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 😬

@Onthesofawithmydog am I right thinking your daughter is for 2028 entry? Depending on how far you live from Harper Adams, they also take part in open farm Sunday (think that’s at the beginning of June). That was a really useful visit to see the milking parlour, pigs etc. We saw more of the farm that weekend than we did on the open day when most of it was out of bounds. Keele and H A’s open days are on different weekends in October so you could do both

Ah that’s helpful thank you! Yes she is 2028. We are in Devon so might still be a bit of a push to get there twice seeing as lots of other open days she wants to do. But will have a look! I learnt from my eldest daughter that we need to start early this time as found that there was just not the time to see all the unis if you leave it late as my eldest did.

@Onthesofawithmydog as you only have 4 choices on UCAS if can be useful to short list as open days can be a bit of a muchness. Full Uni or just vets campus ? On site placements or all external ? Big city vs smaller ? London or not ? Grades required (it's nice to have an AAB offer as back up). Good luck

We found each open day to be very different and was an extremely useful exercise with helping my daughter to narrow down her choices.
It was also good to see what the local areas were like, as 5 years is a long time to spend in a place you don’t like.
My daughter was concerned that she wouldn’t like Keele (really likes the HA site), if she had an offer for that course and was placed at Keele, but the visit there has helped her see that it wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Nottingham’s open day was hands down the best we went to. Before visiting there and the other Unis, she was umming and Ahing about the potential for being offered April and had almost decided that Notts was out of the running if she was (in my opinion) fortunate enough to be offered an April start. The open day has completely changed her opinion and has made it her favourite.
She’s been following the threads on the student room, and we’ve had discussions about how low the chances are of getting an offer 1st time round, let alone to her 1st choice, but it’s helped her focus.
If your children are in year 11 you will have a three more opportunities to visit the universities- this autumn, next summer and then in September. We did most of the visits last September and were amazed to see how many year 12 students were there asking about work experience requirements- a month before the application deadline!

I agree with @mumsneedwine It’s useful to narrow down. For example, we looked at all the Scottish one (we’re in Scotland). Then we also looked at Liverpool as it’s a city / campus one and geographically the closest non-Scottish one to us. We raced down to Nottingham because we heard they hold back clearing spaces and it made sense to see the campus even if she didn’t apply in case she got no offers and went through the clearing route. All the open days were really useful and none of them were a waste of time. It did highlight how rubbish public transport around the UK is though. Liverpool is closest but we had to change trains twice from Edinburgh. I can’t even remember how long it took us to get to the Nottingham campus (it was lovely though!). It’s something to think about, especially if you have a homebody child like mine. We started in looking around two years before application.

If you have time (& the money) to visit lots of Unis then go for it. But it's not possible for everyone.

Notts do a fantastic open days and it's a great city. But you are 20 mins out of town and the Uni is making a lot of redundancies and staff are on strike. They are not the only ones though. I'm not anti Notts (my eldest went there), but just things to bear in mind. And April does bring issues such as holidays with non vet friends, but does make getting EMS easier. Swings and all that.

thank you @mumsneedwine and everyone. Its so useful to hear this info now before we really have to knuckle down and start booking them. So far dd wants Bristol as top choice as its closest to us and we have already been to the Langford campus for a family open day which sold it to her, although I have said its super competitive and she needs to be open minded.. other than that she has RVC, Liverpool and Notts on her list as she has this dream to move to the USA and work in New York (we went last year and now she just wants to live there!) so she wants one that is accredited with the American vet thingy.. (not sure, but she has done the research!).. I think we should still visit Surrey (as have family in Guildford, and its lovely!), and at least one of the newer ones like Harper Keele as seems like they may make lower offers.. although who knows... Lancashire seems sooooo far away and likewise the scottish unis so I think those are out. On Monday she starts a week of work experience in a local vet so I do hope that she comes out the other side more certain of her choice, either way. I keep reassuring her that if she changes her mind after work experience thats totally ok, as that is what its for!

@Onthesofawithmydog I was totally hoping vet work experience would change my DD’s mind and she’d go down an easier route but alas not 😂

oh my gosh, I know what you mean. A few years ago, she was about 13/14 and we asked our own vet to have a chat with her about the job - she came out into the waiting room and sat with her and basically tried for 10 mins to put her off - she went over how awful the job was, how vets have high suicide rates and bad pay, and how she should choose something else. Since then my husband has been trying to get her to reconsider, but she just won't. Her conclusion was that our vet had chosen the wrong job for her, but she insisted she still wanted to do it!

My DD loves being a vet (& loved being a vet student !). It's v hard work, emotionally draining (I'm the recipient of the end of day tears) and intellectually tiring. But she never regrets it and is looking at internships to work in referrals. A supportive practice and good GDP advisor are soo vital. Some of her friends have not been as lucky and moved in first year.