Bristol vs Hertfordshire

Bristol requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Hertfordshire requires AAA offer including chemistry or biology, completed in one sitting across a maximum of two years. Applicants encouraged to consider arts/humanities for their 3rd A-level. GCSEs: minimum 5 subjects at grade 6 including English, maths, biology, chemistry and physics (or dual award).

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. Hertfordshire: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Both Bristol and Hertfordshire 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: Bristol interviews in December - February; Hertfordshire in December - March.

Bristol runs a Spiral curriculum; Hertfordshire runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Bristol delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Hertfordshire 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. Hertfordshire-based with East-of-England NHS placements.

Intake size: Bristol — ~220 home + ~30 international places per year (A100 Standard Entry Medicine).; Hertfordshire — ~50-100 places per year (newer cohort).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

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.

Hertfordshire: For international students only and new this year - can apply directly in addition to your 4 UCAS medical choices, so no harm in giving it a try. New medical school actively seeking links with international applicants.