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 56 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 entrance information for undergraduate medicine (follow links to the reference information) include:

University of New South Wales: 3500 applicants for 198 places (5.7%)

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

There are 20 medicine programs in Australia, offered by 27 Universities.

Information provided by the Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand Student Statistics Report: 2023, 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 4354 students who commenced at Australian medical schools (undergraduate and graduate medicine) in 2023.

  • of the 4354 students who commenced in 2023,

    • 3396 (78%) were domestic students and 958 (22%) international,

    • domestic students include 123 Indigenous students (note this figure is from 2022),

  • 53% of all commencing students were female.

Comparing the trend information, total commencements were up 4% from 2022 to 4354 in 2023

Of the total 2023 places:

  • there are 1843 approx undergraduate places and

  • 2511 approx graduate places

The percentage of undergraduate to graduate places has fallen from:

  • undergraduate/graduate 46%/54% in 2019 to

  • undergraduate/graduate 42%/58% in 2023.


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 (Undergraduate Applications, Offers and Acceptances 2021 Appendix - this is the most recent information) does, however, give total applications 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 2021, there were (including Qld TAC data):

2021a denotes including Qld TAC data; 2021b denotes excluding Qld TAC data

This shows there were (inclusive of Qld TAC data):

  • Applications: 7972

  • Offers: 2399

  • Acceptances: 1813

  • Offer rate: 30.1%

 

This information shows medicine had the lowest offer rate of all fields of education.

 

There were 7972 applications in total for all undergraduate medicine places in 2021 as compared to, for example UNSW that received approximately 3500 applications (ie for a single medicine program). In other words, your chances would go up to approximately 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 2021 were:

  • similar across SES applicant types (27.5% - 35.9%),

  • higher for non-metropolitan applicants (46%), compared with metropolitan applicants (27.3%), and

  • higher for Indigenous (59.8%) versus non-Indigenous applicants (28.7%)

 
 
 

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

Overall, applicants have approximately 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.