The medical schools with the most competitive admission processes in Australia include the University of Sydney School of Medicine, the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine, and the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences.
University of Queensland Medical School
The University of Queensland has a large pool of applicants, accepting as many as 455 students per year. The GPA is valued at 50/50 with the multiple mini-interview (MMI) should the applicant make it to that stage, but the GPA is used as a tiebreaker when necessary.
The medical schools with the most competitive admission processes in Australia include the University of Sydney School of Medicine, the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine, and the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences.
A Note for Medical Students
Apart from the top 5 specialties mentioned above, Interventional Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Vascular Surgery, General Surgery and Med/Peds are among the most difficult domains to become a doctor.
Most students consider their first semester of Biochemistry to be the hardest class they've ever taken. Students with a limited knowledge of biology will find this one especially challenging.
Year one is the hardest year of medical school.
Many students will likely disagree, but the first year is widely recognized as being the most difficult. The majority of the first year of medical school is spent in classrooms and labs and requires an enormous amount of memorization.
FAQs. →Does it matter which medical school you go to in Australia? While the quality of medical education in Australia is generally high across all universities, there are some differences between institutions. Factors such as curriculum structure, teaching methods, and clinical exposure can vary between schools.
Some universities required significantly higher ATARs (e.g. Flinders required a 99.95 ATAR, including adjustment factors, for medical entry), and universities like UNSW have recently started to require an ATAR of around 99.5 (on top of a competitive UCAT score) just to land an interview.
In Australia, the lowest minimum ATAR required by a medical program is an ATAR of 90 (Monash University) or adjusted ATAR of 90 (University of Adelaide). If you're a rural student, you could also apply to La Trobe's medical program, which has a minimum unadjusted ATAR requirement of 80.
Harvard Medical School is the highest ranked in the US. Established in 1782, Harvard has spent 2½ centuries building a reputation of excellence. What is a good GPA for medical school? 3.5 or higher is a good GPA for medical school.
Average admission rates for med school programs in Australia sit at around 30%. On average, students have a 1 in 3 chance of being accepted to medical school in Australia. New Zealand medical schools are also extremely competitive.
Australian National University Medicine Entry Requirements
Minimum weighted GPA score of 5.6 (25%) A satisfactory GAMSAT score (25%)
Fourth Year (MS4 or M4)
The first half of fourth year is arguably the hardest part of the entire medical training process, at least if you go into a competitive surgical subspecialty.
What is considered a low GPA for medical school? Many medical schools have a cut-off for GPAs below 3.0. The average GPA at most MD medical schools ranges from about 3.7 to 3.9. The average GPA at most DO medical schools ranges from about 3.4 to 3.6.
Specialist physicians are in the strongest demand with rising in interest in hiring gastroenterologists, orthopedic surgeons, oncologists, pulmonologists, neurologists, and psychiatrists.
Neurosurgeons are the highest paid physician specialists, earning an average of $788,313 annually, according to Doximity's "2023 Physician Compensation Report." The results were drawn from survey responses from 190,000 physicians over the last six years, including 31,000 in 2022.
What is the ATAR for Medicine in NSW and Canberra? For students wishing to study medicine in New South Wales, they will need to achieve an ATAR above 90 and in most cases in the mid-90s or even higher.
ATAR: at least 96 / IB 38. UCAT: the overall score of the cognitive subtests (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning). There is no minimum UCAT ANZ score as such. However, applicants must reach the 50th percentile to proceed to the interview stage of the application process..
To be competitive you'd need 99+, but 98 and 97 could still get you into med if you have really good UMATs and interviews.