What are your chances of being accepted into direct entry medicine in Australia? Is your course preference plan setting you up for success?

Take the quiz to find out.

Quiz context

You’ve decided you want to apply for medicine in Australia.

1. You know you need to have the right prerequisite subjects and the necessary grades to get in,

2. You’ve got your preparations in place for associated medicine requirements - such as UCAT, ISAT, GAMSAT, MCAT, interviews etc

3. And you’ve worked out your preferred universities/medicine programs where you want to study medicine

4. Next step is you apply for the medical schools you’ve identified.

The applying to medical school bit - your Plan A and Plan B

In deciding your preferred university/medicine programs, you’re likely to work through a process something like this:

• you do your homework and understand high school direct entry medicine programs (undergraduate medicine) and the graduate entry ones,

• you think through the medical schools you want to apply for - likely you have a number of preferred medical schools on your list (Plan A options),

• you know it’s competitive to get in so you hedge your bets and identify a number of additional medical schools that might next suit. Depending upon your confidence you may also have in mind other degrees worth applying for (your Plan B options),

• and then check the specific application requirements for each degree you’ve identified.

All good so far.

But how likely is it you’ll get in?

Take the quiz to see how well prepared you are

Test whether your Plan A and Plan B options are robust and sufficient to maximise your chance of being accepted into medical school.

What’s next?

1. Do you need to add more degrees into your course preference plan - your Plan A and/or Plan B strategies?

If this is the case Study Medicine can assist. Study Medicine provides detailed information about all 59 Australian university degrees that lead to medicine (access Study Medicine here).

2. work through the quiz’s detailed references and statistics

University provided information on total applicants for their medical school and their offer rates.

Information on the total number of applicants who are seeking a place at each medical school is provided by very few universities. The universities that have provided 2020 entrance information for undergraduate medicine (with links to source information) include:

University of New South Wales: 3500 applicants for 189 places (5.4%)

Curtin University: 2000 applicants for 90 places (4.5%)

University of Newcastle/University of New England: 3500 applicants for 170 places (4.9%)

This information indicates your chance of being offered a place is approximately 1 in 20 (5%) of all applicants who apply to that university’s medical school.

Number of medical school places and student cohorts

Information provided by the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand Student Statistics Report: 2019 – 2020, provides insights into the number and types of places in medical schools in Australia.

Note: Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand information does provide details for the number of applicants who are competing for medical school places:

• there were 3845 students who commenced at Australian medical schools (undergraduate and graduate medicine) in 2020. There are 3903 projected commencements for 2021

• of the 3845 students who commenced in 2020,

  • 3217 (84%) were domestic students and 628 (16%) international,

  • domestic students include 121 Indigenous students,

  • 2033 (53%) were non-bonded Commonwealth Supported Places (CSPs),

  • 854 (22%) bonded CSPs,

  • 21 (1%) Northern Territory Medicine Program places,

  • 308 (8%) domestic Full Fee Paying places,

  • 628 (16%) international Full Fee Paying places

• 51.3% of all commencing students were female. Females represented:

  • 1049 (52%) of non-bonded CSPs,

  • 416 (49%) bonded CSPs,

  • 15 (71%) Northern Territory Medicine Program places,

  • 168 (55%) domestic Full Fee Paying places and

  • 305 (49%) international Full Fee Paying places.

Total Australian medical school offer rates

There is very limited information about the number of applicants for any given medical school. Information provided by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment does, however, give total applicants and total offers for all Australian undergraduate Commonwealth Supported Places for medicine (defined as medical studies - including general medicine, surgery, psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, anaesthesiology, pathology, radiology, internal medicine, general practice, medical studies). In 2019, there were:

• Applications: 6362

• Offers: 2096

• Acceptances: 1665

• Offer rate: 32.9%

Compared to information provided by individual universities, the overall undergraduate medicine offer rate increases from approximately 5% to 32.9%. There were 6362 applications in total for all undergraduate medicine places in 2019 as compared to for example UNSW that received 3500 applications in 2020 (ie for a single medicine program). In other words, your chances would go up to a 1 in 3 chance to be accepted into undergraduate medicine if you were able to apply for all undergraduate medicine places. Like all things, the devil is in the detail with offer rates varying for different applicant cohorts. Broadly offer rates for medical studies in 2019 were:

• similar across SES applicant types,

• higher for non-metropolitan applicants (42%), compared with metropolitan applicants (31.7%), and

• higher for Indigenous versus non-Indigenous applicants

Historic trend information for medical studies as compared to other fields of educations most recently was provided in Undergraduate Applications, Offers and Acceptances 2018 Appendices.

In summary, medicine is the most competitive degree to secure an undergraduate CSP place.

Overall, applicants have a 1 in 3 chance to be accepted into medicine on the basis that each applicant is able to apply for all undergraduate places. As this is not the case, individual university application information, confirms places are highly contested with applicants having a 1 in 20 chance of gaining a place.

How Study Medicine can help

In thinking about your Plan A and Plan B options, additional information (at no charge) can be found in Study Medicine including the 10 Step Application Guide and FAQ and AMA sections.

You can also subscribe to Study Medicine to access detailed information on all available degrees in Australia that lead to medicine.

Join the Study Medicine Mailing List (there is no charge) to receive updates on monthly university medical school offers, interviews and deadline information.

AN IMPORTANT QUALIFICATION

Study Medicine information has been compiled from Australian university and other reputable public information sources and therefore is a guide. Authoritative information is provided by the university only. Make sure you obtain information directly from the university before making any decisions. 

The above information is intended to help you understand common medical degree application terms. Remember, information can always change, so ensure you keep up to date by regularly checking directly with the appropriate university.