2027 Entry Requirements & Interview Format
Deakin University School of Medicine in Geelong, VIC runs a graduate-entry medicine program for 2027 entry. Admission tests listed: GAMSAT and MCAT. Published hurdles: GPA — minimum 5.0/7.0 weighted; GAMSAT — minimum 50 in each section + 50 overall. Deakin holds multiple mini interviews (MMI).
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Step-by-step: entry requirements, admission-test prep, personal statement, interview format and the key deadlines.
Open the guide →Format breakdown, school-specific sample questions, FAQs and prep tips from tutors who interviewed here.
Read the guide →Problem-based learning + Integrated, 4 years (graduate entry), placements in Geelong, Ballarat, Warrnambool, rural Victoria and Melbourne's east.
See the course →Deakin's 4-year graduate-entry MD training doctors for regional Victoria.
Years 1-2 are at Waurn Ponds (Geelong) for General Entry Stream students, or Warrnambool or Ararat for Rural Training Stream students; Years 3-4 are spent at one of five Deakin Medical School sites — Geelong-Barwon, Ballarat-Grampians, Warrnambool-South West, Rural Communities, or Eastern Health in metropolitan Melbourne — and the programme is distinguished by the Rural Communities site's 12-month longitudinal Year 3 placement across nine rural Victorian locations.
Deakin was established as a rural-focused graduate-entry MD and remains one of the strongest pipelines into Victorian rural practice. Deakin's Years 3-4 clinical partners are named health services — Barwon Health (Geelong), Eastern Health (Melbourne), Grampians Health (Ballarat) and South West Healthcare (Warrnambool) — plus the nine-location Rural Communities network.
A substantial proportion of places are reserved for rural-origin applicants, with bonded service options. Years 3-4 are spent at one of five Deakin Medical School sites — Eastern Health (Melbourne), Geelong-Barwon, Rural Communities, Warrnambool-South West or Ballarat-Grampians — allocated in Year 2 by preference and place availability.
The Rural Communities site is the distinctive one: a 12-month Year 3 longitudinal placement following patients over time, at one of nine rural and regional Victorian locations. It is one option among five, not something every student does.
PBL curriculum. 4-year graduate MD with problem-based learning. Years 1-2 at Waurn Ponds (Geelong) for General Entry Stream students. Rural Training Stream students do Years 1-2 elsewhere: blended online learning with a minimum of 1-2 days a week of mandatory face-to-face attendance, based at Deakin's Warrnambool Campus or East Grampians Health Service, Ararat, with occasional attendance at Waurn Ponds.
Site preference is collected after the offer is accepted and is not guaranteed.
Years 3-4 at one of five Deakin Medical School sites (Geelong-Barwon, Ballarat-Grampians, Warrnambool-South West, Rural Communities, Eastern Health), allocated in Year 2 by student preference and place availability; students placed at Rural Communities spend 12 months of Year 3 in a longitudinal placement at one of nine rural Victorian locations. RTS students cannot be allocated Geelong-Barwon or Eastern Health.
Fees: Commonwealth Supported Place student contribution AUD $14,046 for one year full-time (indicative, based on 8 credit points, and indexed annually). International full-fee place: Deakin publishes an indicative annual tuition fee on its international course page (AUD $89,240 per year as last verified) — quote the live figure before publishing. Deakin publishes no domestic full-fee price for the MD.
Online MMI of 6 stations × 5 minutes in September.
Deakin is strong in these research areas:
Format: Multiple Mini Interview (up to 6 stations, 5 minutes each; held online for 2027 entry)
Deakin runs a Multiple Mini Interview of up to 6 consecutive stations with 5 minutes per interaction. For 2027 entry GEMSAS states interviews are held online in September 2026, so there is no on-campus interview day this cycle.
Deakin lists the key areas addressed as ones that may include communication skills, commitment to rural and regional practice, evidence-based practice, self-directed learning, teamwork, motivation for a career in medicine, commitment to social justice, professionalism, effective use of resources and health promotion.
A minimum overall MMI score of 50% is required, and eligible applicants scoring less than 2 on any station undergo review. International applicants do not sit the MMI at all — Deakin interviews them itself, by panel, using a structured format.
2027: ~160 total (up to 100 CSP + 45 BMP + 15 international + 30 RTS reserved subset). Maximum 220 interview offers; implied interview-to-place ratio ≈ 1.6:1 (GEMSAS Medical Schools Admission Guide, Deakin entry, 2027 intake).
Deakin University School of Medicine was founded in 2008 and is based in Geelong.
Programmes offered:
These are real recordings of the interviewers you would meet, from a panel of 19 photoreal faces. Speak your answers out loud, get pressed with follow-ups, and receive rubric-scored feedback about two minutes after you finish, with a replay of your answers.
Try the AI interviewer| Entry pathway | Graduate entry |
|---|---|
| GPA | Minimum 5.0/7.0 weighted |
| GAMSAT | Minimum 50 in each section + 50 overall |
| Interview format | Multiple mini interviews (MMI) |
| Intake | 2027: ~160 total (up to 100 CSP + 45 BMP + 15 international + 30 RTS reserved subset) |
| Admission overview | Bachelor degree (completed, or final year scheduled for completion by 23 December in the year of application) with minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0 over the most recent 3 FTE years; GAMSAT 50+ in each of the three sections and 50+ overall, sat within the preceding four years; online MMI. The degree must normally be awarded within 10 years of commencement, though applicants outside that window may still be considered if they complete 0.5 FTE of AQF Level 8 or higher study by 31 July in the year of application. GAMSAT and the 10-year recency rule are both waived for Rural Training Stream Tier 1 applicants, and GAMSAT is not required at all for the Indigenous Entry Stream. International applicants may use GAMSAT or MCAT and sit a structured panel interview instead of the MMI. |
|---|---|
| GAMSAT | Minimum 50 in each section + 50 overall. Minimum 50 in each of the three GAMSAT sections and 50 overall, obtained within four years preceding the year of application. Deakin publishes the average GAMSAT of its commencing cohort, not a cut-off: 65.9 for the 2026 intake and 66.39 for the 2025 intake (Deakin course page). These are cohort averages, not thresholds — Deakin publishes no competitive or guaranteed score. General-stream interview shortlist: GPA + GAMSAT + adjustments, equally weighted. General-stream interview shortlist: GPA + GAMSAT + adjustments equally weighted. |
| GPA | Minimum 5.0/7.0 weighted. GEMSAS weighting (Final-2 × 1 + Final-1 × 2 + Final × 3) / 6; each GPA year must contain at least 0.25 FTE of graded results and 2020 calendar-year results are excluded. The degree must have been awarded within 10 years of the projected commencement date; applicants outside that window may still be considered if they complete the equivalent of 0.5 FTE of AQF Level 8 or higher study, finished by 31 July in the year of application. This currency rule does not apply to RTS Tier 1 applicants. Minimum weighted GPA 5.0/7.0 over the most recent three FTE years, progressively weighted x1, x2, x3. A GPA year must contain at least 0.25 FTE of graded results, and 2020 calendar-year results are excluded from the calculation. Deakin publishes the average GPA of its commencing cohort, not a cut-off: 6.72 for the 2026 intake and 6.68 for the 2025 intake (Deakin course page). |
| Place types | 2027 intake: up to 100 CSP + 45 BMP + 15 International + 30 RTS (reserved subset of domestic) ≈ 160 total. Indigenous Entry Stream holds up to seven domestic places; a minimum 25% of domestic places goes to rural-background applicants over and above the 30 places reserved for the Rural Training Stream, and Deakin states that a minimum 50% of all course places (RTS + general stream combined) are offered to students meeting rural background criteria. |
| Indigenous pathway | Indigenous Entry Stream (IES) holds up to seven domestic places. IES applicants apply directly to the School of Medicine rather than through GEMSAS, may apply with a degree in any discipline (bachelor, or bachelor plus a higher-level coursework postgraduate degree, normally completed within 10 years of commencement), and are NOT required to sit GAMSAT — though GAMSAT results may be submitted if held. Ranking is on weighted GPA (5.0+), the IES application form and an interview, with a minimum overall interview score of 50%. Deakin's IES page listed a Doctor of Medicine close date of 5pm, 31 July 2026 for the 2027 intake — confirm the current date on that page each cycle. First Nations applicants may instead apply through GEMSAS, in which case Confirmation of Aboriginality and/or Torres Strait Islander Descent must be supplied by 30 June 2026. |
| Bonded / rural | 45 of the 145 domestic places for 2027 entry (about 31%) are Bonded Medical Program places — Commonwealth Supported Places carrying a return-of-service obligation of 156 weeks (3 years) as a medical practitioner in an eligible regional, rural or remote area, to be completed within 18 years of finishing the medical course. Separately, the Rural Training Stream (RTS) three-tier system: Tier 1 (Deakin's rural footprint, all locations in the Western Victoria Primary Health Network classified MM3-MM6, plus MM2 locations in and surrounding Ballarat; all other MM1 and MM2 locations in that PHN, and the MM3 and MM4 locations on the Bellarine Peninsula, are excluded) — NO GAMSAT required + 10-year currency waived. Tier 2 (MM2-7 Rural Victoria) and Tier 3 (MM2-7 other Rural Australia) require GAMSAT and currency. Every RTS applicant, all tiers, must also submit a written application (1000-character limit per section, covering rural community connection, interest in rural medicine, and evidence of capability to undertake postgraduate study) assessed by rural community members, academics and clinicians — it is worth 50% of the aggregate score used to shortlist for interview and 25% of the final offer score. Accepting an RTS place is a binding written commitment to all four years at a rural site: Years 1-2 are delivered blended (online plus 1-2 days a week face-to-face) at Deakin's Warrnambool Campus or East Grampians Health Service, Ararat (preference collected after offer, not guaranteed); Years 3-4 at Ballarat-Grampians, Warrnambool-South West or Rural Communities. Geelong-Barwon and Eastern Health are not available to RTS students, and transfer to the general stream is not possible — exiting the RTS forfeits the place. Adjustment bonuses (added to the combined GPA and GAMSAT score): Prior Clinical Experience +4% (12 months full-time AHPRA-registered practice, or speech pathology/dietetics); Work Experience +2% (2 years full-time, or 3744 hours over 4 years); Deakin Graduate +4% (degree completed at Deakin with at least two-thirds of course requirements at Deakin); Rural/Regional residency +4% (Geelong MM1 or MM2) or +8% (MM3-7); Financial Disadvantage +2% (approved Centrelink/StudyLink benefit for at least 12 months during recent study). Prior Clinical Experience and Work Experience are mutually exclusive — claiming one disqualifies you from the other — and there is no cap on the total adjustment points an eligible applicant can receive. |
| Specialities offered | Rural Medicine, General Practice, Regional Health, Indigenous Health |
| Format | Multiple Mini Interview (up to 6 stations, 5 minutes each; held online for 2027 entry) |
|---|---|
| Interview window (2027 entry) | September (domestic MMI, online, per GEMSAS). International applicants are interviewed in Deakin's own rounds instead — for the 2027 cycle Deakin published rounds in May, August and October 2026; round dates are set on Deakin's international course page and change each cycle. |
| Decision date (2027 entry) | Late October 2026-early November 2026 (GEMSAS main round), with further offers through November 2026, December 2026 and January 2027 |
| Post-interview chances | Not publicly disclosed. Deakin interviews a maximum of 220 applicants for the roughly 145 domestic places (100 CSP + 45 BMP) available for 2027 entry; neither Deakin nor GEMSAS publishes an interview-to-offer conversion rate. |
Deakin's the 12-month Year 3 longitudinal placement at the Rural Communities site is the genuinely distinctive feature (one of five Years 3-4 site allocations, decided in Year 2 by preference and availability — not a guaranteed part of everyone's course) — examiners want to see you understand what continuity-of-care training in a single rural town actually entails, day-to-day. Avoid generic "I love regional medicine" answers. Bring specific examples: a placement in a small community, an understanding of GP-led generalism, or family ties to regional Victoria. Be ready to discuss why graduate-entry suits you and why Deakin's rural mission specifically.
Two questions our tutors flagged as a strong fit for Deakin’s interview style. Try answering them out loud, then open Prometheus for the model answers and follow-up tips.
Consider the quote: 'Justice without mercy is tyranny; mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution.' What does this mean in the context of medical practice? Illustrate your answer with a specific clinical or ethical example.
Likely follow-up · How do these concepts apply to triage in an overwhelmed emergency department?
Drought-affected farming communities show elevated rates of depression, suicide, and substance use. As a rural GP, how might you support a struggling farming family?
Likely follow-up · What is the role of community-based programs like the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program?
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Plan your GAMSAT preparation for Deakin's graduate-entry selection.
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Learn moreCompiled from Deakin University School of Medicine's published admissions material and checked for internal consistency. Not independently re-checked against the official course page for 2027 entry — confirm the figures with the school before you rely on them.
We've helped students turn their UCAT, personal statement and interview prep into offers from Deakin and other Australian medicine schools.
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