Glasgow Medical School: Overview

The history of Glasgow Medical School dates back to the 17th century when it was established in 1637. Since then, researchers and academics under the wing of Glasgow Medical School have immensely contributed to medicine - Glasgow’s notable alumni include Joseph Lister, who was the first to recommend hand-washing, a renowned anatomist William Hinter or John Macintyre, who set up the world’s first radiology department in none other but Glasgow.

Ranked first in the Complete University Guide 2021 (alongside Dundee), Glasgow Medical School is a great place for any aspiring medic with high aspirations. Clinical teaching at Glasgow Medical School is carried out in over 25 hospitals across Scottland, including Queen Elisabeth University Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Europe, and the state-of-the-art Glasgow Royal Infirmary at the very heart of Glasgow.

Selection for Medicine Interviews at Glasgow:
🔢 How does Glasgow selects for interviews?

GCSEs + Predicted Grades: GCSEs and Predicted Grades are not used by Glasgow Medical School in the selection process, beyond checking if you meet minimum entry requirements (which you can find here).

Personal Statement: According to Glasgow’s official website, the personal statement is not a significant element in the selection for interviews and only has to be “satisfactory.” Most likely it means that any personal statement that is medicine-related and includes basic elements (some form of insight into medicine, commitment, extracurriculars, academic involvements etc.) will suffice.

UCAT: Glasgow places the highest emphasis on the UCAT score. All students are ranked according to the obtained UCAT score. Each year a cut-off score (depending on the scores of candidates applying to Glasgow in a given year) is set by Glasgow for each of the groups (Scots. Dom., RUK, International/EU) separately. The SJT is not taken into account as of 2022. You can read more about how Glasgow uses the UCAT score here.

📊 What is the lowest required UCAT score to get an interview at Glasgow?

🏴 󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scottland: For 2022 entry, the UCAT cut-off score at Glasgow Medical School for Scottish students was 2690.

🇬🇧 RUK: For 2022 entry, the UCAT cut-off score at Glasgow for RUK students was 2830.

🌍 International Students: For 2022 entry, the UCAT cut-off score at Glasgow for International students was 2700.

You can find Glasgow’s admissions data for the Medicine course under this link.

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📤 When does Glasgow send out interview invitations?

Historically, Glasgow has been sending out invitations for medicine interviews between November and February of the application cycle.

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 How many candidates get interviewed for Medicine at Glasgow?

🏴 󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scottland: For 2022 entry, 961 Scottish students applied to Glasgow Medical School, and 494 of them (51%) have been interviewed.

🇬🇧 RUK: For 2022 entry, 848 RUK students applied to Glasgow Medical School, and 244 of them (28%) have been interviewed.

🌍 International Students: **For 2022 entry, 631 international students applied to Glasgow Medical School, and 161 of them (26%) have been interviewed.

Interviews at Glasgow Medical School (2024 Entry):
🗓️ Glasgow Medicine Interview dates (2023):

Medicine interviews at Glasgow will most likely take place between December 2023 and February 2024.

💬 What’s the interview format at Glasgow?

In the past years, the medicine interview at Glasgow was a 30-minute panel interview with 2 interviewers. It was divided into 2 sections - section A and section B - where section A revolved around your motivations for medicine and your insight into the field, while section B revolved around medical ethics and the person’s future as a doctor.

During section B of the panel interview, students had the opportunity to read through two ethical scenarios and decide which one they’d like to discuss. Both of the scenarios were brief, but there was nonetheless extra time allocated for reading and decision-making.

💡 How To Prepare for Medicine Interviews at Glasgow?

Preparing for medical school interviews requires more than just reading an article or doing a mock interview. It requires intentionality, structure and commitment. Luckily, with Medfully it is simpler and more efficient than ever:

🏆 How likely is it I’ll be given an offer after an interview at Glasgow Medical School?

🏴 󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scottland: Following 494 interviews for 2022 entry medicine, 348 students were offered a place at Glasgow (70% of all Scottish students interviewed).

🇬🇧 RUK: Following 244 interviews for 2022 entry medicine, 111 RUK students were offered a place at Glasgow (46% of all RUK students interviewed).

🌍 International Students: Following 161 interviews for 2022 entry medicine, 65 international students were offered a place at Glasgow (40%).

💅 What to do before the interview at Glasgow Medical School?

• revisit your personal statement
• boost your confidence and improve interview knowledge by preparing using Medfully
• prepare a formal outfit
• plan your journey (if you are invited to an in-person interview at Glasgow)

⏳ How long does it take to hear back from Glasgow?

Glasgow usually replies on a rolling basis, within a few weeks of the interview.

🧠 Glasgow Medicine Interview Questions:

Motivations To Study Medicine:

• What would you do if you didn’t get in this year?
• Why would you like to study medicine at Glasgow? What makes Glasgow special in your view?
• How are you suited to the medical course here at Glasgow?
• Has anyone ever tried to dissuade you from going into medicine? If so, what convinced you to apply anyway?

Insight Into Medicine:

• What steps have you taken to gain some more insight into medicine and find out if it’s the right field for you?
• What are the three most important qualities of a physician?
• What appeals to you the least in being a doctor?
• What is the importance of teaching in medicine and what forms does teaching take?

Future Plans:

• Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
• What speciality would you like to pursue once you finish your foundation training?
• How do you see the future of the NHS? What challenges will the NHS face in 10 years that aren’t as significant now?
• How will your passion for insert the name of an extracurricular help you become a better doctor?

Medical Ethics:

• A 14-year old boy is rushed into A&E after a car crash. The patient is unconscious and has sustained huge blood loss as a result of the accident. Together with your team, you decide the boy requires an urgent blood transfusion. As you are about to take the boy into the OR, his parents arrive and forbid you to carry on with the blood transfusion on religious grounds. How would you proceed, and what factors should you consider?
• A 19-year old patient comes to your GP practice and discloses they regularly engage in the use of illicit drugs. They ask you not to tell anyone, including the police. What factors should you consider in such a scenario, and who would you inform about the situation?
• Imagine you are the head of the surgical department in a hospital. There are two patients, A and B, both requiring an urgent liver transplant, but there is only one viable liver. Patient A is a 32-year old social activist, with a drug abuse history. Patient B is a 78-year old woman, who takes care of 3 children, whose parents died in a car accident. How would you allocate the liver and why?

NHS Hot Topics:

• What are the differences and similarities between the healthcare systems in the US and the UK?
• The UK has one of the highest rates of obese adults in the world. If you could introduce new measures to tackle obesity in the UK, what would those be?
• Why is it important that doctors (and those around them) take care of their mental health?
• Do you think that the NHS Scottland has to grapple with different challenges than NHS England? How are the challenges these two systems face similar and different to each other?

🚀 TOP Tip: Have a hard time answering any of the above questions? You’ll find insider tactics to tackle all of the above questions and formulate convincing and structured answers at Medfully - The Best Medicine Interview Preparation Resource.

Please note that these aren’t questions that have been asked at Glasgow in past years. Publishing such information would be against Glasgow’s policy. The above questions are adjusted for the interview style at Glasgow and are meant to give you a broad sense of the questions you may face.

✅ Glasgow Medical School Interviews: 3 Tips

Stay Up-To-Date With Latest Events in Medicine:

Admissions people at Glasgow Medical School expect you to be. One way of assessing your passion for medicine is checking if you are informed about the latest, major events in the world of science and medicine.

Therefore, to prepare for questions about the so-called Hot Topics, make sure to get into the habit of following healthcare news regularly before your interviews. If your interview is fast approaching and you haven’t done that, don’t worry, you can easily catch up.

What kind of events should you look out for? Here are some examples: during the 2021/22 medicine interview cycle, the Covid-19 vaccine rollout started in the UK and as you may expect interviewers were keen to ask about it. Or just before the 2017/18 interview cycle, Junior Doctors' strikes were a big thing in the news. No need to pay too much attention to tabloid articles with headlines about wine being a miraculous cure for cancer or a new herbal treatment for arthritis.

Review Your Medicine Personal Statement:

Your medicine personal statement is a wealth of knowledge about your motivations to study medicine, your achievements and your personality. Scan through your personal statement before your Glasgow Medicine Interview to refresh this information. Highlight all the individual points you’ve made and try to come up with example interview questions about them.

Let’s say you mentioned that your work experience showed you how challenging the work of a doctor can be. Based on that, interviewers at Glasgow could ask you about particular challenges you could face as a doctor, or ways you’d want to deal with such challenges.

Learn About NHS Scottland:

Although not stated explicitly on the website, questions revolving around NHS Scotland may pop up in your Aberdeen medicine interview. Make sure you understand how it differs from NHS England and the NHS overall, what it means that the NHS is devolved, as well as the pros and cons of the devolved system.

All of that information you can find in Medfully Interview Knowledge Bank written by doctors and medical students from top UK universities.