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Foundation Programme · 2026–27
Explore the tables, auto-build a starting order, then fine-tune it in My custom ranking.
Location searches are sent to Postcodes.io or Photon for lookup; route calculations use OSRM and National Rail. How location data is used.
Set each importance from 0 (ignore) to 5 (strongest). Add a destination to include travel.
Your destination is used to calculate travel times. How location data is used.
Large figure: job-weighted centre · smaller range: middle 50%.
| Rank | Foundation School | Result | Coverage |
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These are suggestions. Use the tabs in whichever order helps you. This site helps you plan; enter your final preferences in Oriel.
How to order your schools: Put the school you most want first. If it is marked competitive, think carefully about which schools you would want next. If your first choice is not competitive, put the rest in the order you genuinely prefer.
Turn Chance estimates on in My custom ranking to see a rough estimate for your list. Turn it off to see ratios alone. Neither the label nor the estimate promises a place.
Ratio means first-preference applicants divided by available Foundation School places. 2026 ratios use UKFPO figures for primary-allocation applicants only. “Borderline” means a selected ratio from 0.85 to 1.20 inclusive, not a forecast. The optional 2024–26 average uses official ratios from those years, but a separate priority-group split was not published for 2024 or 2025.
2027 forecast is an illustrative extrapolation, not a UKFPO figure. A pooled historical fit across the 18 schools selects how much weight to give the latest ratio versus the previous year, then applies that weight to 2026 and 2025. A school-held-out check for 2026 modestly beat simply carrying 2025 forward, but there is only one year to test. It holds 2026 school places constant where no comparable 2027 capacity is known. The historical series mixes 2026 primary-only ratios with older figures without a separate priority split; Scotland First also changes the Scottish allocation. These limitations make the forecast and its associated chance estimates less reliable than the published 2026 mode. Twelve of 18 schools reversed direction between 2024–25 and 2025–26, but three annual observations cannot establish an alternating cycle, so the forecast does not force one. Turn chance estimates off to view ratios alone.
Chance is a school-level model estimate for your list, not an official probability or a hospital-specific result. The bold percentage is colour-coded from red (low) to green (high); the bracketed figures, such as 78% [66–92%], are a plausible model range rather than a confidence interval. A dash means another school is inactive under Scotland First; “Unknown” means a non-opt-in Scotland chance cannot be justified.
The model runs both Preference Informed Allocation (PIA) passes in 3,000 Monte Carlo simulations. Each run samples year-to-year ratio variation and models other applicants as a mix of regional, balanced, popularity-led and flexible behaviours. Later choices use assumed popularity, distance and regional affinity because UKFPO does not publish full preference lists. London applicants' later options preferentially include KSS, East of England, Thames Valley and Wessex; West Midlands Central applicants favour nearby West Midlands schools. These are model assumptions, not observed applicant preferences. The displayed chance averages over possible computer-generated PIA ranks; it is not one chosen percentile. The range contrasts lower- and higher-competition runs (for a top choice, the 10th–90th percentile of ratio-driven chance). These assumptions can be wrong in a new cycle.
PIA first tries everyone’s first choice in computer-generated rank order, then allocates unplaced applicants to their highest remaining choice. Linked mode uses the lower-ranked applicant’s position and looks for two places. The model checks its inputs against the official 82.3% national 2026 first-choice result, but does not force school estimates to match it.
Applicants who will receive a Primary Medical Qualification from a Scottish medical school may opt into Scotland First after completing their Oriel application. An eligible opt-in is guaranteed the Scottish Foundation School, not a particular region, group, programme or hospital. Merely studying in Scotland does not activate the guarantee. If linked mode is on, the switch assumes both applicants are eligible and opt in.
Turning on Scotland First puts Scotland at rank 1 and shows a 100% school-level outcome; the other schools in your ranking become inactive. People who do not opt in can still rank Scotland, but the number of opt-ins is unpublished, so their individual Scotland chance cannot be estimated reliably. For downstream school estimates, the simulation stress-tests opt-ins taking 74–100% of the indicative 1,173 Scottish F1 posts. The 74% figure is the 2025 share filled by Scottish graduates, not a measured opt-in rate or guaranteed minimum. Historical ratios predate Scotland First.
Published programmes at a hospital counts distinct two-year programme IDs that include the site at least once, across F1 and F2. A programme with several rotations at the same site counts once. The popup names the source cycle and links to it. This measures options that include a site, not the chance of being placed there: programmes may have several posts, may change, and do not guarantee a particular rotation. Where no extracted programme list names a site, no count is shown.
Comparisons and pin sizes use these programme-derived counts or labelled proxies to weight larger placement sites more heavily. The main figure is the central estimate; the smaller range is the weighted middle 50% of the underlying sites or programmes where that measure supports a range. Coverage shows how much of the estimated job distribution has usable data.
Rent uses local rental geographies; GMC training measures use the most granular defensible Foundation data, with explicit site/trust/school fallback. Teaching and burnout use broader trainee groups where Foundation-only results are unavailable. Local quality of life is a general resident-life-satisfaction proxy, not doctor-specific. F1→F2 spread uses published two-year programmes where extracted, otherwise an all-site proxy that is less comparable. Road times exclude traffic; train times run between nearest usable National Rail stations and exclude station access time.
“Auto-build my ranking” converts included measures to relative 0–100 ranks across schools, then combines them using your 0–5 weights. A zero weight ignores a measure; missing data receive a neutral score. It is a preference aid, not an allocation forecast.
London is the default destination in hospital popups. Search for a place on the map to make that place the destination for every hospital popup. Open a popup and press Show details to calculate its driving and train estimates. Hospital searches do not change the destination. Reload the page to return to London.
Driving: estimated road time and distance from the hospital to Charing Cross in central London by default, or to the searched place. These estimates do not include live traffic, stops or parking.
Train: indicative weekday journey from the site's listed station to a London terminus by default, or to the station nearest the searched place. London samples used Tuesday 29 September 2026 at about 10:00; searched-place routes use the provider's next available reference weekday. Among routes within 20 minutes of the fastest, the estimate favours fewer changes. Station access and onward travel are excluded.
Weekend: the displayed time is the arithmetic mean of the available Saturday and Sunday station-to-London samples, rounded to the nearest minute; changes are shown as a range when they differ. If only one day's route is available, the popup names that day instead of calling it an average. Samples were for Saturday 3 October 2026 and Sunday 4 October 2026, departing about 10:00. These are dated examples, not a typical weekend guarantee. Engineering work and different Sunday services can change routes or journey times. For an actual trip, check the National Rail Journey Planner and disruption advice for your date.
UKFPO competition ratios · UKFPO PIA guidance · Scotland First guidance · Indicative Scottish posts · GMC National Training Survey.