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Medical school comparison

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs Cumbria Medical School

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) and Cumbria Medical School are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is based in London (London) while Cumbria Medical School sits in Carlisle (England), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

On UCAT alone there is roughly a 300-point gap between them — a substantial difference that should shape which you list as firm choice vs. insurance. Their A-Level requirements (A*AA vs BBB) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers. The interview formats diverge — Panel vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is the older institution (founded 1785); the other (founded 2024) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)

London

Quick comparison

Location
London, UK
A-Level offer
A*AA at A-level achieved in one sitting over a study period of no longer than two years
TrueScore
2010
UCAT home cut-off
~2000+ /2700 (A100 Home; 2025 entry cut-off ≈ 2003 /2700)
Interview format
Panel interview with two senior academic or clinical staff, sometimes a lay selector (online)
Post-interview chance
UK Undergrad: 948/1294 = 73% (2025); International: 61/159 = 38%; A101 Graduate Medicine: 55/127 = 43%
Decision date
March onwards

Cumbria Medical School

Carlisle

Quick comparison

Location
Carlisle, UK
A-Level offer
BBB at A-level including Biology and Chemistry
TrueScore
1700
UCAT home cut-off
~1700+ /2700 estimated (no published cut-off)
Interview format
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance
-
Decision date
March onwards
Compare different schools

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs Cumbria Medical School - in detail

UCAT thresholds compared

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)'s published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2000, while Cumbria Medical School sits at approximately 1700.

That's a 300-point gap — large enough to put the two schools in completely different competitiveness tiers. An applicant scoring in the 1800-1900 band would be competitive at Cumbria Medical School but borderline at Barts and The London (Queen Mary).

A-Level and academic profile

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology/Physics/Mathematics.

Cumbria Medical School requires BBB including Chemistry and Biology.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is the stricter A-Level offer; Cumbria Medical School is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Cumbria Medical School carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Barts and The London (Queen Mary): Min 6 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science. Cumbria Medical School: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Interview formats

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) uses Panel (Panel interview with two senior academic or clinical staff, sometimes a lay selector (online)); Cumbria Medical School uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Panel emphasises narrative coherence and the ability to develop a thread under follow-up questioning, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, Barts and The London (Queen Mary) may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, Cumbria Medical School is the better fit.

Interview windows: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) interviews in December - February; Cumbria Medical School in January - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) runs a Integrated curriculum; Cumbria Medical School runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Barts and The London (Queen Mary) delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Cumbria Medical School centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS with integrated theory and clinical practice. Strong East London NHS placement network (Royal London, Whipps Cross, Newham, Mile End). Five-year MBChB built around problem-based learning. Cumbria-based with rural/remote NHS placements (UHMBT, NCIC).

Intake size: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) — ~290 home + ~30 international places per year (one of the larger UK medical schools).; Cumbria Medical School — ~30 places per year (small newer cohort).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

What makes each distinctive

Barts and The London (Queen Mary): No longer 50:50 weighted on A-level predictions and UCAT - anyone who exceeds the UCAT cut-off generally gets an interview regardless of predictions. SJT band adds bonus points to interview score post-interview (Band 1 = +2, Band 2 = +1, Band 3 = 0).

Cumbria Medical School: First medical school in Cumbria, focusing on rural and community healthcare to serve underserved areas in the region.

Which is right for you?

If your UCAT lands below the UK median (~1880/2700), Cumbria Medical School is the more realistic firm-choice option. For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, Cumbria Medical School is the lower-risk academic option.

Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Barts and The London (Queen Mary) feeds into the London foundation programme network; Cumbria Medical School into the England network. If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer Cumbria Medical School; if you prefer lecture-led foundations, the other suits better.

Your firm/insurance choice should ultimately weight: where your UCAT and predicted grades sit relative to each school's threshold, which interview format you can prepare for most credibly, and where you'd actually want to live for five or six years.

Common questions

Where to go next

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in fullCumbria Medical SchoolEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 4 August 2026.