Ted Cutting
Independent school,
Warwickshire
Fifth-year student, doing
clinical veterinary medicine
The College: With so little to choose between Cambridge colleges
(except the Grad colleges and Women's colleges of course) I should
really have visited the city to get a feel of what each college
was like. I didn't do this, read the prospectus and chose Clare
because I thought it had roughly equal numbers of art and science
students, girls and boys, musicians and sportsmen, independent and
state school applicants. I wanted a varied atmosphere and to pursue
all my interests, both musical and sporting. I was lucky because
this is exactly what Clare offers. The bar is brilliant (I'm the
bar manager this year!), the Formal Halls are fun and a cheap way
to eat well, the staff are friendly (except the porters, but that's
their job!) and many of the fellows are the pride of Cambridge.
The social life at Clare is vibrant and frenetic and it takes the
whole holiday to recover from eight frantic weeks. I play football
and hockey for the college (hockey is more successful - first division
survival this year). I play the piano in the music rooms. I have
been involved in the May Ball. There are many ways to involve yourself
in college life at Clare and many ways to enjoy relaxing and doing
nothing (in between all the work of course.)
The Course: I'm glad I chose to do Veterinary Medicine but I'm still
not sure I definitely want to be a vet. I know that everyone finds
it hard to choose what course they do and I was no different. However,
I thought that a vocational degree was the way to go because at
least I'd probably have a job at the end of it! I have never been
one hundred percent sure what I will end up doing as a job/career
and four years in Cambridge hasn't changed that. Who knows what
opportunities will present themselves and though I have had to narrow
my options by choosing a course, I'm still open-minded about what
I will do to pay back my student loan! I chose to do Veterinary
Medicine because I found myself drawn to science more than art subjects
at school (only just though!) I wanted to work closely with others,
both colleagues and clients (as clichéd as it sounds) and
I wanted to earn enough money to be comfortable (I've since discovered
that vets don't have a great deal of spare time to enjoy money and
don't actually earn all that much either... never mind!) Perhaps
surprisingly, my interest in animals wasn't the over-riding reason
for my choice. People that say they want to be vets because they
love animals perhaps will not enjoy dissection and making difficult
decisions about welfare. A concern for animals is obviously a pre-requisite
but over-sentimentality can certainly get in the way.
The University: I chose Cambridge because of the opportunity to
broaden your study in the third year. In the first two years you
complete a Part I in MVST (Medical and Veterinary Sciences Tripos).
In the third year you have to choose a subject to study for a year
and this NEEDN'T BE A SCIENCE. I studied Classics last year (having
done Latin A level and attended a beginners' Greek course in the
summer) and my two fellow vets at Clare studied Music and Geography.
I can't emphasize enough how much I enjoyed my 'year out' from Veterinary
Medicine. I could develop my interest in classics at one of the
best faculties in the world and felt refreshed upon my return to
the vet world in fourth year (even if quite a lot of anatomy has
been replaced by Tacitus!) Most vets choose to study a NST (Natural
Sciences Tripos) subject in third year. However, I think that the
opportunity to branch out into other subjects and especially the
arts is too good to miss!
The workload is tough in the first couple of years and in fourth
year. There is a lot to remember and unless the citric acid cycle,
complement fixation testing and the life-cycle of the flea give
you a thrill of excitement (fair enough if they do) you will find
revision a bit tiresome. However, life as a vet student more than
makes up for all the hard work. Vets have a great reputation as
fun-loving, hard-working, sociable people and this is entirely warranted!
Some vets are absorbed into vet life at the exclusion of all else.
Some retain strong ties with college and maintain friendships all
over the place. Some distance themselves from other vets and hang
around with arty students, enjoying debates that have no wrong or
right answers, as opposed to the questions posed by anatomy textbooks.
Whichever type of vet student you become, Clare College is the best
place to be. |
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