There are now 46 medical schools in the UK, of which 14 opened since 2015. Some medical schools are graduate-entry only or focussed on international students - this website lists the programmes each medical school offers.  If you already have a first degree in another discipline and wish to apply for graduate entry medicine (GEM), then of course you will be limited to those medical schools offering this.

The 46 medical schools vary a lot in terms of their selection processes, curricula, the broader academic and clinical opportunities on campus, and general working culture. 

It's crucial to recognise that to date - and there is no reason to think this will change - what medical school you have studied at has had zero direct impact on your future career prospects. Many people may have different opinions on which are the best or most presitigious medical schools, but ultimately you can still pursue all the same career routes wherever you study.

In fact, the introduction of the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) this year means that there will probably be ever greater standardisation of medical school graduates going forward. Where the differences will remain is not in how safe or competent you are to be a doctor, but what 'extracurricular' opportunities and experiences are available at different medical schools.

One of the first things to consider is whether there are any personal factors that strictly limit your choice of medical school. For example, some students might have caring responsibilities or financial considerations that narrow their choice of medical schools. However, with the increase in medical schools, even if you are tied to a particular region, there are now many parts of the country where you can have a choice of medical schools without travelling far.

You might also have social considerations for how you choose where you apply. For example, you may want to be in a big city with wide ranging cultural amenities. Or you might prefer to be in a smaller town with easy access to the countryside or coast. Or you might want to go to a university with a strong sporting track-record. I am sure you will equally enjoy medical school itself wherever you study, so choosing where you apply based on extra-curricular considerations is perfectly valid, especially if it helps you to relax and establish work-life balance.

The reality is that where you go to medical school can make a substantial financial difference. I've started with this because for many students this is really important. I have set out some of the points to think about below:

• Bursaries and scholarships: some medical schools may offer extra bursaries or scholarships for particular student groups. It's worth checking university's official admissions websites carefully to see what additional support you might be eligible for.

• Course duration: some medical schools (e.g. Cambridge, Oxford, some London school) have a 6-year course due to compulsory intercalation (see below), whereas most medical schools offer 5-year courses. Although the NHS Bursary covers the additional year of a six year course, in reality you are still likely to have significantly additional living expenses with a 6-year than a 5-year course.

• Location: your single biggest expense as a student will be your accomodation and this will be very significantly significantly vary depending on the housing market in your chosen town or city. According to one survey, average monthly student rent in Sheffield was £380 versus £900 at QMUL in London!

• Working during your studies: many universities set regulations, or at least expectations, around the number of hours that students should undertake paid employment during term time. For example, Oxford sets a limit of 20 hours per week, at least on one webpage Cambridge appears to suggest that students should not do any paid work in term time. I am not sure to what extent universities can or do police these policies. A related factor is the total duration of term time per year ; some universities have shorter terms leaving more weeks of holiday in which you could potentially choose to work. That said this only really applies to the first three years of medical school in year 4 onwards most medical schools have substantially short holiday breaks than other undergraduate courses.

Depending on the stage you are at (i.e. year 11 versus years 12-13 versus post-school) you may find your choices are limited by the entry requirements set by some medical schools. Don't rely on aggrated information on third-party websites or books, as this may be out-of-date or simply incorrect, instead carefully check the university admission websites of the medical schools you are considering. Key points to look out for:

• GCSE grades: historically some medical schools indicated that a significant element of their medical school admissions was based on GCSE grade and they may have indicated minimum required GCSE grade.

• A level subject choice: some medical schools have requirements regarding the subjects you should have studied at AS and A level. In particular, some specifically require chemistry A level.

• A level grades: there may be differences in the A level grade offers that different medical schools make. Some medical schools make contextual offers (lower grade requirements for students from some disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds).

The Each medical school has its process for assessing and selecting candidates for admission. I am not sure this should necessarily impact where you choose to apply, but it is worth checking university admission websites to be aware of what you will need to do: 

• Admission tests: historically, most medical schools have used the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) and a few medical schools used the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT). Depending on the medical schools you choose to apply to, you may need to do one or both of these tests. Different medical schools use UCAT and BMAT test results in different ways. For example, they may set a minimum score to secure an interview, or they may use them as part of a more holistic assessment. Potentially your score might be make-or-break!

• Interview: most if not all medical schools still do some sort of selection interview. This might be a taditional panel interview or multiple mini interviews (where you rotate through several stations that each assess different skills). Again I'm not sure how interviews are done should influence your choice, but it's certainly something to be aware of.

UK medical school course structures vary quite radically and sometimes people have very strong opinions about what approach is 'best'. As already noted above, ultimately course structure doesn't really matter as all UK medical schools produce graduates that are safe and competent to start their medical careers. That said, it is probably true that some students may find that particular course structures fit their learning styles better than others - but whether you can tell at age 17 or 18 years what the best fit will be for you in to your 20s is another issue altogether!

Course structures either broadly fit in to one of the following categories (although in reality some medical schools have adopted elements from both approaches):

• Traditional structure: these courses are split in to two distinct phases (pre-clinical and clinical). The pre-clinical phase covers the first two of medical school, focusing on underpinning medical sciences (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, social sciences). The teaching is predominantly through lectures with some seminars and practical sessions, and students may have limited early clinical esposure. The clinical phase covers the final three years, in which students predominantly spend their time on clinical placements rotating through different specialties.

• Integrated structure: these courses do not have a formal division between pre-clinical and clinical phases and instead both clinical and underpinning medical science teaching is interwoven throughout the five years. Medical students have greater clinical exposure from the start of medical school. Generally, medical sciences are covered in less detail, with fewer lectures. Many medical schools have introduced problem based learning (PBL) or similar approaches that involve small group work focusing on self-directed learning. You can find lots of information about PBL on Google and you will see that as an educational technique it has both strong proponents and critics.

Some of the other key differences include:

• Anatomy: how anatomy is taught is a hot button issue for many medical students. Broadly, the different approaches are dissection (where students have the opportunity to dissect human tissue themselves), prosection (where students have the opportunity to view professionally dissected speciments but do not do the dissection themselves), lectures, and classroom based teaching involving models and multimedia materials. Many medical schools adopt a combination of these approached, but not all offer dissection or prosection. At Birmingham we had limited prosection teaching (from memory, something like 12 hours in total) but I never enjoyed this, and later as a surgical trainee I found that living anatomy looked very differently to the prosection specimens. Ultimately, whilst basic anatomy gives an important foundation for clinical practice, I am not sure how much the fine detail you do or don't get taught in first year of medical school makes a difference a decade later as a surgical or radiology trainee; you may well have to re-learn it! But I accept I write this as a public health doctor with zero need for any anatomy! 

• Intercalation: many medical schools offer students the opportunity to choose to 'intercalate'; at medical schools with 6-year courses intercalation is mandatory. Intercalation involves taking a year out from the standard medical degree to pursue an additional degree. I discuss the pros and cons of this in detail on my intercalation page.

Some of the more fine print areas of difference include:

• Communication skills: all medical schools will say that they support their students to develop strong communication skills. In reality there is a lot of variation in both the approaches taken to teaching communication skills and how much time is dedicated to this. 

• Social medicine: some medical schools have traditionally place more emphasis on exploring concepts like the wider determinants of health and health inequalities. Post-pandemic, there is generally more awareness of the importance of these concepts and I think they will be covered in more detail by all medical schools in the future.

• Electives: as far as I am aware all medical schools have 'electives' where students have the opportunity to design their own placement, either in the UK or abroad - but there will be differences in the timing of the elective and its duration. Many medical schools also have either mini-electives or student selected components/ modules throughout the course to give students the opportunity to dive deeper in to specific topics of interest to them.

• Research: beyond intercalation, some medical schools include one or more formal research projects throughout the course to enable students to develop practical research skills.

• Assessment: how and when (frequency) students are assessed differs widely between medical schools. Assessment techniques include written exam papers (short answer questions or essays), multiple choice question exams, coursework and clinical case portfolios, and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) which are practical clinical exams. It's likely most medical schools utilise a combination of techniques throughout the course, though some medical schools might use particular techniques more than others.

There has always been variation in the opportunities (in other words specialisms) available at each medical school. Generally, the bigger the city a medical school is in, the wider the range of specialist services that will be based across its teaching hospitals. At Birmingham we had the opportunity to experience medicine across an incredibly wide range of settings: super-specialist surgery (e.g. liver transplant) at the university hospital, busy emergency departments in big urban district hospitals, slower pace at the rural hospital, the differences between general practice in some of the most and least deprived parts of the country. Looking back, I really appreciate the perspective that these wide ranging experiences provided to me. 

Up until the early to mid 2000s all medical schools had been established at research intensive universities, meaning universities with substantial research grant income and many researchers. With the exception of London, there was only one medical school in each sub-region. These medical schools were co-located (in the same city if not the same exact place) with the largest and most specialised hospital in the region, the university hospital. More recently, universities have been established by in smaller towns and cities by universities that do not have established medical research institutes. I'm not sure whether these new medical schools will ever have the same close partnerships with 'flagship' university hospitals as the established medical schools do. 

I think it is inevitable that the range and depth of specialty exposure will be more limited at some of the newer medical schools. However, I don't personally think this is really all that much of an issue. At Birmingham it was generally considered that clinical teaching and experience was better at the district general hospitals than the big specialist hospitals. After all, as a medical student the focus should be on getting comfortable with the diagnosis and treatment of common conditions, not becoming a sub-specialty expert in rare disease.

It is true that if you wish to become a clinical-academic focussing on basic or translational science, then you will have far greater opportunities to explore and nurture this interest at a research intensive university with extensive basic science research programmes than you will at a university that has no medical research labs. Looking beyond lab research, at the biggest medical schools you will find a high-quality research team working across almost every discipline, whereas in smaller medical schools there may only be a few clinical-academics working in quite defined areas.

I applied to Birmingham (a city I knew well), Cambridge (I assumed its prestige must mean it is better!), and Leeds and Sheffield (I honestly don't remember why I applied to them!). I was interviewed at Birmingham and Cambridge, and only offered a place in Birmingham. At the time I was very disappointed to not be offered a place in Cambridge. Looking back, it's certainly possible that had I been exposed to and shaped by different opportunities and mentors, I might have taken a different career path - different but not necessarily "better"! 

You will sometimes hear about individuals who have received offers from all four of their medical school choices. That's a fantastic achievement and much to their credit! If you receive just the one offer, that's also a great achievement and ultimately you only need this one offer to get started in your medical career.

Regardless of where you study, a medical career is a huge privilege and all paths will be open for you- though of course you will have to put the hard work in and make your luck!