Bristol vs Hull York (HYMS)

Bristol's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2260, while Hull York (HYMS) sits at approximately 2010.

The 250-point spread matters: Hull York (HYMS) offers slightly more headroom for an average-strong UCAT, while Bristol expects performance closer to the national 75th-90th percentile.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Bristol: ~1450+ /2700 (A108 Gateway / WP - lowest invited has reached as low as 1340); Hull York (HYMS): ~1700+ /2700 with WP eligibility (4th decile minimum + minimum entry requirements). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

Bristol requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Hull York (HYMS) 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. Hull York (HYMS): Min 6 GCSEs at grade 6 including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Both Bristol and Hull York (HYMS) 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; Hull York (HYMS) in December - March.

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

Specifics: Five-year MB ChB spiral curriculum - concepts revisited with increasing complexity. Clinical exposure from Year 1. Five-year MBBS jointly run by Hull and York universities. Clinical placements across Hull, York, Scarborough, and Yorkshire NHS sites.

Intake size: Bristol — ~220 home + ~30 international places per year (A100 Standard Entry Medicine).; Hull York (HYMS) — ~165 home + ~25 international places per year.. 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%. Hull York (HYMS): All (2024): 678/750 = 90%; Home: 655/695 = 94%; Overseas: 20/55 = 36%.

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.

Hull York (HYMS): Points-based shortlisting: UCAT decile (/35) + SJT (/15) + GCSE top 6 subjects (/35) + contextual data (/15). The PBL group exercise is unusual among UK medical schools and reflects HYMS's problem-based curriculum.