University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest

Hey do you decide to enter the vet uni Budapest? I'm also considering b/t Budapest / other in Europe like Polane or others

Hey!
Yeah I'm set on budapest. I checked out the other universities and countries but so far I'm just more familiar with Budapest. I talked directly to a few students from there and managed to get some insight. Can always transfer if need be.
What about you? Have you already applied or are you yet to do so?

I already got an acceptance in January, and am applying for the scholarship as well. So many comments are all over , so I don't know how's situations there. Is it true almost 200 freshmen entered in the first year and 10% could survive?

That's great! Congrats on the acceptance.
So I talked to a few people and it's definitely true that a lot of people drop out but I don't think that its as high as a 90% drop out rate. There's also the fact that it's an extremely difficult course and that too in Central Europe (known for being pretty demanding in terms of studies) so I suppose that should be taken into consideration. Also, I think the number of places are only 120 for the English course in first year so I don't think there's 200 freshmen to begin with.
There are definitely bad reviews about the place, I won't deny it. But I have a feeling that students who had bad experiences are more likely to post about it on forums or sites (not that that discredit their experience) cause they would want to prevent other students from suffering through similar things. The ones who are content with it or think it was a decent place won't really find the need to talk about it so there wouldn't be as much of those kinds of reviews. That's why I wanted direct experiences. I messaged a few people that are in various years at the university ( they were real people and not like idk, the uni catfishing or something) and they gave me both pros and cons. Every uni has both. I think personally that the place is worth it. Apparently there's a disconnect and some lack of communication between students and staff but nothing too bad. Plus there's student representatives and other forms of support to help you get through it. Sorry about the long reply

Thank you so much! I appreciate your kindness I am waiting for the scholarship exam from Budapest. And I know some students from there, (I'm no-EU, international student) and they said very hopeless future after graduation as a non-EU student .. but I think it really depends. Because some students from non-EU could get jobs in English-speaking countries like UK or Ireland. I think this really depends on how each student spends uni-years right? Do you have any idea about this? like non-EU students' job hunting after graduation. Thank you so much

I'm also an international student and I'm from somewhere that's super different to hungarian culture. What I've been told is that they are very extensive when it comes to theoretical knowledge. Practical knowledge is definitely there as well (lab and clinical work) cause otherwise they wouldn't be approved by the required associations and accredited. I think someone told me that it was a bit crowded when it came to the clinic and lab sessions but maybe that's better now cause of covid and also it's been a few years. But also it's up to the students to obtain as much practical work ourselves in our own time (holidays, breaks etc. That applies for vet school in any region cause UK has extra-mural-studies where students have to find and organize their own work experience during vet school. You can also get this work experience in your own country during holidays as long as your working with a professional vet. Basically we need to add it to our CV when applying to jobs and show them we know how to do surgeries and diagnose patients well.) because as long as you can show that you've graduated with the needed degree and have a good amount of practical experience, there's absolutely no issue with getting a job since there's a high demand for vets all round. As for the quality of job, if you can prove fluency in English then it shouldn't be too hard to get a job in UK/US/Canada (especially in Canada, there appears to be a recent shortage of vets). There's a lot of scope in the field to work your way up so if you have the prerequisites mentioned above, you won't be unemployed. In fact, I had the exact same concern but I checked out the job offers page on the uni website and there were plenty clinics from UK and Ireland that had uploaded job postings which I assume means that they won't discriminate against the fact that you have a degree from central Europe instead of a more mainstream region. There's too much demand for them to be overly picky

Hey, your comment totally cleared my curiosities Thank you so much. Have you dropped off or haven't had any problem going up to the next grades? Hopefully you haven't had I heard in this year almost 50% of students dropped off from Anatomy ... Such an unbelievable issue.

Oh I'm not in university yet. I got the acceptance and I'll be entering first year in September this year. I don't have any first hand experience with the uni, which is why I was talking to current students and why i posted this on the forum. But regarding anatomy... I mean. Anatomy is pretty universal throughout the world so whatever would be taught here is the same thing they would teach in other unis approximately. They told me during the interview that first year would be straight out of hell. I think the drop out rate is partially because of what a difficult course it is but also to ensure that only the students who can persevere through the 5 years will stay - which is partly for the sake of the university but also it helps the students realize they should change courses before they waste too many years. The latter... I personally know a lot of people who think vet med is easy (you know, the whole "playing with puppies all day) but it's literally a medicine course and you start doing surgeries right out of uni so there's that added part of it. Other than that, you have to be constantly staying on top of science even once you graduate since it's still a relatively new field that has frequent new discoveries. I'm not saying that they aren't motivated or suited to it. I think it's that its a seriously demanding course and the difficulty makes sure that a relatively fewer number of vets that come out of the program at the end will be overwhelmed by what the profession demands since they would experience it during the 5+ years in uni.

Edit: forgot to add one thing. It's well known that they admit a lot of people and that getting in is quite a bit easier than for a UK or US university (in terms of grades. These guys don't even have work experience requirements) so comparatively high drop out rates are very very understandable

Hey, did you take the entrance exam on 29 Jan? I took it on the day and as I know that was one of the earliest ones. If yes then we could see each other through the cam And yes, I agree with the points, like this uni accepts so many students so that it's natural to increase the total dropping out rate. I guess this unit drags money from the mass freshmen and drops them out for the next level, and let only survivors can continue next levels, so I guess probably the total final number of vets from Budapest could be similar to those from other unis. Anyway, the uni is registered in EAEVE so this means they have a qualified level of education in Veterinary Medicine. I believe so.

I took it just last week so unfortunately I don't think we've met. How many other people were taking the exam with you? I had just 2 others.
And yes, most universities similar to Budapest only take about 60-80 students I believe but these guys take almost double. It is unfortunate that they do this for the sake of money but hopefully that doesn't mean that the quality of clinical education is squandered. Yeah they have the European accreditation and we can also work in UK without needing to write the RCVS examination since they recognize the college. The rule that allows us to do so is temporary currently but I think they're planning on extending it and making it permanent since there's a shortage of vets. When it comes to Warsaw (I was also considering it as I know an aquaintance who went there) ... I was doing some research and there was a notice on their website from the EAEVE in 2020 that said they didn't have enough equine clinical cases.

As for Budapest, I found these evaluation reports on the website that are pretty insightful regarding both the advantages and the deficiencies. Take a look at the "final decision" document if you don't feel like going through everything. Also, note that these reports are from before 2016 (when the uni separated itself from Szent István and became it's own entity) so whatever they say about autonomy can be mostly discredited now I think.
https://univet.hu/en/about/eaeve-accreditation/

The report mentions that the chemistry part of the first year syllabus is very challenging for international students since they aren't used to the Hungarian system of teaching - and that's what owes to the high drop out rate, especially among internationals.

Im a second-year student in Budapest univet.

Im top 30 (out of 200) in my class and I never failed a final here.

my point is, if you love your life DONT COME HERE.

this uni is truly the worst nightmare.

Im a second-year student in Budapest univet.

Im top 30 (out of 200) in my class and I never failed a final here.

my point is, if you love your life DONT COME HERE.

this uni is truly the worst nightmare.