How to Apply

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)

Applications to Veterinary Medicine need to be submitted earlier compared to other undergraduate courses in the UK.

You can choose up to four Veterinary Medicine degrees as part of your application but we strongly recommend using your fifth choice as well, although this must be for a non-veterinary programme.

Please clearly state on your UCAS application the subjects and grades you have achieved to date and those which are outstanding. You will also need to submit an academic reference, which should include any outstanding predicted grades. Without this information, your application will be regarded as incomplete and will not be considered.

Guidelines for Academic Referees

Your personal statement should describe your relevant practical experience and its duration. Your personal statement should also give us an idea of your skills, achievements, motivation and hobbies, which are important factors when assessing your application. 

The use of AI software, such as ChatGPT, to write personal statements for your application will be considered cheating and will be flagged by the application system. Therefore, whilst you may be able to use AI software to help start and structure your personal statement, we strongly advise you to write your own to ensure it is personal to you. UCAS have provided a guide on the use of AI and ChatGPT.

UCAS: A guide to using AI and ChatGPT with your personal statement

An academic reference is also required and your referee can include any details that exceeded the personal statement character limit (4000 characters). 

Following submission of your UCAS application, you will receive access to the University of Edinburgh's MyEd Portal. You will receive email instructions for how to log in. 

MyEd: help logging in

All candidates applying via UCAS are required to submit a Work Experience Summary form (WES) by 22 October. The form does not have a character limit (in contrast to the UCAS personal statement) and you can include details of your duties and responsibilities for each experience listed. 

You should gain as much and as varied practical work experience as possible, which could include time spent in:

• Veterinary practice - both large and small animal if possible;
• Livestock farms - dairying and lambing are particularly useful;
• Other animal establishments, such as zoos, kennels, catteries, wildlife centres, pig farms, poultry farms and stables;
• A day at an abattoir is recommended but not demanded

We encourage experience gained in veterinary or medical laboratories to help you appreciate the scientific basis of veterinary medicine.

We do not ask for specific types or the number of days/weeks required for work experience as it depends, to some extent, on the opportunities available to individual candidates.

The broader the experience the better, but you should not gain experience to the detriment of your academic studies.

To complete your application with the University of Edinburgh, you should then submit a Work Experience Summary (WES) Form and upload it to your MyEd portal by 22 October. Applications submitted without a WES will be considered incomplete.

References in support of work experience undertaken are not required. A conditional offer may include evidence of relevant experience as a pre-condition for entry to the course.

After submitting the Form online, you will receive a copy via email. You will need to upload this to your MyEd portal. You will have access to MyEd following submission of your UCAS application. 

Work Experience Summary Form

How to upload your WES to your MyEd portal

Veterinary Medical Colleges Admissions System (VMCAS)

We do not require a GRE score as part of the application and we do not require any supplemental documents or applications. 

We will take your Veterinary and Animal Experience into account to assess your work experience. References in support of work experience undertaken are not required. A conditional offer may include evidence of relevant experience as a pre-condition for entry to the course.

Although you can add more, we require at least one academic letter of recommendation from your most recent place of study. Please make sure this is added to the Evaluations section of your application.