How to get into University of Waikato — New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine (MD) MedicineYour 2027 Entry step-by-step guide

University of Waikato — New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine (MD) expects a bachelor degree with Indicative and subject to change until accreditation is complete. Applicants must hold a bachelor's qualification, or be in their final year of study, with a B grade average.

Graduates from all fields of study are eligible — there is no prescribed science degree and no prerequisite first-year course set. Applicants must also achieve a passing mark in GAMSAT (the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test, covering humanities and social sciences reasoning, written communication, and biological and physical sciences). Applicants who meet these thresholds are then invited to admissions interviews.

Applicants indicate a preferred clinical placement region at the time of application. Applications open mid-2027 for a 2028 start. for Medicine (MBChB/MD) and uses Admissions interview (format not yet published) for interviews in the 2027 Entry cycle.

Entry is graduate-entry and selection uses GAMSAT; you apply to the university directly against its own preference deadlines, and domestic and international places are both capped, so treat the standard above as a threshold to clear rather than a target to aim at.

This guide is written for 2027 Entry applicants and updated annually before each NZCAA / university admissions cycle. Sources include University of Waikato's official course page, the UCAT-ANZ Consortium, and direct conversations with current students. Read time: ~12 minutes.

University of Waikato — New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine (MD) selects on Indicative and subject to change until accreditation is complete. Applicants must hold a bachelor's qualification, or be in their final year of study, with a B grade average. Graduates from all fields of study are eligible — there is no prescribed science degree and no prerequisite first-year course set.

Applicants must also achieve a passing mark in GAMSAT (the Graduate Medical School Admissions Test, covering humanities and social sciences reasoning, written communication, and biological and physical sciences). Applicants who meet these thresholds are then invited to admissions interviews. Applicants indicate a preferred clinical placement region at the time of application. Applications open mid-2027 for a 2028 start.

A completed bachelor degree (any discipline) with a competitive GPA is the academic gateway; admission-test performance and interview together carry most of the final ranking.

GAMSAT is a 5.5-hour written test of Humanities & Social Sciences (Section I), Written Communication (Section II) and Biological & Physical Sciences (Section III). Run by ACER twice a year (March and September). Scores remain valid for ~4 years. Most competitive offer-holders score 60+ overall with each section above 50.

New Zealand has no UCAS, no central application service and no personal statement. You apply directly to Otago or Auckland, and for most domestic applicants there is no written document at all: Otago's Health Sciences First Year (HSFY) and Graduate categories rank on academic score with UCAT-ANZ used as a threshold gate, and Auckland ranks on first-year GPA, UCAT-ANZ and an asynchronous Kira Talent MMI. Written material appears in only three pathways - the Auckland MAPAS MH04 form, the Otago Alternative Category (for experienced allied-health professionals) and Auckland Graduate Entry - and in the last two it is assessed by interview, not as a scored essay. Treat each of those as a specific, structured task rather than a narrative statement.

There is no national word or character limit, because there is no national document. The MAPAS MH04 form has its own question-specific fields; the Otago Alternative Category interview does not use a pre-submitted scored document; and Auckland Graduate Entry is assessed verbally at the MMI. Check your school's current admissions page for the exact form and deadline for your pathway - requirements are reviewed each cycle.

Notice: a specific scene rather than a cliché, a precise detail (the nine-minute conversation), and a closing sentence that bridges to the next paragraph. We have a step-by-step NZ application strategy guide if you want a tutor to help shape yours.

University of Waikato — New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine (MD) uses Admissions interview (format not yet published). For 2027 entry, interviews typically take place in Not yet published — first intake is 2028, with applications opening mid-2027. Final decisions are released Not yet published.

At University of Waikato — New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine (MD), expect the following from the selection process. Some New Zealand pathways hold no interview at all. Otago's Health Sciences First Year (HSFY) and Graduate MBChB categories select on a weighted academic score, with UCAT-ANZ applied as a threshold gate rather than a ranked component - there is no interview, no portfolio and no personal statement in that route. Interviews exist only in Otago's Alternative Category (a ~40-minute structured Zoom panel) and at Auckland (an asynchronous Kira Talent MMI), so confirm which pathway you are applying through before you plan any interview preparation.

Waikato has confirmed that applicants who meet the degree and GAMSAT thresholds will be invited to admissions interviews, but has not yet published the interview format, station count, length or assessed domains.

The University states that the exact entry requirements and selection process will be published once the programme has gained accreditation, and that current information is indicative and subject to change. Treat every detail on this page as provisional until Waikato publishes its final admissions documentation, expected ahead of applications opening in mid-2027.

Our panel-interview prep covers ethics frameworks (SPIES, the four pillars), structured behavioural answers (STAR), and live mock interviews with admissions specialists.

The cycle runs roughly January 2025 (start of prep) through university preference deadlines in October 2026, MMIs in November-December 2026, to first-round offers in December 2026 and course start in late February 2027. Here are the milestones you cannot miss.

New Zealand's third medical school, and the first new one in 150 years. Three things make it structurally different from Auckland and Otago. It is graduate-entry only — there is no first-year gateway to compete through, so no HSFY and no Auckland First Year GPA race. It uses GAMSAT rather than UCAT ANZ, which aligns it with the Australian graduate-entry system rather than the NZ undergraduate one, and makes it the only NZ medical school a GAMSAT candidate can apply to. And it is explicitly built to produce primary-care doctors for rural and regional New Zealand: after a single year in Hamilton, students spend three full years based in regional communities rather than rotating out of a metropolitan teaching hospital. The programme received Government approval in 2025 with $82.85 million in Crown funding alongside more than $150 million from the University and philanthropic partners, and its 120 places a year sit on top of the extra places being added at Auckland and Otago.

An initial intake of 120 students a year from 2028. These are additional places, on top of the extra funded places being phased in at Auckland and Otago between 2024 and 2026.