Do I have enough work experience for Veterinary Medicine

I am planning to apply to veterinary this year (Autumn 2019) before then I would have

1 week at Veterinary Hospital
1 week at Veterinary clinic
1 week Equestrian Centre
1 week Diary Farm
1 week Mixed Vets
1 week Veterinary Lab
1 day Dog Groomers

1 week Cattery
1-2 days Pig + Poultry farm

Where are you planning to apply? Have you filled every possible time from now to October with work experience?

What you have now looks good, you could do with some lambing but you’ve probably missed the season now. Maybe see if you can go to a sheep AI day so you have some experience with sheep.

Hi sorry forgot to mention the list up there includes what I have done and what will I be doing in the summer. I have already done the vet hospital, equestrian and dairy farm and will be doing the rest by October. I had an offer for lambing but got cancelled. I am trying to find experience with sheep aswell.

I am planning to apply at Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh and Keele/Harper.

Okay so obviously I don’t know much about Keele/Harper, and I didn’t apply to Bristol so I don’t know much about there (although I believe you get full marks for WEX if you have 4 weeks clinical and 4 weeks husbandry, which you almost have). I did apply to and get offers from Liverpool and Edinburgh this year (I had ~17 weeks of work experience).

Liverpool requires 5 weeks on paper. Worth mentioning that each placement must be longer than 2 days (so your dog grooming won’t be counted) and only 5 days of a single placement can be included in the questionnaire. Your experience should be more than enough to get an interview there. Take a look at here for their up to date information: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/veterinary-science/undergraduate/prospective-applicants/

Edinburgh asks for as much work experience as possible. They like variety, so your vet lab experience and pig/poultry if you get it will be perfect. Maybe see if you can get an abattoir placement as they recommend this.

You have a good chance with what you have now, but if you want to improve your chances further I might try for a kennels (or at least the cattery that you mentioned) so you have small animal husbandry for Liverpool. Best of luck with your application!

Hi thanks for the reply. What type of work experience did you do and there are no abattoirs in my area that do work experience. If you have any other tips please feel free to share. Thank you so much for the help and good luck with everything you do!

Here’s my work experience in roughly time order:



That was before I applied, but I haven’t stopped! I love it so since October 2018 I’ve done:



That’ll all take me to about 25 weeks before I go to vet school, which I think will stand me in good stead and I’d really recommend continuing your experience even if it doesn’t count towards applications (and you can talk about some things in interview).

For more general advice:



There are definitely more knowledgeable people out there and don’t just rely on this- but I’ve tried to tell you everything important that I know (although I could carry on for hours longer)! Hopefully you’ve already seen the stickies at the top of the forum- if not, they’re well worth a read. Hope this helped and isn’t too rambly!

Thank you so much for your reply. Helps a lot. Looking at your work experience I feel my work experience is minimal compared to yours. Just wondering which uni are you going to

I had a lot of work experience compared to some people I know who have offers so don’t worry too much! I’m going to Edinburgh and Nottingham is my insurance. I rejected offers from Cambridge and Liverpool. Edinburgh is the best! (for me, obviously some would disagree)

I think as long as you’ve done everything you can in the 18 months before this October you’ll be fine.

Hiya, that should a good amount as long as you make sure you ask lots of questions and keep a record of things you've learnt you have more than enough!

I applied in October 2018 and have 4 offers, and although I had about 25 weeks when I applied it really didn't matter that much/make me stand out that much! Especially since on the WEX forms the unis give you there's a limited number of placements you can put.