The Student Room Group

Do I stand a chance at getting in?

I guess I'm making this thread to ask the typically "Am I good enough?" I promise this isn't an insincere "Look at my amazing grades and other things that make me borderline OVERqualified for this job/uni course" thread.

So background, at GCSE i've gotten an A* in bio, A* in chem. A* in maths, A* in RE and an A* in English language, the rest i got A's in (except for french, with a B)



Work experience i've got three weeks at two different small animal vets (well one was a large animal hospital but i wasnt allowed to see the large animals). And i have one week at a small zoo (SO lucky i found that place) and two weeks working at a stables.

As much as I love the student room I feel like a lot of the people you see here are sitting on opposite extremes of the bell curve, because if im being blunt, most of the people you see who have stuck around are the ones who have gone above and beyond, and congrats to them but it's quite daunting to see people who have gotten perfect results and tons of experience above the required amount. In a dream world i want to walk to a group of undergrad vet student and aks what they all got but you can see how i would come across ;P Of course Im going to do the best I can but i just want to know could i get in?
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by aritar
I guess I'm making this thread to ask the typically "Am I good enough?" I promise this isn't an insincere "Look at my amazing grades and other things that make me borderline OVERqualified for this job/uni course" thread.

So background, at GCSE i've gotten an A* in bio, A* in chem. A* in maths, A* in RE and an A* in English language, the rest i got A's in (except for french, with a B)

I've finished my AS exams in bio, chem, maths and geography and i feel okay about them tbh, but not great. So im expecting mainly B's but we'll see. I'm applying to Notts, Edinburgh, Bristol, RVC and Cambridge (im know i need to do the BMAT :tongue:)

Work experience i've got three weeks at two different small animal vets (well one was a large animal hospital but i wasnt allowed to see the large animals). And i have one week at a small zoo (SO lucky i found that place) and two weeks working at a stables.

As much as I love the student room I feel like a lot of the people you see here are sitting on opposite extremes of the bell curve, because if im being blunt, most of the people you see who have stuck around are the ones who have gone above and beyond, and congrats to them but it's quite daunting to see people who have gotten perfect results and tons of experience above the required amount. In a dream world i want to walk to a group of undergrad vet student and aks what they all got but you can see how i would come across ;P Of course Im going to do the best I can but i just want to know could i get in?


Your grades are absolutely fine, especially as some courses are now linear so some of your ASs won't count, but you also need to predicted AAA.

On your university choices... are you aware that you can only apply to four vet med courses (D100)? It's the same for medicine and dentistry.

On your work experience:
RVC ask for 4 weeks I believe, and you have that.
Bristol don't have a specific amount but you get 'full marks' on their personal statement scoring system if you have 8 weeks (4 husbandry, 4 in practice). So you are a little bit short there.
Cambridge aren't specific but say you should have spent some time with a vet, so I suppose you'll be fine there.
Nottingham ask for 6 weeks - you are scraping that.
I'm not sure on Edinburgh's requirements.
I would go and have a look on all the university websites. Although you meet some of the minimum requirements, you'll be a disadvantage at interview because you don't have a lot, and having no farm work at all is a definite weakness. Try and book some farm work for October half term. (Probably dairy, or large animal vets if not)

If you apply this year, just be aware that some places, like Nottingham, only allow a certain number of reapplications. You don't want to apply to universities which may reject you straight away just for not having the minimum requirements.
Nox pretty much covered everything...
B's in your AS shouldn't be at all problematic if you manage to get A's overall.

I would strongly advise to aim for Liverpool minimum in terms of work experience.
4 weeks vet - 6 weeks other

Majority of people that get offers here tend to have more than 10 weeks.
From reading the previous threads I'd say that 15-20 is the average.
And while there are people that got offers with less than 10 weeks, I really wouldn't risk it.

Try to get another week at the vets, then maybe some kennels/cattery work.
Definitely try to get some farm stuff too. It's too late for lambing now, which is a shame as it's very easy to get lambing experience, especially now with the NSA list. But you can still look for other farming experience. Dairy, pigs, city farms etc.

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