Barts and The London (Queen Mary) vs Edge Hill

Barts and The London (Queen Mary)'s published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2000, while Edge Hill sits at approximately 2050.

Their UCAT bars are statistically indistinguishable (within 50 points), so the UCAT is unlikely to be your differentiator between them.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Barts and The London (Queen Mary): not separately disclosed; Edge Hill: ~1900+ /2700 (Foundation Year). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

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

Edge Hill requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) is the stricter A-Level offer; Edge Hill is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Edge Hill 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. Edge Hill: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) uses Panel (Panel interview with two senior academic or clinical staff, sometimes a lay selector (online)); Edge Hill 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, Edge Hill is the better fit.

Interview windows: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) interviews in December - February; Edge Hill in December - March.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary) runs a Integrated curriculum; Edge Hill 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 Edge Hill 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 with PBL and case-based learning. Clinical placements across Lancashire NHS sites (Southport & Ormskirk, Wirral, Mersey Care).

Intake size: Barts and The London (Queen Mary) — ~290 home + ~30 international places per year (one of the larger UK medical schools).; Edge Hill — ~100 places per year (small cohort).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Barts and The London (Queen Mary): UK Undergrad: 948/1294 = 73% (2025); International: 61/159 = 38%; A101 Graduate Medicine: 55/127 = 43%. Edge Hill: Home Student (2023): 32/115 = 28% - chances may have improved with 63 places now (vs 30 in 2023, 50 in 2024).

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.

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).

Edge Hill: Significant proportional increase in places - now 63 places, up from 30 in 2023 and 50 in 2024. UCAT thresholds may have softened with growth. International students not accepted. Band 4 SJT auto-rejected.