How do interviews differ between Brunel Medical School and UCL?

Brunel Medical School 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 (Brunel Medical School); December - March (UCL).

Where are Brunel Medical School and UCL located, and how does that affect cost?

Brunel Medical School is in Uxbridge, 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?

Brunel Medical School 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

Brunel Medical School vs UCL

Q: How are GCSEs weighted at Brunel Medical School vs UCL?

Brunel Medical School — Five GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including two Science subjects, English Language at grade 4/C (or equivalent), and Mathematics at grade 5/B. 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.

Brunel Medical School and UCL are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Brunel Medical School is based in Uxbridge (England) while UCL sits in London (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination. 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 2022) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Brunel Medical School and UCL.
Comparison field	Brunel Medical SchoolUxbridge	UCLLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Uxbridge, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level including Chemistry or Biology, plus a second science (Chemistry / Biology / Physics / Mathematics) and any third subject	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	Brunel Medical School TrueScore 1850	UCL TrueScore 2190
UCAT home cut-off	UCAT required for home applicants. Brunel publishes NO cut-off score - selection is competitive on overall performance, so no threshold should be inferred.	2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	International: 240/540 = 44%. UK estimated >30%, likely less than other London universities.	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 Chemistry or Biology, plus a second science (Chemistry / Biology / Physics / Mathematics) and any third subject	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	Lower contextualised offer available for Widening Access Criteria applicants - exact grades not published	AAB at A-level for Access UCL contextual applicants - Biology and Chemistry both at grade A
Required A-Level subjects	Chemistry or Biology required, plus a second science from Chemistry / Biology / Physics / Mathematics, plus any third subject	Chemistry and Biology both required
A-Level resit policy	Resits considered.	Qualification resits are not accepted, including re-starting Year 12. GCSE resits are accepted.
GCSE requirements	Five GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including two Science subjects, English Language at grade 4/C (or equivalent), and Mathematics at grade 5/B	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 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, including HL 6 in Chemistry or Biology and HL 6 in a second science	39 points overall, 19 at Higher Level - including HL 7,6,6 with HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	Bachelor's degree at 2:1 or equivalent in a subject relevant to Medicine; Master's with Merit or equivalent in a relevant subject also accepted	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	-	2080+ /2700 (Access UCL, 2026 entry threshold)
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	-	2300+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold)
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	Band 4 SJT auto-rejected	Only used where candidates are on the same UCAT score
UCAT notes	Applicants with SJT Band 4 are not accepted. Brunel takes both home and international students (2026/7 fees: £9,790 home, £49,395 international).	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	MBBS	MBBS BSc
Course length	5 years	6 years (integrated BSc built in)
Teaching style	Team-based learning	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	Plastinated specimens	-
First patient contact	Year 1	-
Placement geography	Greater London and south east England	-
Named placement sites	-	-
Intercalation	-	Built in — the six-year programme is inclusive of the integrated BSc. Graduate entrants with UK degrees are exempt.
Course highlight	The clinical skills facilities include 18 video-equipped consultation rooms.	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 with around 4-5 minutes per station. Heavy on scenario reasoning, data interpretation and inferences from given information rather than recall of memorised model answers. 1-minute reading t…	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, Healthcare Sciences	Medicine, Medical Sciences, Global Health
Established	2022	1826
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	New medical school still under GMC accreditation (Buckingham acts as contingency). Refused to publish UCAT cut-offs - anecdotally low. International offers are notably high in volume relative to home…	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.brunel.ac.uk/study/courses/medicine-mbbs	https://www.ucl.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs-bsc

Brunel Medical School

Uxbridge

Quick comparison

Location: Uxbridge, UK
A-Level offer: AAA at A-level including Chemistry or Biology, plus a second science (Chemistry / Biology / Physics / Mathematics) and any third subject
TrueScore: Brunel Medical School TrueScore 1850
UCAT home cut-off: UCAT required for home applicants. Brunel publishes NO cut-off score - selection is competitive on overall performance, so no threshold should be inferred.
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: International: 240/540 = 44%. UK estimated >30%, likely less than other London universities.
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

Brunel Medical School vs UCL - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Brunel Medical School requires AAA at A-level including Chemistry or Biology, plus a second science (Chemistry / Biology / Physics / Mathematics) and any third subject.

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; Brunel Medical School is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Brunel Medical School carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Brunel Medical School: Five GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including two Science subjects, English Language at grade 4/C (or equivalent), and Mathematics at grade 5/B. 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 Brunel Medical School 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: Brunel Medical School interviews in December - March; UCL in December - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

Both schools deliver a Integrated-style curriculum, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar across years 1-3.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS with integrated theory and early clinical practice. Brunel partners with NHS West London for clinical placements (Hillingdon, Northwick 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: Brunel Medical School — ~95 places per year (small newer cohort).; 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

Brunel Medical School: International: 240/540 = 44%. UK estimated >30%, likely less than other London universities. 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 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

Brunel Medical School: New medical school still under GMC accreditation (Buckingham acts as contingency). Refused to publish UCAT cut-offs - anecdotally low. International offers are notably high in volume relative to home places.

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?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, Brunel Medical School is the lower-risk academic option. Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Brunel Medical School feeds into the England foundation programme network; UCL into the London network.

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

Neither school publishes a single fixed UCAT cut-off; both use UCAT as part of a composite shortlisting score alongside GCSE and personal-statement weighting. Brunel Medical School guidance: UCAT required for home applicants. Brunel publishes NO cut-off score - selection is competitive on overall performance, so no threshold should be inferred.. UCL guidance: 2190+ /2700 (2026 entry threshold).

Brunel Medical School requires AAA including Chemistry or Biology, plus a second science (Chemistry / Biology / Physics / Mathematics) and any third subject. 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: Brunel Medical School — Resits considered.. UCL — A-Level resits not accepted..

Brunel Medical School's selection methodology: New programme (first cohort 2022). UCAT + academic + interview. Brunel partners with NHS West London for clinical placements. 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.

Brunel Medical School: International: 240/540 = 44%. UK estimated >30%, likely less than other London universities.. 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%.

Brunel Medical School runs a Integrated curriculum. UCL runs a Integrated curriculum. Both schools deliver teaching in the same broad style, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar. Brunel Medical School specifics: Five-year MBBS with integrated theory and early clinical practice. Brunel partners with NHS West London for clinical placements (Hillingdon, Northwick Park, Ealing). 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

Brunel Medical SchoolEntry 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.

Brunel Medical School vs UCL

Side-by-side comparison

Brunel Medical School vs UCL - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Interview formats

Curriculum and teaching style

Post-interview offer rate

What makes each distinctive

Which is right for you?

Common questions

What UCAT score do I need for Brunel Medical School vs UCL?

How do interviews differ between Brunel Medical School and UCL?

What A-Level grades do Brunel Medical School and UCL require?

How are GCSEs weighted at Brunel Medical School vs UCL?

How does each school actually shortlist applicants?

Which has a higher post-interview offer rate, Brunel Medical School or UCL?

Where are Brunel Medical School and UCL located, and how does that affect cost?

When does each school release decisions?

What curriculum style do Brunel Medical School and UCL use?

Should I apply to both Brunel Medical School and UCL?

Where to go next

Other medical school comparisons