Going to veterinary medicine from biomedical science

Yes, vet med will still require you to have good grades at higher. Doing a half a degree does not excuse you, unfortunately. If you're heart is set on being a vet, I'd suggest you re-do highers and do lots of work experience and reapply to vet med, without doing biovet. Graduate entry includes hefty fees, so would be best avoided (though I am not sure how it affects scot students in a scotish Uni, but that would limit your choices quite a lot if that is the case). You could ask the unis you want to apply to this questions, and they'll be able to give you a specific response regarding their institution, but from what I've heard I believe what I have said is true.

No quite simply. Universities specifically say on their websites that you cannot transfer to vet science from any other degree. You would either have to complete your bio - science degree and apply as a graduate, which is the same if not more competative than undergrad places because you will be against older people with phds/experiences. Plus this is a VERY expensive route as ou dont get government funding for second degrees (tutition loans)

Or you could drop out of your degree half way through but this would probably make you a weaker candidate, not a stronger one as they will query why you a) didnt stick it out b) will you be able to stick it out in vet med and c) if you were that passionate about vet med why start a course you intended to drop out of.

My advice, either re-apply to vet med as an undergrad (re-do any bad grades/ increase WE), to try the grad route (although this is hard and still no guarentee) or thirdly commit yourself to an alternative career/degree choice

Sorry for the late reply I didn't realise anyone posted in the thread. I've decided to go down the graduate route and finish the degree at RGU . I've heard about doing vetmed abroad (UVM) do either of you know anything about that? Bar the fees, it seems to good to be true!

There is a whole thread on here somewhere all about it.I know there is some good advice on there. Dont give up on the UK schools though Just prepare for a lot of hard work! If you can afford the Kosice fees then you should be able to afford some of the pricer vet med unis here which might be less competitive so might be worth looking at those too?

Yeah I'm currently reading a thread called 'UVM Kosice' and i just read one where someone from scotland was thinking about going to UVM but ended up in poland i think...

Haha don't worry after a year away from education I'm looking forward to hard work!

Going to Edinburgh or Glasgow would be perfect but my grades were pretty average at school and I'm 99% sure they'll both take those into consideration as well as the degree I'll have. I'll need to research english unis who dont take highers into consideration (RVC maybe? But i hear it's very hard to get into)

I wont really be able to afford the fees, but since I don't need to pay fees for university I'm not quite sure how to go about researching loans etc. I know my parents wont be able to help me too much. They certainly wouldn't be able to if I were going this year. Ah!

As Stef has already said you will have to fork out for the university fees regardless of whether you had a loan / didnt pay fees last time. There is no tuition fee funding for grads at all but you may be eligable for maintenance loans. However you wont even get these if you go to Kosice. You are also not eligable for the grants and bursaries with a second degree.
As far as independent loans go I think you would be very hard pushed to find any decent kind of money. There are no bank loans for students any more (with low interest) and no one really gets sponsored, at least reliably enough for an entire degree.
Graduate entry is incredibly hard and you are still at least 3 years away, by which time fees could have gone up and maintenence loans could have been scrapped. Is there no option to resit some of your highers this next year and then reapply as an undergrad?? As far as fees go this is a much more appealing route!!!
Or perhaps you are eligable for the gateway courses?

Oh dear. No I can't re-sit highers/advanced highers because I start uni in September. What are the gateway courses?

Sorry I didnt mean that to sound so negative. I just wanted to be honest as Ive had all the same issues trying to get in as a grad.
Gateways are for students that are from lower income families and 'poorer performing' schools. There are quite a few conditions, like parents cant have gone to uni etc, but the admissions grades are lower. Worth having a look?

You could always turn down your place at uni, take a gap year and resit. Then apply next year? I know it sounds like a horrible thing to do now but in the grand scheme of things on year isnt a lot of difference.

If you go for the grad route you need to prepare yourself for all the added hardships that come with it!

Really wish you all the luck! Hope you get where you want to go, whichever route you take

No that's okay! No point being overly optimistic. I already turned down my place at uni last year :\ well, I risked it last year and rejected my unconditionals for two conditions that were exactly the same and didnt get in. So I've already taken a gap year! I agree, the gap year did seem horrible at the time but it's turned out pretty good At the time college was too full to resit any highers and I couldnt stand the thought of doing them again when I knew I had the grades to do Biomed. It's my fault really. I gave up on the thought of vet med at school when I kind of knew my grades weren't going to be good enough.

Also I don't think I'd get into those schools because my parents have both gone to uni, my mum actually works at the same uni I'm going to and teaches/does research.. The reason we have a lower income atm is because my parents split during exams last year

Thanks for the good luck Out of interest how did you go about applying as a graduate? Is it because you didn't have the right grades from school?

I think alevels/highers become less important when you apply as a grad

Not a grad student but I know some on here who went back to redo A levels after finishing their degree because they were too low / the wrong ones - I think you should email the unis to ask what grades they require as minimum, especially for the ones that charge normal tuition fees if you are thinking of that route. Grad or not, it's still competitive.

Hey guys, sorry if there's been a similar thread posted but i was wondering if anyone had an idea from how to go from biomedical science to vet?

Oh and just to let you know I live in scotland so I'm not sure if the system here differs to the system in england.

Basically, I've always wanted to be a vet, I had a lot of work experience at the local surgery but I didn't get the higher grades I was expecting, so I stopped the work experience a couple of months after results day (it just depressed me knowing I couldnt even be a vet anymore) and just picked a different uni course instead.

Im on my gap year right now and have an unconditional to study Biomedical Science at RGU I was wondering if it is possible to apply for Vetmed after two years of studying biomed ? There doesnt seem to be an option to do that on either the Glasgow or Edinburgh uni website... But i do know someone who became a vet through this route quite a while ago so I dont know if i'm being stupid or it isn't allowed anymore.


Sorry this was all muddled, im very sleepy :L

Hey guys, sorry if there's been a similar thread posted but i was wondering if anyone had an idea from how to go from biomedical science to vet?

Oh and just to let you know I live in scotland so I'm not sure if the system here differs to the system in england.

Basically, I've always wanted to be a vet, I had a lot of work experience at the local surgery but I didn't get the higher grades I was expecting, so I stopped the work experience a couple of months after results day (it just depressed me knowing I couldnt even be a vet anymore) and just picked a different uni course instead.

Im on my gap year right now and have an unconditional to study Biomedical Science at RGU I was wondering if it is possible to apply for Vetmed after two years of studying biomed ? There doesnt seem to be an option to do that on either the Glasgow or Edinburgh uni website... But i do know someone who became a vet through this route quite a while ago so I dont know if i'm being stupid or it isn't allowed anymore.


Sorry this was all muddled, im very sleepy :L