I'll give you my input as a previous CO resident that was accepted to CSU and chose WSU instead. I'll leave out any club stuff and just focus on classes-overall for most schools though alot of hands on opportunities occur through clubs years 1-3 depending on how the clinical year is structured.
WSU you start surgery course in your first semester. Once you complete that successfully then you can start surgeries. We have the the simulation center where you can practice any surgical procedure-you have access to day 1. I started cat neuters in December in year 1 once I completed my surgery course. You can do as advanced procedures as the advising veterinarian feels comfortable letting you do and of course within that specific state's practice laws. I've done leg amputations and eye nucleation, neuters, and model spay. I've also got to play around alot with the large animal repro models, laparoscopic equipment, endoscope, and ultrasound in open lab. Year 2 we do an anesthesia simulation lab where it's not live animals, but they run us through different anesthetic simulations to help prepare us for when things go awry before we actually touch a real patient that we are responsible to keep alive. Year 2&3 we also have communications which have simulated cases. Year 1 you have an animal handling class and then live animals for some identification questions in SA and LA anatomy. We also get to bring in pets during our neuro class in year 1. Animals get brought in year 2 as well for a lab in the neuro section again. Year 2 has less opportunities within the core curriculum for live animal hands on than any other year. Year 3 there are alot more hands on animal labs practicing medicine/surgery procedures before you enter clinics in 4th year.
Starting year 1 you also have intro to clinics that you have to complete and that requires x amount of hours (based on your semester&year) in the hospital on rotations. How much you're involved kind of depends on the rotation, case load for the day, procedures, and willingness to jump in etc. If you hang out around a service long enough they let you start to do things after awhile. You have access to the hospital day 1. A plus is it's connected to the buildings where year 1&2 classes are held makes going there super easy.
Elective wise we have colic team which you get called in to work up colic cases with clinicians. I got to help with colic surgery with that. We also have a phone tree for foaling season so you can get called in for ICU care of foals or to help work up a case with mares having difficulty foaling. Those are all electives though. There are other electives but those are the only ones year 1 and 2 that are specific to animal hands on involvement. You can also take elective classes over the summer year 1&2 if you want and you are basically a 4th year for that 2-6 week period. I know oncology, orthopedics, and large animal all offer the course-there may be more. You do treatments, you SOAP, do discharges, etc. There is also financial scholarship for those summer courses so they end up basically costing you a minimal amount if anything at all.
How many surgeries a student gets is totally dependent on them so I cant get you a specific number, but if you do shelter rotation along with other opportunities that are available through clubs and the main core surgery classes you should be more than proficient in your basic surgeries by the time you graduate along with having done some more advanced procedure at least once at least on a cadaver. If a person really hates surgery they could do less, but probably still have a good dose of surgeries of various sorts and parts of the procedures between closings, LA opportunities, and even just doing the community rotation and didn't take shelter med where a lot of surgery happens.
As for capstone...personally I'm not sold on it at all. My friends at CSU spend their last month of summer studying this last summer while I'm still off enjoying break and doing cool internship things without worrying about an exam day 1. If you look at CSU vs WSU NAVLE pass rates there's esentially 0 difference. For what type of practitioner/how prepared you will be depends on you as a student and what you put into clinics=what you get out of it.
Our assistant dean used to be at CSU and has fought hard to keep anything like capstone to a minimum if that says anything. We also have several other faculty that have come to WSU from CSU and they all agree with the assistant dean. Take it for what it's worth. We do have a CPE exam year 3 before clinics as like a cumulative exam from year 1-3 but it's not a barrier to anything and more meant as a benchmark for administrators and to help make sure you are ready for 4th year putting together cases from beginning to end and helping continually improve the program.
I know it wasn't on your list but cost. Please no matter where you get offered acceptances when making your ultimate decision I urge you to put cost above all else unless you have a real good reason not to (ie parent dying of cancer). CSU is more expensive ~13k per VIN not including the living cost difference. That's if you don't have WICHE. If you are WICHE WSU is be far cheaper.
Feel free to pm me or ask more questions on here! Also see the WSU vs OSU thread for more info!
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@CoffeeQuestionMark for any other input on WSU
@danseth and
@vetmedhead for CSU input.