Medicine, Veterinary Science & Dentistry (MedVetDent) at Varndean Sixth Form College
Varndean Sixth Form College provides an extensive range of support and opportunities for students who wish to pursue careers in Medicine, Veterinary Science or Dentistry. At their interview, students will have the opportunity to discuss the additional programmes and activities available to them.
Varndean is an excellent choice if you aspire to study Medicine, Veterinary Science or Dentistry at university. Our specialist MedVetDent Programme gives students bespoke one-to-one and group support, from the beginning of your Varndean journey through to your first day at university. You will:
- work with specialist tutors and like-minded peers, and be able to take full advantage of our links with universities.
- take part in practice interviews with the admissions team from Brighton & Sussex Medical School, as well as former Varndean medical and veterinary students.
- meet regularly to discuss common issues, eg your personal statement, work experience.
- receive notification of local and national events, such as conferences and workshops, which will help you prepare with applying for medical courses.
- attend talks by external speakers.
- receive advice about arranging work experience and volunteering in your chosen career.
- receive support with writing personal statements for UCAS applications.
- receive advice on how to keep up to date with current medical/veterinary/dental ethics issues.
In addition to this, at Varndean we also offer Clinical Case History Workshops for aspiring medical students. Click here for more information about these workshops
Vinuji Jayasekera
Studied: Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, EPQ
Progression: Medicine, Imperial College London
“As a college leaver, when I reminisce about my time at Varndean, the MedVetDent programme, co-ordinated by Emma-Jayne Hanner, clearly stands out as a highlight. Providing us with vital information about the complex medical school application process and taking our hand to guide us through it; encouraging us to take part in the Oxford Ethics Competition; helping with our personal statements; motivating us to attend insightful lectures presented by doctors at the forefront of their fields; and offering us mock interviews are a few examples of the vast amount of support that Emma kindly offered me and all my peers through the MedVetDent programme.
Furthermore, I specially would like to add that I really appreciate the support I received from Varndean and Emma as a gap year applicant. I applied to Imperial College London, King’s College London, Barts Medical School and Newcastle and I’m grateful for the fact that I now have received 4/4 offers to study medicine from all the above Russell group Universities. I would have never accomplished this if not for Emma and her amazing support and mentorship. Thank you Emma for always believing in me and I can’t wait to start medical school in September at Imperial College London! Thank you once again!”
Additional activities are provided both within the normal curriculum and beyond.
- Our Chemistry students take part in the RSC’s annual Chemistry Olympiad each year and always finish with an impressive list of awards.
- Students also take part in the RSC’s Annual Analytical Competition and reach the National Final.
- Year One Chemistry students undertake the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge every June and always achieve Gold medals
- In Biology, students recently won Gold Crest Awards and compete in the British Biology Olympiad winning silver.
- All Chemistry students attend the annual Varndean Sixth Form College Chemistry Conference at the University of Brighton. We have presentations ranging from talks on drugs to medical advances to energetics and the enigmatic 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
- Students have competed and reached the finals in the University of Reading’s ‘Heroines in Science’ competition, as well as the University of Oxford’s Practical Ethics and Responsibility competition.
- In 2022, one of our students came fourth in the national RSC/QMUL I&D ‘Chemists Across the Continents’ poster competition.