Veterinary nursing/medicine

Hannah_99c

Hi, I'm new on this so please forgive me if I posted this in the wrong place...
I did my leaving cert in June 2016 and didn't get enough points for veterinary nursing in UCD. My points didn't concern me at the time as I was going to do a level 5 and 6 in horsemanship near home and then go and do my last 2 years of a degree course in equine management in enniskillen. However, I've discovered that a career in horses might not be for me, though I do love horses and I will never give up riding horses. All my life I wanted to be a vet but I gave up on that halfway through secondary school as though I have good knowledge of animals and animal science, behaviour, etc, that's just not enough to get me the points I would need in my leaving cert as our education system has just never agreed with me. I've never been able to see myself doing anything other than working with animals and I keep coming back to wanting to be a vet! I wouldn't mind being a veterinary nurse either, however if there is a way for me to get into veterinary medicine, I will take it!
At the moment, I am halfway through my fetac level 5 course in horsemanship. I emailed UCD to find that they have no entry routes through fetac and the person that emailed me also told me that there are no mature student places in their veterinary medicine program.
I know there is an entry route through fetac into veterinary nursing in Athlone IT but that course is a level 7 so there would be no way I would be able to take the graduate entry route from that into UCD if they would accept veterinary nursing graduates, because UCD require a minimum level 8 to go in as a graduate.
Are there any accredited veterinary nursing level 8 degrees in Ireland that will accept fetac level 5 or 6 students??
I've also read that some people go over to Budapest into their veterinary medicine course through graduate entry with an entrance exam, does anyone know if I could apply to them and possibly be accepted with the level 7 in veterinary nursing, or if they will accept students who have done veterinary nursing??
Any help will be appreciated as I am honestly feeling lost right now!
Repeating the leaving cert is not an option for me as I still wouldn't do well in it unfortunately! I got an average amount of points and I'm afraid it wouldn't help me much to do it again, which would result in a waste of time and money.

Whistlejacket

If you wish to be a vet then I wouldn't recommend that you do vet nursing. They are completely different jobs and it's likely that you will just end up dissatisfied as it's still a very demanding job and the pay isn't great.

Furthermore, even if you do the level 8 in vet nursing at UCD it's not a suitable level 8 for entry onto the 4 year graduate course in veterinary medicine. To do vet med in four years you need to have a very strong science background so a degree in physiology or biochemistry for example would be far more useful to you both in applying as a graduate entrant and completing the course.

The vet nursing courses in UCD, AIT, DkIT and LyIT do have FETAC entry routes, generally from the level 5 course in Animal Care. However, every year hundreds of people apply for a handful of places so it is very competitive - you need to get distinctions in all your modules and then hope that you get a place via the CAO random selection process. St. Johns college in Cork have their own entry system for vet nursing, you could contact them directly to find out more about it.

If you do decide to study vet nursing (at either level 7 or 8) you could go on to do vet medicine in Eastern Europe. You would need to research this with the individual colleges involved but there are plenty of Irish students who head out there so the information is available. It's still tough though and a lot of students drop out as it's hard doing such an intense course in a different country/culture.

Bear in mind as well that if you didn't enjoy secondary school then having to learn off and then understand the huge volumes of science-based material that veterinary courses entail may not be something you enjoy either. I'm not trying to put you off but you have to understand what you are potentially letting yourself in for! Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

QCS123

Veterinary nursing does not lead in to veterinary medicine. They are quite different but this may be something you want to stick with. You could ask your local vet if you could spend two weeks there to see if you would like a nursing role or only want to be a veterinary surgeon.

As the above user has said, a science degree is really what you need to go into the graduate entry route. A lot have biology, physiology, biochemistry degrees but there are also some with animal and equine science degrees. There is even more competition for the grad entry route than the undergrad as there are fewer places and it tends to be dominated by Northern Americans. Therefore to gain entry you must have a very good degree with excellent grades, 2.2 honours degree + at level 8, and must also sit the GAMSAT which is quite difficult. From where you are now you may be able to get into some sort of biomedical/biology course and work your way up.

The easiest way by far to get in is to repeat the Leaving Cert and this is what many many people do, some even repeat it twice to get there. You may consider this again?

There are the European colleges such as Budapest which are easier to get in to. Bear in mind that veterinary medicine is heavy on the studying, books and there are things that you simply just have to learn off - if you found that secondary school was difficult then you may struggle with it. Though if it really is what you want to do then you will get through it.

Best of luck!

LSP

As others have said, vet nursing degree won't get you into the grad-entry vet course in UCD. I'm in the grad-entry vet course myself and did a Zoology degree at Trinity. There are only 3 other Irish in my grad-entry year, and their backgrounds are biochemistry, immunology and animal science - so you have examples of the degrees they accept, although they told me I was the first one with a Zoology degree to come into the grad class. There's nearly always a student or two from UCD animal or equine science that get into the grad-entry course, so those courses would be good option if you're aiming to do grad vet in the long run.
I'm sure you already know this but the fees for UCD grad-entry are phenomenal, and there is no loans you can get unless you get a parent to co-sign it. Basically 20,000 euro a year for 4 years. You also need a large amount of work experience, to do the GAMSAT exam, and there's also an interview, and again there are only roughly 5 places for Irish students in the grad-entry course each year. And once you're in the fun doesn't stop- it's a challenge academically for sure, but the work load is the toughest part. Even the smartest will have a tough time so you have to be academically strong as well as have the will and love for the profession to keep you going. I had a strong LC at 550 which wasn't enough to get in after school, did general science and zoology which would be fairly tough courses but the level of work in veterinary is something else, especially in the grad course as they squash two years into one your first year. My friends doing grad-entry human med and she says my course is worse for work load. Not trying to put you off but these are things they will want to make sure you are prepared for before you got in! I was drilled on questions on being able to keep up with it mentally and emotionally at my interview.
I would definitely encourage thinking about applying elsewhere as a back up, Budapest is an option as is Kosice in Slovakia - a classmate from my Zoology course is studying vet med there. You can email them about the specifics of their requirements. If you have a science degree you don't have to sit the entrance exam but without a level-8 degree you probably would have to sit their entrance exams which are basically the Leaving Cert science subjects over again, and with oral components from what I remember. They are cheaper to study there than UCD, but still expensive when compared to 'free' fees here, roughly 8-10 grand I think a year. RVC in London is also about 10 grand a year for their grad entry course but they are just as tough as UCD to get in to, probably even tougher with their work experience requirements.
Hope this helps!