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Medical school comparison

Dundee vs Edge Hill

Dundee and Edge Hill are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Dundee is based in Dundee (Scotland) while Edge Hill sits in Ormskirk (England), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

The interview formats diverge — Traditional vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

Side-by-side comparison

Dundee

Dundee

Quick comparison

Location
Dundee, UK
A-Level offer
AAA at A-level (minimum) - A*A*A or A*A*A* recommended for non-contextual RUK due to use in shortlisting algorithm
TrueScore
1700
UCAT home cut-off
-
Interview format
Two-part selection (~1h40m): observed 30-minute group discussion, then a structured traditional one-to-one discussion with an assessor
Post-interview chance
RUK Non-Contextual (2025): 73/130 = 56%; Scottish: 647/825 = 78%; International: 86/156 = 55%
Decision date
March onwards

Edge Hill

Ormskirk

Quick comparison

Location
Ormskirk, UK
A-Level offer
AAA at A-level including Biology and Chemistry, OR A*A*B with Biology and Chemistry at grade A or above plus a third subject at grade B or above
TrueScore
1950
UCAT home cut-off
~2050+ /2700 (2023 entry lowest invited ≈ 1958; recent target per third-party sources is top 15-20% nationally for 2026 entry)
Interview format
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance
Home Student (2023): 32/115 = 28% - chances may have improved with 63 places now (vs 30 in 2023, 50 in 2024)
Decision date
March onwards

Dundee vs Edge Hill - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Dundee requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Edge Hill 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 — Dundee: Biology, English and Maths required at GCSE grade 6/B (if not studied at A-Level). Higher GCSE/National 5 grades essential due to high academic weighting in shortlisting. Edge Hill: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Interview formats

Dundee uses Traditional (Two-part selection (~1h40m): observed 30-minute group discussion, then a structured traditional one-to-one discussion with an assessor); Edge Hill uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Traditional emphasises academic reasoning and thinking aloud through unfamiliar problems, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

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

Interview windows: Dundee interviews in December - February; Edge Hill in December - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

Dundee runs a Spiral curriculum; Edge Hill runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Dundee delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Edge Hill centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: Five-year MBChB spiral curriculum - concepts revisited with increasing complexity. Clinical placements across NHS Tayside, NHS Fife, NHS Highland, and Five-year MBChB with PBL and case-based learning. Clinical placements across Lancashire NHS sites (Southport & Ormskirk, Wirral, Mersey Care).

Intake size: Dundee — Home (Scottish + Contextual) ~825 places; RUK ~130; International ~156 (2025 entry).; Edge Hill — ~100 places per year (small cohort).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Dundee: RUK Non-Contextual (2025): 73/130 = 56%; Scottish: 647/825 = 78%; International: 86/156 = 55%. Edge Hill: Home Student (2023): 32/115 = 28% - chances may have improved with 63 places now (vs 30 in 2023, 50 in 2024).

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

Dundee: Scottish medical school renowned for anatomy teaching and medical research. Shortlisting weights 60% academic / 40% UCAT for school leavers (40/60 for graduates). Both A-level predictions and GCSEs feed the academic score.

Edge Hill: Significant proportional increase in places - now 63 places, up from 30 in 2023 and 50 in 2024. UCAT thresholds may have softened with growth. International students not accepted. Band 4 SJT auto-rejected.

Which is right for you?

Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Dundee feeds into the Scotland foundation programme network; Edge Hill into the England network. If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer Edge Hill; if you prefer lecture-led foundations, the other suits better.

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