What A-Level grades do Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and UCL require?

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) requires AAA including Biology and Chemistry. UCL requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology. Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school. Resit policies differ: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) — Resits accepted with explanation.. UCL — A-Level resits not accepted..

Where are Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and UCL located, and how does that affect cost?

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is in Brighton, UK. UCL 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. UCL releases medicine decisions Decisions are made after all the Interviews have been completed. 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 UCL

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and UCL 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 UCL sits in London (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

On UCAT alone there is roughly a 290-point gap between them — a substantial difference that should shape which you list as firm choice vs. insurance. Their A-Level requirements (AAA vs A*AA) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers. UCL is the older institution (founded 1826); 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 UCL.
Comparison field	Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)Brighton	UCLLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Brighton, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry	AAA including AA in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.
TrueScore	Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) TrueScore 1990	UCL TrueScore 2190
UCAT home cut-off	~1900+ /2700	2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	Home: 394/737 = 53% (2025); International: 27/72 = 38%	Reasonable. Around 1,000 applicants are interviewed for 313 home and 24 overseas places, and UCL makes more offers than places because not every offer is taken up. Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.
Decision date	March onwards	Decisions are made after all the Interviews have been completed

A-Level offer	AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry	AAA including AA in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.
Contextual A-Level offer	AAB at A-level for UKWPMED-eligible (contextual) applicants, including Biology and Chemistry	AAB at A-level for Access UCL contextual applicants - Biology and Chemistry both at grade A
Required A-Level subjects	Biology and Chemistry both required	Chemistry and Biology both required
A-Level resit policy	Resits considered with one dropped grade (i.e. AAB on first attempt then AAA at resit)	Qualification resits are not accepted, including re-starting Year 12. GCSE resits are accepted.
GCSE requirements	Minimum grade 6/B in Mathematics and English Language or English Literature. Grade 5s accepted with contextual data.	Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs. 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 (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored or assessed.
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	A1,A,A at Advanced Higher (or A1,A at Advanced Higher plus A,A,A at Higher), to include Chemistry and Biology at Advanced Higher with either at A1. Highers alone are not sufficient.
International Baccalaureate	36 points overall, 6,6,6 at Higher Level including Biology and Chemistry	39 points overall, 19 at Higher Level - including HL 7,6,6 with HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	-	Graduates apply to the standard six-year MBBS BSc; there is no accelerated route. UCL expects at least ABB in A-levels taken before the first degree (or 34 IB points with 16 at Higher Level at 6,5,5). A graduate who meets the grade bar but lacks A-level Chemistry and/or Biology may sit them during or after the degree, at grade A* (or A*A if taking both).
Alternative qualifications	-	-

Contextual cut-off	~1810+ /2700 (UK WP)	2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold)
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	~2030+ /2700	2300+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	Band 4 autorejected - 1, 2, 3 are fine	Only used where candidates are on the same UCAT score
UCAT notes	Wholly UCAT-based shortlisting (50th centile or above considered, then ranked downwards). Offers made on interview performance. Band 4 SJT auto-rejected.	There is no fixed cut-off - UCL ranks candidates on total UCAT score and the threshold falls where the interview slots run out, so it moves every year with the applicant pool. Access UCL applicants ar…

Degree awarded	BM BS	MBBS BSc
Course length	5 years	6 years (integrated BSc built in)
Teaching style	Integrated	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	-	-
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.	Built in — the six-year programme is inclusive of the integrated BSc. Graduate entrants with UK degrees are exempt.
Course highlight	The degree is awarded jointly by the Universities of Brighton and Sussex.	UCL offers one of the widest ranges of integrated BSc options of any UK medical school.

Interview window	December - March	December - March
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.	Up to eight MMI stations of five minutes each, with one minute beforehand to read the instructions and two or three questions per station - around 50 minutes in total. Home fee-paying candidates are i…

Specialities	Medicine, Medical Education	Medicine, Medical Sciences, Global Health
Established	2002	1826
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.	Cut-offs differ from Imperial - UCL's home threshold is lower while its international threshold is higher, partly because UCL holds more interviews relative to offers. SJT is only used as a tie-breake…
Official course page	https://www.bsms.ac.uk/undergraduate/our-course/index.aspx	https://www.ucl.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs-bsc

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

UCL

London

Quick comparison

Location: London, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA including A*A in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.
TrueScore: UCL TrueScore 2190
UCAT home cut-off: 2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Reasonable. Around 1,000 applicants are interviewed for 313 home and 24 overseas places, and UCL makes more offers than places because not every offer is taken up. Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.
Decision date: Decisions are made after all the Interviews have been completed

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) vs UCL - in detail

UCAT thresholds compared

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)'s published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 1900, while UCL sits at approximately 2190.

The 290-point spread matters: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) offers slightly more headroom for an average-strong UCAT, while UCL expects performance closer to the national 75th-90th percentile.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Brighton & Sussex (BSMS): ~1810+ /2700 (UK WP); UCL: 2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

A-Level and academic profile

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

UCL requires A*AA including A*A in Chemistry and Biology in either order. The third subject is your own choice, other than General Studies or Critical Thinking.

UCL 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… UCL: Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs.

GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored…

Interview formats

Both Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) and UCL 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; UCL in December - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) runs a PBL curriculum; UCL runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) leans on small-group case-based learning from year 1, while UCL uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS jointly run by Brighton and Sussex universities. Sussex-based pre-clinical years; clinical placements across Sussex NHS sites (Royal Su Six-year MBBS BSc with compulsory intercalated BSc in Year 3. Clinical placements at UCL-affiliated NHS sites including UCLH, Royal Free, and Whitting

Intake size: Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) — ~165 home + ~25 international places per year.; UCL — 313 home and 24 overseas fee-status places per year (337 in total).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.

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.

UCL: Cut-offs differ from Imperial - UCL's home threshold is lower while its international threshold is higher, partly because UCL holds more interviews relative to offers. SJT is only used as a tie-breaker between equally scored candidates.

Which is right for you?

If your UCAT lands below the UK median (~1880/2700), Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is the more realistic firm-choice option. 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; UCL into the London network. If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer Brighton & Sussex (BSMS); 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

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS)'s typical home cut-off is around 1900, while UCL sits at approximately 2190 — a 290-point spread. That's a meaningful gap; Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) is materially more accessible for an average-to-good UCAT, while UCL expects performance closer to the top 19% of test-takers. Cut-offs change year on year and vary by tier — check each school's latest published threshold before submitting your UCAS form.

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). UCL 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)); December - March (UCL).

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 UCL — Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. No score or assessment of other GCSEs. GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold (Eng + Maths grade 6/B). Other GCSEs not scored or assessed.

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. UCL's selection methodology: Beyond the minimum academic requirements, shortlisting is wholly by total UCAT score, with SJT as a tie-break only. UCL normally interviews around 1,000 applicants, sending invitations on a rolling basis from December through to March. Home, international and Access UCL candidates are reviewed in separate pools. 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%. UCL: Reasonable. Around 1,000 applicants are interviewed for 313 home and 24 overseas places, and UCL makes more offers than places because not every offer is taken up. Offers rest purely on interview performance, and UCL reviews home, international and Access UCL interview scores separately rather than applying an uplift to any group.. 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%.

Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) runs a PBL curriculum. UCL runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies differ — pick the style that matches how you learn best. Brighton & Sussex (BSMS) specifics: Five-year MBBS jointly run by Brighton and Sussex universities. Sussex-based pre-clinical years; clinical placements across Sussex NHS sites (Royal Sussex County Hospital, Western Sussex Hospitals). UCL specifics: Six-year MBBS BSc with compulsory intercalated BSc in Year 3. Clinical placements at UCL-affiliated NHS sites including UCLH, Royal Free, and Whittington.

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

UCLEntry 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.