Veterinary Medicine Applicant thread 2025 entry

I just want to be sure, how do you count work experience? Like 1 week is 5 days in a row or 5 days in total? If I do a Monday and Tuesday then wait a week and do another Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is that two weeks or one? How many hours do I have to work for it do count as a day? Sorry if this is a stupid question I’m just double checking. Thank you.

I just want to be sure, how do you count work experience? Like 1 week is 5 days in a row or 5 days in total? If I do a Monday and Tuesday then wait a week and do another Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is that two weeks or one? How many hours do I have to work for it do count as a day? Sorry if this is a stupid question I’m just double checking. Thank you.

I count my experience in hours and then if I need to I can translate that into weeks as 5 day weeks which are each 7 hrs so 35hrs/week.

I'm going to leave my work experience so far here
52 hrs at a small animal vet clinic
20 hrs of clinical experience (small animal hospitals) at the RVC
11.5 hrs of non-clinical experience (farm, equine, exotics) at the RVC
20hrs at a riding school (hoping to get a bit more this summer)
+ I've got a week of lambing planned for the first week of April!

Any recs for possible work experience I could look for would be helpful! I don't live in the UK so it's difficult for me to find places that will accept me since work experience is not very common in other countries in Europe. (I was very lucky to manage to get lambing experience in the UK and stay with my aunt)

*also def not a stupid question, interpreting all the different requirements each uni has can be a challenge *

Hello! I am a 2025 vet med applicant, I am an IB student studying HL: Biology, Chemistry and English Lit & SL: Economics, Spanish B and Math AA. I attended RVC's Pre-Vet Summer School last summer and absolutely loved it, I would highly recommend it! I am a UK citizen living in the EU and I am most likely applying to RVC, Surrey, Liverpool and Bristol. I would love to talk to more students looking to apply in 2025, so send me a message any time!

Hi! I hope to study vet med in England as an international student ( I am neither taking IB/A level) I currently haven’t met the grade requirement of RVC (but I am definitely working on it to reach the minimum grade in my later exam before submitting the ucas deadline!!) I just want to ask if it is possible for me to be accepted for the rvc’s pre-vet summer school? Thanks a lot!

hey I am hoping to study vet med in 2025 but I feel very behind on work experience as I only have a week at small animal clinic and help out at a horse riding centre but in the summer I do have a farm work experience lined up. Please let me know how many more hours/weeks I need and what type of work experiences I should apply for

I got offers from Surrey, Liverpool and Bristol (and Nottingham) so if you need any help let me know

How much work experience did you have and what did you do? I’m thinking of applying to all four of those universities (although I’m a bit unsure about Liverpool).

1 week farm park 1
1 week farm park 2
2 week farm park (4h every Saturday morning)- had some exotic
1 week cats protection (4h every Saturday morning)
1 week lambing
1 week small animal vet (4h every Wednesday afternoon!
1 week equine vet
3 days animal testing/research lab
1 day abattoir

Thank you very much, do you think an abattoir is a necessity in an application?

Not a necessity but I think it shows and understanding of the more negative parts of the career. I went to the University of Bristol with 5th year RVC rotation students and got a reference off of the vet lecturer there which I absolutely think was a massive boost in my Bristol application

Not a necessity but I think it shows and understanding of the more negative parts of the career. I went to the University of Bristol with 5th year RVC rotation students and got a reference off of the vet lecturer there which I absolutely think was a massive boost in my Bristol application

Hi. How did you get the work experience please. I have emailed but they haven't replied. Many thanks

How did you go to the university of Bristol with 5th year RVC rotation students? Sorry I don’t entirely understand.

this is anxiety inducing oh dear

Ha, yes. Are you okay?

Hi. She has secured placements at 2 local veterinary practices. Will be working on a mixes livestock farm lambing and caring for cows. Just wondering what else we should look at thank you.

I'll pop in one small thought for those hoping to apply and study veterinary medicine. This actually applies to a lot of professions but in particular the veterinary world because it involves paying customers who are enlisting your help.

The difference between a good vet and an outstanding vet will be in their people skills. You could be an average clinician but if customers like you and keep coming back time after time because they would prefer to deal with you then you are doing something right. Don't neglect your people skills, it's a human field as much as an animal one.