Notre Dame Sydney vs Western Sydney

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Notre Dame Sydney — no published cut-off. Western Sydney — No published cut-off. WSU states the threshold "is not made public to applicants since it is determined each year according to the performance of all other applicants for the program" (FAQ), and that…

GAMSAT cut-offs. Notre Dame Sydney — Minimum total of 52 with at least 50 in each subsection; UNDA uses the unweighted average of the three GAMSAT sections, not the overall weighted score. Notre Dame publishes the average GAMSAT of… Western Sydney — not used or not published.

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.

Notre Dame Sydney requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.2/7.0 (weighted from 3 years FTE); GAMSAT 52 overall + 50 in each subsection; Casper (mandatory — applicants without a Casper score are not considered; last accepted sitting 11 June 2026 for the 2026-27 cycle); recorded/asynchronous online MMI.

Western Sydney requires Academic threshold ATAR 95.50 (93.50 Greater Western Sydney, 91.50 Rural Entry Admission Scheme, 93.50-equivalent international) plus UCAT-ANZ sat in the application year; no prerequisite or assumed-knowledge subjects are published; MMI online in late November.

95.50 is a minimum threshold, not a lowest selection rank — UAC records "N/A" for 725505 in its January Round 1 2026 lowest-selection-rank table because selection criteria other than ATAR are used. UAC location and subject adjustment factors do not apply to 725505.

ATAR. Notre Dame Sydney — no published cut-off. Western Sydney — Academic threshold, assessed only after the MMI: non-Greater Western Sydney applicants 95.50 (this band, not a lower one, catches interstate and regional applicants who are not REAS-eligible)…

Graduate-entry GPA. Notre Dame Sydney — Minimum weighted GPA of 5.2/7.0 over three FTE years, with GPA years progressively weighted Final-minus-2 x1, Final-minus-1 x2, Final x3. Notre Dame publishes the average GPA of applicants OFFERED AN… Western Sydney — not applicable or not published.

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 Notre Dame Sydney and Western Sydney 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: Notre Dame Sydney runs mmi (recorded/asynchronous online); live online panel for international applicants; Western Sydney runs multi-mini interview (mmi), online via zoom — approximately 8 minutes per station; station count not published by wsu. Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Notre Dame Sydney interviews in September-October (GEMSAS: interview offers released early September 2026); Western Sydney in Late November (2027 entry: late November 2026; invitations end October). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway: early November. No alternative interview dates are offered. International applicants are interviewed in rounds throughout the year rather than in this window..

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

Specifics: 4-year graduate MD. Foundation Years 1-2 are delivered principally through Problem Based Learning in small groups led by a clinician; Clinical Years 3 5-year integrated MD with problem-based learning. Years 1-2 foundations and clinical skills, years 3-5 clinical placements across Western Sydney teach

Intake size: Notre Dame Sydney — 2027 cycle: 40 CSP + 17 BMP + up to 57 full-fee domestic (via GEMSAS) + up to 35 full-fee international (direct…; Western Sydney — ~120 places total per year (CSP + BMP + ~20 international); specific split not published by WSU (WSU MD Enrolment Places page).

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

Notre Dame Sydney: Not publicly disclosed. Western Sydney: Not published. WSU releases neither the number of applicants interviewed nor the number of offers made, so no interview-to-offer rate can be stated.

WSU publishes only that there are approximately 120 places across Commonwealth Supported, Bonded Medical and International categories, and UAC records "N/A" for the course's lowest selection rank because non-ATAR criteria are used.

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.

Notre Dame Sydney: Notre Dame retired its selection Portfolio from the 2024 intake and put Casper in its place as the non-academic component; the interview format was not part of that change.

Casper is 30% of the pre-interview composite — the same weighting Notre Dame Fremantle uses — while Wollongong leans on Casper harder still, ranking for interview on 50% Casper plus 50% UOW admissions bonuses. Catholic ethos shapes the curriculum (medical ethics, end-of-life care, social justice) but the program is open to applicants of all faiths and none.

Strong placement network in Sydney Catholic and public hospitals, extending to Werribee Mercy and St John of God Ballarat in Victoria.

Notre Dame also runs entry pathways no other Australian medical school offers: a Priority Entry Pathway reserving MD places for its own Bachelor of Biomedical Science graduates (first Priority Entry in the 2026-27 intake, for students admitted to that degree from 2024 onwards; GPA >=6.0, unweighted GAMSAT >=55, Casper no lower than 1 SD below the mean, Notre Dame preferenced first through GEMSAS), plus facilitated interview pathways reaching the Sydney campus for Notre Dame undergraduate graduates (up to 10 across Fremantle and Sydney), Notre Dame Graduate Diploma or Master of Health and Medical Sciences graduates (up to 25) and ACU Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences graduates (up to 5, Sydney only).

Notre Dame's Pre-Medicine Certificate facilitated pathway is a Fremantle pathway and does not apply at Sydney. 2027 cycle: 40 CSP + 17 BMP + up to 57 full-fee domestic through GEMSAS, plus up to 35 full-fee international places that are NOT offered through GEMSAS in 2027 — international applicants must apply direct to Notre Dame's International Admissions Office.

GEMSAS notes the numbers are subject to change and that the quota includes the assured and priority pathways.

Western Sydney: WSU was established with an explicit rural and outer-metropolitan workforce mission. The Greater Western Sydney admissions pathway prioritises applicants with a postcode link to the catchment.

The Rural Entry Admission Scheme reserves a minimum of 15 places at a lower academic threshold (ATAR 91.50) and is a mutually exclusive application category — you cannot apply as both REAS and General. WSU attaches no return-of-service obligation to REAS itself.

The only bonded places at WSU are Bonded Medical Program places, which the University allocates on final ranking with no separate application, and which carry the Commonwealth Return of Service Obligation; any applicant may receive one. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway is a separate panel-interview route and is likewise not bonded of itself.