Which Medical Schools to Apply to with a Low UCAT Score

The best place to start is the small group of schools where a UCAT of 1700 to 1800 is enough to be competitive for an interview, whatever your academics. You still need to meet the entry requirements, but beyond that your grades aren't ranked and your UCAT is barely used. Instead, the interview is decided by something else: your work experience, your personal statement, or an assessment day.

• Sunderland takes everyone in the top eight deciles with an SJT Band of 1 to 3, which was a UCAT of 1680 in 2025. After that, your UCAT is never used again. Interviews are decided by Sunderland's interview selection tool, a questionnaire about your work experience and volunteering over the past two years, so this is the school to pick if your experience is a strength.
• Keele needs a UCAT of at least 1700. Above that, you're scored out of 25, and the UCAT is worth at most 7 of those points, so a low score does put you at a small disadvantage. But 15 of the 25 points come from the personal statement, which means that once you've met the requirements, a strong personal statement can more than make up for a weak UCAT. The interview threshold in 2025 was 15 out of 25, so a UCAT in the 1700s with a strong personal statement clears it comfortably.
• Buckingham doesn't use the UCAT at all. Applications go through an academic check and then its own assessment day. It's a private medical school, though, with fees of around £41,500 a year and no NHS-funded places, so it's only an option if that's affordable.
• St Mary's (London) also has no UCAT cut-off and reviews applications holistically, but it only takes international applicants for 2027 entry, so it isn't an option for UK students.

Many schools select for interview on a composite score that balances your UCAT against your academics, usually your GCSEs. In most of these schemes the UCAT is the dominant part, so a low score is hard to recover from. But at some schools your academics are worth as much as your UCAT, or more.

The following schools are those where your academics carry a significant portion of the shortlisting score, and can offset a weaker UCAT. For all of them, a UCAT of 1900 and full 9s at GCSE would have been enough to reach the most recent interview threshold. The note for each shows roughly what the sums look like.

However, for most of these schools you will need reasonably strong academics to offset a lower UCAT score, and how much depends on the school:

• At Cardiff, so many applicants hold the full 24 GCSE points that the UCAT tie-break has decided the cut in some years.
• At QUB and Leicester, a full set of 9s clears the threshold almost regardless of UCAT.
• If your GCSEs are more mixed, run the numbers for your own grades rather than assuming.

Birmingham, Hull York, Nottingham and Oxford also weight the UCAT at 50% or less, but they're competitive enough that to stand a strong chance you'd realistically need a UCAT of 2100 or more, even with full GCSE points.

Around half of medical schools rank purely on your UCAT total, or use it as the single hurdle before another stage. That sounds like the worst place to be with a low score, but it depends entirely on where each school's cut-off falls, and several have recently invited applicants on scores below 2000. The cut-off is set each year by the applicant pool, so use these as a guide to which schools are in reach, not as a promise.

The UCAT-only schools not listed here all cut at 2000 or above in their latest year, from Anglia Ruskin at 2010 up to Imperial at 2320.

One thing to be aware of is that many schools have lower requirements for contextual students. If you qualify, through free school meals, a low-participation postcode, a below-average school, care experience or a widening-participation programme, the UCAT bar is often set lower for you, and at some schools you skip the UCAT ranking altogether and are guaranteed an interview. A score that's out of reach in the standard pool can be perfectly competitive in the contextual one.

Schools that guarantee an interview if you meet their other entry requirements:

Each access programme has its own eligibility and application window, so check the school's widening-participation page well before the UCAS deadline.

Schools that set a separate, lower UCAT cut-off for contextual applicants:

• UCLan's contextual threshold of 1630 is the lowest in the country.
• Lancaster, Southampton, Liverpool and Plymouth all drop to between 1870 and 1910, and Manchester to 1960.
• UCL and Imperial reduce theirs by 100 to 150 points, but their contextual bars are still above 2000.

Every school defines "contextual" differently, so check the criteria at each one before you count on it.

Work through the groups above in order:

1. 1.Check whether you're contextual first. It changes which schools are in reach: several thresholds drop by 100 points or more, and a few schools guarantee an interview.
2. 2.Then start with the schools where a low UCAT won't hold you back. Sunderland and Keele will consider you on a UCAT from about 1700 and then judge you on something else. Make sure the "something else" is a strength: work experience or volunteering for Sunderland, personal statement for Keele.
3. 3.If your GCSEs are mostly 8s and 9s, add the academics-heavy schools. Cardiff, Queen's Belfast, Aston, Leicester, Lincoln and, at a stretch, Newcastle. Run the numbers for your own grades rather than assuming.
4. 4.Finally, add the UCAT-only schools whose cut-off sits below your score. Leave yourself a margin of 50 or so, because cut-offs move every year.