Biological Natural Sciences or Vet Med at Cambridge?

I can't decide between the two. I really love animals, but don't have any vet-related work experience or anything, and am not sure if I'd prefer natural sciences instead. I think I'm leaning towards natural sciences right now. Doesn't help that I don't know what career I want yet.

Could anyone provide more comparison between the two? And maybe explain a bit more about how the third year of vet med works at
Cambridge?

Reply 1

ALEreapp

21

Vet med is 6 years at Cambridge, the third year is when you intercalate and do a different degree.
Natural sciences and vet med are completely different degrees, if in doubt don’t do vet med!
@ReadingMum may be able to help on vet med side of things :smile:

Reply 2

ReadingMum

19

The third year in the vet med course at Cambridge is a separate intercalated year. You do another degree in a year Many vets do zoology - often with some form of research project - but there are other options (I have heard of music, education, history of art). As a result of the way Cambridge do things it means that you actually come out, at the end of 6 years, with a BA in your intercalated subject, a masters in the same, and a vet med degree.
I agree that you should only do vet med if you are pretty sure that you want to be a vet. You will need relevant work experience to even apply.

Reply 3

Vetgirl07

8

Original post by connor.h

I can't decide between the two. I really love animals, but don't have any vet-related work experience or anything, and am not sure if I'd prefer natural sciences instead. I think I'm leaning towards natural sciences right now. Doesn't help that I don't know what career I want yet.

Could anyone provide more comparison between the two? And maybe explain a bit more about how the third year of vet med works at
Cambridge?

I’d strongly recommend doing at the very least a couple of weeks of work experience in a vet clinic before you make a decision- it’s quite a different job to what people expect and whilst liking animals is great and by all means necessary for the job, you can’t use that as your only reason to go into vet med. You’ll need a lot of experience to apply for vet med in the first place- all unis have their own requirements which you can find on their websites and won’t consider you if you’ve not got any. Use the work experience as a learning opportunity rather than a box-ticking task; I’ve known of some people to have been very certain that they were going to study vet med, did work experience so that they met the requirements and then weren’t able to talk about it very well in interviews so didn’t get their offer.

Bio natural sciences is a completely different degree and is typically a lot broader with chances to narrow it down it later years. A lot of the time it is more human orientated but will have elements of animal biology. The application process will differ greatly- you’ll need good grades in biology and chemistry and be able to talk about further reading and potentially other work experience placements in your personal statement. I’d argue that it’s much easier to get a place on a bio natural sciences course than vet med as the competition isn’t as high and the requirements aren’t as specific.

Reply 4

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

15

Original post by connor.h

I can't decide between the two. I really love animals, but don't have any vet-related work experience or anything, and am not sure if I'd prefer natural sciences instead. I think I'm leaning towards natural sciences right now. Doesn't help that I don't know what career I want yet.

Could anyone provide more comparison between the two? And maybe explain a bit more about how the third year of vet med works at
Cambridge?

Hey!

I’m Oliver and am currently a third year in natural sciences studying synthetic chemistry and biochemistry pathways at Lancaster. I'm afraid I know very little about vet med but can share a bit about my experience with biosciences and natural sciences at Lancaster.

The major benefit of natural sciences flexibility of the degree in allowing you to study modules across all the different scientific departments. At Lancaster we have 4 different biological science pathways which cover a range of topics from ecology, conservation and zoology to biochemistry and microbiology. I found this flexibility really beneficial as I didn't really have a future career in mind when I started and it allowed me to develop and discover my interests in science as I progressed through the degree.

It's worth noting that each university will do pathways slightly differently and a have a varied range of possible combinations so definitely check that out on the relevant websites. The full list of pathways and entry requirements for Lancaster can be found here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/natural-sciences/

I know there is also there is also the option to take a non science subject as your third pathway and throughout your degree 25% of your credits can be in a non science subject.

There is also the option to alter you pathway choices as you progress through your degree. For me this was extremely valuable as I was able to drop my physical chemistry pathway after first year to allow for a greater focus on biochemistry.

One of the best things about natural sciences is the vast range of experiences you get and people you meet. Since you study alongside the single honours students across multiple departments, you get to see so many more faces and there is never a lonely lecture. It’s also great to see how all the different sciences interlink and you can often apply something you learnt in one subject to one of your other pathways which is fascinating!

Hope that is helpful and best of luck with your decision 😊Feel free to ask me any other questions if you have any

Oliver (Student Ambassador)

Biological Natural Sciences or Vet Med at Cambridge?

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