Deakin vs Macquarie

GAMSAT cut-offs. Deakin — Minimum 50 in each section + 50 overall. Minimum 50 in each of the three GAMSAT sections and 50 overall, obtained within four years preceding the year of application. Deakin publishes the average… 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.

Deakin requires Bachelor degree (completed, or final year scheduled for completion by 23 December in the year of application) with minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0 over the most recent 3 FTE years; GAMSAT 50+ in each of the three sections and 50+ overall, sat within the preceding four years; online MMI.

The degree must normally be awarded within 10 years of commencement, though applicants outside that window may still be considered if they complete 0.5 FTE of AQF Level 8 or higher study by 31 July in the year of application.

GAMSAT and the 10-year recency rule are both waived for Rural Training Stream Tier 1 applicants, and GAMSAT is not required at all for the Indigenous Entry Stream. International applicants may use GAMSAT or MCAT and sit a structured panel interview instead of the MMI.

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.).

Graduate-entry GPA. Deakin — Minimum 5.0/7.0 weighted. GEMSAS weighting (Final-2 × 1 + Final-1 × 2 + Final × 3) / 6; each GPA year must contain at least 0.25 FTE of graded results and 2020 calendar-year results are excluded. The… 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 Deakin 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: Deakin runs multiple mini interview (up to 6 stations, 5 minutes each; held online for 2027 entry); 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: Deakin interviews in September (domestic MMI, online, per GEMSAS).

International applicants are interviewed in Deakin's own rounds instead — for the 2027 cycle Deakin published rounds in May, August and October 2026; round dates are set on Deakin's international course page and change each cycle.; 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..

Deakin runs a PBL curriculum; Macquarie runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Deakin leans on small-group case-based learning from year 1, while Macquarie uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: 4-year graduate MD with problem-based learning. Years 1-2 at Waurn Ponds (Geelong) for General Entry Stream students. Rural Training Stream students d 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: Deakin — 2027: ~160 total (up to 100 CSP + 45 BMP + 15 international + 30 RTS reserved subset); Macquarie — 2027: ~60 full-fee domestic + ~20 international. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Deakin: Not publicly disclosed. Deakin interviews a maximum of 220 applicants for the roughly 145 domestic places (100 CSP + 45 BMP) available for 2027 entry; neither Deakin nor GEMSAS publishes an interview-to-offer conversion rate. 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.

Deakin: Deakin was established as a rural-focused graduate-entry MD and remains one of the strongest pipelines into Victorian rural practice. Deakin's Years 3-4 clinical partners are named health services — Barwon Health (Geelong), Eastern Health (Melbourne), Grampians Health (Ballarat) and South West Healthcare (Warrnambool) — plus the nine-location Rural Communities network.

A substantial proportion of places are reserved for rural-origin applicants, with bonded service options. Years 3-4 are spent at one of five Deakin Medical School sites — Eastern Health (Melbourne), Geelong-Barwon, Rural Communities, Warrnambool-South West or Ballarat-Grampians — allocated in Year 2 by preference and place availability.

The Rural Communities site is the distinctive one: a 12-month Year 3 longitudinal placement following patients over time, at one of nine rural and regional Victorian locations. It is one option among five, not something every student does.

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.