What A-Level grades do Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and St George's require?

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) requires AAA including Biology and Chemistry. St George's requires A*AA or AAA including Chemistry and Biology/Human Biology (offer depends on cohort strength). Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school.

Where are Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and St George's located, and how does that affect cost?

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is in Brighton, UK. St George's is in London, UK. Tuition is £9,250/year at both for UK home applicants; the main cost difference is accommodation (London accommodation typically runs 30-50% above the national average).

When does each school release decisions?

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) typically releases medicine decisions March onwards. St George's releases medicine decisions Rolling-basis after Interviews have finished. If one is earlier than the other, you may need to hold a decision while waiting for the second school — be ready to compare in real time.

Medical school comparison

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) vs St George's

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and St George's are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is based in Brighton (England) while St George's sits in London (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

Their A-Level requirements (AAA vs A*AA) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers. St George's is the older institution (founded 1733); the other (founded 2002) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and St George's.
Comparison field	Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)Brighton	St George'sLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Brighton, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry	A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.
TrueScore	Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) TrueScore 1990	St George's TrueScore 1950
UCAT home cut-off	~1900+ /2700	No predictable threshold. City St George's states that it is not possible to predict what the UCAT thresholds will be in any given year, nor to use previous years' data to predict them. The cut-off is set annually against the strength of that year's scores.
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	Home: 394/737 = 53% (2025); International: 27/72 = 38%	Home Undergrad (2024): 247/677 = 36% (or 423/686 = 62% inc. deferred); Overseas Undergrad: 25/146 = 17% (or 58/152 = 38% inc. deferred)
Decision date	March onwards	Rolling-basis after Interviews have finished

A-Level offer	AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry	A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.
Contextual A-Level offer	AAB at A-level for UKWPMED-eligible (contextual) applicants, including Biology and Chemistry	-
Required A-Level subjects	Biology and Chemistry both required	Chemistry and Biology (or Human Biology) both required
A-Level resit policy	Resits considered with one dropped grade (i.e. AAB on first attempt then AAA at resit)	Resits or third year of study accepted with extenuating circumstances only
GCSE requirements	Minimum grade 6/B in Mathematics and English Language or English Literature. Grade 5s accepted with contextual data.	Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or 6-6 Dual Award Science). GCSE resits accepted.
GCSE scoring methodology	Used only as a minimum threshold - not used to rank applicants beyond meeting the floor	Used only as minimum threshold - wholly UCAT-based shortlisting once met
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	-
International Baccalaureate	36 points overall, 6,6,6 at Higher Level including Biology and Chemistry	37 points overall, 6,6,6 at Higher Level including HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	-	2:1 (Upper-second-class Honours) or above in any discipline. Graduate for Undergraduate Programme available - UCAT cut-off applies (~2100+ /2700).
Alternative qualifications	-	-

Contextual cut-off	~1810+ /2700 (UK WP)	-
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	~2030+ /2700	-
Graduate cut-off	-	~2100+ /2700 (Graduate for Undergraduate Programme)
SJT band	Band 4 autorejected - 1, 2, 3 are fine	SJT used post-interview in offer making. Combined with MMI score → B1=15 pts, B2=10, B3=5, B4=none.
UCAT notes	Wholly UCAT-based shortlisting (50th centile or above considered, then ranked downwards). Offers made on interview performance. Band 4 SJT auto-rejected.	Once the entry criteria are met, applicants are ranked by UCAT score and interview places are allocated from the top down until they run out. A minimum of 500/900 is required in each individual cognit…

Degree awarded	BM BS	MBBS
Course length	5 years	5 years
Teaching style	Integrated	Problem-based learning
Anatomy teaching	-	Prosection
First patient contact	Year 3	-
Placement geography	Sussex	-
Named placement sites	Royal Sussex County Hospital	-
Intercalation	Optional. Numbers are capped at 40% of the cohort, with priority given to those without a prior degree.	-
Course highlight	The degree is awarded jointly by the Universities of Brighton and Sussex.	The MBBS puts unusual weight on clinical communication — drawing out a patient’s history, giving clear explanations, and negotiating with patients and relatives.

Interview window	December - March	November - February
Interview details	MMI format. Questions feel closer to a typical job interview than a clinical viva - personal attributes feature heavily. There is usually time to spare in each station, so pace yourself.	A six-station MMI, each station around five minutes with a 60-second break between, delivered through SAMMI (Scalable Automated Multiple Mini Interviews) software. Each station is assessed separately…

Specialities	Medicine, Medical Education	Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Healthcare Sciences
Established	2002	1733
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	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.	Strong holistic-care and soft-skills emphasis. SJT used post-interview in offer making (B1 = 15 pts, B2 = 10, B3 = 5, B4 = nothing). St George's is also generous with deferred-entry offers, often made…
Official course page	https://www.bsms.ac.uk/undergraduate/our-course/index.aspx	https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/undergraduate/medicine

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)

Brighton

Quick comparison

Location: Brighton, UK
A-Level offer: AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry
TrueScore: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) TrueScore 1990
UCAT home cut-off: ~1900+ /2700
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Home: 394/737 = 53% (2025); International: 27/72 = 38%
Decision date: March onwards

St George's

London

Quick comparison

Location: London, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.
TrueScore: St George's TrueScore 1950
UCAT home cut-off: No predictable threshold. City St George's states that it is not possible to predict what the UCAT thresholds will be in any given year, nor to use previous years' data to predict them. The cut-off is set annually against the strength of that year's scores.
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Home Undergrad (2024): 247/677 = 36% (or 423/686 = 62% inc. deferred); Overseas Undergrad: 25/146 = 17% (or 58/152 = 38% inc. deferred)
Decision date: Rolling-basis after Interviews have finished

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) vs St George's - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

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

St George's requires A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.

St George's is the stricter A-Level offer; Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

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… St George's: Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or 6-6 Dual Award Science). GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold -…

Interview formats

Both Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and St George's use MMI interviews, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot-topic answers and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer.

Interview windows: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) interviews in December - March; St George's in November - February.

Post-interview offer rate

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.

What makes each distinctive

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.

St George's: Strong holistic-care and soft-skills emphasis. SJT used post-interview in offer making (B1 = 15 pts, B2 = 10, B3 = 5, B4 = nothing). St George's is also generous with deferred-entry offers, often made to borderline applicants in lieu of rejection.

Which is right for you?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is the lower-risk academic option. Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) feeds into the England foundation programme network; St George's into the London network.

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

Neither school publishes a single fixed UCAT cut-off; both use UCAT as part of a composite shortlisting score alongside GCSE and personal-statement weighting. Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) guidance: ~1900+ /2700. St George's guidance: No predictable threshold. City St George's states that it is not possible to predict what the UCAT thresholds will be in any given year, nor to use previous years' data to predict them. The cut-off is set annually against the strength of that year's scores..

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). St George's uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). The format is the same, so the same prep approach applies — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot topics, and (for MMI) structured 5-7 minute station answers. Interview windows: December - March (Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)); November - February (St George's).

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 floor St George's — Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or 6-6 Dual Award Science). GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold - wholly UCAT-based shortlisting once met

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)'s selection methodology: Joint programme between University of Brighton and University of Sussex. UCAT + academic + Multiple Mini Interview. SJT used post-interview. St George's's selection methodology: shortlisting weight not fully disclosed; check the official admissions page. Understanding each school's exact algorithm is the single highest-leverage piece of pre-application research — it tells you whether your profile is competitive before you spend an application choice.

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS): Home: 394/737 = 53% (2025); International: 27/72 = 38%. St George's: Home Undergrad (2024): 247/677 = 36% (or 423/686 = 62% inc. deferred); Overseas Undergrad: 25/146 = 17% (or 58/152 = 38% inc. deferred). Post-interview odds tell you how competitive each school is at the final stage. Two schools with similar UCAT thresholds can have very different post-interview rates — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%.

You can — UCAS allows 4 medicine/dentistry choices in total, so listing both is feasible if your profile fits each school's selection algorithm. Apply to both only if your UCAT, GCSE and predicted-grade profile is competitive against each school's published weighting. A common mistake is using two of your four slots on similar schools when a more spread-out portfolio (one safe + one stretch) would maximise overall offer probability.

Where to go next

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

St George'sEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 19 September 2026.