This requirement is to help prospective students decide on a career in Veterinary Medicine and to provide additional knowledge of the career and the profession and what daily life as a vet entails. It is also to provide prospective students with some animal handling and husbandry knowledge and skills that will prepare them for their veterinary studies.
FAQ
Undergraduate Admissions Criteria:
UCD Veterinary Medicine DN300
Undergraduate students applying through the CAO system will be required to demonstrate that they have acquired at least 30 hours practical experience relevant to animal handling between 1 February 2020 and 6 July 2023. For full details and to complete your record of experience please visit: www.ucd.ie/registry/
Frequently Asked Questions
The requirement is for 1 week (or 30 hours) animal or veterinary experience. This experience should cover at least two of the following four species areas:
1. Pets (dogs and cats)
2. Horses
3. Farm animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats)
4. Wildlife/zoo
No. The experience can be made up of shorter periods, but the entire experience should amount to 30 hours or 1 week.
You must apply via CAO for Veterinary Medicine DN300 by 1 May (or by change of mind up to 1 July).
You will receive an email from UCD following receipt of your application advising you of how to submit the information about your practical experience online. You will need to upload a signed practical experience form for each placement. The closing date for submitting the details of your animal/veterinary experience will be 6 July 2023 at 5 pm. A PDF version is also available.
The only details you will need to provide are the name of the premises, the number of hours experience, the animal category, and contact details for the responsible person who will verify your experience and upload a signed practical experience form for each placement. A PDF version is also available.
For experience to be considered it must have been completed before the closing date of 6 July 2023.
Only practical experience undertaken between 1 February 2020 and 6 July 2023 will be taken in to consideration.
The responsible person who can verify your experience will be the owner or manager of the animal premises or the veterinary practitioner with whom you worked. The responsible person cannot be a parent/guardian.
A sub-committee of the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine admissions committee will review the forms and decide whether the application passes or fails to meet the criteria.
Applicants will need to provide the name, telephone number and email address of the responsible person on the premises where they are undertaking the experience and checks will be done on all applications to verify the accuracy of the details recorded.
The UCD School of Veterinary Medicine will verify each application by contacting the persons listed on the application form. Experience that cannot be verified will not be accepted.
Experience gained from 1 February three years prior to application will qualify; e.g. applicants for 2023 can include experience from 1 February 2020
Not necessarily. Your 30 hours experience must include a minimum of 5 hours experience with two of the following four categories of animals:
- Pets (e.g. dogs and cats)
- Horses
- Farm animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats)
- Wildlife/zoo
Yes, as long as it can be verified, see numbers 9 and 10 above.
No. It will be a simple pass or fail to meet the requirements
The School hosts a Summer School for a small group of prospective applicants. This is a day long programme which covers 5 hours of the requirements .
Completing the Summer School will count for 5 hours of the required experience, but will not confer any higher ranking on you, or secure you a place on the Veterinary Medicine programme. You will still be required to complete another 25 hours of experience to meet the requirements for entry.
If you complete this, you will be given a certificate of attendance which you can upload to show this experience.
Yes, but it must be signed off by the appropriate module coordinator and cover the handling, husbandry or veterinary practice requirements.
The UCD Admissions Office or the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine Programme Office.
There will be an automatic notification of receipt. If you think you have submitted your form but don't receive a receipt within 24 hours, please contact UCD Registry Admissions.
No. Forms will only be reviewed once.
Not all practical experience will be approved before offers issue. If your experience has been received you will be considered in competition with other applicants on the basis of your school-leaving results (and in accordance with CAO procedure).
Any experience not already verified will be checked following the CAO offer. In the event that it cannot be verified, regretfully, we will have to rescind the offer.
No - handling pets with which you are familiar is not sufficient experience. There must be some external supervision.
Yes but only if it was externally supervised. Your parent/guardian cannot be the person who signs your practical experience form. A PDF version is also available.
No. There must be some external supervision.