Hi Reading Mum
My dd has just started as a first year vet student at RVC and is absolutely loving it so good luck to your dd through the process. If I may offer a couple of tips ... make sure she has a back up plan whether it be to take a gap year by boosting her application and reapplying or to divert to something else and try to enter vet med as a graduate. My dd, despite 22 weeks' very varied work experience and 3 uni interviews out of 3 (Bristol doesn't do interviews), she only had the one offer in the end. Interestingly, 5 out of 7 of them in her flat didn't get in to vet med and are doing bio-veterinary science with the aim of applying to vet med as a graduate. When they say it is tough to get into, they mean it and all the unis have different written forms to fill out, work experience requirements and different ways of interviewing. Many veering towards computer tests, group tasks or multi mini interviews (like speed dating) all of which can be difficult to prepare for and is a learning experience in itself.
My dd also had Bristol as number one spot up to a year prior to application. They have a great farm centre on their site and many other good facilities. Something to consider though, is that last year was the first I believe that they didn't interview vet students (despite still interviewing vet nursing and medicine) and they also dropped their work experience requirements down to 2 weeks, from 8 weeks. I believe these requirements still apply again this year. I know that the previous year (when they had 8 weeks) was when A level results were lower than expected and so you wonder if their high criteria created issues when results came out. However, they seem to have gone very much the other way. They were also so inundated with applications that UCAS had to intervene on their offer timetable to chivvy them up as they were way behind. It makes you wonder about the applicants and whether this could have a detrimental effect when they eventually graduate and try and find employment. One further point to consider about Bristol is in the Complete University Guide graduate survey, they have consistently ranked 7th place (out of all 7 UK schools with graduates) every year except one, since 2013. I know league tables aren't the 'be all' and it will be your daughter's decision ultimately to what feels right for her. That was the approach we took also, but this was certainly interesting to note in the bigger picture.
So good luck again and hope you found some of this useful. If not, apologies for being presumptuous!
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