How to get into Adelaide Medicine
Your 2027 Entry step-by-step guide
Adelaide University School of Medicine in Adelaide, SA runs a school-leaver medicine program for 2027 entry. Admission tests listed: UCAT-ANZ. Published hurdles: ATAR — minimum entry ATAR 90.00 (adjusted selection rank). Adelaide holds multiple mini interviews (MMI): November 2026-December 2026. Decisions for 2027 entry: January 2027.
- Interviews (2027 entry)
- November 2026-December 2026
- Decisions (2027 entry)
- January 2027
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Photo: Yu Chu Chin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Pavel Špindler · CC BY 3.0 · Photo: Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Adelaide expects Adjusted ATAR / selection rank of 90.00 minimum (an eligibility floor, not a cut-off) + UCAT ANZ + MMI. The prerequisite is any ONE of SACE Stage 2 Biology, Chemistry or Mathematical Methods (or equivalent); high proficiency in written and spoken English is assumed knowledge, not a prerequisite.
The medicine program does not apply subject adjustment factors — only the Universities Equity Scheme.
Separate routes: a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway (no UCAT ANZ; all eligible applicants interviewed), a Rural Background pathway (approximately 41 places), a Northern Community Care Stream (up to 20 places, no UCAT ANZ, SATAC codes ABP292 non-bonded / ABP293 bonded), a Higher Education pathway (minimum 10 places, open only to applicants whose sole tertiary record is at Adelaide University or an antecedent institution, with 1–2 years completed at a credit average / GPA 5.0), and a Work and Life Experience route via a competitive STAT score.
Adelaide notes entry requirements for this degree are provisional and subject to change. for Medicine (MBBS/MD) and uses Multiple Mini Interview — a minimum of six stations of 10 minutes each, one interviewer per station, held online over Zoom (2027 entry; Adelaide states there is no in-person, telephone or alternative-platform option). for interviews in the 2027 Entry cycle.
Entry is undergraduate and selection uses UCAT-ANZ; applications close through GEMSAS or your state TAC (UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, TISC), and CSP, BMP and full-fee places are all capped, so treat the standard above as a threshold to clear rather than a target to aim at.
This guide is written for 2027 Entry applicants and updated annually before each GEMSAS / UAC cycle. Sources include Adelaide University School of Medicine's official course page, GEMSAS, the UCAT-ANZ Consortium, ACER (GAMSAT), and direct conversations with current students. Read time: ~12 minutes.
Checked field-by-field against Adelaide University School of Medicine's official course page on 11 September 2026.
Adelaide at a glance
| ATAR | Minimum entry ATAR 90.00 (adjusted selection rank) |
|---|---|
| UCAT-ANZ | UCAT ANZ then carries 20% of the final domestic offer ranking, alongside Interview 40% and Academic 40% |
| Interview format | Multiple Mini Interview — a minimum of six stations of 10 minutes each, one interviewer per station, held online over Zoom (2027 entry; Adelaide states there is no in-person, telephone or alternative-platform option). |
| Interviews (2027 entry) | November 2026-December 2026 |
| Decisions (2027 entry) | January 2027 |
Adelaide entry requirements
| Pathway | Undergraduate (school-leaver) entry |
|---|---|
| ATAR floor | Minimum entry ATAR 90.00 (adjusted selection rank). Adelaide states that 'the actual ATAR required for entry is typically much higher' than the 90.00 eligibility floor but 'does not disclose ATAR cut-off scores from previous years'. Its published ATAR profile for Semester 1 2026 (ABP171 and ABP271) suppresses every figure as '<5', because almost all offers are made on ATAR plus additional criteria rather than ATAR alone — so no median, lowest or guaranteed selection rank exists in the public record, and figures such as 99.75 are unsourced. Adelaide explicitly does not publish ATAR cut-offs. |
| Contextual ATAR | Adjustment factors for the Bachelor of Medical Studies are available only under the Universities Equity Scheme — the medicine program does not consider subject adjustment factors, so the Universities Language, Literacy and Mathematics Scheme does not apply. A minimum 50% of school-leaver applicants invited to interview will be from South Australia (an interview-invitation quota, not an offer quota). |
| Admission tests | UCAT-ANZ |
| UCAT-ANZ | UCAT ANZ alone decides who is interviewed (except Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway and Northern Community Care Stream applicants, who do not sit it): Sections 1–3 carry equal weight, and Section 4 (Situational Judgement, reported separately on 300–900 and not part of the /2700 cognitive total) separates only lower-ranked candidates with equal totals across the other three. UCAT ANZ then carries 20% of the final domestic offer ranking, alongside Interview 40% and Academic 40%. Adelaide publishes no cut-off and will not comment on score competitiveness; the South Australian advantage is structural — a minimum 50% of school-leaver interview invitations must go to South Australian applicants — not a published score gap. For national calibration only (not an Adelaide threshold), the official UCAT ANZ 2026 sitting used for 2027 entry had a total cognitive mean of 1,964, median 1,950, 8th decile 2,220 and 9th decile 2,340 across 17,341 candidates. |
| Interview | Multiple Mini Interview — a minimum of six stations of 10 minutes each, one interviewer per station, held online over Zoom (2027 entry; Adelaide states there is no in-person, telephone or alternative-platform option). |
| Place types | Two Commonwealth Supported Place types with separate SATAC codes — non-bonded (ABP171) and Bonded Medical Program (ABP271, carrying a Return of Service Obligation); the split is not published. Adelaide publishes no annual place count; its official student profile shows 160 students commencing the program in Semester 1 2026, of whom 28 (17.5%) were international — a commencement count, not a place allocation. Indicative international tuition is AUD $103,000 per year. The previously cited 136 does not appear on any current Adelaide University page. |
| Indigenous pathway | Entry is via the School of Medicine's own Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway, documented on the Bachelor of Medical Studies page — not via the old Wirltu Yarlu Access Pathway, whose URLs now redirect to Adelaide University's First Nations page, which lists the Bachelor of Medical Studies among degrees with their own dedicated entry routes rather than under the general Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Pathway. Applicants apply through SATAC with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statutory Declaration uploaded within five working days and are not required to sit the UCAT ANZ. A number of places are reserved — Adelaide does not publish the count — and all eligible applicants are invited to interview: a panel of three to four people (academics, clinicians and alumni, largely Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander), around 20 minutes long, preceded by an informal yarn. The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences no longer exists; the program sits in the College of Health, School of Medicine. |
| Bonded / rural | Bonded Medical Program places sit under their own SATAC code (ABP271) with a Return of Service Obligation in eligible regional, rural or remote areas; the count is not published. Separately, approximately 41 places are reserved for the Rural Background pathway, open to applicants who lived in a Modified Monash Model (MMM 2019) MM 2–7 area for at least five consecutive years or ten years cumulatively, with a Rural Entry Pathway Statutory Declaration uploaded to SATAC within five days; interview places are filled in four priority categories (MM 2–7 applicant at an SA rural school, then at any SA school, then at a rural school in any state, then anywhere in Australia) and ranked on UCAT ANZ within each. All Commonwealth Supported students must complete at least four weeks of rural placement, and 30% of domestic students must spend a full clinical year rurally — allocated by random ballot if not filled voluntarily. A minimum 50% of school-leaver interview invitations go to South Australians. |
Adjusted ATAR / selection rank of 90.00 minimum (an eligibility floor, not a cut-off) + UCAT ANZ + MMI. The prerequisite is any ONE of SACE Stage 2 Biology, Chemistry or Mathematical Methods (or equivalent); high proficiency in written and spoken English is assumed knowledge, not a prerequisite.
The medicine program does not apply subject adjustment factors — only the Universities Equity Scheme.
Separate routes: a dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway (no UCAT ANZ; all eligible applicants interviewed), a Rural Background pathway (approximately 41 places), a Northern Community Care Stream (up to 20 places, no UCAT ANZ, SATAC codes ABP292 non-bonded / ABP293 bonded), a Higher Education pathway (minimum 10 places, open only to applicants whose sole tertiary record is at Adelaide University or an antecedent institution, with 1–2 years completed at a credit average / GPA 5.0), and a Work and Life Experience route via a competitive STAT score.
Adelaide notes entry requirements for this degree are provisional and subject to change.
Year 12 ATAR (or equivalent international qualification) plus the admission test are the academic gateway; interview performance then determines the final offer.
UCAT-ANZ
UCAT-ANZ is a 2-hour computer-based aptitude test (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, and a separately-banded Situational Judgement Test). Sat between July and early August. The UCAT-ANZ Consortium operates separately from the UK UCAT — scores are NOT interchangeable.
Working towards the UCAT score Adelaide expects? Build a week-by-week plan from your test date — free for the first two weeks.
Written submissions
Australia has no equivalent of the UK's single UCAS personal statement. GEMSAS graduate-entry applications use GAMSAT + GPA without a written component; most state-TAC undergraduate applications use ATAR + UCAT-ANZ without a written component. The schools that DO require written content (JCU portfolio, Notre Dame Sydney/Fremantle questionnaire, Wollongong short answers, Bond essays) each ask different, school-specific questions. Treat each school's prompt set as a discrete short-answer test - do not recycle a single document across multiple schools.
Limits are school-specific. JCU portfolio responses: typically 250-500 words per question. Notre Dame questionnaire: 250-400 words per response. Wollongong short answers: ~300 words each. Bond essays: 500 words. Read the current cycle's prompt brief for each school carefully - limits and prompts shift cycle-to-cycle.
Five things that win
Four things that lose
Worked-example opener (do not copy — for shape only)
"At 14, watching the geriatrician on my rural placement explain a Goals of Care decision to a frightened daughter, I realised that medicine is as much about clarity in language as it is about clinical knowledge. The conversation lasted nine minutes; the silence afterwards lasted longer. Since then I have spent…"
Notice: a specific scene rather than a cliché, a precise detail (the nine-minute conversation), and a closing sentence that bridges to the next paragraph. We have a step-by-step written-submissions service if you want a tutor to help shape yours.
The Assessment interview at Adelaide
Adelaide uses Multiple Mini Interview — a minimum of six stations of 10 minutes each, one interviewer per station, held online over Zoom (2027 entry; Adelaide states there is no in-person, telephone or alternative-platform option).. For 2027 entry, interviews typically take place in November 2026-December 2026. Final decisions are released January 2027.
At Adelaide, expect the following from the selection process. Assessment / recorded-interview format - some Australian schools (JCU's Kira Talent recording, Notre Dame Modern Hire) ask one-way recorded responses; others combine panel interviews with practical tasks (group work, written exercises, presentations). Allow 60-90 minutes for a recorded interview or 4-6 hours for a full in-person assessment day.
How the Adelaide interview actually runs
Adelaide runs a Multiple Mini Interview with a minimum of six stations lasting 10 minutes each, one interviewer per station, held entirely online over Zoom — there is no in-person, telephone or alternative-platform option, and requests for one are declined (2027 entry). Stations assess problem solving, communication skills, teamwork, empathy, integrity, preparedness for the program, cultural awareness and motivation.
Interviewers have all completed an Adelaide University training program and may be University employees, academic titleholders, medical alumni, health professionals or members of the wider community. Applicants who qualify for Medicine, Dentistry and/or Oral Health attend a single combined interview.
Candidates must be in a private location, must not communicate with anyone during the interview, and may not take or access notes of any kind.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway applicants instead sit a panel interview of around 20 minutes with three to four panellists (academics, clinicians and alumni, largely Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander), preceded by an informal yarn.
International applicants sit a shorter format — at least two stations of up to 10 minutes for a single preference, and up to four interviewers if multiple preferences are listed.
What they assess
What Adelaide assessors are scoring: Multi-station assessment lets the school triangulate - assessors compare notes from each station to spot consistent strengths (and red flags).
Common station / question themes
- Group task observation (how you contribute, listen, lead)
- Written ethics scenario
- Panel interview or recorded one-way response
- Portfolio / personal-statement deep dive
- Hot topics in Australian healthcare (Medicare, rural workforce, Indigenous health)
- Academic curiosity questions
Sample questions you might face at Adelaide
Why medicine?
Tell us about your work experience.
In a group task, what role did you take and why?
How would you handle disagreement with a senior colleague?
Describe a recent biomedical news story and your view on it.
Model-answer guidance: “Why medicine?”
Our panel-interview prep covers ethics frameworks (SPIES, the four pillars), structured behavioural answers (STAR), and live mock interviews with admissions specialists.
Practise the Adelaide interview
Rehearse the real format before the day — on demand with our AI interviewers, or live with a tutor.
Sit a mock with photoreal AI interviewers — any time
A timed MMI or panel interview on video — Australian & international voices — with interviewers who listen, react and press with follow-ups. Rubric-scored feedback and a replay the moment you finish.
Live mocks with a tutor who’s been in the room
A full Adelaide-style mock with a medic or dentist tutor — honest scoring against real marking criteria, a station-by-station debrief and a written action plan.
Book a mock interviewMonth-by-month timeline for 2027 Entry
The cycle runs roughly January 2025 (start of prep) through GEMSAS preference lock and state-TAC deadlines in September 2026, MMIs in October-December 2026, to first-round offers in December 2026 and course start in late January / early February 2027. Here are the milestones you cannot miss.
Decide and start work / clinical experience
Confirm medicine or dentistry as your career direction. Start banking clinical exposure (hospital volunteering, GP shadowing, aged-care or disability-support roles) and non-clinical experience (research assistant, peer tutoring, leadership). Australian schools weight reflection over hours - track what each placement taught you.
Begin UCAT-ANZ / GAMSAT prep
Open your prep window 6-9 months before the test sitting. UCAT-ANZ candidates focus on the 4 sub-tests (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Situational Judgement). GAMSAT candidates focus on Section I (Humanities), Section II (Written Communication) and Section III (Sciences) - the Section III sciences gap is the most common reason graduates under-perform.
GAMSAT March sitting
ACER GAMSAT March test date. Scores released early May. Most graduate-entry applicants sit GAMSAT in March of their apply year so results are available before GEMSAS preferences open.
UCAT-ANZ registration + GEMSAS portal info
UCAT-ANZ registration opens (test sat in July). GEMSAS portal information released for graduate-entry medicine. ATAR-tracking begins for current Year 12 applicants.
GEMSAS portal opens + UCAT-ANZ booking
GAMSAT March results released (late May). GEMSAS applications open 1 May and close 29 May across the ten consortium schools (ANU, Deakin, Griffith, Macquarie, Melbourne, Notre Dame Fremantle, Notre Dame Sydney, UQ, UWA, Wollongong). Sydney, Flinders and Monash are NOT in GEMSAS and need separate direct applications. UCAT-ANZ booking deadline is 15 May.
GEMSAS preference entry opens
Rank up to 6 preferences across the 8 GEMSAS schools. ACER GAMSAT September registration window opens (a second sitting option for applicants who under-performed in March).
UCAT-ANZ test window
Take UCAT-ANZ between early July and early August. There is one sitting per cycle - no retake until the following year. Results are released to state TACs (UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, TISC) in October. State TACs (UAC, VTAC, QTAC, SATAC, TISC) accept undergraduate medicine preferences from July onwards.
GEMSAS preferences lock + direct apps close
GEMSAS interview offers issued in early September; consortium interviews run September-October. ACER GAMSAT September sitting - too late for this cycle, results land mid-November. JCU QTAC + JCU-portal applications close 30 September. State-TAC medicine preferences close 25-30 September. (Bond's QTAC round does not open until January.)
MMI invitations issued
Most graduate-entry consortium schools issue MMI invitations through October. Bond runs its structured interview cycle. UCAT-ANZ results released to state TACs for undergraduate ranking. State TAC preference changes typically close late October.
MMIs run + ATAR results
MMIs run across consortium schools, Bond, JCU and Macquarie through October-December. ATAR results released to state TACs for school-leaver undergraduate applicants. GAMSAT September results released for applicants who sat the second window.
First-round offers
First-round offers released by GEMSAS, state TACs and direct-application schools. Acceptance deadlines are typically within 10 days of offer - reply on time or forfeit the place. Some schools release a second offer round in early January.
Late offers + course start
Late-round offers released through January. Deferral requests due. Orientation week is scheduled by most schools for late January or early February, with first-year teaching commencing late January / early February.
What makes Adelaide different
Adelaide runs South Australia's oldest medical school (est. 1885) as a 6-year undergraduate BMS+MD (3+3). Admission offer weighting: Academic 40% + UCAT cognitive 20% + Interview 40%. Strong rural pipeline via the Rural Clinical School (Whyalla, Port Lincoln, Mount Gambier). Dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway with no UCAT ANZ requirement (the former Wirltu Yarlu Access Pathway is not the route into this degree). The University of Adelaide and UniSA amalgamated into Adelaide University on 1 January 2026, and the program now sits in Adelaide University's College of Health, School of Medicine; applications for 2027 entry opened via SATAC on 3 August 2026 and close 30 September 2026. New for 2027 entry: a Northern Community Care Stream of up to 20 places (SATAC ABP292 non-bonded, ABP293 bonded) for applicants schooled in Adelaide's northern suburbs, ranked on ATAR or IB plus interview with no UCAT ANZ; applicants with any prior higher education record are excluded from this stream for the 2027 intake.
Notable research areas
Curriculum (Integrated)
6-year undergraduate Bachelor of Medical Studies + Doctor of Medicine (BMS/MD; 3 + 3). Taught at the Adelaide City Campus (Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences building, corner of North Terrace and George Street) with small-group Scenario-Based Learning and patient contact from Year 1; first clinical placements come in Year 3 and run through the Doctor of Medicine across Royal Adelaide, The Queen Elizabeth, Lyell McEwin, Modbury and Women's and Children's hospitals plus 13 Adelaide Rural Clinical School sites (Mount Gambier, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Ceduna, Port Pirie, Roxby Downs, Barossa, Clare, Jamestown, Mount Barker, Yorke Peninsula and Broken Hill NSW). Rural placement is compulsory: every Commonwealth Supported student does at least four weeks, and 30% of domestic students spend a full clinical year rurally, allocated by random ballot if not filled voluntarily. Since 1 January 2026 the program has been run by Adelaide University's College of Health, School of Medicine; the AMC accredits the BMS/MD to 31 March 2029, with the old MBBS in teach-out.
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Founded in 1885. Whether the city suits you matters - five or six years is a long commitment. Visit on an open day if you can; current students will be the most honest assessors of culture and clinical placement quality.
Read the full Adelaide course guide — integrated + case-based learning, 6 years (3-year bms + 3-year md), with placements in Adelaide, rural South Australia and Broken Hill.
Application statistics for Adelaide
Adelaide intake
Adelaide does not publish a total place count, though it publishes sub-pathway reservations (approximately 41 Rural Background, up to 20 Northern Community Care Stream, minimum 10 Higher Education). Its official student profile shows 160 students commencing in Semester 1 2026 (28 international, 17.5%; 96 admitted on ATAR plus additional criteria; 33 through the Higher Education pathway). Approximately 600 domestic and 160 international applicants are invited to interview each cycle. Domestic offer weighting: Academic 40% + UCAT ANZ 20% + Interview 40%.
How Adelaide selects, at a glance
Source: Adelaide University School of Medicine admissions data; GEMSAS / state-TAC published statistics; ACER (GAMSAT) and UCAT-ANZ Consortium decile data; recent FOI responses.
Six mistakes that derail medicine applications
Adelaide — frequently asked questions
Sources for this Adelaide guide
Apply to Adelaide with confidence
We have helped hundreds of applicants turn their GAMSAT / UCAT-ANZ, portfolio and MMI prep into offers from Adelaide and other Australian medicine schools.