Macquarie vs UQ

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Macquarie — no published cut-off. UQ — Provisional Entry (school-leaver) only — 2025 intake lowest invited UCAT-ANZ 3110 (non-rural) / 2670 (Rural Access). 25% ATAR + 25% UCAT (cognitive sections only, excluding SJT) + 50% MMI.

GAMSAT cut-offs. Macquarie — Minimum 50 overall, 50 in each section. Used at 50% weight (alongside 50% GPA) for interview shortlist. 2024 intake average successful GAMSAT ~66. UQ — Minimum 50 in each of Sections I, II, III (any section below 50 = ineligible). Interview shortlist: 50% unweighted GAMSAT (mean of 3 sections) + 50% GPA, GPA as tiebreaker.

Final offer: 25% ATAR/GPA…

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.

Macquarie requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT overall 60+; MMI; English prerequisites.

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

Graduate-entry GPA. Macquarie — Minimum 5.0/7.0 (or WAM 65). 2024 intake average successful GPA ~6.7/7.0. UQ — Minimum 5.0/7.0 in key degree. Currency rule: degrees > 10 years before commencement require ≥ 0.50 FTE subsequent coursework at GPA ≥ 5.0.

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 Macquarie and UQ 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: Macquarie runs multi-mini interview (8 stations, live online); UQ runs multi-mini interview (8 stations). Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Macquarie interviews in September-October; UQ in October-November.

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

Specifics: 4-year MD with hospital-integrated placements from year 1 at Macquarie University Hospital. Years 3-4 expand to broader Sydney clinical school network 4-year graduate MD. Years 1-2 foundations and clinical skills at the Herston Health Sciences precinct. Years 3-4 clinical placements distributed acros

Intake size: Macquarie — 2027: ~60 full-fee domestic + ~20 international. No CSP/BMP at Macquarie (full-fee program; no Commonwealth-mandated bonded allocation).; UQ — 2027 graduate intake: 107 CSP + 43 BMP + up to 190 international = up to 340 total (reduced from 350). Plus ~140 Provisional Entry CSP (school-leaver) with 28% reserved for Rural Access Scheme..

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

Macquarie: ~56% (2024 cycle: 125 offers from 223 interviews — 79 domestic, 46 international). UQ: ~40% 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.

Macquarie: Macquarie is Australia's first fully full-fee graduate MD (no CSP places) and is co-located with Macquarie University Hospital — students train alongside private practice from year 1. Small cohort (~60) gives a high-touch teaching model. GAMSAT and prior clinical exposure are weighted heavily.

UQ: UQ runs Australia's largest 4-year graduate-entry MD (~470 places), anchored across the Herston Health Sciences precinct and the Princess Alexandra, Royal Brisbane, Mater, and Gold Coast clinical schools. The Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans offers an internationally co-badged pathway.

Pre-interview ranking is a weighted GAMSAT + GPA composite; the MMI and MSA together carry significant weight in the final offer composite.