Vet medicine

Hi! You can still get funding for the full 5 years (if you live in the UK) as long as vet med is your first degree. It’s technically a student loan, but you pay it back very very gradually and only have to do so if you earn above £25,000 or something.

I would definitely recommend getting some work experience/ doing a few online courses and applying this year to the 5 year courses as graduate vet med will take at least 7 years and you won’t be able to get student finance so it will be very expensive!

This year, getting work experience is a bit trickier so unis have lowered their requirements, however I’m not too sure what they are going to do next year but I imagine it would be similar. I had all my farm placements cancelled but still managed to get three interviews this year so unis are definitely taking into consideration that gaining work experience has become a lot harder recently. As long as you’re up to date on current vet issues and can show you have a realistic understanding of what the profession entails, then you should be absolutely fine.

This free virtual work experience course might be a good place to start...
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/vet-school-application-support

If COVID allows then work experience wise I would suggest:
-Kennels/Cattery
-Stables
-Dairy farm
-Lambing
-Small animal vet practice
-Equine practice
-Farm animal practice

Here are some other ideas for work experience that could help you to stand out although I would focus on getting the placements above first (you definitely don’t need to do all of these!):
-Zoo
-Wildlife sanctuary
-Animal shelter
-Abattoir (only for a day or so)
-Pig farm
-Poultry farm
-Veterinary laboratory/diagnostic services
-Veterinary physio/hydrotherapy
-Exotic vets

Hope that helps a bit more!

Thanks for the reply! yes im just concerned that ill not go to university to study chemistry this year, apply for vet med and not get offered a place and therefore should've just gone to uni to study chemistry this year anyway? just worried about my age I guess, can I ask what work experience you've got in total please

thank you thats great! good luck to you

As said above, graduate would be a lot longer and definitely a lot more expensive. You get the tuition fee paid for and a maintenance loan for your first degree, but for your second degree you can only get the maintenance loan (I believe), so paying 9.25k tuition fee for 4/5 years may be rather difficult while on a demanding course.

Above has explained well how work experience is working with Covid right now. In normal times, most universities will ask for a minimum of 2 weeks clinical (i.e. vet practice) and 2-4 weeks non-clinical (i.e. other animal environments like kennels, stables, farms) and they like you to have ideally had all 'types' of animals (smalls, equine and farm) but it is not a necessity. Again when things were normal I'd say it is best to try to get above the minimum amount to show commitment, dedication, have more to talk about in interviews/forms etc, but right now it is not that accessible so I wouldn't worry too much and do what you can.

As vet med is such a competitive degree, a large proportion of the students actually do not come straight from school, so at 21 you definitely wouldn't be in the minority and have seen many older people applying! I didn't get any offers last year and reapplied, so I am currently on a gap year and will be 20 when I start. I wouldn't let age hold you back - it's only one more year in the grand scheme of things and I'd say a risk worthwhile for the potential to get your dream career.

Thank you so much for the reply! you're right, an extra year on what I am now is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Can I ask what work experience you had please? thank you

As I'm on my second round of applying I had started to get work experience before Covid so had some more opportunities back then, but still managed to do a lot June-October 2020. In my first round I only had 2 weeks vet practice, 1 week stables, 1 week dog grooming and 1 day sheep farm, didn't get any offers. For this round I had the 2 weeks vet practice, 6 weeks stables, 3 weeks dog grooming, 1 day alpaca farm and 2 days sheep farm, and so far I have an unconditional from Liverpool (as have my grades) and I'm still waiting for Glasgow and Nottingham post-interview, I withdrew from Harper Keele, but at this point I am tempted to just withdraw from the others and accept Liverpool haha. I wish you luck with your decisions!

awesome congrats! with the work experience, does it all need to be completed before the deadline do you know, so would it need to be completed before October? thank you