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.
| Comparison field | Pears Cumbria (GEM)Carlisle | St George'sLondon |
|---|---|---|
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| Location | Carlisle, UK | London, UK |
| A-Level offer | Graduate entry - degree required | A*AA or AAA at A-level (offer depends on cohort strength). Predicted AAA required including Chemistry and Biology / Human Biology. |
| TrueScoreTrueScore is our prediction of the UCAT score required to be invited to interview at this school for the upcoming cycle. Built from multi-year FOI data and applicant trends. Click any badge to see the full breakdown. | 1700GEM | 1950 |
| UCAT home cut-off | - | ~1950+ /2700 (2025 entry cut-off ≈ 1950; 2024 entry was 2018) |
| 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 |
Carlisle
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London
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Pears Cumbria (GEM) requires Graduate entry - degree required.
St George's requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.
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.
Pears Cumbria (GEM): Graduate entry programme focusing on rural and community healthcare. Newer course oriented around regional workforce needs in Cumbria.
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.
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.
School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 4 August 2026.
