Anyone going to Hartpury to study BioVeterinary science in September 2014?

Hey Everyone, I am a second year Biovet at Hartpury College. I am also the Media and Publicity Officer for Vet Society! We will be at the Freshers Fair on the 17th September. Looking forward to seeing some new faces and check out our facebook page if your interested!

Hi! Just wanted to ask how you found your first year? Is there anything I can do in advance to prepare for the course?

Hey, First year was GREAT so excited for second year!Advice - don't procrastinate assignments till the night or few days before. Especially not Biochem, there are no words for the horror of that lab write up (It may well have changed, but yeah). Also make sure you attend all your pracs that count for grade percentages, I didn't and i worked out that it cost me the difference between a 2:2 and a good 2:1 (A lot of the pracs are then used for assignments, i missed a couple so lost percentage instantly) Don't worry first year dosn't count for your overall degree grade but I was a bit obsessive haha!

I was wondering then because in the future I do want to apply for vetmed after my degree at Hartpury, would you think it would be sensible to retake my A2 alone side my first year? Or would it been to overwhelming?

Um, its honestly up to you. Is it just the one A2?

Biology and Chemistry A2

I'm a second year Biovet too

I'd advise getting yourself a copy of Frandson - Anatomy and Physiology of Farm Animals as it's really useful for A&P .

Also, re vet med, the government will only subsidise one degree, so if you've done Biovet and go on to do vet med it costs around £32,000 a year for tuition etc, so depends if you would be able to afford that (you can be sponsored sometimes to do it, but that's incredibly competitive!). That's according to the head of Animal Sciences .

Hope that helps x

Thank you so much I went and bought myself a copy of that book and have started reading it! Is it easy to borrow books from the library though or do they get taken quite quickly?

Yeah regarding vet med I had an offer from Nottingham this academic year but didn't meet the requirements on results day! So I am literally going to do anything to get there as a postgrad so I'm aware that tuition will be expensive...re-taking my a-levels will be a must to make sure I have the best opportunity, but i don't want my degree to suffer. Such a difficult decision.

Do you know people that have been sponsored? And do you know how I could get information about this or are vet students sponsored by companies where they've done work experience or placements?

Its a good one! Pretty well all of Simon's lectures (A&P lecturer and course leader) give pre and post reading from that book :-)

There are a fair few copies in the library but a lot of them are reference and I couldn't get hold of a loan copy of it for ages because everyone kept renewing them as they were so heavily used, so good to have your own :-)

It is a tough one regarding retaking the a-levels alongside, personally I found the workload pretty heavy (if you include the pre and post reading and going over bits you don;t understand in your own time) with just the degree so it depends really how good you are at time management and things! Also whether you want to join societies and clubs which obviously take up more time too!

Re sponsorship, I don't personally know anyone that has achieved it, would be well worth asking Simon or Lucy Clarke (course manager) early on though to see what they know about it. Lucy was the one who told me about the government subsidy thing, so she seems to know a bit about it!