Skip to main content
Back to Australian Medical School Compare
Australian Medical school comparison

Deakin vs Flinders

Deakin and Flinders are both Australian medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Deakin is in Victoria while Flinders is in South Australia. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones. Both select on GAMSAT, so a single sitting can support both applications.

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

Side-by-side comparison

Deakin

Geelong

Quick comparison

Location
Geelong, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each section + 50 overall. Aggregated average accepted GAMSAT (Fraser's): 66 (2024), 62 (2023), 68.4 (2022), 66.9 (2021). General-stream interview shortlist: GPA + GAMSAT + adjustments equally weighted.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (~8 stations)
Post-interview chance
~38% interview-to-offer.
Decision date
November-December

Flinders

Bedford Park

Quick comparison

Location
Bedford Park, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each section. Flinders explicitly does not publish a fixed cut-off — "dependent upon the profile of the applicant pool and places available for each sub-quota, and therefore vary every year". Forum-derived range ~62-67 for CSP.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
45-minute Panel Interview (NOT MMI — distinctive among AU med schools)
Post-interview chance
~38% interview-to-offer.
Decision date
November-December

Deakin vs Flinders - in detail

Admission tests compared

GAMSAT cut-offs. Deakin — Minimum 50 in each section + 50 overall. Aggregated average accepted GAMSAT (Fraser's): 66 (2024), 62 (2023), 68.4 (2022), 66.9 (2021). General-stream interview shortlist: GPA + GAMSAT + adjustments… Flinders — Minimum 50 in each section.

Flinders explicitly does not publish a fixed cut-off — "dependent upon the profile of the applicant pool and places available for each sub-quota, and therefore vary every…

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

Deakin requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT overall 50+ with section minima; MMI; rural pathway available.

Flinders requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.00; GAMSAT minimum 50 in each section; 45-minute panel interview; SARM (rural SA) and NTMP (NT) pathways available; Indigenous Entry Stream (IES) available for applicants without a valid GAMSAT.

Graduate-entry GPA. Deakin — Minimum 5.0/7.0 weighted. GEMSAS weighting (Final-2 × 1 + Final-1 × 2 + Final × 3) / 6. Aggregated average accepted GPA: 6.67 (2024), 6.6 (2023), 6.76 (2022), 6.74 (2021). Flinders — Minimum 5.00 (Flinders MD Admissions Guide 2027). Typical successful ~6.0+ (forum-derived).

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

Deakin uses MMI (Multi-Mini Interview (~8 stations)); Flinders uses Panel (45-minute Panel Interview (NOT MMI — distinctive among AU med schools)). These two formats reward different skills — MMI emphasises breadth, station-recovery and structured answers under time pressure, while Panel rewards depth and consistency.

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

Interview windows: Deakin interviews in September-October; Flinders in September-October.

Curriculum and teaching style

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

Specifics: 4-year graduate MD with problem-based learning. Years 1-2 foundations and clinical skills at Waurn Ponds. Year 3 Rural Community Clinical School — stu 4-year graduate MD with strong PBL backbone — Flinders was one of the first AU schools to adopt PBL in the 1990s. Year 1 foundations and clinical skil

Intake size: Deakin — 2027: ~160 total (up to 100 CSP + 45 BMP + 15 international + 30 RTS reserved subset).

Maximum 220 interview offers; implied interview-to-place ratio ≈ 1.6:1 (GEMSAS Deakin page; Fraser's Deakin 2027 guide).; Flinders — Bedford Park CSP (~75% reserved for Flinders graduates) + SARM up to 60 + NTMP up to 24 + International separate. Bonded CSP indicative fee AUD $13,241/year (2024).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Deakin: ~38% interview-to-offer. Flinders: ~38% interview-to-offer.

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.

What makes each distinctive

Deakin: Deakin was established as a rural-focused graduate-entry MD and remains one of the strongest pipelines into Victorian rural practice. The program partners closely with the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria and GP Education programs. A substantial proportion of places are reserved for rural-origin applicants, with bonded service options. Year 3 includes the distinctive Rural Community Clinical School experience.

Flinders: Flinders runs one of Australia's oldest graduate-entry MDs (est. 1974) with a distinctive Problem-Based Learning curriculum, a 45-minute panel interview (not MMI), and a flagship Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP). NT government pays course fees for NTMP entrants in exchange for a 4-year NT service commitment post-graduation. NTMP cumulative output >200 graduates; >50% remain in the NT workforce.

Which is right for you?

Check your state of origin before you apply — Deakin draws heavily on Victoria applicants and Flinders on South Australia, 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

Deakin uses GAMSAT. Flinders uses GAMSAT. 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.

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 25 August 2026.