Where are Pears Cumbria (GEM) and St George's located, and how does that affect cost?

Pears Cumbria (GEM) is in Carlisle, UK. St George's 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?

Pears Cumbria (GEM) typically releases medicine decisions March onwards. St George's releases medicine decisions Rolling-basis after Interviews have finished. 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

Pears Cumbria (GEM) vs St George's

Q: How are GCSEs weighted at Pears Cumbria (GEM) vs St George's?

Pears Cumbria (GEM) — GCSE English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade 4/C - assessed alongside degree. St George's — Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or 6-6 Dual Award Science). GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold - wholly UCAT-based shortlisting once met

Pears Cumbria (GEM) and St George's are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Pears Cumbria (GEM) is based in Carlisle (England) while St George's sits in London (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

St George's is the older institution (founded 1733); the other (founded 2023) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Pears Cumbria (GEM) and St George's.
Comparison field	Pears Cumbria (GEM)Carlisle	St George'sLondon
Quick comparison
Location	Carlisle, UK	London, UK
A-Level offer	Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in a biosciences or allied healthcare degree	A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.
TrueScore	Pears Cumbria (GEM) TrueScore 1700GEM	St George's TrueScore 1950
UCAT home cut-off	-	No predictable threshold. City St George's states that it is not possible to predict what the UCAT thresholds will be in any given year, nor to use previous years' data to predict them. The cut-off is set annually against the strength of that year's scores.
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	-	Home Undergrad (2024): 247/677 = 36% (or 423/686 = 62% inc. deferred); Overseas Undergrad: 25/146 = 17% (or 58/152 = 38% inc. deferred)
Decision date	March onwards	Rolling-basis after Interviews have finished

A-Level offer	Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in a biosciences or allied healthcare degree	A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.
Contextual A-Level offer	-	-
Required A-Level subjects	-	Chemistry and Biology (or Human Biology) both required
A-Level resit policy	Not applicable to graduate entry - degree class is the academic measure.	Resits or third year of study accepted with extenuating circumstances only
GCSE requirements	GCSE English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade 4/C - assessed alongside degree	Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or 6-6 Dual Award Science). GCSE resits accepted.
GCSE scoring methodology	-	Used only as minimum threshold - wholly UCAT-based shortlisting once met
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	-
International Baccalaureate	-	37 points overall, 6,6,6 at Higher Level including HL Chemistry and HL Biology
Graduate-entry degree requirement	2:1 (Upper-second-class Honours) or above in a biosciences or allied healthcare degree — e.g. anatomy, biochemistry, biomedical science, biology, nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, paramedic science, pharmacy, dentistry or veterinary science. NOT open to any-discipline graduates.	2:1 (Upper-second-class Honours) or above in any discipline. Graduate for Undergraduate Programme available - UCAT cut-off applies (~2100+ /2700).
Alternative qualifications	Graduate-entry only, home fee status required (international applicants are not eligible). UCAT or GAMSAT accepted — the applicant chooses one; MCAT is not accepted. MBBS awarded by Imperial College London and taught at the University of Cumbria Fusehill Street campus, Carlisle.	-

Contextual cut-off	-	-
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	-	-
Graduate cut-off	1960+ /2700 for 2026 entry (1910+ contextual). GAMSAT alternative: 59 overall (53 contextual).	~2100+ /2700 (Graduate for Undergraduate Programme)
SJT band	-	SJT used post-interview in offer making. Combined with MMI score → B1=15 pts, B2=10, B3=5, B4=none.
UCAT notes	UCAT or GAMSAT — the applicant chooses one; MCAT is NOT accepted. Both are minimum-threshold hurdles rather than ranked scores. The UCAT must be sat in the same year as the UCAS submission; the GAMSAT…	Once the entry criteria are met, applicants are ranked by UCAT score and interview places are allocated from the top down until they run out. A minimum of 500/900 is required in each individual cognit…

Degree awarded	MBBS (awarded by Imperial College London)	MBBS
Course length	4 years (graduate entry)	5 years
Teaching style	Integrated	Case-based learning + Problem-based learning
Anatomy teaching	Imaging and models	Prosection
First patient contact	Year 1	Year 1
Placement geography	North and south Cumbria	St George's Hospital in Tooting, on the campus site, and trusts across south London, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset
Named placement sites	Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle (North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust), Furness General Hospital, Barrow-in-Furness (University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust)	St George's Hospital, Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, Springfield Hospital, Kingston Hospital, St Helier Hospital, Epsom General Hospital, Croydon University Hospital, East Surrey Hospital, St Peter's Hospital, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Frimley Park Hospital, Darent Valley Hospital, Maidstone Hospital, William Harvey Hospital, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, St Richard's Hospital, Basingstoke Hospital, Yeovil Hospital
Intercalation	-	Optional and not required for the MBBS. After passing years 1 and 2 you can take an intercalated BSc (iBSc) at City St George's or another university, or you can apply competitively after year 3 for a…
Course highlight	The MBBS is awarded by Imperial College London, delivered in partnership with the University of Cumbria.	The MBBS puts weight on clinical communication: drawing out a patient's history, giving clear explanations, and negotiating with patients and relatives.

Interview window	December - March	November - February
Interview details	Graduate-entry MMI format with stations focused on clinical reasoning, ethics, communication and motivation for rural and community healthcare.	A six-station MMI, each station around five minutes with a 60-second break between, delivered through SAMMI (Scalable Automated Multiple Mini Interviews) software. Each station is assessed separately…

Specialities	Medicine, Rural Healthcare, Community Medicine	Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Healthcare Sciences
Established	2023	1733
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	The only medicine route in Carlisle, and graduate-entry only — there is no school-leaver course here. Restricted to home-fee applicants holding a 2:1 in biosciences or allied healthcare, with the MBBS…	Strong holistic-care and soft-skills emphasis. SJT used post-interview in offer making (B1 = 15 pts, B2 = 10, B3 = 5, B4 = nothing). St George's is also generous with deferred-entry offers, often made…
Official course page	https://cumbriamed.ac.uk/study/	https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/undergraduate/medicine

Pears Cumbria (GEM)

Carlisle

Quick comparison

Location: Carlisle, UK
A-Level offer: Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in a biosciences or allied healthcare degree
TrueScore: Pears Cumbria (GEM) TrueScore 1700GEM
UCAT home cut-off: -
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: -
Decision date: March onwards

St George's

London

Quick comparison

Location: London, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.
TrueScore: St George's TrueScore 1950
UCAT home cut-off: No predictable threshold. City St George's states that it is not possible to predict what the UCAT thresholds will be in any given year, nor to use previous years' data to predict them. The cut-off is set annually against the strength of that year's scores.
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Home Undergrad (2024): 247/677 = 36% (or 423/686 = 62% inc. deferred); Overseas Undergrad: 25/146 = 17% (or 58/152 = 38% inc. deferred)
Decision date: Rolling-basis after Interviews have finished

Pears Cumbria (GEM) vs St George's - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Pears Cumbria (GEM) requires Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in a biosciences or allied healthcare degree.

St George's requires A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Pears Cumbria (GEM): GCSE English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade 4/C - assessed alongside degree. St George's: Minimum 5 GCSEs at grade 6/B or above, including English Language, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or 6-6 Dual Award Science). GCSE resits accepted. Used only as minimum threshold -…

Interview formats

Both Pears Cumbria (GEM) and St George's 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: Pears Cumbria (GEM) interviews in December - March; St George's in November - February.

What makes each distinctive

Pears Cumbria (GEM): The only medicine route in Carlisle, and graduate-entry only — there is no school-leaver course here. Restricted to home-fee applicants holding a 2:1 in biosciences or allied healthcare, with the MBBS awarded by Imperial College London.

St George's: Strong holistic-care and soft-skills emphasis. SJT used post-interview in offer making (B1 = 15 pts, B2 = 10, B3 = 5, B4 = nothing). St George's is also generous with deferred-entry offers, often made to borderline applicants in lieu of rejection.

Which is right for you?

Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Pears Cumbria (GEM) feeds into the England foundation programme network; St George's 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

Pears Cumbria (GEM): no fixed home cut-off published; mCAT is NOT accepted. St George's: no predictable threshold. These are the figures on record for 2027-entry applicants. Schools without a fixed cut-off rank UCAT inside a composite shortlisting score, so thresholds move with each year's applicant pool — confirm the latest figure on each school's admissions page.

Pears Cumbria (GEM) uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). St George's 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 (Pears Cumbria (GEM)); November - February (St George's).

Pears Cumbria (GEM)'s selection methodology: Degree subject and class hurdle (2:1 in biosciences or allied healthcare), then a UCAT or GAMSAT threshold, then MMI. Home fee status is an eligibility requirement, not a preference. MBBS awarded by Imperial College London. St George's's selection methodology: shortlisting weight not fully disclosed; check the official admissions page. 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.

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

Pears Cumbria (GEM)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

St George'sEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 14 August 2026.