[Marches Farmer]

One of my children wants to be a farm animal vet (choose a cheap option, why don't you?)   Visited most of the schools (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool in a three-day whistle-stop tour was such fun).  Any experience or other relevant info that's not mentioned in the University prospectus would be most gratefully received.

[verdifish]

Avoid London and cambridge if farm vet is the desire as they do very little farm work . But apply for all of them as that all have different entry criteria / interviews ! Has she/ he been seeing any practice and helping out around animals on a voluntary basis ? If not get them started !

[Backinwellies]

Think how much you will save in the future having a vet on tap!!!    The competition will be fierce so yes any work experience and voluntary stuff could swing the balance (and give something to put in personal statement)

[bloomer]

We have been advised for our eldest son that relevant work experience will be a big help in the process, obviously good grades will matter as well, thankfully we have a few years yet before its actual application time...

[lord flynn]

lots of work experience, lots of practical experience. I work with a lot of vets (we let them help us with the science ) and the best LA vet I know is a Cambridge grad-did his PhD with us and he's now back in practice with a major university, a very clever and very pragmatic chap. Even when in vet school, its what you make of it and there are other advantages to going to Cambridge.
I don't know how old your kid is but work experience with vets, in research institutes and even something like a game reserve is all good.They need to have a very clear idea of where they are going-we are producing more and more vets per annum and there aren't necessarily enough jobs for all new grads (although LA isn't so well subscribed as SA and equine).

[Daisys Mum]

A friends son has just failed to get in after doing as much work experience as physically possible, one thing that he was told was that there is a shortage of vets specialising in Exotic  animals so some Zoo experience might be a good thing!

[Quirkygirl]

My step daughter wants to do the same thing..   She is doing a animal management level 3 at the moment. She starts her second year in September, so will be interested on the information and advice given

[mowhaugh]

Probably seen this already, but if not, very useful:

https://www.rcvs.org.uk/document-library/admissions-requirements/

[verdifish]

Ps , there's no such thing as a farm vet ,its LA or large animal , and the current top school for LA is reputed to be Nottingham and its no wonder as they poached all of the LA lecturers from the RVC .

[Womble]

This coursera course could be a good place to start  .

[pgkevet]

What the child may want to do now and what they may want to do by the time they finish the course is entirely uknowable and may well change again after a little time in the profession. There's more than LA or SA or mixed practice..specialities from dermatology through pathology and zoo work or even research.

Back in my day i started out as wanting to be a cutter and reality there is that LA surgery is economics driven and limited unless you manage to get a rep for rare breed stuff whereas SA work allowed me to get stuck in to all sorts fancy areas from eyes to spines but even then unless you end up specialised you end up as a jack or all trades and rarely a master. The more modern gadgets of ultrasound, endoscopy, digital radiography and MRI and DNA studies have opened up medicine and in some ways surgery should be viewed as a failure of medicine. The flipside is that minimal invasion surgery is even more cool - laparoscopy, arthroscopy etc

Larger farmers will do their own routine stuff.. but back in my day vaccinating 1500 chickens or castrating 200 piglets or blood testing 500 cows was a serious yawnfest.

Choosing a school wasn't the issue..getting into any of them was.

[Marches Farmer]

Very interesting. She's got/getting loads of work experience - Small Breeds & Owl Centre, Vale WiIldlife Hospital, RVC Summer School, Notts. Uni. Vet Taster, Cotswold Farm Park, 2 SA vet practices, working with our sheep scanner ..... just about remember what she looks like.  Strengths and weaknesses of Unis. very interesting and, of course, Surrey is a complete unknown although in the process of building a completely new unit for vetmed. 

[nutterly_uts]

I know two recently qualified vets from Bristol who are ace - just the right amount of confidence to know their limits but plenty of knowledge they aren't afraid to use either.

[farmvet]

Take a year out & work on a farm ideally living in. Do an agricultural correspondence course/ on line course over the year plus eg tractor licence. The student & attitude is more important than which uni especially as all the current staff will have changed by the time he/she reaches the clinical years. Don't rule out going abroad - it can be as good a course, cheaper & taught in English eg budapest

[Me]

All good choices.

Take note from every mention of vets on here and every other forum/pub/market that everyone knows more about animals and animal health than vets - your child will be no different sadly. Consider other careers as the pay, respect and working conditions will be far from what you imagine.