What should I do?

(warning bit of a long confusing thread)

Hi, I'm having a bit of of crisis at the moment, after I was denied a summer school application to Bristol. So I hope you guys can help me out with telling me what my future prospects are.

At the moment I am studying for my as levels. Since I was little I have wanted to be a vet and so have worked up through school accordingly, I'm now taking all the sciences and maths. At the moment though I am having a bit of panic moment because I am not sure if I will be able to attain that goal with what I have achieved, and what I may achive. This has been going know for a while but heightened with tthe Bristol denial.
Some background history:
In gcse I got 5 a's (all the science, maths and english) and 6 b's in other subjects such as geography, history, German, business, ICT, futher maths.
I am an army child and moved during my Gcses.
Neither of my perents went to uni.
I have done a week of work experience at a vet practice and have another coming up and worked 2 weeks at a pet store. I am going to be doing a week at the farm and in September helping with lambing.
As you can probably see my grades kinda leave me at the near bottom of the list of potential veterinary candidates. . .

So I have you ask if anyone knows what I should do to have a better chance to get accepted.
And if I have any chance anyway.
Also if anyone has any other course recommendations that can lead to exciting work prospects I am open to recommendations. I have been interested in medicine, zoology ect. .(I always seem to aim high...)
Hope you can help cause I need it at this moment. . .

Reply 1

FarmVet

Original post by Sarahdeer

Hi there

I'm a second year veterinary student at the Royal Veterinary College :smile:

. First off I wanted to say just because you were denied entry to Bristol's summer school that does not mean you aren't capable of studying veterinary medicine at university. I applied to Bristol for university with 10 A*s at GCSE and I achieved 2 A* 1A at A-level and a couple AS's. I had 19 ish weeks work experience and I was rejected from Bristol after interview :smile:

. It's not always the grades or the work experience they are often looking for their type of student. This may or may not be the same for the summer school but don't be disheartened. From my peers I know that 5As at GCSE is plenty if they are in the subjects required by the universities. A-levels are a big jump but as long as you work hard I'm sure you can achieve your goals :smile:

. Universities generally ask for AAA with an A in chemistry and biology. Some of my colleagues got into the RVC with AAB if they missed the grade by a couple of marks. The only recommendations I have for you, apart from working hard on your grades :smile:

, is to get as much work experience as possible. RVC only requires 4 weeks, however many require much more 11/12 weeks minimum. Other students that are applying with you may have had gap years and therefore may have 30+, 40+ or 50+ weeks in some cases. So the more weeks you have the stronger your application, it is good for variety so some examples for mine were large animal and small animal vets (different practices), equine vets, zoo, working on a dairy farm, lambing, abattoir week, kennels, farrier, broiler (chicken) farm etc. To be honest your grades don't leave you at the bottom there are lots of students at the RVC who have similar. As a final note many students end up reapplying, it happens to many different students with higher and lower grades. In an interview it is easy to mess up or get nervous. So if you do want to still aim for veterinary it is important to realize you may have to reapply after a gap year. A very large number of re-apps get in so it can be a long process but if you are willing to stick with it :smile:

I'm sure you can make it.

In terms of other degrees, there are several similar like zoology, bioveterinary sciences, medicine etc. Medicine can also be very competitive. If you do decide for another course, I advise you consider carefully that you want to do that course because it's what you enjoy. If you still want to do veterinary after another degree you are unlikely to get a student loan from the government. So just make sure its what you want to do :smile:

Hope that helped :smile:

Reply 2

spacelumps

Hi I can't help re entering into UK for veterinary but I'm finishing up my Zoology degree and probably doing vet abroad next year. In terms of other degrees I can tell you a bit about Zoology. Firstly I'd say the last 4 years studying Zoology have been the most amazing experience in my life and even though it wasn't my first choice (vet was), I enjoyed it so much and definitely don't regret taking it over vet. Depending on where you study (I study in Trinity College in Dublin) you can get the opportunity to do field work abroad (I've been to Indonesia and Kenya) and gain amazing experience. However, I will say there is not much overlap with veterinary - the emphasis is very different. There's very little emphasis on health related subjects in my course, apart from some physiology but there is a lot on parasitology which is actually very interesting. So it depends on how flexible your interests are. As far as job prospects I'd say mostly it lies in research for Zoology, going on to do a masters or a phd. There isn't much you can do right out of college with a Zoology degree, most requires further education and very little people get a paid phd right out of undergrad unless they take a year out and gain some good experience in whatever field they want to do research in. If you want to be a vet ultimately I would recommend trying for it now because it isn't any less hard to get in after you finish a degree and it's more costly. You could try applying abroad also, I've got a place in Kosice and Budapest, and Kosice is relatively cheap at 7000 a year compared to other graduate studies but obviously will be more expensive than studying in UK right out of school so keep that in mind.

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