Applying to UK Vet Schools from the US

[mas185]

haha well, in my opinion, we spend A LOT of time on farm animals In your first year the spring semester is pretty much dominated by food animals in the nutrition, food animal systems, and reproduction modules. Then in your third year there are two semesters of public health which is basically more food animal stuff for an entire year, plus a separate herd health module, and cattle reproduction gets its own semester, while everything else is in lumped together in the second semester, etc. Also the large animal research that goes on at UCD is at the forefront of their fields ... the clinicians especially when you're on the rotations down in the hospital are amazing. I guess I called it obsessive because I'm a small animal person and it felt like a lot to me (not that I didn't enjoy it, I totally did! but Ireland is an agriculturally based country so they do emphasize it in their curriculum, which is a good thing). This is the website that describes the classes if you want more info on what I'm talking about:
https://sisweb.ucd.ie/usis/w_sm_web...ode=201300&p_cao_code=DN301&p_major_code=VTS3

I don't think the tuition has changed, I've paid €33,500/year since the beginning (that's for the 4 year program, I believe the 5 year program is like €28,200) and I'm pretty sure that's still the going rate

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[Pickle Juice]

haha well, in my opinion, we spend A LOT of time on farm animals In your first year the spring semester is pretty much dominated by food animals in the nutrition, food animal systems, and reproduction modules. Then in your third year there are two semesters of public health which is basically more food animal stuff for an entire year, plus a separate herd health module, and cattle reproduction gets its own semester, while everything else is in lumped together in the second semester, etc. Also the large animal research that goes on at UCD is at the forefront of their fields ... the clinicians especially when you're on the rotations down in the hospital are amazing. I guess I called it obsessive because I'm a small animal person and it felt like a lot to me (not that I didn't enjoy it, I totally did! but Ireland is an agriculturally based country so they do emphasize it in their curriculum, which is a good thing). This is the website that describes the classes if you want more info on what I'm talking about:
https://sisweb.ucd.ie/usis/w_sm_web...ode=201300&p_cao_code=DN301&p_major_code=VTS3

I don't think the tuition has changed, I've paid €33,500/year since the beginning (that's for the 4 year program, I believe the 5 year program is like €28,200) and I'm pretty sure that's still the going rate

So do you feel like you still got enough small animal experience?

Also for anyone in Scotland or Dublin I'm trying to convince my parents that the going to one of these schools would cost around the same as an out of state school. Is that correct? How much more is the cost of living overseas compared to the US?

 

[Cyndia]

Also for anyone in Scotland or Dublin I'm trying to convince my parents that the going to one of these schools would cost around the same as an out of state school. Is that correct? How much more is the cost of living overseas compared to the US?

Well the good news is that at the current exchange rate, UCD's tuition is nearly the exact same as the one OOS school I was considering (UF, ~$45000). As for cost of living in Dublin, it really depends which school you're comparing it to... It's going to be more expensive simply because it is near a city versus being out in the middle of nowhere like most US vet schools, but I personally don't find it too bad. I did move here from London though, so everything seems so insanely cheaper than there haha.

 

[mas185]

So do you feel like you still got enough small animal experience?

Also for anyone in Scotland or Dublin I'm trying to convince my parents that the going to one of these schools would cost around the same as an out of state school. Is that correct? How much more is the cost of living overseas compared to the US?

Small animal experience - yes definitely! We get loads!!! I do wish we had a few more specialty/specific small animal lectures though on stuff like oncology, nutrition, emergency med etc. we get some but there's so much to cover these days, more would have been nice (but that's pretty standard in vet school 4 years is no where near enough time to cover everything you'd want to know! ;0) I do think they're trying to add some more lectures in now though that they've overhauled our "special topics" module ... overall I think they cover everything pretty well. I think the large just felt like a lot to me because 1) it's not what I want to do and 2) it's so important to everyday life in Ireland haha.

Dublin worked out to be cheaper for me to go to than any of the schools I got into in the US but I'm from NJ so I have no in-state, grew up around NYC and went to college in Boston so living costs in Dublin really don't phase me in the least. Is it cheap? NOPE! Is it comparable to going to say Tufts or UPenn cost wise - absolutely. Tuition at Dublin is 33.5k euro so ~$43.5k. The cost of living is what you make of it, I try to live pretty cheaply so my rent is 425 so say ~$600/month? I can give you some basic numbers like a pint of milk etc. if you want them ... The only real added expense compared to an OOSS in the US is airfare depending on how far from home you are and how often you fly back and forth it can add 1-2k per year but if you were from NJ and going to school in California it'd be the same 3,000 mile flight so honestly there's not a big difference between a lot of schools in the US. (I mean there is no way it's going to be better than a rural in-state school with super low tuition and living costs, but it's not much different from any of the high-end out of state tuitions in cities with high costs of living ... plus these schools comes with perks!! i.e. being in europe -> traveling abroad (awesome), having a degree that allows you to practice in the UK, Ireland, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand etc. when you graduate (also very awesome), AVMA accredited so no extra hoops to jump through for this privilege, I can go on for hours if you really want some more ammunition for your parents hahaha