Skip to main content
NextGen MedPrep logoNextGenMedPrep
Medical school comparison

North Wales (Bangor) vs Queen's University Belfast (QUB)

North Wales (Bangor) and Queen's University Belfast (QUB) are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. North Wales (Bangor) is based in Bangor (England) while Queen's University Belfast (QUB) sits in Belfast (Northern Ireland), 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. Queen's University Belfast (QUB) is the older institution (founded 1849); the other (founded 2020) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

North Wales (Bangor)

Bangor

Quick comparison

Location
Bangor, UK
A-Level offer
AAA at A-level including Biology and one further science.
TrueScore
North Wales (Bangor) TrueScore 1700
UCAT home cut-off
-
Interview format
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance
Refused to disclose. New medical school, has been in clearing in past years.
Decision date
March onwards

Queen's University Belfast (QUB)

Belfast

Quick comparison

Location
Belfast, UK
A-Level offer
A*AA at A-level including Chemistry and Biology (or Maths/Physics - see subject rules)
TrueScore
Queen's University Belfast (QUB) TrueScore 1700
UCAT home cut-off
No cut-off published. Queen's ranks applicants on cognitive performance, with the overall UCAT score contributing points alongside GCSE attainment, and invites roughly the top 700 to interview.
Interview format
Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance
Good. Queen's states that once you reach interview it anticipates at least a one-in-two chance of an offer, so the hard part is being among the roughly 700 selected.
Decision date
April onwards

North Wales (Bangor) vs Queen's University Belfast (QUB) - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

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

Queen's University Belfast (QUB) requires A*AA at A-level including Chemistry and Biology (or Maths/Physics - see subject rules).

Queen's University Belfast (QUB) 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 — North Wales (Bangor): English or Welsh Language at grade B/6, and Double Science at BB/66. Queen's University Belfast (QUB): Minimum grade C/4 in GCSE Mathematics, English and Physics (or 4-4 in Double Science) if not offered at AS-level or A-level.

Top 9 GCSEs scored /36: A*/9 = 4 pts, A/7-8 = 3 pts, B/6 = 2 pts, C/4-5 =…

Interview formats

Both North Wales (Bangor) and Queen's University Belfast (QUB) 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: North Wales (Bangor) interviews in December - March; Queen's University Belfast (QUB) in January - February.

Post-interview offer rate

North Wales (Bangor): Refused to disclose. New medical school, has been in clearing in past years. Queen's University Belfast (QUB): Good. Queen's states that once you reach interview it anticipates at least a one-in-two chance of an offer, so the hard part is being among the roughly 700 selected.

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

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.

Queen's University Belfast (QUB): Less weight on NHS hot topics than most schools. Stronger emphasis on reflective examples of personal qualities. SJT may be used if borderline before or after interview, but in 2025 anyone with 30/42 received an interview regardless.

Which is right for you?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, North Wales (Bangor) is the lower-risk academic option. Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — North Wales (Bangor) feeds into the England foundation programme network; Queen's University Belfast (QUB) into the Northern Ireland 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. North Wales (Bangor) guidance: Bangor requires the UCAT but publishes NO minimum threshold - it states only that the score is used in selection. No cut-off should be inferred or estimated.. Queen's University Belfast (QUB) guidance: No cut-off published. Queen's ranks applicants on cognitive performance, with the overall UCAT score contributing points alongside GCSE attainment, and invites roughly the top 700 to interview..

Where to go next

North Wales (Bangor)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full
Queen's University Belfast (QUB)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed .