Vet Med 2027

[VetMedMum]

Any parents out there whose kids are looking at Vet Med for 2027 entry?

No vets or medics in our family so it’s all new to me. She is progressing with her work experience, but it’s all starting to get a bit real now…

School have them draft their PS in June so they are ready to submit early in Autumn 2026.

Booked 5 open days so far 😬

If she’s planning to go down the small animal route, she should be prepared for the realities of working for a corporate controlled by private equity. Targets, KPIs, upsell, cross-selling etc etc. It really is all about the £££ these days and it’s naive to expect otherwise. The drop-out rate of idealistic young graduates due to stress, pressure & burnout is horrendous.

Source : A close friend is a vastly experienced SA vet who qualified in the 90s, has worked through the transition to the corporate era & hates what the profession has become.

My DD is a new graduate vet working for a large corporate. It's fantastic. Well treated, lots of CPD and opportunities to progress (they are paying for her to get a certificate). It really depends on the practice, not who owns it.

Work experience is vital. Each Uni needs differing amounts but all like customer facing roles. Being a vet is a people job as much as an animal one. You don't need lambing or dairy. But a variety of vet exp and animal husbandry is good so can talk about things at interviews or in the endless application forms.

It's a tough degree, but they work hard and play even harder.

agree,

corporate practice can have its challenges for senior vets/those with management responsibilities and those of us who have spent most of our career working within a more traditional/independent framework. I would agree though that for new graduates, the training programmes offered by corporate practices are extremely good, and not all independent practices will offer the necessary support or experiences. I certainly wouldn’t rule anything out, especially in a difficult jobs market for new graduates.

Following what you said I have had a chat with him about it and potentially just looking at one Scottish uni. It’s such a tough course to get into. I think he is prepared for that but is struggling with his plan B.

My DD is coming to the end of her first year at Surrey vet med. Happy to answer any questions..the application process was a second job for me pretty much!

@Nomorescreentime hi, thank you for the offer. Applying to university in the first place is new to me (I didn’t go), so I’m finding the process a bit overwhelming. I want to support my daughter to the best of my ability but I know getting a place to study vet med is so competitive. My child is in year 12 so the deadline for applications is frighteningly close!

Which universities did your daughter apply to? and was she successful first time around?

Hi Nella, Yes I get you, it can feel like another world can’t it. My Dd applied to Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham and Surrey. She got interviewed for Notts and Surrey, we prepared quite a bit for the SJTs by reading every bit of the RCVS code of conduct and looking up some examples from human medicine. She didn’t feel like she really got the hang of what Bristol were looking for in the SAQ, I’m not sure I did either really. But yes it was first time around for us. I would suggest having a look at the student room vet applicants threads, there are some long ones but they are super helpful.

No more screen time - thank you for your reply.
I’ve spent a few hours today looking through the student room applicant threads. You are right - they are long!

I think my take home from this exercise is:
1- don’t apply to the Scottish universities- the number of places is very low for non Scottish UK applicants
2- know the code of conduct inside out
And the main one:
3- a lot of students don’t get offered a place the first time they apply but they reapply in a much stronger position after an gap year.

It’s been really useful in that respect. I feel I can now better support my daughter through the inevitable disappointment of a first time rejection, if that happens. I do think a year out would be very beneficial- she’s summer born, so will still be 17 when she finishes school.

Do you know why she didn’t get an interview at Liverpool? I thought they interviewed everyone with their required work experience and grades, so just wondered if you had any idea what held her back from getting an interview? Any little tips help!! @Nella68 my dd is end of August birthday too which is also making me think a gap year wouldn’t be a bad thing. She lacks a bit of social confidence so I think getting a customer facing role would be good for her and might help her be more confident in interviews.

@Onthesofawithmydog I would love my daughter to have a gap year- I think she would benefit from it so much. Her cousins both took gap years and the increase in confidence etc was amazing. She sees the plus points of one, but only if she doesn’t get any offers first time around.

Looking at the Liverpool requirement it seems they are very particular with the work experience evidence and hours. It’s been very challenging to find work experience, and her age hasn’t helped. It’s been a bit annoying as she’s just been asking for placements during holiday time, but at her 6th form she’s discovered they have been letting the aspiring medical students take time off during term time for work experience. As soon as she found this out she contacted everyone again, but of course they’re all now full. She will have enough hours for Nottingham and Liverpool and I’ve told her it’s how she can reflect on these experiences that will count, not the number of hours.

If can get the minimum then Liverpool will interview. Others are a little less upfront but you won't get an interview without the minimum. The Nottingham MOOC counts for 5 days. It's free.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/vet-school-application-support

Part tine jobs also count at many places - Bristol it's one of the 2/3 criteria you need.

Filling out the pesky forms once applied is so so important as Unis use these to shortlist (Bristol only use theirs). Know the 5 Freedons and how to apply them. Have an example ready for when you've worked in a team/shown resilience/patience (all the skills the RCVS say a new vet needs. And look at interviews as job interviews, because they pretty much are. Once you're in you'll be a vet (subject to a shed load of exams and OSCEs).

Im the mum of a vet but also support students to get in. It's tough and competitive, but possible without acres of wex.

@Nella68 yes it’s been hard to find wex- luckily I knew it would be hard so before Christmas I got her to email all the local vets asking for wex a year in advance and she got two weeks for this summer in small animal practices, plus lambing at a local farm. Hopefully then she will get customer facing work and another week in a local zoo park. But most practices said no so you do have to be thick skinned and keep trying! She is at the end of year 11 so still lots of time but I have realised from reading posts on mumsnet and student room that unless we are fully prepared her chances will be slim. I’m trying to prepare her for a possible gap year too!

Just be careful because some universities say it has to be within 18 months of the application to count

Yes the lambing this year won’t count for rvc but the rest will I think as she will apply Oct 28. ..and she will do more lambing next year. We have only found the rvc who want it in the previous 18 months. All the others eg Notts, Liverpool say 3 or 5 years as I recall although I may be wrong.

@Nella68 have you seen the rvc are doing a 1 hour webinar on Tuesday about how to get the most out of work experience www.rvc.ac.uk/study/rvc-is-open-for-all/visit-us/meet-us/rvc-for-me-discovery-series#msdynmkt_trackingcontext=ded2fb47-c6d5-4c35-b2d1-4927e6e30200

@Onthesofawithmydog that’s great thank you. I’ve forwarded the link to my daughter.

Oops sorry, she was interviewed for Liverpool! It was a nightmare, her answers didn’t save at our end or theirs so she had to re-record her responses. After all that stress it was a no anyway lol. Interesting though as Surrey also uses a pre-recorded interview but each school has their own style of questioning so I think Surrey’s suited my Dd better. Just be very sure of the requirements for evidencing wex for Liverpool, they were the pickiest on recording of evidence I think.

Has anyone done any open days? We have done three, but didn’t manage Liverpool or Surrey.

@VetMedMum We did the rounds last autumn of Notts; ULan; Harper Adams and Keele; Bristol; and Liverpool.

My daughter doesn’t want to go to Aberystwyth, Cambs, RVC or London so we’ve not visited them. She’s decided that she’s keen on Edinburgh as a city so we’ll go and see the vet school in September, she knows that the chance of a place for non Scottish/ non international students is low, but is still keen.

My favourite was Notts, and I think they put on a really good open day. It’s her number 1 too, closely followed by Liverpool and HK (Harper Adams site). I don’t know what her 4th choice will be; she’s gone off Bristol. ULan’s facilities were amazing but she doesn’t fancy living in Preston for 5 years.

Last time I posted she was getting really despondent with the lack of replies for work experience. I encouraged her to persevere and since then she’s managed to get a few weeks planned for the summer holidays - week in a equine hospital, a week at the RSPCA, two weeks on a farm, and Saturday mornings volunteering at a Donkey sanctuary followed by a greyhound rescue in the afternoon.

The school has agreed to do interview practice, so that’s good too.

That work experience sounds great! Some places have been great but others it’s like pulling teeth to just get a response.

we loved Nottingham as well which I think is no 1 on the list. RVC was great but London accommodation is so expensive 😭. We liked Bristol as well.

My daughter has been qualified a few years but just to address a comment above. Yes, many vets are owned by corporates and she joined a one as a new vet on their graduate programme, she found it was very much like an independent in the way it was run.

She has since joined an independent practice, where the owners work day to day in the business. Of course she prefers that, but corporates are not all terrible. In both there were/are long standing clients and relationships.

She still loves being a vet, despite some difficult and rude customers but having a strong practice manager and supportive colleagues and management makes all the difference.