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 keep an eye on the open day dates for Liverpool and Lancs. When we went last year they were on consecutive days so we could see them both on the same trip and made a weekend of it.
The Wallace and Grommit exhibition at Preston Museum was worth a visit!

I'm also not keen on RVC for the same reason as above (because it's only vet students). I think my daughter is quite keen on living back in London though 😬 One of her friends is starting at RVC this fall. Apart from the extortionate costs of London, it also seems to be the hardest to get into from what I understand (could be wrong though).

Oo will do @Nella68 thanks!

@XelaM yes she has now discounted RVC on the basis that she wants a typical uni experience.. her older sister has just started at Bath and she really wants something similar where they have a big freshers week, lots of societies and things going on, and mixing with people from all different courses. She also met a student from RVC on work experience who really put her off it, as she said their first year (or two?)is entirely academic and they barely see any animals, and felt it was quite dry and boring as a result. At Surrey they said that their first years are already out on farms learning handling and they have only been there three weeks.

RVC has so many applicants from abroad but it's no more competitive if from UK than the others. Most Unis now have them doing animal handling from first term as they need to be able to handle the animals before going the EMS. RCVS asked them all to do this for safety reasons. And it makes first year more fun if tipping a sheep or putting a cow in a crush.
Try not to have a favourite as you'll be happy with one offer !

@mumsneedwine I wonder if this has changed since this girl started there then. I think she was in third year. Yes I’ve said to my dd that she will have to be prepared to feel happy with just one offer from the four and not to get fixed on one place. Whether she will listen to me though…

@Onthesofawithmydog one of the most valuable things that we learned from
talking to the students on the open days was how many of them did not get an offer the first time they applied. Their advice was to take the extra year to get a job and more experience and then reapply with grades in hand.
It was really useful for my daughter (and me) to hear this. I’m sure she will be very disappointed if she doesn’t get any offers first time round, but she does know it’s not the end of the world!

@Onthesofawithmydog not all Unis are following RCVS guidelines (Cambridge !!) but they are told to teach animal handling skills early on. RVC do more science structured first 2 years as in Camden (they do have a smallish hospital on site), going out to Hawkshead occasionally. Then they move out there - it's v impressive ! But you are based with just vet students.

Cambridge was discounted by my daughter when she found it was a 6 year course and they are only interested in academic achievements and not any extracurricular stuff.
We know a student who is in her 1st year there. We were very surprised to hear that some of their lectures are with medical students during the first couple of years.

@Nella68 yes she also heard that from a lot of vets on work experience, and is prepared for a gap year. I don’t quite understand though how that year will help in terms of experience, as of course the new application has to be in by October, so hardly any time after A level stress has ended to get any extra work experience or a job. Or do they arrange it and talk about what they are planning to do in the year in the personal statement? She’d quite like to do some conservation work overseas but that won’t have happened by October. My dd is more likely to struggle with interviews rather than grades so hoping to find some good people to help with interview skills!

@Onthesofawithmydog I’m guessing that they will know by May whether they have any offers. If my daughter doesn’t get any offers then I’ll be encouraging her to get in touch with places for work experience over the summer and early autumn.
I do agree though that it doesn’t give much time to get things sorted, but if they’re determined they’ll do it.
Even if there’s not much more to list by the time of the application, there will be a few months before interviews and that’s when I would hope that they would shine as they would have more life experience, even if it’s not on the WEX forms. If you see what I mean.

Yes good plan. Might be an idea to arrange a summer overseas trip anyway after A levels and then it’s something that’s in the diary anyway.

DC2 is at RVC studying Biology. It is mostly vet med students though.

Ohh well done to your DC. My daughter's friend who got into RVC is so beyond impressive that she had offers from all 4 unis she applied to. She was some academic genius though who got nearly 100% in her GCSE Maths and Further Maths and all A*'s at A-level, which put me off RVC even more 🤣 I don't know if all candidates are that impressive though.

DC2 got 3Bs at A-Level.

Their original plan was vet med at Lancashire. They had a place and changed their mind a month before starting! We had a mad scramble to change to Biology at RVC through some kind of transfer system.

They had a gap year and worked as an assistant at a vet’s. They applied for uni while on the gap year.

@XelaM that is an impressive set of results!
At least with vet med the grades are just a part of the shortlisting process to get to the next step- as long as they reach the threshold it’s a tick!
That’s one think I liked about Nottingham, not going on predicted grades, and placing emphasis on the WEX and the SJT, it looks like they’re looking for a more rounded student.
They make a lot of offers but there must be a lot of students who don’t accept or don’t make the grades.

I think Nottingham have a requirement for specific GCSE grades (from memory minimum 7s in Bio and Chemistry and some others)?

The two students I know at RVC both got in through their foundation year programme as they didn’t meet A level grades so were offered the foundation year. So it’s not all super clever ones that get in!

My DD turned RVC down 😁. Loved the interview (was her favourite) and Hawkshead is amazing, but wasn't keen on Camden and being around all vets.

Once they are at Uni they might attend AVC events where students from all the Unis get together and they all seem to love where they end up. And it's not important when come to apply for jobs.