So You Want to Be a Doctor? How to Get Into Medicine
11 hours ago by Tom
Congratulations on your decision to pursue medicine as a career! Medicine is one of the most respected and rewarding professions you can choose. The process of getting into medicine can be confusing, so here's a straightforward introduction to help you get started.
Criteria for getting into medicine
The minimum points required to get into medicine varied from year to year and between universities. As the medical entry system is changing from 2027, it is yet to be seen what the minimum score required for entry will be. Your score consists of a sum of two components:
- Your Leaving Certificate points (up to a maximum of 625), and
- Your overall HPAT score (up to a maximum of 150)
Leaving Certificate Points
Your full Leaving Certificate points will count towards your medicine application, up to a maximum of 625 points. A minimum Leaving Certificate score of 480 points is required to be eligible for medicine.
HPAT Score
The maximum score that can be achieved in HPAT is 150. In practice, most successful applicants will need to achieve around the 80th percentile or higher to be competitive for one of the limited places available.
The HPAT overall score is a weighted sum of your section scores. The three sections are weighted as follows: Section 1 (40%), Section 2 (40%) and Section 3 (20%). ACER does not publicly release how they calculate HPAT scores — this is discussed in detail in Dr Ann's HPAT Workshop, which is designed specifically to help students maximise their HPAT score.
Subject Requirements
It is also important to note that you need to achieve certain minimum results in subjects such as English, Irish, a third language, maths and various sciences to be eligible for entry into medicine. You can find further details on our university admissions page.
Applying for medicine in Ireland
MedEntry recommends that students interested in medicine apply to all six universities in Ireland offering the degree: University College Dublin, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the University of Limerick and University of Galway. Note that entry requirements vary between universities and may change from year to year.
Students applying for medicine must also register with the CAO, so make sure you are familiar with their deadlines well in advance.
Important dates
There are some important dates to keep in mind when applying for medicine, missing any of these could mean waiting a full year before you can apply again. A sample timeline is below (make sure you research the specific dates applicable for your year and your situation):
| Date | Task |
| Early November | Registrations for HPAT open |
| Late January | Deadline to register for HPAT |
| Early February | Deadline to apply to the CAO |
| Late February | Sit HPAT |
| Late June | HPAT results released |
| Late August | University offers released |
Remember that you are going to be busy in 6th year so it is important to be organised – note down important dates at the beginning of the year so you do not miss important deadlines!
More information
The following resources are a great starting point for learning more about the medical entry process:
- Download our free, printable HPAT Handbook for a full overview of the medical entry process
- CAO website (application deadlines and procedures)
- HPAT Ireland (ACER) (official registration and test information)
