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Australian Medical school comparison

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program vs UQ

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program and UQ are both Australian medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program is in the Northern Territory while UQ is in Queensland. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones.

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program uses UCAT-ANZ; UQ uses GAMSAT, UCAT-ANZ and MCAT. That mismatch means either preparing two assessments or choosing the school whose test suits you. They also recruit at different stages: CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program runs school-leaver (undergraduate) entry, UQ runs both undergraduate and graduate entry.

The interview formats diverge — Interview vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

Side-by-side comparison

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program

Darwin, Northern Territory

Quick comparison

Location
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Entry pathway
Undergraduate
Admission tests
UCAT-ANZ
GAMSAT
-
UCAT-ANZ
Contributes 10% of the admission rank; no cut-off published.
ATAR
Competitive at 90 or above; 85 or above for First Nations applicants. CDU frames these as competitive levels, not a published floor.
Interview format
No interview — ranked on ATAR (90%) and UCAT-ANZ derived score (10%)
Post-interview chance
-
Decision date
-

UQ

St Lucia

Quick comparison

Location
St Lucia, Australia
Entry pathway
Dual (UG + Grad)
Admission tests
GAMSAT + UCAT-ANZ + MCAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each of Sections I, II, III (any section below 50 = ineligible). Interview shortlist: 50% unweighted GAMSAT (mean of 3 sections) + 50% GPA, GPA as tiebreaker. Final offer: UQ does not publish a weighting. Interviewed applicants are ranked by tier and merit order within each pathway, with CQ-WB RMP and DD-SW MP offers determined first; where final scores tie, the MMI score is the tiebreaker; non-bonded (CSP) places are offered before bonded (BMP).
UCAT-ANZ
Required for Provisional Entry (school-leaver) and for the new 6-year BMedSc/MD direct-entry dual; must be sat in the year you apply. Latest published figures are for the 2026 intake: the lowest UCAT ANZ score invited to interview was 2290/2700 for applicants not eligible for the Rural Background Sub-Quota and 1960/2700 for those who were. No 2027-entry threshold has been published, and UQ has said it is reviewing how the recent UCAT ANZ format change affects interview selection. Shortlisting is on the UCAT ANZ aggregate, subject to a minimum 50% of domestic MMI invitees being Queensland Year 12 students. The final offer rank is a combined score of ATAR, MMI total and UCAT ANZ aggregate — UQ and QTAC publish no weightings.
ATAR
Adjusted ATAR 95 (or equivalent) is the published MINIMUM for both school-leaver routes — provisional entry (QTAC 721302 / 721402) and the 6-year BMedSc/MD dual (QTAC 721502) — and meeting it guarantees nothing. Actual Semester 1 2026 provisional-entry offer profile (latest published cycle), non-bonded: highest 99.95, median 99.65, lowest 95.00 excluding adjustments (99.95 / 99.95 / 98.10 including adjustments). Bonded: highest 99.95, median 99.20, lowest 93.25 excluding adjustments (99.95 / 99.95 / 97.25 including adjustments).
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (8 stations)
Post-interview chance
Not published. Neither UQ, GEMSAS nor QTAC publishes the number of MMI invitations issued or an interview-to-offer conversion rate for the UQ MD. Treat any quoted percentage as an unsourced estimate.
Decision date
Graduate (GEMSAS): November 2026, with a small number in December and January. Graduate direct/MCAT: emailed w/b 3 August 2026 (Round 1) or w/b 5 October 2026 (Round 2). Provisional entry: UQ emails offers mid-December 2026, ahead of the QTAC offer round on 14 January 2027 (which also covers the 6-year BMedSc/MD dual).
Compare different schools

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program vs UQ - in detail

Admission tests compared

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program — Contributes 10% of the admission rank; no cut-off published. UQ — Required for Provisional Entry (school-leaver) and for the new 6-year BMedSc/MD direct-entry dual; must be sat in the year you apply. Latest published figures are for the 2026 intake: the lowest UCAT…

GAMSAT cut-offs. CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program — not used or not published. UQ — Minimum 50 in each of Sections I, II, III (any section below 50 = ineligible). Interview shortlist: 50% unweighted GAMSAT (mean of 3 sections) + 50% GPA, GPA as tiebreaker. Final offer: UQ does not…

Timing shapes the choice as much as the score. GAMSAT is graduate-only and sits in March and September; UCAT-ANZ is mostly undergraduate and sits in July. A few schools run their own selection model with no national test at all.

ATAR and academic profile

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program requires Ranked on Year 12 ATAR (90%) plus a UCAT-ANZ derived score (10%). To be competitive CDU states an ATAR of 90 or above, or 85 or above for First Nations applicants. 12 places a year — 5 NT residents, 5 NT First Nations, 2 national First Nations.

Applicants must demonstrate eligibility for NT origin status. SATAC code 104661.

UQ requires Graduate entry: bachelor (key degree) completed in the last 10 years with minimum GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT minimum 50 in EACH section (no overall threshold is published), or MCAT 504, taken within 4 years before you commence; 8-station online MMI.

UQ also assumes — but does not require as a prerequisite — prior tertiary study in cell and tissue biology and systems physiology (UQ BIOM2011 and BIOM2012, or equivalent). Provisional entry instead needs an adjusted ATAR 95, Queensland Year 12 English, a UCAT ANZ score from the year you apply, and the MMI.

ATAR. CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program — Competitive at 90 or above; 85 or above for First Nations applicants. CDU frames these as competitive levels, not a published floor.

UQ — Adjusted ATAR 95 (or equivalent) is the published MINIMUM for both school-leaver routes — provisional entry (QTAC 721302 / 721402) and the 6-year BMedSc/MD dual (QTAC 721502) — and meeting it…

Graduate-entry GPA. CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program — not applicable or not published. UQ — Minimum 5.0/7.0 in key degree. Currency rule: degrees > 10 years before commencement require ≥ 0.50 FTE subsequent coursework at GPA ≥ 5.0.

Read every ATAR figure as a selection rank, not a raw score. Educational access bonuses, rural-origin uplift and Indigenous pathways all adjust it, so the published number is rarely the one that decides your application.

Interview formats

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program uses Interview (No interview — ranked on ATAR (90%) and UCAT-ANZ derived score (10%)); UQ uses MMI (Multi-Mini Interview (8 stations)). These two formats reward different skills — Interview emphasises academic reasoning and thinking aloud through unfamiliar problems, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, either may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, UQ is the better fit.

Curriculum and teaching style

Intake size: CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program — 12 places a year (5 NT resident, 5 NT First Nations, 2 national First Nations).; UQ — 2027 graduate intake: 107 CSP + 43 BMP + up to 190 international = up to 340 across the GEMSAS graduate route for 2027 entry (Graduate CSP 107, Graduate BMP 43, International 190 including UQ-Ochsner; GEMSAS notes these are indicative and subject to annual variation).

UQ separately publishes approximately 275 domestic places and approximately 100 international places across the provisional and graduate pathways each year; 28% of domestic places go to the Rural Background Student Sub-Quota.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Which is right for you?

Start with the admission test: CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program needs UCAT-ANZ, UQ needs GAMSAT, UCAT-ANZ and MCAT. Preparing for one well beats splitting your time across two.

Check your state of origin before you apply — CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program draws heavily on the Northern Territory applicants and UQ on Queensland, and an interstate application often faces a materially higher bar. They suit different stages too: CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program is school-leaver (undergraduate) entry, UQ is both undergraduate and graduate entry.

Your preference list should ultimately weight: which admission test you can realistically score well in, whether your state of origin gives you a bonus at either school, and where you'd actually want to live for four to six years.

Common questions

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program uses UCAT-ANZ. UQ uses GAMSAT, UCAT-ANZ and MCAT. The test mismatch means you may need to prep two assessments simultaneously, or you can pick the school whose admission test you're stronger in. GAMSAT is graduate-only and sat in March/September; UCAT-ANZ is undergraduate-leaning and sat in July; some schools (notably Bond and JCU) run their own selection model with no national test.

Where to go next

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical ProgramEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in fullUQEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

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School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 13 September 2026.