Taking a gap year

[mollykins]

If you take a gap year, doing something relevant to the uni course you wanted to go on but didn't make it on to, and also the job you want to get are you more likely to get onto the course the next year?

My friend (who got 4 As at a-level) is wondering if they should go and do stuff relevant to what they want to do or give up and find a different path to follow in life. He wants to be a vet and has good relevant a-levels and there aren't any apprentice places.

Ps, they're finding info from as many sources as to what they should do.

[dotty.]

How on earth did they not et onto the uni course with 4 As at A level, don't the uni give them the offer on predicted grades?

[mollykins]

i think if they had been more realsitic and gone for less prostigous unis then they might have got in.

[mollykins]

You know what I mean, they applied to all the top unis that now want something rediculous like 5 a*s.

[pastafreak]

There may not be many related jobs...but maybe voluntary work in vets practices or zoos?
I would think that UNI places for veterinary training would be over-subscribed.

[saxy_jag]

I don't think it even needs to be that closely related to the course, Molly. A year out there in the real world is beneficial in so many other ways. It can focus the mind, showing you much more clearly what you want to be doing after uni. That can make you think again about the course you're planning to do and whether you want to change your mind. You will also learn so much more about responsibility and independence, and you will head off to university with, hopefully, a much more mature attitude to life and study.

Perhaps your friend can find some animal-related work or voluntary service for a year, not necessarily with a vet. He may find that rather than becoming a vet, there's an animal route he'd never thought of before and which perhaps appeals more.

It's also a year's life experience that other candidates won't have!

[mollykins]

The real-world experience is one bonus he thought about that he'd have over next years candidates.

[tamborine]

Your friend could consider livestock - seems a shortage of vets for them. Apply to DEFRA.

[buildersmate]

I don't believe that 12 months work experience in an animal-related environment will assist in getting into the same vet undergraduate course as this year, using the same grades obtained this year.
Vet courses are more difficult to get onto than just about anything else except perhaps PPE at Oxbridge.
With 4 A's at A-level it may be possible at a lesser Uni.
This sort of thing is a possibility.
http://www.nottingham...eterinaryscience.aspx

[boxtops]

If he has applied to UCAS they will do their best to find him a related course but it might not be the Uni he wants. I heard a lot of Dutch universities and further afield are hoping to recruit UK A level students - University of Nottingham has a campus in somewhere like Shanghai.

[mollykins]

he only applied to the very best unis and now, there isn't even spaces in the average unis, which he might have got into if he applied to them in the first place. But about going to a uni abroad, wouldn't he have to be able to speak their language and have a passport, of which I don't think he has either.

[saxy_jag]

The university I went to was a former polytechnic. I met quite a few people there for whom it had been the very last choice, having come via the clearing process. Yet most of them said that if they had to go through the application process again then it would have been their first choice because they were enjoying the experience and the courses so much.

What some universities lack in prestige (BTW, Molly, the word you were looking for earlier was 'prestigious') they more than make up for in quality of teaching and student experience. Tell your friend that now he has time to look around, there could well be some academic bargains out there.

[mollykins]

Saxy, he couldn't find any clearing places for vet courses of any kind. Thats the word I meant.

[saxy_jag]

Sorry Molly, maybe I didn't explain properly. If your friend takes a gap year and then applies next year for one or more of the less prestigious universities as his top choices, he might have more chance of getting in there than some of the top ones. Even though they mightn't carry the prestige of the top ones, they could still be excellent places to study.

Which I think is what you said at the top of this thread.

[Eve]

Just had a google and found this which has some useful advice...

http://www.liv.ac.uk/vets/study/note.htm

[mollykins]

I've emailed the link and passed on some of your comments, thanks.