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 😬

No you don’t need lambing or any farm experience really but in terms of a fab experience that is really hands on, it’s a brilliant thing to do and gives them some amazing things to talk about. I think next spring the farmer will probably let my dd deliver lambs herself as he was carefully showing her how to do it last year. She would come home covered in all sorts of fluids with a huge smile on her face. Compared with the other more formal settings where they basically made her either watch in the corner or do some cleaning.

@Onthesofawithmydog

That’s the time slot we had booked too. We just wandered around the main campus and had lunch there. We were a bit limited for time due to our return ticket but we saw enough.

It’s good to have a few questions for the admissions teams. At Surrey they’re available to talk to before the main talk. They were really busy after the talk and tours so I’m glad we spoke to them first. Our main questions were about the final year and the clinical placements and how that works. They advise keeping a base near Guildford but the students can be sent anywhere in the country so paying for 2 sets of accommodation will be expensive.

Thank you. Is that not the same for lots of the unis? That they end up being sent away on EMS and have to end up paying double rent in the final years?

Agreed. But so many kids think they have to have it. And it's pretty hard to come by without a contact. Especially for city kids who could never afford to stay away from home. It's why Unis don't need it - they try annd include lots of wex including part time, customer facing jobs. Being a vet is a people job after all.

Ok, more info about Liverpool for those interested. Regarding travelling to Leahurst, my daughter said that they only went a few times in first year, she doesn’t remember going in second and in third year she drove herself. A lot of the vet students have cars so you can always get a lift.
In terms of rotations in 4th and 5th year, they are mostly local so she can live at her house in Neston. If they have to go further afield they can buddy up with someone and accommodation is paid for.

@follygirl That’s really useful thank you. Pass on thanks to your daughter too.
It’s practical questions like travel and accommodation that we completely forgot to ask on the open days.

Has anyone else tried to get into the Nottingham portal - none of the info in the email seems to be current, and the email address it comes from doesn't accept replies.

My daughter hasn’t tried logging into the portal yet. I will encourage her again later!

It will be worth emailing the admissions team tomorrow if there’s still a problem.

Following all the tips on this thread for a 2028 application 🤞🏻

My daughter was so worried about getting the clinical work experience (because none of the vet clinics nearby seemed to reply or offer it to Y12s) that she was literally emailing clinics around the country and now she has got offers for clinics several hours away 🤦‍♀️ Will need to figure out how this can work.

What 4 unis are kids applying to? My daughter's friend managed to successfully get into RVC this year, but this appears to be the vet school with the highest applicants per place. Is there even a point applying to them or is it a "wasted" UCAS slot if it's so extremely competitive?

I grew up on a farm so know lots of farmers which is how I was able to arrange lambing for DD and there were no accomodation costs because she stayed with her grandmother. I wanted her to do it because it's hard physical work at all hours in bad weather, if she hadn't enjoyed it I would have strongly encouraged her to apply to do a different subject.

The RVC is the top ranking vet school in the world so will always be competitive. But the only guaranteed way to not get a space is to not apply. There are only 12 vet schools in the country, wherever you apply it is competitive.

RVC is v popular with Americans and International students, which is why it gets more applicants. But a lot of people don't want to live in London (cost !), and also want to mix with other students, not just vets. Each to their own, but it's not more competitive for UK students - I think Notts has most applicants per place this year.

Apply for the 4 you like most as you only need to get one offer.

Hi! My dd is doing an application for 2028 as well. So just here for the tips. She did manage to get two weeks in a small animal vet but applied this time last year and had the placements in the summer. She did have to email a lot of places and went further and further afield. We were about to email vets around the country and then she had a reply from two local vets. So she didnt need to travel in the end. We are off to Surrey uni next week. She isn’t keen on rvc as it’s very expensive to live in London and also she wants a full uni experience like her older sister has got and worries that rvc is just vets, and won’t have all the societies and events that a huge uni does. So I think that has ruled it out. However I do know quite a few students who are there atm on the gateway course so there are obvs uk students who get in. They do seem to offer the gateway course to those who don’t get the A level grades on the day. ATM I think she is looking at Bristol, Surrey, Liverpool and Notts.

Do you have any relatives or friends that your daughter can stay with? That’s how my daughter managed to get her work experience. She got in touch with any vet practice within a reasonable distance of aunts and uncle’s houses. The other thing that I considered was to have our holiday nearby so she could have a base and transport. We didn’t need to do that in the end.

Nottingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Harper Keele. She discounted RVC because it’s London and Cambridge as she doesn’t want to do a 6 yr course. Likewise with Bristol and Uni of Lancs - not keen on the location.

She’s applying to places that she’d like to live in and is well aware how competitive they all are, but her thinking is that if she doesn’t try she’ll never know!

@TonysGotANewMotor has your daughter had any more luck with the Nottingham portal?
My daughter has just contacted admissions about the work experience form- the website says it’ll be sent a week after submitting the application form, but she hadn’t received it so was getting worried about it. They’ve replied saying that the form will be sent out when all the applications have been submitted some time in the week commencing 19th October.

That's helpful news about timings. Yes - she got in eventually after having phoned up and was sent a username and password. I can’t believe they weren't in the original email, and that none of four the links in that email went anywhere.

DD has now submitted her applications and immediately got the WEX form for Edinburgh, they obviously do it automatically. Scary stuff! DD1 has told her half term spent filling in WEX forms is better than a UCAT summer (she's scarred from that experience).

@FruAashild that’s great. I think your daughter has applied to the same as my daughter apart from Lancs and HK.

It’ll be interesting to hear the when they both hear back from the respective universities . I think as a Scottish student, your daughter will be on a different timescale for Edinburgh.

My husband and I are Scottish but our children were born in and brought up in England so we're on the English timetable. And have to pay fees (whereas English parents who move to Scotland when their child is in secondary school don't).

It's where you pay tax not where you were born 😊

Hi all, just checking in after a very successful open day at Surrey yesterday. (2028 entry). Dd absolutely loved it and now it’s top of the list! I think what she loved was the campus feel and beautiful setting. She also liked that it wasn’t too far from the rest of the uni and that you would be mixing and living with students from other courses. This has now made her think that Bristol might not be for her (previously was too!) and I’m wondering what other unis she might like that are similar. Do you think Harper Keele might have the same vibe? (I’m thinking Keele site) or maybe Liverpool? (Although I know it’s more city based). I wonder if the Nottingham campus means that vet students are too isolated from the rest of the uni. Any thoughts welcome!

Bristol you are much part of the student body. DDs closest friends are not all vets. And the first 3 years are mainly in the city (with a free bus when go to Langford). If that helps

@Onthesofawithmydog My daughter’s favourite campus was Sutton Bonnington but she does have some reservations about it just being vet students. She liked the rural setting and that it was small. The transport links into Nottingham seemed good. If she gets any offers then she’ll have to decide then.
With Bristol we only saw the Langford campus and didn’t have time to visit the city. She wasn’t very taken with the open day so didn’t list it (and therefore we didn’t make an effort to visit the city).
She loved Liverpool and Edinburgh and the bonus with those two was not just being with other vet students. We didn’t get to see the Leahurst site, so she’ll have to wait until offer holder day (if she gets one) She also liked that the course was city based for the first 3 years and then more rural.
The cities outweighed the travelling she would need to do. Edinburgh was just stunning.
University of Lancashire was another where the students are not just vet. The facilities were amazing and the campus was nice but she couldn’t see herself spending 5 years in Preston.
With Harper Keele she liked the rural setting of Harper Adams more than Keele. She liked Keele’s campus, but wasn’t keen on Newcastle. I have reservations about HA being so rural with not much to do. I’ve also read that there has been quite a toxic sexist/ misogynistic/ homophobic culture at the university. This was widely reported in the press in 2021. I don’t know whether 5 years is long enough to change the culture…

Thanks for that info @Nella68 Yes I wonder whether uni of lancashire will be up her street but it is sooo very far from us down in the south west, that she has already discounted it. Mind you, we are still visiting Liverpool which is not much closer! Bristol will be a definite I imagine as its so convenient for us, so just need two more. All the vet students she has met seem to have loved Sutton Bonnington so I wonder whether she will like that one despite the lack of other students apart from vets.