Buckingham vs Edinburgh

Buckingham requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Edinburgh requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology/Physics/Mathematics.

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 — Buckingham: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science. UK's only private medical school - no UCAT/BMAT required. Edinburgh: Strong GCSE/National 5 profile expected; not algorithmically scored.

Buckingham uses MMI (Three-stage selection: academic screening, digital Multiple Mini Assessment (MMA), then an MMI/OSSE task circuit); Edinburgh uses Assessment day (Assessment day: three 12-minute individual stations plus a 45-minute group exercise (Edinburgh describes it as 'not a typical MMI format')).

These two formats reward different skills — MMI emphasises breadth, station-recovery and structured answers under time pressure, while Assessment day rewards malleability and intellectual honesty.

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

Interview windows: Buckingham interviews in December - March; Edinburgh in December - February.

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

Specifics: Four-and-a-half-year accelerated MB ChB (no UCAT required). Clinical placements at Milton Keynes, Stoke Mandeville and partner NHS sites. Six-year MBChB with compulsory intercalated honours degree in Year 3 (one of the largest intercalated cohorts in the UK).

Intake size: Buckingham — ~70 home + significant international places per year (UK's only private medical school).; Edinburgh — ~210 Scottish + RUK + ~22 international places per year.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Buckingham: Refused to state. Edinburgh: RUK student: 166/300 = 68%; Scottish student: 424/432 = 98% (effectively not interviewed); Overseas student: 45/98 = 46%.

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.

Buckingham: UCAT not used in selection - the MMA computer-based test replaces it. Private university with £40k tuition fees. Apply directly outside UCAS rather than via the standard route.

Edinburgh: Around 50% academic, 35% UCAT and 15% SJT in shortlisting; SJT band 4 is rejected outright. Scottish applicants face a much lower bar than RUK and are effectively guaranteed an interview if they meet minimums. Strong research focus and international reputation.