DS announced he wants to do veterinary science

[Lozza70]

After years of wanting to be an airline pilot DS who is currently doing GCSE’s has announced he now wants to be a vet. What is the best A level combination to do?

at the moment he has Chemistry, Biology, Maths and Spanish in mind.

Likely to include chemistry and biology. Look up admissions to the universities he’d consider.

Yeh chem and bio for sure. Also as I understand it he ideally needs to get some work exp. I would also suggest talking to some vets – many are disenchanted with the career sadly.

What has prompted this? It’s a long course, very hard to get a place on, not a slam-dunk that you will even pass. And there are limited places that offer it. I mean that's one reason why it’s tough to get on obvs.

Nottingham for example (a newer uni to offer Vet med) asks for AAB with As in chem and bio. You would be out at Sutton Bonnington so not really the Nottingham uni experience but I am thinking that would be OK if vet is what you want.

Bristol wants AAA to include chem and another science.

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studywithus/ugstudy/courses/UG/Veterinary-Medicine-and-Surgery-BVM-BVS-with-BVMedSci-BVMBVS-U6UVTMVS.html

It is so so hard to achieve this, make sure he’s sure. I had a friend who was an exceptionally high achiever and she struggled for years upon years to get onto a course. She regretted the choice.

Chemistry biology maths
bin Spanish and focus on high grades in the other 3

My son was very keen on being a vet. He got a week’s work experience sorted with a vet but he kept fainting. Poor kid was so embarrassed. He went on to do marine biology instead.

@Lozza70 Bio and Chem definitely and then anything else he’ll enjoy. They really don’t care about the 3rd (& you don’t need 4). What you do need is work experience. Most Unis will have a minimum required, which changes all
the time so read a few now and then make sure you have a bit more. Vet and animal care a good mix - you need to know what you are getting into ! They book up often a year in advance so start asking assp. Get a letter on headed paper outlining the dates you do any wex as you’ll need those when applying. Keep a diary as well to remind you if things do can talk about them at interviews.

Entry is v competitive and the course is hard work. But if you love it you’ll have a fantastic time. They have to do a lot of EMS (extra mural studies) in holiday time so they need to be good at time management to juggle everything. But, as a mum of an about to graduate 5th year, they really do have a lot of fun !

Thanks for all your feedback. I’m not sure what has prompted the new interest in becoming a vet and whilst I want to be supportive and not rain on his parade I agree it’s really important to fully understand what you are getting into.

DS is a high achiever and is predicted 9/8’s across his GCSE’s but seems to be flip flopping on A levels and direction and I can see you need to be really committed to get into vet studies. He is in the local comp and I’m not sure careers advice is what it needs to be in balancing ambition with reality. Neither his Dad or I went to university so this is all a bit new for us.

Will push him on getting to the bottom of what is driving this new choice. Thanks!

@Lozza70happy to help if needed. I’m also a teacher who supports students into med and vet. You do really need to want to do it as the amount of wex he’ll need takes some organising and he only has a year to get enough. First stop, get him into a vets for a week, so he can see the actual job. There are some b good MOOCS by Edinburgh and Nottingham Unis about what it is to be a vet which might help too.
If he’s determined he will make it. Mine was from the local comp too and had never wanted to do anything else.

Good place to start

https://vet.ed.ac.uk/education/moocs-overview

Is he in year 11 now (I took it that he was)? If so yy he does not have long to sort this. I cannot stress enough that it is a role you need to be really committed to. If he is yr 11 then he will have two months + off after next week so good chance to get some wk exp. Agree a week at a vets will show him if he really wants to do it. Is he big on animals - dogs, horses, farms?

Yes currently yr11 and doing GCSE’s. Think the preference is small animals and will get in touch with local vets and animal care to see if there are any opps to volunteer or shadow.

Competition for vet school places is intense. Just getting the grades is not enough. He will also have to demonstrate a considerable amount of work experience.

My brother got into Glasgow Uni to study a few years ago. The university had a suggested list of work experience he should have done in the 2 years leading up to starting university. Amongst other things he did:

Every Saturday for about 9 months at local vet practice shadowing one of the vets. Every Saturday for about 2 months at a RSPCA shelter working with small animals.

During summer holidays he spent 2 weeks on a dairy farm, 2 weeks at a local stables, 2 weeks working on a sheep farm and 1 week at an abatoir.

The universities do not want students who are phased by the practical side of working with animals so they put a lot of importance in the work experience, probably more than on the academic results.

@Aaron95things gave changed a lot post Covid. You do no need all that work experience (never did !). You need 35 hours of husbandry and 35 hours of vet and as long as pass each Unis minimum criteria you will be ok. You do need to be able to talk about what you’ve learned though and understand the profession.

@Lozza70 you have to study all animals do preference at this stage doesn’t really matter

As an example, Liverpool will interview everyone who meets these minimum criteria

Glasgow require a week - most will have more but it’s not essential, but you will need to be able to talk about being a vet in different environments

@Lozza70 warning you now. You will hear and read a lot of rubbish about what is needed. You do not need lambing or dairy, you do not need months of work experience. In fact many prefer a customer facing job to hours with the same vet. It is v possible to get in if you are keen, committee and a bit lucky. It’s the most competitive course - there are only 11 Unis that offer it (potentially 10 if Cambridge stop)

Hi, OP -

Great advice above. I also understand that work experience is very important.

VM is not my field so I pose this as a question. We know that in some highly competitive fields such as Economics and Computer Science (and specific highly competitive degree programmes) it is becoming more common to reserve offers for candidates significantly exceeding the stated entry requirements. Is this happening in VM?

If so it is an excellent reason to consider dropping an A level - being pragmatic, probably Spanish - and going all out on the other three. A fourth AL never compensates for a lower grade. (Except, weirdly, at Imperial and rarely elsewhere, where a candidate may be given alternative offers of 3 A stars or 2 A stars and 2 As.)

I wish he would drop an AL anyway. Absent exceptional circumstances, it is more in the interest of schools than pupils to have candidates doing 4. Every university in the land will offer on 3. (I am a former Russell Group admissions tutor)

DS should aim for the highest predicted grades he can get for his UCAS application, in addition to the work experience, etc. If all of this puts him off, being a pilot is a great fallback.

Good intel as usual from @mumsneedwine re wk put.

My thinking was as much an interrogation of does he really want to do tho as it sounds like a sudden decision - hence my query re animals; all the vet med YP I have known have had heavy animal involvement from an earlier age. Not saying you need this tho!

Agree with @poetryandwine too - offers may be low (Notts AAB surprised me) but do unis end up expecting higher grades as with econ of late? Also agree three A levels better than four.

I agree. Don't get bogged down with being head boy, EPQs etc. Focus on getting 3 As. Biology, Chemistry and one other. Chemistry has to be an A.

Start looking at the work experience requirements of the unis he might consider. Then email off to likely places in your area with a request and a CV.

Student Room has quite a lot of information.

My dc did six different weeks of work experience in the end. And was offered 3 places. It's quite a lot of work to apply. I'm not sure if it's the case with all the unis but they had to answer a list of written questions from each uni, all different.

The course itself is arduous. Five years with work experience in your holidays. It probably needs a driving licence at some point (I'm thinking use of a car by third year) as the rotations are often rural.

But very high employment prospects at the end.

@Makethetea don’t want to be a pessimist but finding jobs this year has been tough. Many are yet to find anything sadly.

And it’s not a great salary, for 5 years hard work and a lot of debt. £35,000 average starting salary for 40 hrs, weekend and night shifts. Probably won’t be on £40,000 for many years. No extra for out of hours work. You really need to love it !

And all Unis will require you to fill out their own forms and/or online things. Bristol don’t interview so only use their form to select students.

@mumneedswine that sounds tough. You do read about dissatisfied vets for sure. Mine didn't want to do anything else so we supported that.

@Makethetea it’s the job market at the moment. Many are not hiring as don’t have the money. Hopefully things will improve as the corporates investigation sorts itself out. But it took them all by surprise this year.

PS my DD is starting in Sept at a hospital so she’s v happy, so there are jobs. To demonstrate how sociable the course it, most of her Vet school 5th years are currently in holiday together. About 100 of them 😳.

@mumsneedwine How frustrating for those graduating this year. Yes it seems a really supportive place where dd is going. I hope it works out for her. She's over the first hurdle but I think there are many more to come.