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Australian Medical school comparison

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program vs Western Sydney

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program and Western Sydney 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 Western Sydney is in New South Wales. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones.

Both select on UCAT-ANZ, so a single sitting can support both applications. 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
-

Western Sydney

Campbelltown

Quick comparison

Location
Campbelltown, Australia
Entry pathway
Undergraduate
Admission tests
UCAT-ANZ
GAMSAT
-
UCAT-ANZ
No published cut-off. WSU states the threshold "is not made public to applicants since it is determined each year according to the performance of all other applicants for the program" (FAQ), and that it "is not determined by your overall UCAT ANZ score; individual sections may be subject to weighting" (General Applicants); GWS applicants may face a lower threshold than non-GWS applicants. UCAT-ANZ performance alone decides who is invited to interview; it is then weighted at 25% of the final offer ranking alongside 75% interview. UCAT-ANZ must be sat in the application year. For scale only — these are whole-cohort figures for every UCAT-ANZ candidate, not WSU applicants and not a WSU threshold — the official UCAT-ANZ 2026 sitting (2027 entry, 17,341 candidates) on the current three-subtest /2700 cognitive scale had mean 1,964, median 1,950, 8th decile 2,220 and 9th decile 2,340. Situational Judgement is reported separately and is not part of the /2700 total.
ATAR
Academic threshold, assessed only after the MMI: non-Greater Western Sydney applicants 95.50 (this band, not a lower one, catches interstate and regional applicants who are not REAS-eligible); Greater Western Sydney applicants 93.50, on a multi-year residence test against WSU's published list of GWS areas; Rural Entry Admission Scheme 91.50, requiring ASGS-RA 2-5 residence for five consecutive or ten cumulative years since age five; international applicants 93.50 ATAR-equivalent. Once met, ATAR no longer influences ranking — the offer is 75% interview / 25% UCAT-ANZ.
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (MMI), online via Zoom — approximately 8 minutes per station; station count not published by WSU
Post-interview chance
Not published. WSU releases neither the number of applicants interviewed nor the number of offers made, so no interview-to-offer rate can be stated. WSU publishes only that there are approximately 120 places across Commonwealth Supported, Bonded Medical and International categories, and UAC records "N/A" for the course's lowest selection rank because non-ATAR criteria are used.
Decision date
January

CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program vs Western Sydney - in detail

Admission tests compared

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program — Contributes 10% of the admission rank; no cut-off published. Western Sydney — No published cut-off. WSU states the threshold "is not made public to applicants since it is determined each year according to the performance of all other applicants for the program" (FAQ), and that…

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.

NT residency is required for the 5 NT Resident and 5 NT First Nations places; the 2 National First Nations places need Indigenous status only. SATAC code 104661.

Western Sydney requires Academic threshold ATAR 95.50 (93.50 Greater Western Sydney, 91.50 Rural Entry Admission Scheme, 93.50-equivalent international) plus UCAT-ANZ sat in the application year; no prerequisite or assumed-knowledge subjects are published; MMI online in late November.

95.50 is a minimum threshold, not a lowest selection rank — UAC records "N/A" for 725505 in its January Round 1 2026 lowest-selection-rank table because selection criteria other than ATAR are used. UAC location and subject adjustment factors do not apply to 725505.

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.

Western Sydney — Academic threshold, assessed only after the MMI: non-Greater Western Sydney applicants 95.50 (this band, not a lower one, catches interstate and regional applicants who are not REAS-eligible)…

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%)); Western Sydney uses MMI (Multi-Mini Interview (MMI), online via Zoom — approximately 8 minutes per station; station count not published by WSU).

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, Western Sydney 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); Western Sydney — ~120 places total per year (CSP + BMP + ~20 international); specific split not published by WSU (WSU MD Enrolment Places page).

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Which is right for you?

Check your state of origin before you apply — CDU / Flinders — NT Medical Program draws heavily on the Northern Territory applicants and Western Sydney on New South Wales, and an interstate application often faces a materially higher bar.

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. Western Sydney uses UCAT-ANZ. Both schools share the same test stack — your single sitting can support both applications. 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 full
Western SydneyEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team.