Bristol vs Glasgow

Bristol requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Glasgow requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

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 — Bristol: Mathematics at grade 7; English Language at grade 4. GCSE resit applicants welcome. Glasgow: GCSE English at grade 6/B; Biology at grade 6/B if not studied at A-Level. GCSE retakes accepted.

Both Bristol and Glasgow 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.

That said, the specifics differ slightly: Bristol runs multiple mini interviews (mmi); Glasgow runs mmi format for dentistry, panel interview for medicine. Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Bristol interviews in December - February; Glasgow in December - February.

Bristol runs a Spiral curriculum; Glasgow runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Bristol delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Glasgow centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: Five-year MB ChB spiral curriculum - concepts revisited with increasing complexity. Clinical exposure from Year 1. Five-year MBChB built around problem-based learning groups, with early clinical exposure from Year 1.

Intake size: Bristol — ~220 home + ~30 international places per year (A100 Standard Entry Medicine).; 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.

Bristol: Total: 650/968 = 67% (2024); A108 Gateway to Medicine: 63/88 = 72%. 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.

Bristol: Russell Group university with strong medical and dental programmes. Shortlisting is wholly UCAT-based - neither personal statement nor SJT is used in selection. Bristol has the highest UCAT cut-off of the major English schools.

Glasgow: One of the oldest medical schools in the English-speaking world. Personal statement and reference must meet minimum requirements but shortlisting is then driven by UCAT alone. Personal statement reviewed post-interview before offers.