RVC open day.

OP

I loved the Hawkshead campus but I’m concerned about the Camden one as it feels a bit cramped to me as I’m not used to cities! Is it something that bothers students? Or do people get used to it?

Reply 3

Original post by flamingolover

I loved the Hawkshead campus but I’m concerned about the Camden one as it feels a bit cramped to me as I’m not used to cities! Is it something that bothers students? Or do people get used to it?

It did seem quite small but I think you have to bear in mind that it is only for 2 years whereas the other 2 site unis (like Bristol, Liverpool) spend 3 years in town and then 2 years out of town. Plus there are trips out to Hawkshead to do handling during years 1 & 2.

Reply 4

FarmVet

10

Hi

sorry for the delay, I am on rotations at the moment so lots of out of hours etc. Camden felt fine for me, I haven't personally spent a lot of time there since it has all been redone but have heard it is looking great. Being from the countryside myself I personally liked spending a few years to see what London could offer :smile:

I enjoyed the city and doing/ seeing things I hadn't been able to before plus the tube was amazing for being able to get around. At the end of the day its for 2 years and then you are at Hawkshead in the Hertfordshire countryside. I personally liked the change for a few years :smile:

Original post by flamingolover

I loved the Hawkshead campus but I’m concerned about the Camden one as it feels a bit cramped to me as I’m not used to cities! Is it something that bothers students? Or do people get used to it?

Reply 5

Original post by flamingolover

I loved the Hawkshead campus but I’m concerned about the Camden one as it feels a bit cramped to me as I’m not used to cities! Is it something that bothers students? Or do people get used to it?

My daughter felt the same - you can certainly understand why they do the main open day at Hawkshead. I am glad we went to the Camden open house for that reason.
Since then we have been to Edinburgh - great vet school campus but horrible commute every day. Every vet school has some sort of downside so you just need to work out what matters most to you (and who will make you an offer).

Reply 6

animalmagic

14

Actually, I thought the commute would be horrible for the students but they don't seem to mind it and they choose to remain central even after they move out of halls. Even from close to the centre of Edinburgh it can be done in 35 minutes on the bus if you choose your location wisely.

Original post by ReadingMum

My daughter felt the same - you can certainly understand why they do the main open day at Hawkshead. I am glad we went to the Camden open house for that reason.
Since then we have been to Edinburgh - great vet school campus but horrible commute every day. Every vet school has some sort of downside so you just need to work out what matters most to you (and who will make you an offer).

Reply 7

Original post by animalmagic

Actually, I thought the commute would be horrible for the students but they don't seem to mind it and they choose to remain central even after they move out of halls. Even from close to the centre of Edinburgh it can be done in 35 minutes on the bus if you choose your location wisely.

Interesting. DD has now compared notes with her fellow vet hopeful at school and they came away with very different impressions - the other girl loved Edinburgh. I think it came down to our tour guide - she moved out to near Easter Bush at the end of yr 1 as she hated the travel and early morning starts. She also had a job on Wednesday afternoons so didn't talk about the sports and social stuff on offer. With hindsight we should have found another ambassador to talk with but I didn't notice the gap till it was too late. If we had met a guide who talked about the travel less negatively and covered the social side more then DD might have felt differently about it all. It is on the long list but might not make the short list - this is all so tricky as she is now saying she can't really remember much about Bristol as we saw it so long ago. At the time she loved it.

Reply 8

OP

I had a similar thing with RVC as our tour guide was a vet nurse and seemed biased about the course and didn’t know much about it. I’m on a tour tomorrow for Bristol so that will be exciting!

Reply 9

Original post by flamingolover

I had a similar thing with RVC as our tour guide was a vet nurse and seemed biased about the course and didn’t know much about it. I’m on a tour tomorrow for Bristol so that will be exciting!

If you get the same chap giving the talk as we did, he was very inspiring - I came out wanting to sign up and I am just the taxi service and sounding board!

Reply 10

OP

I loved Bristol after visiting today o get everyone was friendly the facilities are amazing and I can totally see myself there. Much preferred it to RVC

Reply 11

We are there tomorrow. How much time did you spend on the Langford campus ?

Original post by flamingolover

I loved Bristol after visiting today o get everyone was friendly the facilities are amazing and I can totally see myself there. Much preferred it to RVC

Reply 12

OP

We had a tour at 10 so we got there at 9:30 and chatted to some people and got some leaflets and at 10 we had a talk about the university until 10:45. It was super helpful.

Then we had a tour that lasted until 12 with some really amazing tour guides who were really lovely and then we killed around a bit. We looked at the clinical rooms and the library and left so about 2 and a half hours.

I’d already been there as i have been to the abattoir for work experience. We didn’t end up going to the other campus as we were told it wasn’t really necessary by our tour guides because we already knew the city so it’s really up to you.

So we spent 2 and a half hours there

Reply 13

Thank you

Original post by flamingolover

We had a tour at 10 so we got there at 9:30 and chatted to some people and got some leaflets and at 10 we had a talk about the university until 10:45. It was super helpful.

Then we had a tour that lasted until 12 with some really amazing tour guides who were really lovely and then we killed around a bit. We looked at the clinical rooms and the library and left so about 2 and a half hours.

I’d already been there as i have been to the abattoir for work experience. We didn’t end up going to the other campus as we were told it wasn’t really necessary by our tour guides because we already knew the city so it’s really up to you.

So we spent 2 and a half hours there

Reply 14

My daughter had almost dismissed RVC due to the high cost of living in London. We are a family where we earn too much to get the full maintenance loan but not really enough to be able to support her for 3 years in London as the loan we would get wouldn't even cover the rent never mind anything else.

When we went to the Bristol University open day on Saturday, the students there we spoke to were surprised that we weren't looking round RVC so I did a little bit more investigating and it seems that from the 3rd year you move out to Hawkshead and you can choose to live in uni accommodation there from year 2 which makes a big difference to the cost, even factoring in the train to Camden.

I can't seem to find as much information on the RVC website as the other unis as the main Open Day was in May but we are booked for an Open House tour in August. Has anyone got any tips of what to make sure we see whilst we are there and also any other advice to give re the logistics of living in halls in London.

TIA

Reply 15

Original post by Choppygirl11

My daughter had almost dismissed RVC due to the high cost of living in London. We are a family where we earn too much to get the full maintenance loan but not really enough to be able to support her for 3 years in London as the loan we would get wouldn't even cover the rent never mind anything else.

When we went to the Bristol University open day on Saturday, the students there we spoke to were surprised that we weren't looking round RVC so I did a little bit more investigating and it seems that from the 3rd year you move out to Hawkshead and you can choose to live in uni accommodation there from year 2 which makes a big difference to the cost, even factoring in the train to Camden.

I can't seem to find as much information on the RVC website as the other unis as the main Open Day was in May but we are booked for an Open House tour in August. Has anyone got any tips of what to make sure we see whilst we are there and also any other advice to give re the logistics of living in halls in London.

TIA

For RVC you only spend yr 1 & 2 in Camden then years 3/4/5 are at Hawkshead. You get the London maintenance loan for the full 5 years even though you are only in London for 2 of them - I asked that on the day. Due to our incomes DD would only get the minimum Maintenance loan but that is higher for London than not-London - for us she'd get £4,168 outside London and £5,812 for RVC. Our contribution to bring it up to the full amount is higher for London - £5,860 vs £4,776 but maybe she won't need the full top-up at Hawkshead? Note all figures are for 2019 entry as the website doesn't go further out than that on the calculator. . So it would even out as long as Hawkshead accommodation isn't crazily expensive.
Hawkshead is a fab campus. I can't imagine DD wanting to commute for the whole of yr2 though.

Reply 16

Original post by ReadingMum

For RVC you only spend yr 1 & 2 in Camden then years 3/4/5 are at Hawkshead. You get the London maintenance loan for the full 5 years even though you are only in London for 2 of them - I asked that on the day. Due to our incomes DD would only get the minimum Maintenance loan but that is higher for London than not-London - for us she'd get £4,168 outside London and £5,812 for RVC. Our contribution to bring it up to the full amount is higher for London - £5,860 vs £4,776 but maybe she won't need the full top-up at Hawkshead? Note all figures are for 2019 entry as the website doesn't go further out than that on the calculator. . So it would even out as long as Hawkshead accommodation isn't crazily expensive.
Hawkshead is a fab campus. I can't imagine DD wanting to commute for the whole of yr2 though.

Thanks for that. Interesting that the grant is classed as London for the whole 5 years. I guess it is where the college is based rather than where they actually stay. If she likes RVC (and more importantly gets in) she can decide what she wants to do in Year 2 then but there are plenty of options. What did you think of RVC and have you been anywhere else? We liked Bristol but not keen on the whole set up for Harper/Keele. We went round Harper Adams which is a land based college but don't think we will bother looking round Keele when it is their open day. It might be better in a few years' time but none of the facilities were set up and some of the main buildings weren't even built. Plus you end up seeing some of the lectures live streamed due to the set up over the 2 campuses.

Reply 17

Original post by Choppygirl11

Thanks for that. Interesting that the grant is classed as London for the whole 5 years. I guess it is where the college is based rather than where they actually stay. If she likes RVC (and more importantly gets in) she can decide what she wants to do in Year 2 then but there are plenty of options. What did you think of RVC and have you been anywhere else? We liked Bristol but not keen on the whole set up for Harper/Keele. We went round Harper Adams which is a land based college but don't think we will bother looking round Keele when it is their open day. It might be better in a few years' time but none of the facilities were set up and some of the main buildings weren't even built. Plus you end up seeing some of the lectures live streamed due to the set up over the 2 campuses.

DD's opinions: RVC Hawkshead is great - Camden not quite so appealing but it is only for 2 years. Liverpool is the clear favourite so far. She liked Bristol at the time but is now thinking about opting for Edinburgh instead - we went there last week. We are off to Nottingham at the end of June and Cambridge on 4th July. She has already spent 3 days at the Cambridge VetCam taster last year and did like it but this is now the only course that requires an A* so it needs to be put as firm choice or not at all (if she gets an offer) and she still prefers Liverpool. She really didn't like Surrey and didn't fancy Harper Adams either.

Reply 18

Popsicle_pirate

9

Not sure if this is still the case but RVC did subsidise (or maybe even cover?) the cost of train fare between Hawkshead and Camden for students that chose to live at HH but were still based in Camden, but I think there was talk of scrapping it so not 100% sure on that...just another thought!

Original post by Choppygirl11

My daughter had almost dismissed RVC due to the high cost of living in London. We are a family where we earn too much to get the full maintenance loan but not really enough to be able to support her for 3 years in London as the loan we would get wouldn't even cover the rent never mind anything else.

When we went to the Bristol University open day on Saturday, the students there we spoke to were surprised that we weren't looking round RVC so I did a little bit more investigating and it seems that from the 3rd year you move out to Hawkshead and you can choose to live in uni accommodation there from year 2 which makes a big difference to the cost, even factoring in the train to Camden.

I can't seem to find as much information on the RVC website as the other unis as the main Open Day was in May but we are booked for an Open House tour in August. Has anyone got any tips of what to make sure we see whilst we are there and also any other advice to give re the logistics of living in halls in London.

TIA

Reply 19