Imperial College London vs North Wales (Bangor)

Imperial College London requires A*AA including A* and A in Biology and Chemistry (A* in either) plus A in a third subject. All qualifications must be taken in the same sitting; General Studies and Critical Thinking are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required.

North Wales (Bangor) requires AAA at A-level including Biology and one further science.

Imperial College London is the stricter A-Level offer; North Wales (Bangor) is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, North Wales (Bangor) carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Imperial College London: Grade 6/B in GCSE English Language. No further GCSE requirements. GCSE used only as minimum threshold - not used to rank applicants beyond meeting the floor North Wales (Bangor): English or Welsh Language at grade B/6, and Double Science at BB/66.

Both Imperial College London and North Wales (Bangor) 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: Imperial College London interviews in December - February; North Wales (Bangor) in December - March.

Imperial College London runs a Integrated curriculum; North Wales (Bangor) runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Imperial College London delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while North Wales (Bangor) centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: Six-year MBBS BSc with integrated science teaching from Year 1. Compulsory intercalated BSc in Year 4. Clinical placements from Year 3 across Imperial Four-year accelerated MBBCh (Cardiff) for graduates, or 5-year route. Strong rural/community placement strand across North Wales (Betsi Cadwaladr UHB)

Intake size: Imperial College London — A government-capped target intake of 345: 271 home places and 74 overseas, one of the largest international intakes in the UK.; North Wales (Bangor) — ~30 places per year (small cohort, designed for local retention).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Imperial College London: Good. Imperial interviews only about the top third of applicants, then makes offers against 345 places from the 852 (2025 entry) and 870 (2026 entry) candidates it invited - so well over half of interviewees receive an offer. The offer threshold moves each year and is set separately for widening-participation applicants. North Wales (Bangor): Refused to disclose.

New medical school, has been in clearing in past years.

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.

Imperial College London: Heavy emphasis on scientific reasoning and the integrated London course structure. Around a quarter of places are now reserved for international applicants. UCAT is the primary shortlisting factor, with personal-statement use limited to exceptional cases.

North Wales (Bangor): Bangor publishes no UCAT threshold and has declined FOI requests on its shortlisting weighting, so no cut-off can be quoted. A-level resits are not accepted. Welsh-speaking applicants (with a first-language Welsh GCSE) and other contextual applicants may receive an AAB offer.