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What are the considerations you take when choosing a vet school

If you had offers from all your choices, how are you choosing which school to pick?
-Ranking
-Suitability
-Price of tuition fees
-Distance to you
-Or just based on how much you like the school

Reply 1

Original post
by zanderlzj
If you had offers from all your choices, how are you choosing which school to pick?
-Ranking
-Suitability
-Price of tuition fees
-Distance to you
-Or just based on how much you like the school

Those are probably the worst criteria you could use!!
Ranking for vet schools depends on research output which has no link to the undergraduate tuition given. Not wanting to kick a dog when it’s down, but Cambridge is the prime example at the moment. Top in the rankings but risking to lose its RCVS accreditation.
As for distance, you go home in the holidays and even then unless you happen to be in an agricultural region you spend an awful lot of your holiday time doing EMS and as such away from home, so whilst if you live in Brighton going to Glasgow or Aber might seem far away, any of the other schools are a reasonable distance from most home addresses. The UK is not the US! ( Internationals might want to consider the ease of getting to an airport)
What do you mean by suitability? Do your qualifications match its minimum entry requirements is the most important question. If they don’t then don’t apply . There are 10 applicants per place and it’s a tick box operation. They don’t look beyond that.So with the possibility of being allowed to apply to only 4 schools, you don’t waste choices.
Similarly if you’re not Scottish or International you would be taking a huge risk applying to both Edinburgh and Glasgow. The quota of places allowed for RUK students is much smaller than the other categories so competition is even more intense. Try one if it’s your dream school, but 2 would be at your risk and peril.
If you’re an International applicant does the school have the necessary accreditation for you to be able to return home to work. It’s not easy to pass the NAVLE from a non accredited school, and the price is not the same either!
Tuition fees are an issue if you’re an International student, if not they’re the same across the board. However living costs are important. The RVC as a London university gives access to the higher maintenance loan but for every other school the allowance is lower with no difference being made between Northern and Southern schools. Rent in Bristol is often more expensive than Camden but the living allowance is thousands lower.
What you should be looking at is the selection methods and style of teaching. Is it Case based as at Bristol or spiral as at Liverpool. Is it tutorial and essay based as in Cambridge or project work in groups.
Do you like panel interviews as with Nottingham, on site MMI like UCLan , RVC, and HK or SAQ based as for Bristol, or even standardised MMI by computer interface as for Surrey and Liverpool.
Every year there are hundreds of applicants who get zero offers despite A* grades across the board. The best school is the one you get into and so you should be choosing based on your chances of getting an offer. If you then get several offers you can take other criteria into consideration.
(edited 12 months ago)
Original post
by Euapp
Those are probably the worst criteria you could use!!
Ranking for vet schools depends on research output which has no link to the undergraduate tuition given. Not wanting to kick a dog when it’s down, but Cambridge is the prime example at the moment. Top in the rankings but risking to lose its RCVS accreditation.
As for distance, you go home in the holidays and even then unless you happen to be in an agricultural region you spend an awful lot of your holiday time doing EMS and as such away from home, so whilst if you live in Brighton going to Glasgow or Aber might seem far away, any of the other schools are a reasonable distance from most home addresses. The UK is not the US! ( Internationals might want to consider the ease of getting to an airport)
What do you mean by suitability? Do your qualifications match its minimum entry requirements is the most important question. If they don’t then don’t apply . There are 10 applicants per place and it’s a tick box operation. They don’t look beyond that.So with the possibility of being allowed to apply to only 4 schools, you don’t waste choices.
Similarly if you’re not Scottish or International you would be taking a huge risk applying to both Edinburgh and Glasgow. The quota of places allowed for RUK students is much smaller than the other categories so competition is even more intense. Try one if it’s your dream school, but 2 would be at your risk and peril.
Tuition fees are an issue if you’re an International student, if not they’re the same across the board. However living costs are important. The RVC as a London university gives access to the higher maintenance loan but for every other school the allowance is lower with no difference being made between Northern and Southern schools. Rent in Bristol is often more expensive than Camden but the living allowance is thousands lower.
What you should be looking at is the selection methods and style of teaching. Is it Case based as at Bristol or spiral as at Liverpool. Is it tutorial and essay based as in Cambridge or project work in groups.
Do you like panel interviews as with Nottingham, on site MMI like UCLan , RVC, HK or SAQ based as for Bristol or even standardised MMI by computer interface as for Surrey and Liverpool.
Every year there are hundreds of applicants who get zero offers despite A* grades across the board. The best school is the one you get into and so when choosing a school to apply to you should be choosing based on your chances of getting an offer. If you then get several offers you can take other criteria into consideration.

PRSOM 😊

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