Australian Medicine
Written Applications

02. Schools that want substantive written content

The 7 programmes below have either an explicit written application, a portfolio, structured short-answer questions, or a stated mission (rural, regional, Indigenous, tropical, service-driven) that materially rewards a strong written component. Schools not listed here are typically selected on GAMSAT/UCAT-ANZ + GPA/ATAR + MMI with no written input. This list is generated live from our universities dataset, so it updates automatically if a school changes its selection model.

• Bond

  Gold Coast, QLD · Medicine

  Bond is a private, not-for-profit university and its medical program is entirely full-fee — no Commonwealth Supported Places and no Bonded Medical Program participation (Macquarie's MD is the other Australian medicine program with no CSPs). It is unusual in running two intakes a year (May, September — NO February intake) on an accelerated calendar: 3 semesters per year, 14 semesters over 4 years 8 months. No UCAT-ANZ, GAMSAT or UMAT — Bond runs its own online psychometric sitting (a personality test and an emotional intelligence test; the instruments were changed in October 2025 and Bond does not name them). All places are full-fee (no CSP, FEE-HELP eligible for domestic students but capped well below the total cost; no BMP). At 2026 rates that is $33,610/semester × 14 ≈ $470,540 — Bond has not published 2027 rates and warns fees "are subject to change on an annual basis", so a 2027 starter should expect to pay more than that.

• JCU

  Townsville & Cairns, QLD · Medicine

  JCU requires neither UCAT-ANZ nor GAMSAT and states that sitting either confers no advantage — unusual in Australia, though not unique: Bond University also requires neither, substituting its own online psychometric test. JCU substitutes no admission test at all. There is no written application for JCU Medicine: selection weighs academic performance, a live online panel interview, and rurality. Rural origin and connection to northern Queensland are considered, but JCU states there is no fixed quota for regional versus metropolitan applicants, that school type is not considered, and that regional connection 'does not outweigh overall merit'. Bonded places come through the federal Bonded Medical Program, under which universities must allocate 28.5% of commencing Commonwealth Supported Places in medicine (Department of Health conditions document, December 2025); a small number of further places are reserved under the QTAC Rural Access Scheme. MRBS (Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship) is a closed legacy scheme — replaced nationally by BMP from 2020 — so the "100% MRBS bonded" framing some guides use is inaccurate. The program runs 6 years (MBBS) with one of the longest continuous rural and tropical placement footprints in Australia.

• Macquarie

  Sydney, NSW · Medicine

  Every place in the Macquarie MD is full-fee — for 2027 entry it is the only GEMSAS graduate-entry medical school whose quota table shows no Commonwealth Supported Places and no Bonded Medical Places at all (indicative 2027 domestic fee AUD $90,200 for a standard full-time year, reviewed annually, FEE-HELP eligible) and is co-located with Macquarie University Hospital; core clinical placements begin in year 3, with earlier years built on foundations and systems-based units. Small cohort (~60) gives a high-touch teaching model. Selection is purely academic until interview: on the standard pathway, 50% weighted GPA + 50% GAMSAT/MCAT for the shortlist, then 50% weighted GPA + 50% MMI for offers. There is no portfolio, CV, Casper or work-experience score at any stage — the only non-academic document is a supplementary form acknowledging the programme's requirements, which is not scored. Rural applicants, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants and Macquarie Bachelor of Clinical Science graduates each receive an automatic 3% bonus on the weighted GPA (5% maximum in combination). The Indigenous Australian Pathway works differently: GAMSAT is optional and both interview and offer decisions are made case by case with Walanga Muru.

• Notre Dame Fremantle

  Fremantle, WA · Medicine

  Notre Dame Fremantle dropped its written Notre Dame Portfolio and replaced it with Casper from the 2024 intake — but the interview itself did not change: it was a Multiple Mini Interview before and after, delivered on a recorded online platform since 2020. There was never a panel format for domestic applicants. — one of the heaviest CASPer weightings in Australian medicine (30% of pre-interview composite). The Kimberley Centre for Remote Medical Training (KCRMT), Broome, is a Commonwealth-funded end-to-end rural stream that took its first cohort in Semester 1 2025 — it is not a 2027 innovation. It carries up to 20 CSP places a year; students spend Years 1-2 on Notre Dame's Broome campus and Years 3-4 in regional training hubs across WA in partnership with the Rural Clinical School of WA. Rural and metropolitan applicants preference it inside the same GEMSAS application as Fremantle; long-term Kimberley/Pilbara residents apply direct to Notre Dame. Note the centre's name — it is not the 'Kimberley Centre for Rural and Remote Medicine and Training'. From 1 January 2026 Indigenous CSP allocation is uncapped (Commonwealth policy change). Two reserved-entry routes exist, and Notre Dame publishes a number for neither. (1) Assured Pathway — a school-leaver route: applicants apply to the Bachelor of Biomedical Science and Doctor of Medicine (Assured Pathway) at Fremantle or Sydney at the same time and secure an MD place on completing the bachelor degree, provided a minimum GPA of 2.5 is maintained each semester; it is closed to anyone who has already commenced tertiary study. (2) Priority Entry Pathway — a graduate route reserving places for Notre Dame's own Bachelor of Biomedical Science graduates (including double degrees) first admitted from 2024 onwards, first entering in the 2026-2027 intake; these applicants still apply through GEMSAS and must achieve a GEMSAS-calculated GPA of 6.0 or higher, an unweighted GAMSAT of 55 or higher, and a Casper score no lower than 1 SD below the mean. Notre Dame states only that reserved places are 'distributed nationally between campuses and fee types in a similar pattern to the distribution of general places'; GEMSAS notes the published place numbers already include both — 'Quota includes assured and priority pathways.' No 40 / 20+20 split is published anywhere official.

• Notre Dame Sydney

  Sydney, NSW · Medicine

  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.

• Sydney

  Sydney, NSW · Medicine

  Sydney runs a 4-year graduate-entry MD (a masters-level degree, CRICOS 079216J) with a substantial 14-week research project in year 3 and a full pre-internship year 4. The standard Metropolitan pathway is GAMSAT section ranking with no interview, but the Dubbo stream (24 CSP-only places, the whole four-year MD taught at the School of Rural Health in Dubbo) adds a rural-motivation personal statement and an interview that counts toward ranking. School leavers can enter through the Double Degree Medicine Program (BA/MD or BSc/MD, 7 years, ATAR 99.95, no admission test, online Assessment Day of group interview plus written assessment), progressing to the MD without GAMSAT or a further interview if they finish the bachelor's in minimum time with a credit average. The Indigenous Facilitated Entry Scheme, overseen by the Indigenous Admissions Advisory Group, relaxes the GPA floor to support improvement trajectories and waives GAMSAT entirely from 2027 entry.

• Wollongong

  Wollongong, NSW · Medicine

  Wollongong was established with an explicit rural and regional workforce mission. A minimum of 55 of the 94 domestic places for 2027 entry are ring-fenced for the Rural Entry Pathway — 32 of the 54 Rural-Regional Combined Track places, 6 of the 10 Health Access Stream places and 17 of the 30 Rural End-to-End places. UOW's bonus guide puts the realised figure higher: "generally 60-80% of students in each cohort come from a rural background." UOW also runs a NSW Rural Resident Interview Guarantee: applicants with demonstrated rural origin in NSW who select UOW first in GEMSAS and meet all minimum admission requirements are guaranteed an interview — but only if they also apply for Bonus 1 and Bonus 8 on the UOW MD Admissions Bonus Form and nominate for the guarantee under Bonus 8. Year 3 includes a longitudinal integrated clerkship in a regional/rural community.

04. Wollongong — short answers on rural and regional commitment

~300–500 words per prompt. Longitudinal integrated clerkship in year 3; up to 25% of CSP places reserved for the rural pathway.

Wollongong’s 4-year graduate MD was established with an explicit rural and regional workforce mission. Year 3 is a longitudinal integrated clerkship embedded in one regional or rural community across the Illawarra, Shoalhaven, or Murrumbidgee LHDs. The written component of the application reflects this — and from 2027 entry, offer ranking moves to 70% interview + 30% admissions bonuses (rural origin, prior service, postgraduate study), with GAMSAT/GPA/CASPer reverting to pure qualifying hurdles. The short-answer questions remain part of the package and continue to inform interview probing.

• Motivation for rural and regional medicine (~300–500 words)

  Why regional and rural NSW specifically? What do you understand about the difference between visiting a regional community and being one of a small number of clinicians embedded in it? Examiners are testing whether you grasp the longitudinal integrated clerkship model.

• Lived experience of regional, rural, or remote settings (~300–500 words)

  Have you experienced — not just visited — a regional or rural community? What did that exposure teach you about social determinants of health, continuity of care, and the realities of being one of few clinicians?

• Reflection on a healthcare interaction (~300–500 words)

  A specific clinical, allied health, or community-health interaction. What surprised you, what would you do differently, what did it change about how you approach the next encounter?

06. Bond and UNSW — structured short answers and the essays that matter

Bond’s short-answer essays sit within a psychometric-led process; UNSW’s supplementary RAS and EAS statements are easy to miss but consequential.

Bond — short-answer essays on motivation and leadership

Bond’s 3-stage selection runs academic screen → Bond psychometric test (Clinical Personality Test + Emotional Intelligence Test, ~2 hours online, webcam-proctored) → in-person MMI at the Gold Coast. The written component sits within the application package and the MMI rather than as a separate long-form essay. From 2025, 40% of interview invites are reserved for applicants from the local Queensland and Tweed community.

• Motivation for medicine

  Why medicine, why now, and why Bond specifically? Bond is Australia’s only private medical program on an accelerated three-semester calendar — examiners want to see you have thought about what an accelerated full-fee model means for you, not just that you applied broadly.

• Leadership reflection

  A specific leadership role or moment — what you did, what challenged you, what you learned. Bond rewards concrete examples (captaincy, sustained project leadership, volunteer coordination) over abstract claims about being "a team player".

• Service or community engagement

  A sustained service experience that shaped your motivation, reflective and specific. Each prompt typically has a strict word or character limit — aim for clarity over flourish. The psychometric test does much of the "values fit" work; the short answers anchor examples the MMI will probe at Robina.

UNSW — the supplementary essays applicants miss

UNSW Medicine selection runs primarily on UCAT-ANZ + ATAR + MMI; there is no general personal statement that materially shifts pre-interview ranking. But two supplementary essays do matter — and both are formal, evidence-led statements rather than reflective narrative essays.

08. Live drafting tool

Draft your JCU Q1 here — rural origin and community connection. Live character counter against the per-question ceiling, a word counter against a soft target, and your draft auto-saves to your browser so you can come back to it. (Always confirm the exact character limit on the JCU application portal.)

10. Editing checklist

Run through this before you submit any AU written package. Saves locally — return as you draft.