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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; 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
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each of the three sections. Ranking formula uses GAMSAT at 25% post-interview (MMI 50%, GPA 25%, GAMSAT 25%). Aggregated average accepted GAMSAT: 67 (2024), 65 (2023), 67 (2022), 69.35 (2021) per Fraser's.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (8 stations × ~5 min)
Post-interview chance
~37% of interviewees receive an offer.
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). 2023 intake average successful GAMSAT 66 (3-year avg ~60+).
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
MMI (asynchronous online via Modern Hire)
Post-interview chance
Not publicly disclosed; aggregator estimate ~200-250 interviewed for ~100 places.
Decision date
November-December

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%). Aggregated average accepted GAMSAT: 67 (2024), 65 (2023), 67 (2022), 69.35… Notre Dame Fremantle — Minimum 52 overall + 50 in each subsection (UNDA averages the three sections rather than using the overall weighted GAMSAT).

2023 intake average successful GAMSAT 66 (3-year avg ~60+).

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 with minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT overall 50+ with each section 50+; MMI.

Notre Dame Fremantle requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.2/7.0; GAMSAT 52 overall + 50 in each subsection (unweighted average of 3 sections); CASPer; MMI (Modern Hire asynchronous).

Graduate-entry GPA. Melbourne — Minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0. UoM weighting formula: (Final-2 × 1 + Final-1 × 2 + Final × 2) / 5. PhD / Masters in a related discipline can adjust GPA in applicant's favour (strict quotas). Notre Dame Fremantle — Minimum 5.2/7.0. 2023 intake average successful GPA 6.70 (3-year avg ~6.7); competitive ≥6.3.

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 multi-mini interview (8 stations × ~5 min); Notre Dame Fremantle runs mmi (asynchronous online via modern hire). Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Melbourne interviews in August-September; Notre Dame Fremantle in September-November.

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. 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 hospital and rural placements acro

Intake size: Melbourne — 2027 cycle: 179 CSP + 71 BMP + up to 105 Full-fee domestic ≈ ~355 total (GEMSAS UoM page).

2024 intake was 177 CSP + 70 BMP — year-on-year delta within ±2 places.; Notre Dame Fremantle — 2027 cycle ~127 total: 80 CSP (60 Fremantle + 20 KCRMT Broome) + 32 BMP + up to 15 international + uncapped Indigenous. Significant +17 expansion vs 2026 (110) driven by KCRMT Broome pathway and Commonwealth Indigenous policy change..

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

Post-interview offer rate

Melbourne: ~37% of interviewees receive an offer. Notre Dame Fremantle: Not publicly disclosed; aggregator estimate ~200-250 interviewed for ~100 places.

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, Western, and St Vincent's clinical schools. Pre-interview ranking is a weighted composite of GAMSAT and GPA; the MMI then carries a substantial weight in the final offer composite.

Strong Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) entry stream via the Murrup Barak portal.

Notre Dame Fremantle: Notre Dame Fremantle replaced its portfolio + panel system with CASPer from the 2024 intake — one of the heaviest CASPer weightings in Australian medicine (30% of pre-interview composite). 2027 cycle introduces 20 new CSP places at the Kimberley Centre for Rural and Remote Medicine and Training (KCRMT) Broome — Kimberley-region remote-workforce expansion.

From 1 January 2026 Indigenous CSP allocation is uncapped (Commonwealth policy change). Assured Pathway: from 2024, 40 places nationally (20 Fremantle + 20 Sydney) reserved for Assured Pathway undergraduate pre-MD applicants.

Which is right for you?

Start with the admission test: Melbourne needs GAMSAT, 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. 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 — last reviewed 25 August 2026.