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Australian Medical school comparison

Tasmania vs UNSW

Tasmania and UNSW are both Australian medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Tasmania is in Tasmania while UNSW is in New South Wales. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones. Tasmania uses UCAT-ANZ, GAMSAT, ISAT and MCAT; UNSW uses UCAT-ANZ and ISAT.

That mismatch means either preparing two assessments or choosing the school whose test suits you. They also recruit at different stages: Tasmania runs both undergraduate and graduate entry, UNSW runs school-leaver (undergraduate) entry. The interview formats diverge — Interview vs Panel — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

Side-by-side comparison

Tasmania

Hobart

Quick comparison

Location
Hobart, Australia
Entry pathway
Dual (UG + Grad)
Admission tests
UCAT-ANZ + GAMSAT + ISAT + MCAT
GAMSAT
Previous-higher-education route: minimum score of 50 in all three sections of GAMSAT. Accepted sittings are the same as those used by GEMSAS, although the application itself goes direct to UTAS, not through GEMSAS. From 2027 the UTAS Bachelor of Biomedicine (M3X) quota also requires GAMSAT 50 in all three sections; the retiring BMedRes (53E) pathway required no admission test. UTAS publishes no offer-holder GAMSAT score.
UCAT-ANZ
No published domestic cut-off — UCAT-ANZ only separates applicants who share an ATAR, so there is no threshold to quote. UTAS sums the three cognitive subtests only (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning); Situational Judgement is excluded. International applicants must reach the 50th percentile or above: on the official UCAT ANZ 2026 distribution — the sitting used for 2027 entry — the 5th decile (median) total was 1,950/2700 (mean 1,964; 9th decile 2,340; 17,341 candidates).
ATAR
Domestic: minimum adjusted ATAR 95 — explicitly the minimum needed for an application to be considered, not a guarantee of an offer (UTAS: "achieving the minimum entry requirements does not guarantee an offer of a place"). International: minimum ATAR or equivalent rank 90. UTAS publishes no competitive cut-off, median or lowest-offer ATAR for this course, and no ATAR/selection-rank or student profile is published for it on CourseSeeker.
Interview format
No interview in standard selection — ATAR-first ranking with UCAT-ANZ tiebreaker (Aboriginal Entry Pathway applicants are interviewed; UTAS publishes no format)
Post-interview chance
N/A — no interview.
Decision date
Mid-December (first-round offers to Tasmanian Year 12 applicants on ATAR); January (interstate Year 12 and IB applicants) — the pattern UTAS publishes on its application-dates table each cycle. International applicants are handled in four offer rounds across the preceding year (rounds closing 30 May, 31 July, 30 September and 30 November), with offers made within two weeks of each round closing.

UNSW

Sydney

Quick comparison

Location
Sydney, Australia
Entry pathway
Undergraduate
Admission tests
UCAT-ANZ + ISAT
GAMSAT
-
UCAT-ANZ
UNSW publishes a hard minimum: UCAT ANZ 50th percentile or above for General, Gateway, Lateral and international entry, and 40th percentile or above for the Rural Entry Admission Pathway. It publishes no competitive cut-off. On the current /2700 three-subtest scale the official UCAT ANZ 2026 sitting (used for 2027 entry) had a median total cognitive score of 1,950 and a 9th decile of 2,340, so on the national distribution the 50th-percentile gate maps to roughly 1,950 for that sitting - our derivation, not a UNSW figure, and it moves with each cohort. Interview shortlisting uses selection rank and UCAT ANZ total cognitive score only; Situational Judgement is reported as a separate scaled score (300-900) and is not part of the cognitive total.
ATAR
Minimum eligibility ATAR 96.00 without EAS adjustment (General and international); 91.00 without adjustment for the Rural Entry Admission Pathway and the Gateway Entry Scheme. For 2026 entry UNSW published a lowest ATAR to which an offer was made of 99.75 (local General), 94.25 (Gateway, via a Gateway Early Conditional Offer) and 91.05 (Rural) - defined as the lowest ATAR before adjustment factors, not a threshold. UNSW publishes no interview-shortlist ATAR. It does publish a whole-programme ATAR Profile (highest, median and lowest ATAR and Selection Rank), but that is a past-intake cohort profile spanning all entry schemes and is not an entry cut-off.
Interview format
Structured interview with two interviewers (not an MMI)
Post-interview chance
Not published by UNSW. For scale only: UNSW offers approximately 350 General Entry interview places a year, plus about 60 Gateway and 30 Lateral, against the domestic commencing quota of 198 recorded by the AMC in 2024 - shared across all entry schemes.
Decision date
January-February (UAC offer rounds)

Tasmania vs UNSW - in detail

Admission tests compared

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Tasmania — No published domestic cut-off — UCAT-ANZ only separates applicants who share an ATAR, so there is no threshold to quote.

UTAS sums the three cognitive subtests only (Verbal Reasoning, Decision… UNSW — UNSW publishes a hard minimum: UCAT ANZ 50th percentile or above for General, Gateway, Lateral and international entry, and 40th percentile or above for the Rural Entry Admission Pathway. It…

GAMSAT cut-offs. Tasmania — Previous-higher-education route: minimum score of 50 in all three sections of GAMSAT. Accepted sittings are the same as those used by GEMSAS, although the application itself goes direct to UTAS, not… UNSW — 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.

ATAR and academic profile

Tasmania requires School-leaver: minimum adjusted ATAR 95 (the bar to be considered — UTAS publishes no competitive cut-off or ATAR profile) + a valid UCAT-ANZ score, used only to separate applicants sitting on the same ATAR.

International school leavers need an ATAR-equivalent of 90 plus one of UCAT-ANZ at or above the 50th percentile, ISAT 170 overall (165 in each section), or MCAT 491 from the last five years; ISAT and MCAT are not accepted from domestic applicants. Applicants with previous higher education: minimum unweighted GPA 5.25 + GAMSAT minimum 50 in all three sections.

Year 12 English and Chemistry (within the last 5 years) are prerequisites. No interview in standard selection — the Aboriginal Entry Pathway is the one exception.

UNSW requires Minimum eligibility ATAR 96.00 without EAS adjustment (91.00 for the Rural Entry Admission Pathway and the Gateway Entry Scheme) plus a UCAT ANZ result at or above the 50th percentile (40th for rural); these are hurdles, not competitive marks. English Standard assumed knowledge only - no maths, chemistry or biology prerequisite.

Selection concludes with a structured interview with two interviewers.

ATAR. Tasmania — Domestic: minimum adjusted ATAR 95 — explicitly the minimum needed for an application to be considered, not a guarantee of an offer (UTAS: "achieving the minimum entry requirements does not guarantee… UNSW — Minimum eligibility ATAR 96.00 without EAS adjustment (General and international); 91.00 without adjustment for the Rural Entry Admission Pathway and the Gateway Entry Scheme.

For 2026 entry UNSW…

Graduate-entry GPA. Tasmania — Previous-higher-education entry: minimum unweighted GPA 5.25 — the bar for an application to be considered, not a competitive GPA. Calculated across all tertiary study at AQF 7 and above (the first… UNSW — 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.

Interview formats

Tasmania uses Interview (No interview in standard selection — ATAR-first ranking with UCAT-ANZ tiebreaker (Aboriginal Entry Pathway applicants are interviewed; UTAS publishes no format)); UNSW uses Panel (Structured interview with two interviewers (not an MMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Interview emphasises academic reasoning and thinking aloud through unfamiliar problems, while Panel rewards depth and consistency.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, UNSW may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, either is the better fit.

Interview windows: Tasmania interviews in No interview (standard entry). Aboriginal Entry Pathway applicants are interviewed by representatives of the Medicine Admissions Committee; UTAS does not publish an interview window.; UNSW in November (Rural Entry Admission Pathway), mid-December (Lateral Entry, one interview day), and December-January (General and Gateway), with a final mid-January round for NZ applicants with late results.

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: 5-year undergraduate Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine (course code H3X; minimum 5 years, maximum 7; AQF level 7; 500 credit points — 6-year Bachelor of Medical Studies / Doctor of Medicine, 288 units of credit, taught in three vertically integrated phases. Phase 1 (years 1-2): scena

Intake size: Tasmania — UTAS does not publish a total intake for the BMedScMD, and no ATAR/selection-rank or student profile is published for the course on…; UNSW — The AMC's February 2024 UNSW accreditation report records a government-set quota of 198 domestic commencing students and a Faculty-agreed quota of 100….

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

Post-interview offer rate

Tasmania: N/A — no interview. UNSW: Not published by UNSW. For scale only: UNSW offers approximately 350 General Entry interview places a year, plus about 60 Gateway and 30 Lateral, against the domestic commencing quota of 198 recorded by the AMC in 2024 - shared across all entry schemes.

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

Tasmania: Tasmania is the only medical school in the state, and from 2026 it runs at all three campuses — Hobart, Launceston and Cradle Coast (Burnie) — with applicants ranked and offers made separately against each campus.

Residency, not a stratospheric ATAR, is the dominant lever: at least 75% of domestic places go to Tasmanians, 50% to rural MM2-7 applicants including 25% from MM3-7, and the Rural Application Process adds 4 ATAR points for MM2 and 5 for MM3-7 Year 12 leavers. The minimum adjusted ATAR is 95 and UTAS publishes no cut-off or student profile.

Twenty places sit in the Tasmanian Rural Training Stream at Cradle Coast. The Aboriginal Entry Pathway waives the clinical aptitude test (UCAT or GAMSAT) but adds a personal supporting statement and an interview with representatives of the Medicine Admissions Committee.

UNSW: UNSW runs a 6-year direct-entry Bachelor of Medical Studies / Doctor of Medicine (BMed MD): two foundation years, a clinical third year, a dedicated research fourth year (Independent Learning Project or Medicine Honours) and two final clinical years.

Four schemes sit alongside general entry - the Rural Entry Admission Pathway (ATAR 91.00, UCAT ANZ 40th percentile, end-to-end study at Port Macquarie or Wagga Wagga), the Gateway Entry Scheme for low-SES applicants (~20 offers), the Lateral Entry Scheme from the UNSW BMedSc (up to 10 offers) and the Indigenous Entry Scheme via Nura Gili.

Interview shortlisting uses selection rank and UCAT ANZ total score only; the final rank then adds a structured two-interviewer interview score. UNSW states it does not disclose the ranking algorithm and does not average the three components.

Which is right for you?

Start with the admission test: Tasmania needs UCAT-ANZ, GAMSAT, ISAT and MCAT, UNSW needs UCAT-ANZ and ISAT. Preparing for one well beats splitting your time across two. Check your state of origin before you apply — Tasmania draws heavily on Tasmania applicants and UNSW on New South Wales, and an interstate application often faces a materially higher bar.

They suit different stages too: Tasmania is both undergraduate and graduate entry, UNSW is school-leaver (undergraduate) entry. 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

Tasmania uses UCAT-ANZ, GAMSAT, ISAT and MCAT. UNSW uses UCAT-ANZ and ISAT. 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.