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Australian Medical school comparison

Griffith vs Wollongong

Griffith and Wollongong are both Australian medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Griffith is in Queensland while Wollongong is in New South Wales. 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.

Side-by-side comparison

Griffith

Gold Coast

Quick comparison

Location
Gold Coast, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each section AND 50 overall. Interview shortlist rank: 50:50 unweighted GPA (as %) + overall GAMSAT (out of 100). Final offer rank: 50% interview-selection rank + 50% GUMSAA interview score. 2025 intake average GAMSAT 66.39.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (typically 8-10 stations; exact count varies cycle to cycle per GUMSAA framework)
Post-interview chance
~38% interview-to-offer.
Decision date
November

Wollongong

Wollongong

Quick comparison

Location
Wollongong, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 overall, no section below 50. From 2027 entry, GAMSAT becomes a pure qualifying hurdle — not used to rank after threshold met.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (~8 stations)
Post-interview chance
~35% interview-to-offer.
Decision date
October

Griffith vs Wollongong - in detail

Admission tests compared

GAMSAT cut-offs. Griffith — Minimum 50 in each section AND 50 overall. Interview shortlist rank: 50:50 unweighted GPA (as %) + overall GAMSAT (out of 100). Final offer rank: 50% interview-selection rank + 50% GUMSAA interview… Wollongong — Minimum 50 overall, no section below 50.

From 2027 entry, GAMSAT becomes a pure qualifying hurdle — not used to rank after threshold met.

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

Griffith requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT overall 50+ with section minima 50; MMI.

Wollongong requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT overall 50+ (international applicants may submit MCAT or GAMSAT); MMI. Four distinct entry pathways: General Entry (most Australian/NZ students), Rural Entry (domestic applicants from a rural or regional background), International Entry, and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway. Every domestic student completes Phase 3 in a regional or rural location.

Graduate-entry GPA. Griffith — Minimum 5.0/7.0. Griffith explicitly states "a GPA required for interview selection is likely to be significantly higher than 5.0". 2025 intake average GPA 6.68. Wollongong — Minimum 5.5/7.0 at time of interview selection. GPA functions as a hurdle only — not used in offer ranking.

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

Both Griffith and Wollongong 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: Griffith runs multi-mini interview (typically 8-10 stations; exact count varies cycle to cycle per gumsaa framework); Wollongong runs multi-mini interview (~8 stations). Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Griffith interviews in September-October; Wollongong in August-September.

Curriculum and teaching style

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

Specifics: 4-year graduate MD. Years 1-2 hospital-integrated foundations at the Gold Coast (Southport) campus and Gold Coast University Hospital. Years 3-4 clini 4-year graduate MD. Years 1-2 foundational and clinical skills at Wollongong campus; year 3 longitudinal integrated clerkship in a regional or rural c

Intake size: Griffith — 2027 cycle: 148 CSP + 60 BMP + 80 BMedSci pathway + up to 35 international = ~323 total (GEMSAS Griffith).; Wollongong — 2027 cycle: 37 Unbonded CSP + 30 CSP Rural End-to-End + 27 BMP + 15 International = ~109 total (GEMSAS UOW)..

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

Post-interview offer rate

Griffith: ~38% interview-to-offer. Wollongong: ~35% 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

Griffith: Griffith's 4-year graduate MD is co-located with Gold Coast University Hospital, giving students hospital-integrated training from year 1. Strong rural and Indigenous pathways with bespoke MMI streams. Pre-interview ranking weights GAMSAT and GPA broadly equally; the MMI then carries substantial weight in the final composite.

Wollongong: Wollongong was established with an explicit rural and regional workforce mission. At least ~55 of ~109 places (~50%) carry Rural Entry Pathway eligibility — Combined Track 54 (min 32 REP), End-to-End 30 (min 17 REP), Health Access Stream 10 (min 6 REP) — not the often-quoted 25%. Year 3 includes a longitudinal integrated clerkship in a regional/rural community.

Which is right for you?

Check your state of origin before you apply — Griffith draws heavily on Queensland applicants and Wollongong 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

Griffith uses GAMSAT. Wollongong 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 27 August 2026.