Shifa College of Medicine Admission 2026: Fees, Merit, MDCAT & Full Process

Shifa College of Medicine (SCM) is the flagship medical college of Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University (STMU) in Islamabad — a well-known private medical school attached to the JCI-accredited Shifa International Hospital. If Shifa is on your MBBS shortlist for 2026, this guide walks through exactly what it takes to get in: eligibility, the MDCAT and Shifa's own entrance test, the interview, the real cost, and an honest “is it worth it” framing.

Last verified July 2026 against STMU's official admissions pages (stmu.edu.pk) and PM&DC listings. Fees, seat counts and dates change year to year — always confirm the current figures in STMU's official Admission Information Booklet before you rely on them.

What is Shifa College of Medicine?

Shifa College of Medicine was established in 1998, making it one of Pakistan's longer-running private medical colleges. In 2012 it came under the newly chartered Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University. The big draw is clinical exposure: students train at Shifa International Hospital, a large tertiary-care teaching hospital in Islamabad. Shifa is generally grouped with Pakistan's better-regarded private medical schools (alongside names like AKU and FMH), and it is known for an integrated, research-oriented curriculum.

Eligibility for MBBS at Shifa (2026)

• Academics: HSSC (FSc pre-medical) or equivalent with a minimum 60% aggregate — this is an eligibility gate, not part of the merit score. A-Level / IB and other foreign qualifications need an IBCC equivalence certificate, also at 60%+.
• Subjects: Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (or Mathematics) at intermediate level.
• MDCAT: All candidates — Pakistani and foreign — must have passed the MDCAT conducted by the National Medical Authority, at the passing threshold set by the regulator for the current year.
• Shifa entrance test: Shifa additionally requires its own entrance test (the STMU Entrance Test for MBBS & BDS, administered by NTS) as part of the process.

Not sure where your aggregate lands? Run it first on the Premeth aggregate calculator, and if you're on A-Levels use the equivalence calculator.

The admission process, step by step

1. Online registration on Shifa's admissions portal (admissions.stmu.edu.pk), with a nominal application fee.
2. Upload documents — photograph, CNIC/passport, and your academic records.
3. Sit the Shifa entrance test on the scheduled date after your admit card is issued.
4. Submit your official MDCAT result.
5. Merit evaluation and shortlisting by the admission committee.
6. Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI) — a station-based interview format Shifa uses instead of a single panel interview.
7. Provisional admission and fee submission if you're offered a seat.

Notably, STMU states there are no quotas or reserved seats for the merit intake — selection is done by the admission committee on merit.

How merit is calculated

For Local Category seats, Shifa's official MBBS merit formula (per STMU's 2025–26 Admission Information Booklet) is 50% PM&DC MDCAT + 30% STMU Entrance Test (Theory) + 20% Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs). Importantly, your HSSC aggregate is only an eligibility gate (minimum 60%), not a weighted part of the merit score — unlike public colleges, which weight your FSc marks directly. The STMU Entrance Test is administered by NTS. Percentages can be revised each cycle, so confirm the current-year weightage in Shifa's official booklet.

Shifa also does not publish an official “closing merit” percentage. In practice, admitted students tend to have strong aggregates, but a hard cutoff number is not something Shifa releases — don't plan around an exact figure you read on a forum.

Fees — the real cost

Shifa is an expensive private option; there is no way around that. For the 2025–26 session, MBBS tuition was set at PKR 1.89 million per year (a 5% increase over the previous PKR 1.8m cap), on top of one-time charges.

Source: STMU official fee notification / Admission Information Booklet 2025–26. The overseas / foreign-national fee category is substantially higher (reported around PKR 3.1m/year). Hostel, transport and books are extra. Confirm current figures with the university.

Shifa does offer merit-based and need-based financial support (the Shifa Financial Support Program, plus HEC and Ehsaas need-based schemes) that can cover a meaningful share of tuition for strong or deserving candidates — worth applying for if cost is a barrier. For the full private-MBBS picture, see our 2026 private MBBS fee breakdown (NUMS, Shifa, AKU and more).

Seats, recognition & timeline

• Seats: approximately 100 MBBS seats per intake (confirm the current sanctioned intake, as PM&DC-approved seat counts can change).
• Recognition: SCM is recognized by the PM&DC and the university is chartered and HEC-recognized — your degree is valid for licensing and further training.
• Timeline (2026): the national MDCAT is typically held in the autumn, and private-college admissions (including Shifa's entrance test, merit lists and MMIs) generally run in the weeks after MDCAT results, with classes starting soon after. Shifa publishes exact dates on its admissions schedule page each cycle — watch stmu.edu.pk rather than relying on last year's dates.

Is Shifa worth it? An honest take

Shifa is a strong private medical school with excellent hospital exposure, an integrated curriculum, and a solid reputation — but it is a major financial commitment at roughly PKR 9.45m in tuition alone over five years. It makes sense if you (or your family) can fund private tuition comfortably, you value clinical training at a large teaching hospital, and you can't or don't want to compete for the very tight public-college merit. If budget is the deciding factor, a public medical college on MDCAT merit will always be dramatically cheaper — so run the numbers honestly and apply for Shifa's financial aid if you go this route.

In practice, Shifa tends to suit a specific profile: students who can comfortably afford private tuition and are USMLE / international-residency oriented — its research-heavy, integrated curriculum and rotations at the (JCI-accredited) Shifa International Hospital are well-suited to students aiming for the US/UK match. It's also the most common landing spot for strong applicants who narrowly missed AKU, or don't want to relocate to Karachi: if AKU is the dream but out of reach, Shifa is the go-to Islamabad-based private alternative in a similar reputation tier. It's a premium, career-outcome-focused choice — not a budget one.

The single biggest lever in your control is your MDCAT score — it gates both public admission and Shifa's merit. Drill it free on Premeth with 400,000+ MCQs and past papers.

See also: Private MBBS fees 2026 · Islamabad medical colleges list · All Pakistan medical universities.