Islamabad and Rawalpindi function as one applicant pool in practice — students commute freely between the two, and several colleges recruit through federal rather than provincial tests (NUMS, SZABMU), which is a different system from Punjab's UHS-MDCAT next door.
Public & semi-government colleges
- Federal Medical College (SZABMU) — Islamabad, 100 MBBS, 50 BDS, 96.76% closing merit. The single highest closing merit of any college in this dataset.
- Army Medical College — Rawalpindi, 175 MBBS, 94.8% closing merit, admitted through NUMS.
- Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University — Islamabad, 100 MBBS, 94.48% closing merit.
- National University of Medical Sciences — Rawalpindi, 100 MBBS, 93.5% closing merit.
- Rawalpindi Medical University — Rawalpindi, 350 MBBS, 93.93% closing merit, the region's UHS-MDCAT public option.
Private college
- Shifa College of Medicine — Islamabad, 100 MBBS, 82% closing merit.
What this means for your shortlist
If you're eligible for both NUMS and UHS-MDCAT (some students are, depending on domicile and which colleges they target), federal-test colleges here close higher than Lahore's public UHS colleges — SZABMU's 96.76% is the highest number in this entire directory. Don't assume "twin cities" means an easier bar than Lahore; if anything, the federal-route colleges here are more competitive.
See the full medical colleges directory, or run your numbers through the MDCAT aggregate calculator before ranking your preferences.