FMDC Admission 2026: Federal Medical College Islamabad Fees, Merit & Federal Quota

Federal Medical College (FMDC), Islamabad — formerly the Federal Medical & Dental College — is the only public-sector medical college in the federal capital. It was established by an Act of Parliament on 21 March 2013, is affiliated with Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU), and its students train at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and the Federal General Hospital. If FMDC is on your MBBS shortlist for 2026, this guide covers exactly how it works: eligibility, the merit formula, the (very affordable) fee, and the distinctive federal quota that splits its seats across every province and region of Pakistan.

Last verified July 2026 against SZABMU's official admissions pages (szabmu.edu.pk), FMDC's site (fmcisb.edu.pk) and the PM&DC 2025 admissions policy. Fees, quotas, seat counts and dates change year to year — always confirm the current figures in SZABMU's official FMDC admission prospectus before you rely on them.

What is FMDC (Federal Medical College)?

FMDC is a federal government medical college run under SZABMU, Islamabad. Being the capital's only public medical college, it is dramatically cheaper than Islamabad's private options (like Shifa) while offering clinical training at PIMS — one of Pakistan's largest tertiary-care teaching hospitals. Its most distinctive feature is that it is a national, federal college: unlike a provincial public college that mostly admits its own province's students, FMDC reserves seats for candidates from every province and region, plus Islamabad and federal categories. For a side-by-side of how FMDC's route compares with the regular MDCAT path, see our FMDC vs MDCAT comparison.

Eligibility for MBBS at FMDC (2026)

• Academics: HSSC (FSc pre-medical) or equivalent with a minimum 60% aggregate (per the PM&DC 2025 policy; some older listings cite 65%, so confirm the current year's cutoff). A-Level / IB and other foreign qualifications need an IBCC equivalence certificate.
• Subjects: Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (or Mathematics) at intermediate level.
• MDCAT: You must have taken the national MDCAT and scored at least 55% (the regulator's current passing threshold). FMDC does not run a separate entrance test any more — MDCAT is the single admission test.

Not sure where your aggregate lands? Run it on the FMDC merit calculator or the general PMDC aggregate calculator, and if you're on A-Levels use the equivalence calculator.

How merit is calculated

FMDC uses the standard PM&DC merit aggregate that applies to public MBBS admissions nationwide: 10% Matric (SSC) + 40% FSc / HSSC + 50% MDCAT. Your marks in each are converted to a percentage, weighted, and summed. Crucially, this aggregate is then ranked within your quota — you compete against other applicants in the same regional/category pool, not the whole country, so closing merit differs by quota.

You may still see older references to a “50% FSc + 50% entry test” formula — that predates the centralized MDCAT and is out of date. For 2026, treat the 10/40/50 aggregate as the working formula, but always confirm the exact weightage in the current SZABMU/FMDC prospectus, as regulators occasionally revise it.

Seats & the federal quota (the distinctive part)

FMDC has 100 MBBS seats, distributed on a federal quota so that students from across Pakistan can be admitted to the capital's public college. Per SZABMU's 2025–26 allocation, the split was approximately:

Source: SZABMU FMDC seat allocation 2025–26. Quotas are revised most years (earlier cycles used a different split with more Punjab and fewer ICT seats), so confirm the current allocation in the official prospectus before planning around a specific quota.

Fees — the real cost (it's public, so it's cheap)

This is where FMDC beats every private college in the city. As a public-sector federal college, its tuition is in the range of a few tens of thousands of rupees per year — widely-cited fee listings put the academic fee around PKR 36,000/year, plus a one-time (refundable) admission/security deposit of about PKR 12,000. Hostel is separate (roughly PKR 9,000/month for boys; around PKR 36,000/year for girls, per recent listings).

Exact public-sector fee figures vary by session and are set by SZABMU — confirm the current amount in the official FMDC prospectus. For the private-college contrast, see our 2026 private MBBS fee breakdown and public vs private MBBS guide.

Recent closing merit

FMDC merit is very competitive, as you'd expect for the capital's only public college. In recent cycles, first merit lists for Open Merit closed around 96–97%, with Punjab similarly high (~96%) and the ICT/Federal and other regional quotas typically a few points lower (mid-90s down to high-80s depending on the quota and year). As with all colleges, merit drops in later merit lists as admitted students move to other colleges — final/last-list closings have fallen to around 94% in some quotas.

These are recent illustrative figures, not guarantees — closing merit shifts every year with the applicant pool and MDCAT difficulty. Use the FMDC merit calculator to estimate where you stand, and check SZABMU's published merit lists for the current cycle.

Admission process & timeline (2026)

1. Take the MDCAT (national test, typically held in autumn) and get your result.
2. Apply online on the SZABMU admissions portal within the announced window, selecting FMDC and your quota.
3. Upload documents — photograph, CNIC/B-Form, Matric, FSc/HSSC and MDCAT results (plus IBCC equivalence if foreign-qualified).
4. Merit lists are computed on the PM&DC aggregate and published by SZABMU, quota-wise.
5. Submit fee and documents at Federal Medical College within the given deadline if selected; later merit lists follow for unfilled seats.

FMDC and SZABMU publish exact dates each cycle — watch szabmu.edu.pk and fmcisb.edu.pk rather than relying on last year's calendar.

Is FMDC worth targeting? An honest take

For most MDCAT candidates, FMDC is an excellent target: it combines public-sector affordability with strong clinical training at PIMS and a nationwide quota that gives students from every region a genuine shot at studying in the capital. The catch is simply that it is hard to get into — 100 seats split across many quotas means closing merit sits in the mid-to-high 90s, so it rewards a strong MDCAT far more than deep pockets. If you can afford private tuition and want an Islamabad seat as a backup, a college like Shifa is the private alternative — but on pure value, FMDC is the one to aim for.

The single biggest lever in your control is your MDCAT score — it's 50% of your aggregate and it decides your quota rank. Drill it free on Premeth with 400,000+ MCQs and past papers.

See also: FMDC vs MDCAT · FMDC merit calculator · Islamabad medical colleges list · All Pakistan medical universities.