Should school university advisors know about the process of applying for all courses? Inc. veterinary medicine?

[Whattodonext2020]

My daughter is in the process of applying to uni to study veterinary medicine. She was unaware that each university had their own questionnaire that needed to be filled out. She’d had mediocre advice regarding her personal statement and luckily found out about these questionnaires the day her PS was due in. It was a very stressful day!
Was this something the school university advisor should have made clear or is it something my daughter should have found out independently?

As there are only eight universities at most in the UK offering veterinary medicine, your DD should have been quite capable of finding out about it independently.

DS applied for a type of course that is not offered at many UK institutions and which has a separate application process with different deadlines and a whole range of separate assessments.

He and the school worked together on his application - definitely a case of student-led but staff-facilitated. So if he said 'at X I have to have an interview, and I don't dfeel well prepared', the school organised him interview training. Equally, 'at Y I need to submit a video', the school - and other adults involved in his subject - pulled together to make it happen.

We would never have expected the school to advise on such a niche area, but their support was second to none nevertheless. As parents, we were asked afterwards to document the steps and the details of what helped, in order to be able to advise the next student applying to that type of course (which may not be for 5+ years).

I do think that students applying for 'rarer' courses have the responsibility to 'drive' the process - alongside parents if needed - rather than the school being responsible. Tbh, I would expect the student to drive any application, but more mainstream ones will obviously tend to be also facilitated 'in bulk' by the school.

@HannahStern 10 Unis now.