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Cambridge Vet Collages

Hi,

Which collages do you think are best for VetMed?

Thanks everyone


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Reply 1
I wanted to ask that question too.
I'm applying this year and I'm really not sure how to choose one.
Are there any significant differences between them anyway (in therms of VetMed)?
Or is it just about the accommodation/food/library thing?
Original post by Nessie162
I wanted to ask that question too.
I'm applying this year and I'm really not sure how to choose one.
Are there any significant differences between them anyway (in therms of VetMed)?
Or is it just about the accommodation/food/library thing?


I applied to Cam and had a look around some of the colleges so can give a brief perspective as I don't think we have any cam undergrads on here. The students I met there told me that wherever you go, you will end up loving living there. It's really down to personal preference - do you wish to be somewhere more modern or surrounded by more traditional buildings? location in relation to the city/amenities? etc. Some will have more spaces for vets than others, but really you will be meeting a lot of people on your course through lectures / group work / student socials and it's nice to be able to be around non-vetty people too. I got the impression there were some stereotypes attached to some of the colleges - e.g. one was better for people interested in music, other for sport etc. However, a college is just a place to live - you will all amalgamate in lecture theatres so it won't affect the quality of your teaching if that makes sense.
There won't be any significant differences between colleges for vet med because, as with every other course, most of the teaching is done out of college. The differences will come with the type of college and the amount of students and vet students. You need to find somewhere you could live and feel safe, happy and comfortable because it will be your sanctuary for 5 years whilst you're studying. My advice would be to read up on all the colleges that offer vet med, make a short list, then go to an open day and visit them. If you can then visit some of the ones you wrote off too, because you just never know. Also don't always listen to people's opinions, you really need to go and visit it to make up your mind. It's not like choosing university halls, this place will literally be your home for the whole time you're studying.
Reply 4
SilverstarDJ and SuperCat007 are spot on, the Vet Med course will be the same whichever college you choose. The college will be your home for at least 3 years of the course, and will primarily be where you live, eat and socialise, and also probably have some supervisions, depending upon whether the college you choose has a veterinary director of studies. Most do, but Caius for example does not, and 'shares' the DOS from Queens.

It therefore is very much down to personal choice as to the location, size and style of college and everyone I know who has gone to Cambridge thinks their college is the best! (although the food at Caius is not that great, lol)

My daughter studied Linguistics at Gonville and Caius and now has a conditional offer for Vet Med at Wolfson. The prospective vet applicants at Caius are graded against the medics, and vet students have not always been admitted (see the statistics tables). My daughter applied to Wolfson because she is now a mature student. She already has a flat in Cambridge and will live out of college (if she makes her grades!)

I'm happy to answer any other questions if I can, based on my daughter's experience :smile:
Reply 5
Hi! I hold an offer from Girton for vetmed and went through all of this college related stress last year! As everyone else has said, the quality of teaching should be the same wherever you are. I'd recommend going through a brief description of each college and making a shortlist of those that appeal to you. Visit a few on an open day if you can and just go with your gut feeling (I went to Girton first and decided it was so perfect for me there was no point in seeing any of the others!) - you want to be somewhere you'll be happiest! Some things to consider might be:
- Whether a college takes vet students at all (Trinity and some others don't), see http://applications.vet.cam.ac.uk/welcome/apply/admit.html for those that do
- The number of vet students each college takes each year (if it's important to you to have more vet friends in college)
- Whether you want to be at an all-female college
- Location (travel distances too!)
- Size of college and facilities in college
- Food quality/catered/self-catered etc
- Accommodation
- Whether the college has a cat (this was the most important for me haha! :P )

Wherever you end up everyone says that you end up loving your college so try not to stress about it too much - at the end of the day they are more similar than different! Good luck!

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