Curtin vs Macquarie

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Curtin — No official Curtin-published cut-off. Curtin ranks total UCAT score, not a fixed threshold. Curtin publishes no UCAT-ANZ cut-off, minimum or competitive band in any year — the 2027 guide contains no… Macquarie — no published cut-off.

GAMSAT cut-offs. Curtin — not used or not published. Macquarie — Minimum 50 overall, 50 in each section. Used at 50% weight (alongside 50% GPA) for interview shortlist. Minimum 50 overall and 50 in each of the three sections, sat within four years of intended…

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.

Curtin requires Minimum ATAR 95.00 for all school leavers, WA and interstate alike, plus an ESSENTIAL Chemistry prerequisite (approximately 220 hours), met by ONE of: Chemistry ATAR with a final scaled score of 50 or higher; IB Chemistry HL/SL grade 4 or higher; NCEA Level 3 Chemistry with 24 achieved credit points; or TWO first-year AQF Level 7 university Chemistry units at 60 or higher in both — bridging units are explicitly not equivalent (the international guide additionally accepts GCE A-Level Chemistry at grade E or above).

STAT is not accepted except for English competency. UCAT-ANZ + Casper required for domestic applicants; 35:35:30 interview shortlist ratio (ATAR : Casper : UCAT-ANZ). Graduates enter on a minimum notional ATAR of 92, Curtin course switchers on a course weighted average of 80.

Macquarie requires AQF Level 7 bachelor degree (or NOOSR-recognised equivalent) completed within 10 years of intended enrolment; minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0, or WAM 65, to be considered for interview; GAMSAT minimum 50 overall AND 50 in each of the three sections, sat within four years of intended enrolment (domestic applicants and international applicants residing in Australia or New Zealand) — international applicants residing outside Australia may submit MCAT 500+ instead, within three years; satisfactory Multiple Mini Interview performance; IELTS 7.0 overall with 7.0 in every band where English proficiency is not met through prior study.

Human anatomy and human physiology are assumed knowledge, not prerequisites. Macquarie states that "interview opportunity and offers are competitive, meeting minimum requirements does not guarantee offer of admission". (2027 entry.).

ATAR. Curtin — Minimum ATAR 95.00 for every school-leaver applicant, WA and interstate alike — Curtin publishes one figure with no domicile split, and adjustment points are added on top of it rather than included… Macquarie — no published cut-off.

Graduate-entry GPA. Curtin — not applicable or not published. Macquarie — Minimum 5.0/7.0 (or WAM 65). Minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0, or WAM 65, to be considered for interview; weighted 50% for the shortlist and 50% again for the offer. GEMSAS notes only that "entry is…

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.

Both Curtin and Macquarie use MMI interviews, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, Australian health-system topics (Medicare, rural workforce, Indigenous health) and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer.

That said, the specifics differ slightly: Curtin runs multiple mini interview (station count not published); Macquarie runs multiple mini interview — macquarie's published 2027 admission guides describe four short stations of up to 8 minutes each, with a different…. Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Curtin interviews in December-January (domestic); July-August (international full-fee); Macquarie in Domestic: one fixed Saturday — 26 September 2026 for 2027 entry, face-to-face on the Macquarie campus (no alternative date or online option).

International: three videoconference rounds in June, August and October 2026 (Macquarie's 2027 international guide timeline graphic says July, August and October, inconsistently with its own requirements table). Indigenous Australian Pathway: July, August or October, in person or online..

Both schools deliver a Integrated-style curriculum, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar across years 1-3.

Specifics: 5-year undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). The first three years are delivered at Curtin Perth (Bentley) with occasional v 4-year MD taught within Macquarie University Health; foundations and systems-based units in years 1-2, core clinical placements in year 3 and advanced

Intake size: Curtin — 2027 intake: approximately 110 domestic places (CSP, inclusive of Bonded Medical Places), plus 10-15 international full-fee places; Macquarie — 2027: ~60 full-fee domestic + ~20 international. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Curtin: Not publicly disclosed. Macquarie: Not published — Macquarie releases no interview-to-offer conversion data, and no admissions centre or accredited body publishes one for this programme.

Post-interview odds give you the clearest signal of how competitive each school is at the final stage — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%, even if the interview thresholds look identical on paper.

Curtin: Curtin is one of the newest Australian medical schools (first intake 2017) and runs a 5-year undergraduate MBBS for outer-metropolitan Perth, rural WA, and Indigenous workforce service. CASPer required alongside UCAT-ANZ and ATAR — Casper required alongside UCAT-ANZ and ATAR.

Curtin is not one of only two Australian Casper users — Casper is also required by the graduate-entry MD programmes at the University of Notre Dame Australia (Fremantle and Sydney) and the University of Wollongong, per those universities' own admission pages, and the list may not be exhaustive. Of the programmes confirmed, Curtin is the only direct-entry undergraduate course.

Pre-interview ratio 35 (ATAR) : 35 (Casper) : 30 (UCAT-ANZ), per Curtin's own 2027 Domestic Admissions Guide. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants are exempt from BOTH the UCAT-ANZ and Casper and apply directly to Curtin Medical School rather than through TISC.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants are exempt from BOTH the Casper Test and the UCAT-ANZ, and apply directly to Curtin Medical School rather than through TISC.

Macquarie: Every place in the Macquarie MD is full-fee — for 2027 entry it is the only GEMSAS graduate-entry medical school whose quota table shows no Commonwealth Supported Places and no Bonded Medical Places at all (indicative 2027 domestic fee AUD $90,200 for a standard full-time year, reviewed annually, FEE-HELP eligible) and is co-located with Macquarie University Hospital; core clinical placements begin in year 3, with earlier years built on foundations and systems-based units.

Small cohort (~60) gives a high-touch teaching model. Selection is purely academic until interview: on the standard pathway, 50% weighted GPA + 50% GAMSAT/MCAT for the shortlist, then 50% weighted GPA + 50% MMI for offers.

There is no portfolio, CV, Casper or work-experience score at any stage — the only non-academic document is a supplementary form acknowledging the programme's requirements, which is not scored. Rural applicants, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants and Macquarie Bachelor of Clinical Science graduates each receive an automatic 3% bonus on the weighted GPA (5% maximum in combination).

The Indigenous Australian Pathway works differently: GAMSAT is optional and both interview and offer decisions are made case by case with Walanga Muru.