Written applications · Australian medicine and dentistry
No admissions centre sends a statement to every school, and several schools say they will not read one. Writing is asked for in a few named places, such as Sydney’s Dubbo stream, Deakin’s Rural Training Stream, UNSW’s Medicine Application Form, JCU dentistry and several First Nations pathways. Find your route, see exactly what it asks, and get a recorded video review once you have a draft.
What you write, by route
2027 entry where published, from official pages or, where a site blocks automated reading, search excerpts of them.
School leaver, medicine
UCAT ANZ and ATAR routes
No statement by that name
UNSW’s Medicine Application Form asks about motivation, qualities, interests and life experience. JCU uses its own online application; Curtin adds Casper.
School leaver, dentistry
UCAT ANZ and ATAR routes
No statement, except JCU
JCU: four sections of up to 300 words, and letters of support. †
Graduate entry through GEMSAS
Ten medical schools
No statement, except Deakin
Deakin’s Rural Training Stream: three sections of 1,000 characters.
Graduate entry, applying direct
Sydney, Flinders, Melbourne MD Rural
Sydney’s Dubbo stream
Four questions, 750 words. Melbourne’s MD Rural Pathway may ask for a statement if you are selected for interview.
First Nations pathways
Flinders, Bond, Deakin, UniSQ and others
Often a statement
Each school sets its own headings and limits.
International, UNSW medicine
Through UNSW or UAC
A Medicine Personal Statement
Six short questions of 20 to 50 words, the last optional, shared with your interviewers.
International, Sydney dentistry
Doctor of Dental Medicine
A statement of up to 1,500 words
Assessed against four published criteria.
† This university’s site blocks automated reading, so this comes from search excerpts of its official page. Check the page itself before you rely on it.
Open to all eligible applicants
University of Sydney, Doctor of Medicine: Dubbo stream
Graduates applying direct to Sydney for the Dubbo stream, which has 24 Commonwealth supported places a year.
Sources: Sydney MD domestic admissions guide 2027; Dubbo stream personal statement template, 2027 entry
Deakin University, Doctor of Medicine: Rural Training Stream
Graduates applying through GEMSAS to the stream’s 30 places, at every tier.
Source: GEMSAS: Deakin University
University of Melbourne, Doctor of Medicine: MD Rural Pathway
Graduates of rural origin applying direct, for 15 of the pathway’s 32 bonded places.
Source: GEMSAS: University of Melbourne
Newcastle and New England (JMP): Regional Health Professional Pathway
Practising health professionals in the Hunter New England rural footprint, for up to 10 places.
Sources: JMP entry pathways †; JMP key dates †
UNSW Sydney, Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine: Medicine Application Form
Domestic applicants, through UAC, on every entry scheme.
Sources: UAC: medicine key dates; UNSW Medicine: domestic applicants
UNSW Sydney, Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine: international applicants
International applicants, on each route UNSW lists.
Sources: UNSW Medicine Personal Statement form, May 2026; UNSW Medicine: international applicants
University of Sydney: Double Degree Medicine Program
School leavers with an ATAR of 99.95 or equivalent, through UAC.
Source: UAC: medicine key dates
James Cook University, Bachelor of Dental Surgery
Every domestic applicant, school leavers included.
Sources: QTAC: JCU Dental Surgery; JCU domestic applications †
University of Sydney, Doctor of Dental Medicine: international applicants
International applicants only. Domestic applicants are ranked on admissions test results alone.
First Nations pathways
Flinders University, Doctor of Medicine: Indigenous Entry Stream
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants.
Sources: Flinders Indigenous Entry Stream; Flinders IES supporting statement template; Flinders IES application guide, 2026 edition
Bond University, Medical Program: First Nations pathway
First Nations applicants, school leavers or graduates.
Sources: Bond First Nations Medical Scholarship Program; QTAC: Bond Medical Program
Deakin University, Doctor of Medicine: Indigenous Entry Stream
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicants, for up to seven places.
UniSQ, Bachelor of Medical Science (Medicine Pathway): First Nations Admission Pathway
First Nations applicants to UniSQ’s Medicine Pathway.
University of Notre Dame Australia: Indigenous Pathway to Medicine
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates, applying direct.
Source: Notre Dame Pathways to Medicine †
Griffith University, Doctor of Medicine: First Peoples Pathway
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander graduates, applying through GEMSAS.
Sources: Griffith First Peoples Health Pathway, 2023 †; GEMSAS: Griffith University
Curtin University, MBBS: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entry
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants, applying direct to the medical school.
University of Sydney: Indigenous Facilitated Entry
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants to the MD or the DMD.
Sources: Sydney MD domestic admissions guide 2027; Sydney DMD domestic admissions guide 2027
† This university’s site blocks automated reading, so this comes from search excerpts of its official page. Check the page itself before you rely on it.
Interview preparationThe Casper guide
† This university’s site blocks automated reading, so this comes from search excerpts of its official page. Check the page itself before you rely on it.
Casper’s weight, where a school uses it
Its share of the ranking that decides who is interviewed, 2027 entry
Notre Dame
Fremantle and Sydney, through GEMSAS
30% of the interview ranking
With GAMSAT 30%, GPA 30% and bonus points 10%.
Wollongong
Doctor of Medicine, through GEMSAS
50% of the interview ranking
With admissions bonuses 50%, once you clear the GPA and GAMSAT hurdles.
Curtin
MBBS, school leavers included
35% of the interview ranking
With ATAR 35% and UCAT ANZ 30%.
Dates that are easy to miss
2027 entry. All have passed except the JMP preference date, 1 December 2026, which is still open. The 2028 dates are not yet published.
28 May 2026
Sydney: UAC Qualifications Assessment Service applications close
A week before applications closed.
15 June 2026
GEMSAS: rurality and school-specific claims
A statutory declaration on an official template, evidence of residence and a Rural Coversheet, emailed by 5pm AEST.
15 June 2026
Wollongong: Bonus Form and evidence
Every bonus you claim, with its documents uploaded, by 5pm AEST.
25 June 2026
Sydney: supporting documents
Due three weeks after applications closed on 4 June.
13 September 2026
Charles Sturt dentistry: UAC applications close
Earlier than most admissions-centre dates. Charles Sturt medicine’s application and documents were due on 25 September.
27 September 2026
Wollongong: Campus, place type and Med Ed track Nomination Form
Sent direct to UOW by every applicant.
30 September 2026
UNSW: Medicine Application Form, in UAC
Its questions cover your motivation, qualities, interests and life experience, and it is shared with your interviewers before your interview.
30 September 2026
JCU: Online Application, alongside QTAC
With a Prediction of Academic Achievement form from your school if you are in Year 12.
13 October 2026
Curtin: Rural Entry Pathway form
With a community member’s declaration, by 5pm WST.
1 December 2026
Newcastle and New England (JMP): UAC preference
Still open for 2027 entry. Add the course as a UAC preference, after a JMP direct online application made by 30 September.
Personal statement
Sydney MD · Dubbo stream · 2027 entry template · Illustrative example
721 of 750 words
Up to 200, 150, 200 and 200 words. Each answer must fit inside its box on the template.
Question 1 of 4
196 words
Up to 200 words.
Works. Answers the question as set: one experience told in full, then why this stream. The template asks you to "Describe one or two experiences", not to list five.
Last year I took a medication history from an older farmer transferred to Dubbo after a fall. A locum in his town had started him on a new blood pressure tablet. His ankles swelled, a known side effect, and the next locum, who saw only the swelling, added a fluid tablet. Within a month he was dizzy whenever he stood. I picked up the prescribing cascade, the team stopped the fluid tablet and changed the other, and I rang his town's pharmacy so his blister pack was right before he went home.
Works. The rural problem shown through one patient: care split between doctors who never see the whole picture. Plain words, and no sentence about "the challenges of rural health". Patient details are kept general: your readers may work at the same hospital. Age, job, town and date together can identify someone.
I was proud of that catch and frustrated by it. I could untangle his medicines, but I could not examine him, and I would not be there when the next locum arrived. I want to be the doctor who stays: the one who knows a patient's history because she took it herself.
Works. Honest about what her current job cannot do, which is the real answer to "why not stay a pharmacist?". Expect that question at interview.
Works. The stream selects for "intention" to practise rurally, and the story before this line earns it.
That is why I am applying to the Dubbo stream. I already work beside its students on the wards at Dubbo Hospital, and their placements run through the western towns that send us our patients. I can learn medicine where I mean to practise it, without leaving the region or my brigade.
Works. Why this stream, with evidence only she could give. Sydney centres the stream's clinical teaching at Dubbo Hospital, and she already works there.
Question 2 of 4
148 words
Up to 150 words.
I hope to be a rural generalist: a GP in a western town who also works in its hospital, with an advanced skill the town needs. Pharmacy has shown me how much of rural medicine is caring for older people who live a long way from specialists. I arranged the end-of-life medicines for a woman who chose to die at home, a long way from Dubbo, and saw how much rested on one GP agreeing to be on call for her.
Works. A real career, described accurately in one line. Naming the job you want shows intention better than any adjective about rural medicine.
Works. Answers the question's second half, how experience shaped her direction, with one case. It also shows she knows what rural general practice asks of a doctor out of hours.
So I am drawn to palliative care, and curious about anaesthetics, because a town with a GP anaesthetist can keep some surgery and births close to home. I also want to learn how Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services work with town GPs and hospitals, which I have seen only from the hospital end. The skill may change during training, but I expect to stay in the west.
Go deeper. This reason sounds borrowed. Be ready to say where you have seen it, or what you want to find out.
Go deeper. Honest, with no slogan. Expect the interview follow-up: what have you learnt so far, and from whom?
Works. Keeps the skill open and the place settled, and says "expect", not "will".
Question 3 of 4
185 words
Up to 200 words.
My greatest contribution would be continuity. The farmer in my first answer needed one doctor who saw him twice. I intend to stay in one western town long enough to be the doctor who already knows the history, and to bring something specific from pharmacy: careful prescribing for older patients on many medicines, the patients I see most on the wards.
Works. Answers the first question at once. Two questions in 200 words need direct answers, in the order asked.
Works. Links back to her first answer without retelling it: the four answers are read as one statement.
Works. Specific to her job, and so more believable than claimed compassion.
Two of my values fit what I have seen rural communities need. The first is staying power. I have been a Rural Fire Service volunteer for six years, through quiet winters as well as fire seasons, and I coach an under-12 netball team in Dubbo every Saturday of the season. It is the same habit a town needs from its doctor.
The second is discretion. In a small town everyone knows whose car is parked outside the clinic, and patients only tell you the truth if they trust it will go no further. I learnt that at the counter of a country pharmacy in my intern year, where people I had known all my life asked me questions they had not asked their doctor.
Works. Discretion shown, not claimed, and a real feature of small-town practice: the clinician is also a neighbour. A value tied to a need, as the second question asks.
Question 4 of 4
192 words
Up to 200 words.
Works. Covers what the question lists, "personal background, lived experience, relationships or time spent", with facts: where, for how long, who is still there, and what she still does.
I grew up on my family's wheat and sheep property, 25 kilometres out of a town of about 1,500 people, an hour and a half west of Dubbo. I caught the school bus forty minutes each way from kindergarten to Year 12, and played netball for the town until I left for university. My parents and brother still run the property, and I go home for shearing and for harvest.
Works. Specific on distance and size; a real statement would name the town. Sydney audits rural applicants by contacting the author of their Confirmation of Rural Origin, so keep facts confirmable.
Works. Connection in the present tense. Where you grew up matters, but a selector also wants to know the tie is current.
For most of my childhood the town had one GP. When she retired in my final year of school, the clinic moved to rotating locums and a telehealth screen, and I watched my grandfather stop going to check-ups rather than tell his history to a new doctor each time. That is lived experience, not a placement, and it is why continuity runs through these answers.
Style. A little defensive; the paragraph has already shown it. In a 200-word box, cut the commentary and let the grandfather sentence stand.
I joined our Rural Fire Service brigade at eighteen, went to callouts in my university holidays, and transferred to a brigade on the edge of Dubbo when I started at the hospital. Most of my school friends still live in the district. Apart from four years at university, I have lived in western NSW all my life.
Works. A role that survived university and a move. Sustained involvement is what makes a claim of community connection believable.
Reviewer's verdict
Strong. Each answer does the job its question sets: one experience told precisely, a specific career with an honest open question, a contribution only she could make, and a connection that is current and checkable. Read together, the four answers make one case, that she means to stay, which is the "intention" in what the stream says it selects for. Before uploading, answer the template's generative AI question truthfully and keep each answer inside its box. Then be ready to expand any sentence at interview: Sydney chooses who to interview from the statement and admissions test results.
Illustrative example, written by our team for a fictional applicant: a 24-year-old hospital pharmacist from a farming family west of Dubbo. Do not reuse its wording. The real template opens by asking whether you used generative AI; Sydney says failing to disclose it "may result in your application being cancelled".
Writing about work experience, as JCU dentistry asks you to? Our Australian work experience guide covers finding it and reflecting on it.
Check your opening for clichés
Paste the first few sentences of your draft. Phrases a reader has seen a thousand times get marked as you type.
As a reviewer would mark it
Ever since I was young I have been passionate about rural medicine, and I want to give back to the bush and help close the gap.
5 phrases to cut or replace
Statement review
Upload your draft and a current medical or dental student reads it and records a video talking you through what works and what to change. Send any written component: Dubbo stream answers, Deakin’s three sections, JCU’s four, UNSW’s form, a Sydney DMD statement, or written practice answers to interview questions. One flat fee: A$39.
Reviewed by a current medical or dental student. Name a first choice on the form and we will try to match you with a reviewer who studies there.
Send your statement
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