier understanding the process.
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I am officially a Vet student! What a long journey, but also how exciting. I have matriculated and learned a couple of things.
My flickr account is choc-a-bloc with photos, but here are a few highlights of my first two days as a student.
Stables at the Equine Hospital at Easter Bush
From the old Large Animal Hosptial: my favourite sign
Paintings of cows decorate the wall in the Main Hall at Summerhall
Ol’ Willy Dick, our founder, stares menacingly at the students
The staircase at Summerhall
Paying my respects to Ol’ Willy Dick. Notice the hoof in his hand!
We’ve mostly toured facilities and received talks about safety. We did have one hour of lecture: Language of Anatomy, which I rather enjoyed. The term is just beginning!
The airport is known for giving bad exchange rates, but I needed pounds for the airport shuttle and the taxi cab to the residence halls. The exchange rate actually dropped two cents today to $1.95/1 GBP, but I paid $2.14. Oh well, I imagine I can only get a better rate when I enter Edinburgh.
I was surprised to discover that the 20 GBP notes don’t quite fit into my wallet the way I would like them to. They end up getting clipped by the zipper, so I will most likely have to buy a new wallet. Add it to the expenses, eh? 1 GBP comes in a heavy gold coin, but the 1p, 10p, and 20p coins I got after buying a Chedder & Tomato Chutney sandwich just confuse me. Why are some coins round and some octagonal? I’ll get the hang of it in no time, but right now I’m a total foreigner who has to sort through each coin before making proper change.
(On a side note, I had never tried chutney before and had no idea what it was, but it tastes very good. At least my taste buds are daring.)
I’m siting in the Manchester airport, and four boy scouts and one Scottish equivalent just walked by! My first kilt sighting! No, I don’t know if he was wearing any underpants and there’s no way I could ask anyway – he’s gone now.
I am so grateful for my laptop right now.
I’ll post about my student loan process, despite it all being dreadfully boring, for any future GEP Dick Vets that are confused.
I applied for my loans through Sallie Mae. Although Sallie Mae allows for you to electronically sign your Master Promissory Note (MPN) and send your FAFSA paperless as well, the University’s international student finances office needs everything hard copy. So, expect to fax or mail your MPN, FAFSA, copy of your acceptance letter, and cover letter to the office, as per their website, in addition to applying through Sallie Mae. Sallie Mae will provide a lender for you to use, which you will need for your cover letter.
Apply for the maximum of Subsidized/Unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans first. You will qualify as an independent because you are going to what the US considers a graduate programme, even though the university calls it undergraduate study. After you’ve exhausted your Stafford Loans, which at this point cover about half of your tuition, you will need a Graduate PLUS Loan. You can apply for a private loan, but I recommend that you do this as a last resort, if you can’t get enough from the PLUS loan, since interest rates are generally higher.
There is technically no limit to how much you can borrow as a Grad (NOT Parent) PLUS loan, but the University will not give you more than the expected cost of attendance. A spreadsheet detailing your cost of attendance if available at their Student Aid website as well. So far it seems pretty accurate to me, although they can only estimate the future exchange rate between USD and GBP. The University provides emergency funding for international students who see a sudden change in exchange rates that is not in our favour, but it’s not much. So that’s when private lenders may enter the picture.
I plan on keeping this page up as an archive and updating it when I learn more about the process. The financial aid office has been very friendly with my long and obnoxious emails, but there seems to be no other resource for first time students except for the University’s webpage, so hopefully I can clear up confusions.
If you stumble across this page and find that the information it inaccurate, out of date, or you have additions you want to make, please comment!
