What do vet schools want

I got A*AABbb (biology, chemistry, maths, general studies, AS history, extended project). It is possible to balance A levels with a job. I also did dog training two nights a week and went out at the weekend. I also achieved good grades at university. Not really, could do, but be prepared to travel far on public transport at university for some more difficult placements e.g. farm vets, certain farms. My farm vets is an hours drive this summer, which would be impossible by bus, the nearest to me is about 50 minutes drive in general so slightly crazy. Depends on your geographical location and luck with public transport. Pre-uni most of my placements I could get to by bus apart from lambing and equine vets where my dad took me very nicely by car. Even public farms count for something.

well said, all the vets i know come from well off backgrounds :/

Thanks for the reply
Did you achieve crazy grades?
I'm not looking to buy a car, would this impact me?

Yes, a lot of vets do come from a well off background, but I assure you not every vet does. I recently worked with a farm vet who was from a working class background with parents who didn't go to uni, for example. People come from all walks of life here, although the vet school population isn't representative of the general population, you won't be the only one in your situation!!

Generally there are grants / scholarships / hardship funds that poorer students can get whilst at uni to help with financial costs.




If you can afford to get driving lessons, I would consider doing so in case you can buy a car in future or save up for it over the years. It'll be beneficial to have a license when you graduate but obviously it depends on if you can afford to do this before uni or whilst at uni. I know some people cope in my year without a car but it can be really difficult if you can't drive. It'll depend how easy you can get to placements where you live etc.

If you could find a placement willing to take on two students at once, perhaps you could carpool? I don't know how likely that would be between finding the placement then arranging carpooling and working out compensation to the person driving (gas money or something), but just a thought? A lot of lambing placements in my year seemed willing (wanting) to take more than one student, but those usually offered accommodation anyway.

Or if you do manage to get a railcard, I found that quite helpful for my placements.

The veterinary profession is concerned about being insufficiently diverse and about recruiting more people who are not from middle class backgrounds, so the fact that you have had to work very hard to get work experience etc will actually count in your favour in many ways, because they are positively wanting good candidates from a wider range of backgrounds. You can explain how you have found experience by yourself on your personal statement, and the unis will know that you are the first in your family to go to uni, etc, and these are all things that will count in your favour. You will be eligible for more loans and burseries than a student from a richer family, which will help. However, as the others have said, this does not alter the fact that vet school is going to be tough and finding a job afterwards is going to be tough and doing the job is also going to be tough. I have been a vet for 25 years. I love my job, but I have seen many colleagues leave practice along the way; every vet knows someone who dropped out, had a breakdown or committed suicide because it is a hard job to do. I only work part time, but any day I do evening surgery I don't know if I'll leave work on time or two hours late because someone walks through the door at closing time with an emergency: on a bad day I will put down three or four much loved family pets: on a really bad day one of them will be because the owners couldn't afford treatment or the owner has just died themselves or some other horrible reason that's really hard to deal with. If I have plans for an evening when I've been working there's always a chance I'll have to cancel them - that's just how the job is. Getting into vet school is hard not just because lots of people want to do it but to try to ensure that the people who get in are people who are likely to be able to deal with the job at the end of the day. If you manage to get the work experience etc then you will be looked on favourably because you have put the effort in.
I think I asked you above - whereabouts in the country are you, roughly? It may be that someone can make a suggestion for work experience if we know. Does your cabbage farming contact know someone who has a livestock farm?

Thanks for the relpy.
I was thinking of learning to drive, but maybe not buying a car

I live on the south coast in the county of West Sussex in Bognor Regis, the vegetable farm is about an hours drive from me in Midhurst, I have not asked them if they know any livestock farmers but I will as it may open up some doors for work experience. Thank you for all of your help

In answer to your question, though I can't speak for ch0c, I think what they mean is that the job market is not great for vets in the UK right now, and seems to get worse each year. Right now, lets say, for ease of math, there are 5,000 applicants to vet school across the UK and only 500 spots in vet schools across the UK. You have a 1 in 10 odds of getting in to vet school, and if you are lucky you will get government funding/a loan, but you are going to have to spend some of your own money on equipment, cost of living etc.

However, for jobs in the UK, the odds can be EVEN WORSE than the odds of getting in to a school. ch0c was stating 1 in 50; I don't know if that was accurate or not but I'll run with it. So you have 1 in 50 chance of getting a job, average salary around 25-30K right now I think, that's before tax, may or quite possibly MAY NOT include accommodation and/or transport. You are still probably paying your own cost of living. So not great, but if you have a job you can probably get by. However, what if you AREN'T the 1 in 50 getting a job right off? Then you are paying FULL costs of living, licensing fees to allow you to be qualified in the UK so that you can work if you find a job, you're paying CPD to keep your skills updated/improve, you may be WORKING FOR FREE to gain skills/experience to make yourself more marketable, you're paying transport to travel to interviews and send around resumes etc...I'm sure there is some I've missed but you get the gist.

I would definitely recommend learning to drive ASAP.

Driving makes getting to placements a lot easier even though it is an added expense. Longer term most vet jobs require a clean driving license, without one you will be very restricted in what jobs you can apply for and where you can live (in an already highly competitive jobs market).

I do 100% smallies at the moment but I am still required to do house visits and patient transfers occasionally. Previously I drove around 6,000 miles a year on the job when I worked for a mixed practice. That may sound a lot but some of my friends were notching up 2-3x that when they did a higher proportion of large animal work.



I did some work for Butler & Sons, Horsted Keynes (large Organic dairy & beef herd spread over 2-3 farms) several years ago. It is a little off your patch but well worth a shout.

West Sussex is a fairly big cattle area it is just knowing where to look for contacts - Farmer's Weekly, Farmer's Guardian, Brinsbury Agricultural College and Plumpton Agricultural College, Westpoint Veterinary Group (and other large/mixed practices), etc.

Most agricultural colleges have cheap college accommodation going through the summer if they can provide you with experience on site, otherwise they will probably have local contacts in the farming community. I travelled over 100 miles to get 4 weeks of stud work at an agricultural college on the cheap pre-vet school.



I was referring to mixed practice jobs, generally there are fewer vacancies (around 10-20 being advertised at any one time) yet they are in high demand among new grads.

When I was doing the mixed practice job interview circuit a couple of years ago each practice I visited was consistently getting over 50 applicants per vacancy. With my previous employer it was much the same, every time we advertised a vacancy we had over 50 applicants.

Granted the odds are better with smallies but it is a world away from what I expected as a vet applicant and then vet student. For my current job I think there were over 20 applicants.

A fair few people from my old year were trapped in poorly paid jobs (eg; night vet work) and/or had very poor working conditions because the veterinary jobs market is incredibly competitive for new graduates. I have even heard of some taking unpaid charity work for extended periods of time just to get some experience. When I was unemployed it was something I looked into however all the places I contacted (eg; RSPCA, PDSA, Dogs Trust, DogStar, etc) were booked up 6-12 months in advance, the majority of which with new grads trying to get experience.

Frankly I am glad I got out when I did because things are going to get a hell of a lot worse when Sussex starts kicking out new vets, and potentially the other institutions that have expressed an interest.

It is sad when people stop talking about a veterinary science degree as a guaranteed career and more as a "good broad science degree".

Thank you, this is good advice. I am not saying I know what it is like to be a vet but I have seen how late they have to stay and when they have to call their families to tell them they won't be home for dinner because of an emergancy, also I have become used to the sight of muched loved pets being put down, one day I will walk past the kennel and see a lovely Leonburger and the next thing I know I am helping them put it in the freezer in a body bag, but because I experience it on a regular basis it does not effect me as much as it used to. Would you be able to give me any advice on applying through clearing, I know you are a vet so don't work at the universities but you have experienced it so are probably the best to ask, othet than the uni's themselves?
I live on the south coast in the county of West Sussex in Bognor Regis, the vegetable farm is about an hours drive from me in Midhurst, I have not asked them if they know any livestock farmers but I will as it may open up some doors for work experience. Thank you for all of your help

I spoke to someone from WEstpoint at the London Vet Show, who said they only take work experience people from the clinical years onwards, so if that's right it's no good for vet school applicants.

I am not the person to ask about university applications, as there are lots of people on here who have been through it recently, unlike me, but surely it's rare for vet school places to come up during clearing? Have a look at the old threads on applying, perhaps.
If you are in Bognor then there surely will be lots of farms within a bus journey; it would be easier for you to find work experience than for someone in the middle of London, i think. I see that there is a farmers' market in Bognor one Wednesday a month: you could go there and have a chat to the farmers and see if they have any ideas; or maybe if there is a butcher near you you could ask them if they can suggest anywhere, or you could put an advert in a local paper or newsagent, somewhere where people from the country might go if they are in Bognor shopping for the day, asking for farm experience, or you could see if you can contact a local branch of the Young Farmers' Club for contacts. I am sure that if you are keen and willing to ask around you will find some people who are happy to help you, but you need to impress them by being keen so that they feel you are a good cause, if that makes sense. I have seen dozens and dozens of vet school hopefuls in my time; the ones that are motivated are a pleasure to help, but unfortunately they aren't all like that!

I don't think many, if any, places for vet med will come up in clearing but i thought that I have nothing to lose by going for it as it won't affect my application for october so I may as well.

However there are some butcher stalls at the Chichester market so I counld ask them for contacts for an abattoir

Veterinary Medicine never comes up in clearing. If they are low on numbers of students on results day, they *might* ring you up IF you've had an interview and were rejected post interview to give you a place. Or if you narrowly missed your grades they might give you a place but only if they are truly low on numbers.

DEFRA should have a list of licensed slaughter houses / processing plants. I know I saw such a list that was publicly available - perhaps do a good search

I googled it and it says that some of them do as there were comments from people that have got in through clearing?
Thank you, i will try that

I googled it and it says that some of them do as there were comments from people that have got in through clearing?
Thank you, i will try that

Ditto to chocoholics post. Most people who sound like they got in through clearing, will have been interviewed and narrowly missed out on an offer, or had an offer/just missed the grades. The uni's do end up up making sure the course will be full on results day by sometimes giving offers to these people - hence some people do get offers on results day who didn't have them before. But would have been interviewed before.

When the vet schools have all had 100s of people to interview, none of them are suddenly on results day going to put places in clearing and take people who just ring up, when they have access to people who they have already interviewed and who would still jump at a place.

Not trying to sound negative - just realistic - I have never, ever, heard of anyone who actually got in through clearing, only the kind of scenario I've listed above. Other than that, the clearing places are for other "vet biosci" type courses.

Focus on other things rather than pinning hopes on clearing.