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Written applications · NZ medicine and dentistry

New Zealand has no general personal statement, but some pathways ask you to write.

School leavers in Otago’s Health Sciences First Year or Auckland’s first-year entry write no statement for general entry. Otago’s Alternative category asks for a one-page statement of reasons, a CV and three referees, and four of its five equity groups ask for a 500-word supporting statement. From 2028 entry, Auckland adds Casper, a timed test with typed answers.

See what you writeGet your draft reviewed
Last reviewed 8 November 2026 by Isaac Butler-King, medical student at the University of Glasgow.

What will you write?

Pick the one that fits you. Dates are for 2028 entry.

Starting at Otago in Health Sciences First Year, or in a first-year programme at Auckland.

  • Nothing to write

    Otago HSFY: nothing written†

    General entry ranks your first-year results. Medicine adds UCAT ANZ thresholds; Dentistry adds an interview.

  • You write this

    Auckland: Casper, from 2028 entry

    No statement, but every domestic applicant sits Casper, with typed answers to scenarios. It counts for 50% of the ranking, beside the MMI.

    Sat during 2027; date not yet published

  • You write this

    An Otago equity group: 500 words†

    Only if you tick the Māori, Pacific, Socioeconomic Equity or Refugee Background group: a supporting statement on Otago’s form.

    Otago’s window opens on 1 July 2027

† This university’s site blocks automated reading, so this comes from search excerpts of its official page. Check the page itself before you rely on it.

Every written piece, school by school

Where New Zealand asks for writing

Five kinds of writing exist across New Zealand’s three medical schools and its one dental school. Each belongs to a pathway, with its own limit, deadline and use, and two of them are timed tests rather than statements.

University of Otago · Medicine (MB ChB)†

Statement of reasons for wanting to enter Medicine

Alternative categoryOne A4 page

With that heading and your name, sent with a CV and three referees, professional and character.

Who writes it

Graduates whose degree is too old for the Graduate category, holders of an overseas degree, a master’s or a doctorate, and people with health-related professional experience. Not open to international applicants.

How it is used

With your academic record and CV, it decides who is interviewed: 40 minutes on Zoom. Offers follow Otago’s overall ranking of aptitude, for up to 10% of places.

When, for 2028 entry

1 April to 1 May 2027Documents by 1pm on 5 May in Otago’s published guidelines; confirm for 2027. Otago runs this window every year.

University of Otago · Dentistry (BDS)†

Statement of reasons for wanting to enter Dentistry

Alternative categoryOne A4 page

With your name on it, sent with a CV that names three people who can give a confidential reference.

Who writes it

The same kinds of applicant as Medicine’s Alternative category, who must also have passed the Health Sciences First Year papers or recognised equivalents.

How it is used

It helps decide who is interviewed, on motivation, academic aptitude, and life skills and experience. The interview is a threshold; offers then follow academic ranking.

When, for 2028 entry

From 1 July 2027The closing date is not yet published. For 2027 entry the window closed on 13 August 2026, with documents due by 5pm on 20 August.

University of Otago · Medicine and Dentistry†

Personal supporting statement

Equity groups500 words

On Otago’s form for your group, with that group’s evidence: ancestry verification (with a Pacific leader’s endorsement for the Pacific group), a school letter or refugee documents.

Who writes it

Applicants who tick the Māori, Pacific (NZRIPO), Socioeconomic Equity or Refugee Background group, including HSFY and Graduate applicants. NZ Rural Origins sends documents, not a statement.

How it is used

Otago considers applicants in each group against its selection attributes, and prioritises confirmed members. It does not publish how the statement itself is used or scored.

When, for 2028 entry

From 1 July 2027For 2027 entry the window ran from 1 July to 13 August 2026. The 2027 closing date, a Thursday in mid-August, is not yet published.

University of Auckland · Medicine (MBChB)

Casper: typed answers to scenarios

From 2028 entryTimed, no word count

In Acuity’s standard test, seven typed scenarios each have two questions and 3.5 minutes for both, beside four video scenarios. Auckland’s exact version is not yet confirmed.

Who writes it

Every domestic MBChB applicant. Auckland asks for no personal statement in any category.

How it is used

In First Year and Graduate entry, half the 2028 entry ranking: MMI 50%, with a minimum threshold, and Casper 50%. Acuity says Casper is scored by human raters, not AI.

When, for 2028 entry

Sat during 2027The test date is not yet published. MBChB applications close on 1 July 2027.

University of Waikato · Medicine (MD)

GAMSAT Written Communication

Planned for 2028Two 30-minute essays

Each task gives four statements on a theme: the first socio-cultural, the second personal and social.

Who writes it

Applicants to Waikato’s graduate-entry MD, planned to start in 2028 subject to accreditation: a bachelor’s degree in any field, or the final year of one, with a B grade average. Waikato has not yet published whether it will also ask for a statement, a CV or written answers.

How it is used

A pass mark only: at least 50 overall and in every section. Waikato does not rank applicants by GAMSAT score. Eligible applicants are then invited to admissions interviews.

When, for 2028 entry

GAMSAT by March 2027Registration for the March 2027 sitting runs from November 2026 to January 2027. Applications open in mid-2027.

Forms, letters and interviews: no statement

These are sent, signed, ticked or spoken. None of them asks you to write about yourself. Two of Auckland’s schemes have their own guides: MAPAS and RRAS.

  • Otago HSFY and Graduate, general entry†Nothing written. Medicine ranks your results with UCAT ANZ thresholds; Dentistry adds an interview, as a threshold.
  • Auckland MAPAS: the MH04A registration form: affiliations, ancestry confirmed by a certifier, results and declarations. It has no motivation questions.
  • Auckland RRASA letter from your school, signed by the principal or a nominee and emailed by the school, received by 1 July 2027.
  • Auckland UTASA tick box when you apply, for applicants with a disability, from a low socio-economic background or with a refugee background. No published statement for the MBChB, though Auckland says some programmes may ask for more information. These applicants are ranked separately.
  • Otago NZ Rural Origins†A school letter, a statutory declaration of four or more years’ rural residence, or both. No statement.
  • InterviewsSpoken, not written: Auckland’s online MMI and MAPAS Specialty Interview, and Otago’s Zoom interviews for the Alternative category and for BDS†.

Checked on 8 November 2026 against official pages, or where a site blocks automated reading, search excerpts of them: Otago Medicine†, Otago Dentistry†, Otago supporting documents†, Auckland MBChB, Auckland UTAS, Auckland’s 2026 selection rules, Waikato NZGSM and Acuity Insights: Casper. Rules change between cycles: confirm anything that decides your application on the school’s own page for your entry year.† This university’s site blocks automated reading, so this comes from search excerpts of its official page. Check the page itself before you rely on it.

When it is due, for 2028 entry

The writing falls months apart: Otago’s Medicine Alternative category in May, everything else at Otago from July, and Auckland’s Casper during 2027.
  • Stated so far: Otago’s yearly Medicine Alternative window (1 April to 1 May) and its 1 July opening, and Auckland’s 1 July close.
  • Not yet published: Otago’s August closing date, the Casper test date and the 2027 MMI date. The 2026 dates are shown as a guide.
  • Start early on anything someone else sends: ancestry verification, a Pacific leader’s endorsement, a school letter and your referees all take time to arrange.

2028 entry dates for the writing

As far as the schools had published them on 8 November 2026.

  1. Nov 2026 to Jan 2027

    GAMSAT registration

    For the March 2027 sitting, the last that counts for Waikato’s 2028 intake.

    Published by Waikato

  2. 1 Apr to 1 May 2027

    Otago Medicine Alternative category

    Statement, CV and referees by 1pm on 5 May in Otago’s published guidelines; confirm for 2027. Zoom interviews follow about eight weeks after the close.

    Otago’s yearly window†

  3. 1 July 2027

    Auckland MBChB applications close

    RRAS school letters must arrive by the same date.

    Published by Auckland

  4. 1 July 2027

    Otago’s main window opens

    Medicine HSFY and Graduate, every BDS category and all equity group statements.

    Otago opens on 1 July every year†

  5. Mid-August 2027

    Otago’s main window closes

    Always on a Thursday. BDS Alternative documents are due about a week later.

    Not yet published; 13 August in 2026†

  6. During 2027

    Auckland’s Casper test

    Sat in the year you apply.

    Date not yet published

  7. September 2027

    Auckland MMI, online

    With the MAPAS Specialty Interview on Zoom for MAPAS applicants.

    Not yet published; 8 September in 2026

  8. Late Sep to early Oct 2027

    Otago BDS interviews on Zoom

    Otago invites about 350 applicants across all BDS categories.

    Otago’s usual timing†

† This university’s site blocks automated reading, so this comes from search excerpts of its official page. Check the page itself before you rely on it.

Read the guide for your course

Medicine and dentistry share Otago’s Alternative category and equity groups, but the two courses select differently. Each guide takes you through one course, school by school.
MedicineNZ medicine written applicationsSchool by school: what Otago, Auckland and Waikato ask you to write for 2028 entry, and how each piece is used.Otago’s Alternative category: the one-page statement, CV and refereesThe 500-word equity group supporting statementsAuckland: no statement, but the MMI and, from 2028, CasperWaikato’s new MD: what is and is not publishedRead the guideDentistryNZ dentistry written applicationsOtago is New Zealand’s only dental school. What each BDS category writes, and why the interview is a threshold.Who writes what in each BDS categoryThe Alternative category statement of reasons and CVEquity group supporting statements for DentistryThe interview threshold, then academic rankingRead the guide

Examples, marked line by line

Illustrative examples written for fictional applicants, each modelling a piece a New Zealand school really asks for, and marked by our team to show what a reviewer looks for.

One-page statement

Otago Medicine · Alternative category · Illustrative example

535 of 550 words

Otago sets one A4 page, not a word count. 550 words is our estimate of a readable page.

Reviewer's marks

One A4 page, under the heading Otago sets

535 words

Statement of reasons for wanting to enter Medicine

Otago asks for this on a separate A4 sheet with this heading and your name, one page only. With your CV and academic record, it is how Otago chooses who to interview.

1

Works. Five paragraphs, each doing a job Otago names. Otago picks who to interview from this page, your CV and your academic record, then interviews on six topics, from commitment to a career change to knowledge of the New Zealand health system. Here: the reasons (1–2), the health system (3), academic achievement and understanding of the profession (4), the practical commitment (5).

The referral said “deconditioned, for strengthening”. She was in her eighties, had fallen three times since winter and lived alone at the end of a gravel road. Her balance was poor, but her blood pressure, measured lying and standing, fell enough to make her light-headed whenever she got up. Her medicines had multiplied with each specialist. I could teach her to stand in stages and get a rail put in her hallway. I could not change the tablets. I wrote to her general practice, which was between locums, and she fell again before anyone reviewed them. That time she broke her wrist.

  1. 2

    Works. The reason for medicine, drawn from the exact edge of your scope: you know what a physiotherapist can and cannot do, and you show it. Keep patients unidentifiable. In a small community, age, job, place and diagnosis together can identify someone, so change or drop details.

For two years I have asked myself whether that is a reason to become a doctor or a better physiotherapist. I looked hard at advanced practice: two colleagues run orthopaedic triage clinics, and I could train towards that. But it would make me more expert in the part of the problem I already own. The patients I think about most had problems that were never mainly musculoskeletal: her, and a man whose “mechanical” back pain woke him every night and turned out to be myeloma. In both I could see something was wrong. Working out what, and being responsible for what happened next, belonged to someone else. That is the work I want to train for.

  1. 3

    Works. Answers the obvious question, why not advance within physiotherapy, before anyone asks. Commitment to a career change is one of Otago’s listed interview topics.

  2. 4

    Go deeper. Responsibility is the heart of your reason. Add one sentence on why you want to carry it, having seen what it costs your colleagues.

Seven years in the public system, the last four in a rural community team on the West Coast, have shown me where it runs short. In towns where practices have closed their books, people who cannot enrol bring problems to the rural hospital that general practice would have caught earlier. When we checked who our service was missing, it was more often Māori patients and people on shift work, for ordinary reasons: fuel, time off work, letters that arrived after the appointment. Phone bookings, evening clinics and a weekly session in the local Māori health provider’s rooms, which they offered, did more for those patients than anything I did in the treatment room.

  1. 5

    Works. Knowledge of the New Zealand health system, another listed interview topic, shown as something you watched happen rather than a line about shortages.

  2. 6

    Works. Inequity treated as the service’s problem, not the patients’, then what changed and whose help made it work. Acting on equity, not naming it.

I have tested this decision in two ways. Over the last two years I have completed four postgraduate papers by distance, in pathophysiology and clinical pharmacology, with A grades, partly to check I could still study at that level while working full time. I have also spent eight days of leave with the rural hospital’s doctors, on ward rounds and in the emergency department. Eight days is not much, and I watched decisions rather than carried them. Even so, I saw how much of the work happens away from the bedside: phoning specialists, writing it all down, deciding who goes to Christchurch.

  1. 7

    Works. Academic achievement counts twice: in choosing who is interviewed, and as an interview topic. Recent grades show you can study at this level now.

  2. 8

    Works. Honest about how little observation shows. Understanding of the profession is a listed interview topic, and underclaiming makes the rest of the page easier to believe.

My partner and I have planned for five more years of study: we have savings to cover the early years, I will keep my practising certificate and work weekends as a physiotherapist, and we have talked the move through with our son. Physiotherapy has taught me what happens after the doctor leaves the room: the walk to the car, the stairs at home, the tablet that makes someone dizzy. What I lack is the training to make the diagnosis and carry the responsibility for it. I want to spend those years getting it, then work somewhere like the place I work now.

  1. 9

    Works. The practical half of commitment: money, registration and family in one sentence, which answers the doubt about five years on a smaller income before it forms.

Reviewer's verdict

Works
8
Go deeper
1
Style
0
Cut or fix
0

A strong Alternative-category page. The reason for medicine comes from the exact point where physiotherapy stops, and the obvious question, why not advanced practice, is answered before anyone asks it. The health system, academic achievement, observation and the practical commitment are each shown with evidence rather than claimed, in five tight paragraphs that leave the CV to do its own job. To improve it: one more sentence on why you want the responsibility you describe, paid for by trimming paragraph four.

Illustrative example, written by our team for a fictional applicant: a physiotherapist with seven years’ practice in New Zealand, the last four in a rural community team. Patients and details are invented. Do not reuse its wording.

A free check for your draft

Choose the piece you are writing and paste it in. A supporting statement is counted against the 500 words on Otago’s equity group forms. A one-page statement gets a plain count, because Otago sets a page, not a word count. Both get the phrases a reader skims past marked.
  • For the 500-word statements: words are counted the way a word processor counts them. We could not find how Otago counts, so leave a margin.
  • For the one-page statement: Otago sets a page, not a word count. Print it with the heading and your name, and check it fits.
  • Private: it runs in your browser, and nothing you type leaves this page. It is not saved, so keep your own copy.

Preparing for the MMI? Our NZ interview guides cover Auckland’s MMI stations and the MAPAS Specialty Interview. For Casper, use Acuity’s free official practice test (opens in a new tab).

Check your supporting statement

Paste your draft to count it against the 500 words on Otago’s equity group forms, and see the phrases a reader skims past marked.

What are you checking?

Nothing you type leaves this page, and it is not saved. Keep your own copy.

45 of 500 words

455 left

Your draft, with the phrases a reader skims past marked

I am applying in the Socioeconomic Equity group because I want to give back to my community. Growing up, I saw how hard it was for families like mine to see a doctor, and I have always wanted to help people and make a difference.

4 phrases to cut or replace

  • “give back to my community”: A label, not a plan: say what you would do, and where.
  • “always wanted”: Says how long, not why.
  • “help people”: So does nursing: name what you saw.
  • “make a difference”: True of any caring career.

Statement review

Have your statement reviewed before you send it

Upload your one-page Otago statement of reasons or your 500-word supporting statement, and a current medical or dental student reads it and records a video talking you through what works and what to change. One flat fee: NZ$43.

  • A recorded video going through your statementYour reviewer reads your statement and talks you through what works, what to cut and where to go deeper. Videos typically run 10 to 30 minutes.
  • Back to you within 48 hoursWe email you a link and the video appears in your account. It is kept for 7 days, so download it if you want to keep it.

Reviewed by a current medical or dental student. Name a first choice on the form and we will try to match you with a reviewer who studies there.

Send your statement

NZ$43

1:1 coaching

Write it with a tutor beside you

Live sessions with a current medical or dental student on your Otago statement, CV or supporting statement, or on turning the same material into answers for Auckland’s MMI. Every package is one to one.

Single Session

Work on your statement in one focused 1:1 session

NZ$96

  • 1 × 60-minute 1:1 coaching session
  • Live, line-by-line feedback on your draft
  • For the writing New Zealand asks for: an Otago Alternative category statement and CV, or an equity group supporting statement
  • A clear action plan before you submit
Recommended

Three Sessions

End-to-end coaching from first draft to polished

NZ$265NZ$287

  • 3 × 60-minute 1:1 coaching sessions
  • Take your Otago statement, CV or supporting statement from first draft to final
  • Revisions reviewed between sessions
  • Matched with a current medical or dental student tutor

Unlimited

Unlimited sessions until you're ready to submit

NZ$636

  • Unlimited 1:1 coaching sessions until your statement or supporting statement is ready to submit
  • Help choosing your pathway: Otago, Auckland or Waikato, and the category or scheme that fits
  • Priority tutor matching
  • Ongoing revisions and email support throughout

Secure checkout with Stripe. You choose your session times straight after booking.

Questions about written applications in New Zealand

Not a general one. School leavers applying through Otago’s Health Sciences First Year or Auckland’s first-year entry write nothing for general entry. Writing is asked for in specific pathways: Otago’s Alternative category (a one-page statement of reasons, a CV and three referees) and four of Otago’s five equity groups (a 500-word supporting statement on Otago’s form). From 2028 entry, every domestic applicant to Auckland’s MBChB also sits Casper, which has typed answers.

Want a second pair of eyes on your draft?

Upload your Otago statement or supporting statement, and a current medical or dental student reads it and records a video talking you through what works and what to change, within 48 hours.
Get your draft reviewedNZ interview preparation