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Australian Medical school comparison

Melbourne vs Notre Dame Fremantle

Melbourne and Notre Dame Fremantle are both Australian medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Melbourne is in Victoria while Notre Dame Fremantle is in Western Australia. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones. Melbourne uses GAMSAT and MCAT; Notre Dame Fremantle uses GAMSAT and CASPer.

That mismatch means either preparing two assessments or choosing the school whose test suits you.

Side-by-side comparison

Melbourne

Parkville

Quick comparison

Location
Parkville, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT + MCAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each of the three sections. Ranking formula uses GAMSAT at 25% post-interview (MMI 50%, GPA 25%, GAMSAT 25%). Pre-interview shortlisting weights GPA and GAMSAT equally (50/50). UoM does not publish accepted or cut-off GAMSAT scores for any cycle, and because it ranks on the three sections weighted equally rather than on ACER's overall score, an 'average accepted GAMSAT' is not a figure its process produces. No Tier-1 source confirms one.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Recorded Online Multi Mini-Interview (ROMMI) — 8 stations, ~5 minutes each, recorded and asynchronous with no live interviewer; Rural and North Western pathway applicants additionally sit a 3-station real-time online MMI
Post-interview chance
UoM does not publish interview-to-offer conversion. What is published is the hurdle: an applicant must achieve a satisfactory standard in their overall MMI score AND be above the cut-score in 5 of 8 stations to be eligible for an offer, after which the MMI carries 50% of the final ranking (70% on the rural and North Western pathways). UoM no longer publishes a numeric minimum percentage for the overall MMI score.
Decision date
October-November

Notre Dame Fremantle

Fremantle

Quick comparison

Location
Fremantle, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT + CASPer
GAMSAT
Minimum 52 overall + 50 in each subsection (UNDA averages the three sections rather than using the overall weighted GAMSAT). Notre Dame publishes the average GAMSAT of applicants OFFERED AN INTERVIEW (not of successful entrants), for Fremantle and Broome combined: 64.65 (2024 intake), 66.10 (2025 intake), 65.50 (2026 intake); Broome is included only from the 2026 intake. These exclude applicants considered on additional criteria including rurality and facilitated-interview eligibility. They are descriptive averages, not cut-offs: Notre Dame states that interview selection also weighs Casper and bonus points, and that place offers additionally take the interview score into account. The published hard minimum remains an unweighted GAMSAT average of 52 with at least 50 in every subsection.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
MMI delivered on a recorded (asynchronous) online platform for domestic applicants; a live online panel interview for international applicants. Notre Dame named 'Modern Hire' as the recording tool in its 2025 international admissions brochure, but neither Notre Dame nor GEMSAS names a platform for the 2027 cycle — do not rely on it.
Post-interview chance
Not publicly disclosed. Notre Dame publishes no interview-to-offer ratio for the 2027 cycle, and GEMSAS states that individual scores and rankings are never released to applicants.
Decision date
Late October-early November 2026 for the main round of place offers, with additional vacancy-filling offers in November 2026, December 2026 and January 2027. The programme commences 18 January 2027 with compulsory in-person Orientation, and conditional offers require degree completion to be confirmed by 23 December 2026.

Melbourne vs Notre Dame Fremantle - in detail

Admission tests compared

GAMSAT cut-offs. Melbourne — Minimum 50 in each of the three sections. Ranking formula uses GAMSAT at 25% post-interview (MMI 50%, GPA 25%, GAMSAT 25%). Pre-interview shortlisting weights GPA and GAMSAT equally (50/50). UoM does… Notre Dame Fremantle — Minimum 52 overall + 50 in each subsection (UNDA averages the three sections rather than using the overall weighted GAMSAT).

Notre Dame publishes the average GAMSAT of applicants OFFERED AN INTERVIEW…

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

Melbourne requires Bachelor degree normally completed within 10 years of commencing the MD (an older degree is acceptable if a graduate diploma, masters or PhD was completed within the last 10 years), minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT minimum 50 in EACH of the three sections for standard-pathway domestic and onshore international applicants — UoM weights the three sections equally and explicitly does not use the GAMSAT 'overall score' — or MCAT 492+ for offshore international applicants; recorded online MMI.

No prerequisite subjects.

Notre Dame Fremantle requires General domestic applicants apply through GEMSAS (applications 1-29 May 2026, closing 5pm AEST 29 May 2026).

Bachelor degree at AQF Level 7 completed within the last 10 years of the closing date — or be in the final year of one; the 10-year rule may be waived where an additional AQF Level 7 or higher qualification has been completed by 31 July 2026.

Weighted GPA of at least 5.2 as calculated by GEMSAS over three FTE years, progressively weighted final-minus-2 x1, final-minus-1 x2, final x3, with no more than one year of credit below AQF Level 7. Unweighted GAMSAT average of the three sections of at least 52, with a minimum of 50 in each subsection.

A Casper score is mandatory — 'Applicants without a Casper score will not be considered.' Shortlisted applicants then sit an online Multiple Mini Interview. GEMSAS states: 'no considerations outside the published entry requirements will be taken into account. Strictly no additional factors, including but not limited to work experience, field experience, or other extracurricular achievements will be considered.

Graduate-entry GPA. Melbourne — Minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0. UoM weighting formula: (Final-2 × 1 + Final-1 × 2 + Final × 2) / 5.

A completed PhD — not a Masters — can earn re-ranking in the applicant's favour: it must be in a… Notre Dame Fremantle — Minimum weighted GPA 5.2/7.0 as calculated by GEMSAS over the three most recent FTE years, progressively weighted final-minus-2 x1, final-minus-1 x2, final x3. Notre Dame's published average GPA of…

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 Melbourne and Notre Dame Fremantle 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: Melbourne runs recorded online multi mini-interview (rommi) — 8 stations, ~5 minutes each, recorded and asynchronous with no live interviewer; rural and north western…; Notre Dame Fremantle runs mmi delivered on a recorded (asynchronous) online platform for domestic applicants; a live online panel interview for international applicants.

Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Melbourne interviews in September (2027 intake: rural-pathway MMIs online in the week of 7 September 2026; standard domestic and international MMIs online in the week of 14 September 2026.

Interview offers go out mid-August for international and rural applicants and late August for domestic applicants); Notre Dame Fremantle in September-October (domestic GEMSAS route: interview offers early September 2026, interviews held September/October 2026). Separate timetables apply to the direct pathways: Indigenous-pathway interviews commence from June 2026, and international online panel interviews run 18 May - 30 November 2026..

Curriculum and teaching style

Melbourne runs a Integrated curriculum; Notre Dame Fremantle runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Melbourne delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Notre Dame Fremantle centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: 4-year graduate MD. Year 1 foundations and clinical skills at Parkville. Years 2-3 clinical placements across Royal Melbourne, Austin, Western, St Vin 4-year graduate MD. Years 1-2 foundations and clinical skills at Fremantle with early clinical immersion. Years 3-4 are clinical rotations in public a

Intake size: Melbourne — 2027 cycle (indicative): 179 CSP + 71 BMP (39 via GEMSAS + 32 via MD Rural Pathway) + up to 105 full-fee…; Notre Dame Fremantle — 2027 cycle ~127 total: 80 CSP (60 Fremantle + 20 KCRMT Broome) + 32 BMP + up to 15 international + uncapped….

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

Post-interview offer rate

Melbourne: UoM does not publish interview-to-offer conversion. What is published is the hurdle: an applicant must achieve a satisfactory standard in their overall MMI score AND be above the cut-score in 5 of 8 stations to be eligible for an offer, after which the MMI carries 50% of the final ranking (70% on the rural and North Western pathways).

UoM no longer publishes a numeric minimum percentage for the overall MMI score. Notre Dame Fremantle: Not publicly disclosed. Notre Dame publishes no interview-to-offer ratio for the 2027 cycle, and GEMSAS states that individual scores and rankings are never released to applicants.

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

Melbourne: Melbourne runs Australia's flagship 4-year graduate-entry MD anchored across the Parkville biomedical precinct (Royal Melbourne, Royal Children's, Peter MacCallum) and extending to the Austin, Epworth, Northern, Royal Melbourne, St Vincent's and Western clinical schools. Pre-interview ranking weights GPA and GAMSAT equally; the recorded online MMI then carries 50% of the final offer composite against GPA 25% and GAMSAT 25%.

Strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entry stream via the Indigenous MD Student Entry Pathway, applied for directly through UoM rather than GEMSAS.

Notre Dame Fremantle: Notre Dame Fremantle dropped its written Notre Dame Portfolio and replaced it with Casper from the 2024 intake — but the interview itself did not change: it was a Multiple Mini Interview before and after, delivered on a recorded online platform since 2020. There was never a panel format for domestic applicants.

— one of the heaviest CASPer weightings in Australian medicine (30% of pre-interview composite). The Kimberley Centre for Remote Medical Training (KCRMT), Broome, is a Commonwealth-funded end-to-end rural stream that took its first cohort in Semester 1 2025 — it is not a 2027 innovation.

It carries up to 20 CSP places a year; students spend Years 1-2 on Notre Dame's Broome campus and Years 3-4 in regional training hubs across WA in partnership with the Rural Clinical School of WA. Rural and metropolitan applicants preference it inside the same GEMSAS application as Fremantle; long-term Kimberley/Pilbara residents apply direct to Notre Dame.

Note the centre's name — it is not the 'Kimberley Centre for Rural and Remote Medicine and Training'. From 1 January 2026 Indigenous CSP allocation is uncapped (Commonwealth policy change). Two reserved-entry routes exist, and Notre Dame publishes a number for neither.

(1) Assured Pathway — a school-leaver route: applicants apply to the Bachelor of Biomedical Science and Doctor of Medicine (Assured Pathway) at Fremantle or Sydney at the same time and secure an MD place on completing the bachelor degree, provided a minimum GPA of 2.5 is maintained each semester; it is closed to anyone who has already commenced tertiary study.

(2) Priority Entry Pathway — a graduate route reserving places for Notre Dame's own Bachelor of Biomedical Science graduates (including double degrees) first admitted from 2024 onwards, first entering in the 2026-2027 intake; these applicants still apply through GEMSAS and must achieve a GEMSAS-calculated GPA of 6.0 or higher, an unweighted GAMSAT of 55 or higher, and a Casper score no lower than 1 SD below the mean.

Notre Dame states only that reserved places are 'distributed nationally between campuses and fee types in a similar pattern to the distribution of general places'; GEMSAS notes the published place numbers already include both — 'Quota includes assured and priority pathways.' No 40 / 20+20 split is published anywhere official.

Which is right for you?

Start with the admission test: Melbourne needs GAMSAT and MCAT, Notre Dame Fremantle needs GAMSAT and CASPer. Preparing for one well beats splitting your time across two. Check your state of origin before you apply — Melbourne draws heavily on Victoria applicants and Notre Dame Fremantle on Western 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

Melbourne uses GAMSAT and MCAT. Notre Dame Fremantle uses GAMSAT and CASPer. The test mismatch means you may need to prep two assessments simultaneously, or you can pick the school whose admission test you're stronger in. 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.