ask a vet student about Bristol Vet school

[uobvetstudent]

HEY!



I thought I would post this on here about my experience so far being a student at Bristol Vet school in the UK 


I did my undergrad and grad degrees at UoG and was very much wanting to go to OVC until I found the UoB program. This is my first year at UoB and since there isn't much info out there about this school or the AGEP program I thought I would start this thread to see if anyone had any questions about the program or school.



Here is some really quick info about why this program is unique;



I am in the AGEP program, which is short for Accelerated Graduate Entry Program, the school also has a 5 year program for people right out of high school. The AGEP program is just for people that have an undergraduate or graduate degree, and the program is 4 years long. There are several people in my year ranging from 21-40 years old. There are 47 people in my class, and we are very very hands on! In the 8 weeks I have been in school we have done several dissections, lots of live animal handling, and more. We also do a lot of group work and each week we have a case study that we do with our assigned lab groups (similar to how ovc has lab groups). These cases reflect on what we have been learning in the current unit. For example, right now we are doing cardiorespiratory system (this would be our current unit), our cases for this unit have been calves with pneumonia, a horse having issues with the soft palate, and a dog with heart failure. Our classes also reflect this, so in housing we will look at how housing can lead to pneumonia in calves. Its really nice as the program has been designed so that all the courses reflect on the same topic.



I truthfully have no idea what my grades were like to get in, but they were good enough to be competitive for OVC. THAT BEING SAID, the program and admissions is more focused on your experience and how you work in groups. NOT YOUR GRADES!!! If you hit a set grade limit then they will send you a form to fill out about your experience in and around the vet/ animal world. Based of that form (NOT THE GRADES) they send interview invites.



I did my interview in February and offers went out in April. I can't give details about the interview and with COVID I’m sure how they do them will be changing. But I did find it similar to the OVC virtual interview format with something's added in.



If anyone has ANY questions about the program or admissions I will do my best to help or answer them 😊 I know the OVC struggle well and I just want to say be open to other schools! I am SO happy I looked elsewhere!

[hopefulvet33]

I was accepted to Bristol a few weeks ago and have been wondering what kind of experience it provides for international students so this was extremely helpful, thank you for sharing! Just wondering how you’ve found it as far as meeting people in your program as well as how it was finding housing initially?

[uobvetstudent]

Jan 5, 2022 9:43:27 GMT -5 hopefulvet33 said:

I was accepted to Bristol a few weeks ago and have been wondering what kind of experience it provides for international students so this was extremely helpful, thank you for sharing! Just wondering how you’ve found it as far as meeting people in your program as well as how it was finding housing initially?

Firstly, CONGRATULATIONS on getting into VET SCHOOL!!


Meeting people hasn't been an issue tbh. We have a lot of in person sessions and even though we are in our lab groups a lot, the school does put different groups together. So if you aren’t a massive fan of your group members you can and are able to meet other people in the program. At the start of school, my year did a lot of pub trips (I know very British 😅) to get to know different people throughout our class as we as an escape room. We also have a WhatsApp group chat that everyone is a member of, which helped at the start of term. I have found the British to be very social, so you sorta just get drawn into that and find the group that is your speed. The people that live in Bristol and commute into campus on the bus get to know the bus ppl as well.


Also don't worry about the social life cutting into school work! The vet college makes it VERY clear you are only supposed to spend 40hours a week on school (which includes study time) and they have very much gone out of their way to make sure we have weekends off!!! They are trying really hard to teach us work life balance and are creating an environment for us to achieve that.


Not going to lie housing was a bit of a nightmare. You have to be physically in the country for an agent to work with you, which during a pandemic... Made life difficult... I also have pets, so it took me longer to find a place then someone without animals. What I did and what helped me meet people was stay in short term accommodations at the Langford campus till I found a place then my animals flew over. First year AGEP students starts a couple weeks before everyone else. So my classmates that decided to stay in Rez in Bristol also stayed in the short term accommodations for two weeks before they moved into Rez in the city ( highly recommend doing this!). It really helped with meeting people and was not horribly expensive ether, plus the rooms are all singles. That all being said, I started looking for housing in July.... Leaving it rather late probably didn't help me and I also missed people trying to fill rooms in houses as they start looking now ish. It looks like the school did interviews and offers a lot sooner this year, which is a MASSIVE help for you. I would suggest getting added to the "BVSc AGEP at Bristol" Facebook group and posting on there that you are looking for housing. People will also post about filling rooms in houses in that group so it's a good place to start. If they wont let you in just yet, maybe ask if they can put you in touch with the other Canadians in the school, we can help you 😉


If you have any other questions post on here or the Facebook group and I would be happy to chat/help! 😊


Again, CONGRATULATIONS on getting in Bristol!!

[L99]

Hi!
Thanks for posting this I have found it really helpful! I have received an offer for the AGEP course in September!
I am really looking forward to starting the course - can I ask what the timetable is like please? I will be commuting so looking at the timetable would be so useful

[LittleMsDesperate]

Hi!
I am honestly so happy to see I'm not the only one looking at Bristol's direction! I've had my eyes on UoB for quite a while now and I'm wondering if I will have a chance there. I've looked through all of UK's vet schools but Bristol seems like the best choice. Out of curiosity...i assume you applied as an international student, correct?