SHIFA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE in Islamabad, Pakistan

Hi Meetra. Welcome to the forum!
I've moved your post here, (SHIFA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE in Islamabad, Pakistan) because this thread has tons of info regarding Shifa. Go ahead and read through this thread and you should be able to find the answers to all of your questions. After reading it, feel free to ask anything that you might be confused about.

ok ok ok... mastahriz u sound like the ryt person to tlk to.. all the university websites tlk abt the SAT II, MCAT & AP which are all for USA students. Im in UK and wnt to apply.. theres two major problems.. firstly don't have physics at A level because it wasnt compulsary to get into med in london and secondy cnt do entrance exam bcz thts the day my results come out and also cant do alternatives cz they dnt hold them in uk...
i am doing a levels in religious studies, chemistry, biology and psychlogy

so be honest do u think i could get a plce at shifa?

I'm really impressed at the quality of responses in this discussion forum. Without it, working out how to apply to Shifa College would be really difficult. Thanks for making it all so clear.

I'm Italian, currently resident in the UK, about to finish my UK nursing degree at City University (in July) before moving to Pakistan later this year. Having heard everything you've written, I am really keen to study medicine at Shifa College.

I am sorting out my transcripts for the IBCC equivalence and registering for the SAT II tests. I was at high school and did a nursing diploma in Brazil, so am keen to make sure people know how to equate my previous results.

- Do you have any tips of other things I should do before applying for the medicine degree at Shifa?
- In particular, is there a problem being Italian / having studied in Brazil?
- Am I also correct that it is now ok for students over 25 to join the course (I'm 27!)?

Hoping you can give me some additional useful pointers. many thanks, Filipi

Without physics there is no way you will be granted admission to any medical college in Pakistan. One year of each science (bio, chem, phys) is required in order to obtain an IBCC equivalence certificate, which states that you are eligible to apply to medical schools. Without the IBCC certificate you can't even apply.

If you still want to be admitted into Pakistan you'll have to take a year of physics first and then you can apply for the following year. After that you'll still have to do the prerequisites for each college that you want to apply to, otherwise you won't even be considered. For Shifa you have to either give the SAT IIs, MCAT, or entrance test. There are plenty of people applying every year so if you're missing even one of the required things you'll be automatically rejected.

Welcome to the forum Filipi.

Sounds like you're on the right track in terms of getting all the IBCC stuff together and signing up for SAT IIs.

Being Italian and having studied in Brazil shouldn't be a problem in terms of admissions as long as you fulfilled all of the IBCC requirements. I'm not sure whether you speak Urdu or not, but the teachers at Shifa often switch off between english and urdu, which makes it slightly more difficult(but definitely not impossible) on non-urdu speaking students.

Yes, you are correct. There are no longer any age restrictions for applying to medical colleges in Pakistan.

Thanks MedGrunt - that's reassuring. I better get on with learning some Urdu!!

One query re IBCC - I'm getting my school in Brazil to send original stamped transcripts of my school certificate/grades. I'm presuming it's ok to ask them to do this in English and send in a sealed envelope. They normally do them in Portuguese, but it seems more complicated to get those, translate them, have them notarised, re-seal them etc. Would English stamped transcripts be ok?

If they can do it in English, definitely have that done as it would probably require extra time to process your application if it is in Portuguese.

For any other questions regarding IBCC please post under: IBCC Equivalence for Pakistan Medical Colleges

Finally i have read through this whole page in 2 days. Now i hope i can get personalized help to my situation. Im currently in my junior year (11th) in high school in the U.S. I didnt want to become a doctor until the end of 10th grade. My grades are pretty descent but i just realized that i screwed up my grades in biology. I got a C in both first and second semester of Honors Biology in 9th grade. What i want to see is that if i do Biology again and get a better score, then can they just ignore the first grade. I also noticed that the requirement said that you must take all 3 science courses at the last 3 years of high school. If true, then can i just tell them that so that they ignore my 9th grade's grade and then show them a grade i got in a biology class after school from a community college? Also has anyone been able to figure out the effect of AP and Honors classes on the ibcc. i could have gotten near straight A's if i had taken the regular classes but had decided to take the harder ones knowing it would help me for college. please help me out. this site has been very helpful so far. I really want to get into Shifa

Your questions are actually more related to the IBCC equivalence score as Shifa looks at your IBCC score and your overall GPA more than your individual grades.
Check out: IBCC Equivalence for Pakistan Medical Colleges

oh and welcome to the forum

haha. thanks. im thinking that by the end of senior year my gpa should be about in the 3.6 range. i can probably get it higher but i dont think itll get lower. I am taking all honors and AP courses though. do you think thatll be enough for shifa? What scores does ibcc look at and what years of high school do they look at?

You'll definitely have a shot with 3.6 but the competition increases every year so the higher, the better.

And as always....IBCC answers are in the IBCC thread.

haha. u know whats really funny. i found out that one of my parents' friends are a big contributor to Shifa. I think I might ask them about it too. His sons have gone there too.