Bristol vs St Andrews

Bristol requires AAA at A-level including Chemistry and one of Biology, Physics, Mathematics or Further Mathematics.

St Andrews requires AAA at A-level (offer and predicted) including Chemistry and one of Biology, Mathematics or Physics.

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 minimum grade 7/A and English Language at minimum grade 4/C. GCSE resit applicants welcomed and may apply with results pending. GCSEs and A-levels used only as minimum thresholds -… St Andrews: Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 7/A in one sitting (achieved A-level applicants may be considered with fewer).

GCSE grade 5 in Biology, Mathematics, and English (Language or Literature) required if not…

Bristol uses Panel (Structured online panel interview (Zoom): six stations marked by two panels of three assessors); St Andrews uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Panel emphasises narrative coherence and the ability to develop a thread under follow-up questioning, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, Bristol may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, St Andrews is the better fit.

Interview windows: Bristol interviews in November - April; St Andrews in December - March.

Bristol runs a Spiral curriculum; St Andrews runs a Traditional curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Bristol delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while St Andrews uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: Five-year MB ChB spiral curriculum - concepts revisited with increasing complexity. Clinical exposure from Year 1. First 3 years at St Andrews leading to BSc (Hons) Medicine. Most students then transfer to a partner clinical school for years 4-6 of MBChB.

Intake size: Bristol — ~220 home + ~30 international places per year (A100 Standard Entry Medicine); St Andrews — RUK ~24 places, Scottish ~150, International ~30 (3-year pre-clinical only - clinical years at partner schools). 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%. St Andrews: RUK Student (2025): 123/162 = 74%; Scottish + RUK: 411/505 = 81%; International (2023): 56/82 = 68%.

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.

St Andrews: Three-year pre-clinical course at St Andrews followed by transfer to a partner medical school for clinical years. SJT not used (was used many years ago, not now or in future). Scottish students face much lower cut-offs than RUK applicants.