Vet Med at UCD

im hoping to apply to ucd for veterinary medicine next yr and i was wondering if any current students or prospective ucd students could let me know what the selection procedures are in relation to students presenting A levels, are there only a set no. of places for A level applicants? also, i was wondering what the general view was on the course at ucd, how does it compare with the other uk courses as it is never included in any of the vet school rankings? hope someone can help, cheers

Reply 1

doolie_xx

1

Hey, I'm sure I must have seen you talking about UCD before. I applied there last year and didn't get in. Basically, for UCD they generally want you to have 4 As at A level if they're going to accept you. They don't look at predicted grades and things so, as you know, you won't know if you've got any chance of getting in until results day. When the results come out, everyone with the required grades is put into a lottery and the lucky few (I think there's about 60 places at UCD?) are picked out and given an offer. That's about it.

I'm not sure if they have spaces specifically for applicants doing A levels. Unis in the UK don't do this with people who apply with Leaving Certs. However, they may count you as an international student (don't quote me on this) if you're from scotland and they will only have a limited number of places for this. I don't know if they actually do this because UK unis count people from Eire as within the EU and so they aren't included in the number of places for international students. Maybe UCD counts students from the UK and other parts of the EU in the same way?

I think what you need to do is phone up UCD and ask about it so you get the proper information. All I know is, their selection procedure is notoriously random and it's also a very difficult course to get onto, never mind the fact that's it's Veterinary. The only person I know who got onto it got 4 As at A level! Good luck :smile:

Reply 2

-steph-

2

I also think that to go to UCD you have to be 20 and older.

Reply 3

doolie_xx

1

I'm not sure about that one. They took my application ok and I would've been 18, turning 19 by the time I was in first year. However, my friend who eventually got in with the 4As was 20 when she eventually got the offer so maybe you do?

Reply 4

two22

You don't have to be 20. They accepted my application and I will only just be 18 when I start my course. Word of warning though; about a week ago I received a letter saying 'thank you for your application etc' 'we'll notify you in august' but ALSO 'EU applicants, in addition to meeting the competitive entry requirements, must also have attained a place to study veterinary medicine in a university in their own country to be eligible for consideration for admission to UCD'. There is no mention of this on the website, which is very misleading but basically, if you're not doing the irish leaving cert, you must have at least one other offer to go to UCD. xxx

Reply 5

doolie_xx

1

Wow, didn't know that! That isn't very nice of them :s

Reply 6

TW = LEGEND

OP

does anyone know of someone who got into ucd without 4 A's? as far as i know all a level applicants with 4 A's are placed in a hat and selected randomly, and there is only between 12-14 places allocated for a level applicants!very tough selection system and very wierd!lol anyone know anything about the course at ucd?

Reply 7

fuzzball00

you def dont need an offer from another uni to be accepted for vetinary- as long as you have 4A's you have a pretty good chance. i got an offer and had applied to UK unis to do medicine! turned down vetinary and went for medicine- kinda regret it now! :frown:

Reply 8

two22

fuzzball00

you def dont need an offer from another uni to be accepted for vetinary- as long as you have 4A's you have a pretty good chance. i got an offer and had applied to UK unis to do medicine! turned down vetinary and went for medicine- kinda regret it now! :frown:

I'm guessing that's because you're Northern Irish (well I'm guessing you are living in Co. Armagh) and they don't do vet med there so it would be a bit of a ridiculous condition to make! They definitely made it to me.

Reply 9

JW GINGER

https://myucd.ucd.ie/programme_info/alevel.ezc

this gives info on the entry requirements for a-level
it says you need an equivalent score of 550 which means that a minimum you need to even get a chance is AAAC, though it does say this afterwards...

applicants with a score greater than this were accommodated but, as it was not possible to accommodate all applicants with this score, random selection was applied...

so really you probably do need AAAA to get in,
and ps ill be applying there nexy sept, my familty is origonally from dunlaoghaire, which is where one of the campuses is. :smile:

Reply 10

Hawk

1

fuzzball00

you def dont need an offer from another uni to be accepted for vetinary- as long as you have 4A's you have a pretty good chance. i got an offer and had applied to UK unis to do medicine! turned down vetinary and went for medicine- kinda regret it now! :frown:

Lol, I did pretty much the same except my VetMed offers were from UK unis and Medicine offer was from Trinity... I only put it down to fill the big gap beside my VetMed application... UCD's 'magic hat' didn't like me.

two22 - I'm surprised they asked you to be accepted in your own country, I thought the UK was exempt from this but like you say maybe it is only Northern Ireland, I certainly didn't get asked anything like that. Although come to think of it, I don't recall ever having received anything from UCD full stop.

Reply 11

Hawk

1

JW GINGER

so really you probably do need AAAA to get in,

Even then its still down to luck, I had 4 As and got rejected.

Reply 12

maloreygorey

when they ask for 4As do they include general studies?? i dont know anyone who's doing 4 `real` A-levels and i finding their website a bit confusing :s-smilie:

Reply 13

SophieEllaE

yeh I emailed them a while back to see if 3 alevels and a further 2 AS levels would be acceptable because it would give you the required amount of points. They didnt seem to think that it would give me the required points even though I'd checked it several times to make sure it would.
They also told me that I'd have to get an offer over here as well and their wwebsite was very unhelpful. All in all as much as I would love to study in Ireland I decided all of this combined meant they were probably trying to deter me from applying to their vet school.

Reply 14

maloreygorey

well ive applied coz i thout it woz worth a shot n im reli wuried about not gettin an offer from ne unis ova here. i'll jst wait n c wot points i get. i jst cant see why they ask for more than 3 A's. i cnt find newher wher they say 'we do not accept general studies' but i suppose that doesnt mean much... has ne1 else applied?

Reply 15

TW = LEGEND

OP

maloreygorey - i have applied to ucd aswell!whats the latest progress with your applications to the uk unis? yeh the ucd website doesnt really give any indication of subject requirements!are you doing 4 A levels?

Reply 16

tiny_tiger

Lucy I second that, the 2 Dublin vet students we stayed with on AVS were mad! But really sweet!

Reply 17

Hawk

1

Lucy.x

dublin vets are mad! like properly crazy lol

They re-defined the meaning of the word crazy when they came here for AVS a few years back lol!!

Reply 18

tiny_tiger

Hee hee, you gotta love 'em

Reply 19

maloreygorey

yeh i am - but 3 proper subjects and general studies - which most uni's dont accept. do u know how they allot places in dublin?? im assuming that ther r a lot of ppl applying 4 veterinary medicine and get reli good grades as well.

so far ive been rejected by edinburgh and glasgow :frown:

(but im blaming that on the fact theyr biased against english lol) ive had interviews at notts and bristol and am still awaiting the outcome. have u applied to any uk unis?

Vet Med at UCD

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