Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) vs Glasgow

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) requires AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry.

Glasgow requires AAA including Chemistry and one of Biology, Physics or Mathematics. International A-level applicants need AAA including Chemistry, Biology and one of Physics or Mathematics.

Grades must be achieved at one sitting and at the first attempt - resits and extra time to sit qualifications are not permitted, and a mix of qualifications at the same level is not accepted.

Both demand the same A-Level grade band, so academic prediction is unlikely to differentiate your application between them — provided you meet the required subject combination at each.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Brighton & Sussex (BSMS): Minimum grade 6/B in Mathematics and English Language or English Literature. Grade 5s accepted with contextual data. Used only as a minimum threshold - not used to rank applicants beyond meeting the… Glasgow: GCSE English Literature or English Language at grade 6/B or above.

GCSE Biology at grade 6/B if not studied at A-level. GCSE retakes are accepted.

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)); Glasgow uses Panel (Panel interview). These two formats reward different skills — MMI emphasises breadth, station-recovery and structured answers under time pressure, while Panel rewards depth and consistency.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, Glasgow may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is the better fit.

Interview windows: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) interviews in December - March; Glasgow in December - February.

Both schools deliver a PBL-style curriculum, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar across years 1-3.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS jointly run by Brighton and Sussex universities. Sussex-based pre-clinical years; clinical placements across Sussex NHS sites (Royal Su Five-year MBChB built around problem-based learning groups, with early clinical exposure from Year 1.

Intake size: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) — ~165 home + ~25 international places per year.; Glasgow — ~40-50 RUK + ~22 international + ~190 Scottish places per year (A100).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS): Home: 394/737 = 53% (2025); International: 27/72 = 38%. Glasgow: Scottish: 473/565 = 84% (2025); RUK: 128/216 = 59%; International: 114/161 = 71%.

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.

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS): Wholly UCAT-based shortlisting. Offers made primarily on interview performance - UCAT is only used post-interview for borderline cases. Band 4 SJT auto-rejected; bands 1-3 are fine.

Glasgow: One of the oldest medical schools in the English-speaking world. Your personal statement and reference are screened early, alongside achieved and predicted grades; UCAT scores arrive later in the cycle and are then used to allocate interviews among applicants who have already cleared that screen. Glasgow does not use the SJT at all.