OLFU College of Medicine for Foreign Students: The 2026 Route In

TL;DR: Our Lady of Fatima University runs its four-year Doctor of Medicine program at the Valenzuela campus, and the College of Medicine dates itself to 1979. For international students the school publishes US$3,500 as the total assessment for the semester in first year plus a one-time, non-refundable Foreign Fee of US$6,000 — roughly ₱217,000 and ₱372,000, or about ₹3.4 lakh and ₹5.8 lakh at rough rates. Years 2 to 4 are not published. You still need the NMAT, a CEMed from CHED, apostilled documents, and a 9(f) student visa that costs ₱9,720 plus US$50 at the Bureau of Immigration. Verify every figure with the College of Medicine registrar before you send money.

If you already looked at our OLFU tuition fee guide, that post covers the university's undergraduate programs and the general fee picture. This one is narrower: it is the route a foreign applicant takes into the College of Medicine, which is a different application, a different fee schedule, and a different set of government offices.

What OLFU's College of Medicine Actually Is

OLFU is a private university with campuses in Valenzuela City, Antipolo, Cabanatuan, Pampanga and Sta. Rosa. The College of Medicine page on fatima.edu.ph says the college has been running "since its inception in 1979," and presents the MD program at Valenzuela. If you are planning where to live, plan around Valenzuela, in the northern part of Metro Manila, not around whichever campus is closest to family. You can compare the campus records on our profiles for OLFU Valenzuela City, OLFU Antipolo and OLFU Cabanatuan.

The program structure the school publishes is four years: years 1 and 2 classroom and foundational subjects, year 3 clinical subjects, year 4 clinical clerkship in hospitals. That matches the national standard. CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, series of 2016 requires "full-time study of at least four (4) years, the fourth year of which shall be a complete 12-month rotating clinical clerkship undertaken mainly in the base hospital with Level III DOH classification."

Note what that four years does not include. It sits on top of a bachelor's degree, and it is followed by a separate 12-month post-graduate internship before anyone can sit a licensure exam. We break that down in internship and licensure for foreign medical graduates.

The recognition claims, read carefully

OLFU's College of Medicine page lists accreditation and recognition by the New York State Education Department, a listing in the World Directory of Medical Schools (Avicenna), and recognition by the Illinois State Board of Education, the Thailand Medical Council and the Maldives Medical Council. It also claims to be the first Philippine medical school with an institution-to-institution clerkship training program with foreign hospitals.

These are the school's own statements. Two things worth separating in your head:

• A World Directory of Medical Schools listing is a directory entry, not an accreditation. Almost every operating medical school is listed. It matters because some regulators require the listing, but it says nothing about quality.
• Recognition by a specific country's medical council is country-specific. The Thailand and Maldives councils recognising OLFU tells an Indian or Nigerian applicant nothing about their own regulator.

If your goal is India, check the school's standing against Indian sources yourself. Our NMC-recognised medical schools in the Philippines guide explains what "recognised" actually means under the current Indian rules, and why school and agency claims are not a substitute for checking.

Fees: What OLFU Publishes and What It Does Not

Here is the published international fee page, transcribed rather than summarised, because the wording matters.

Rough conversions, at about ₱62 = US$1 and ₱1 ≈ ₹1.55:

Now the honest part. The page carries an ambiguity you should resolve before paying: the US$3,500 is labelled as a semester assessment, and the US$6,000 is labelled as payable in one year. Whether the US$3,500 recurs each semester is not stated on that page. Ask the College of Medicine registrar for a written, per-year fee schedule covering all four years, in writing, with the currency stated.

This is also where agency figures diverge wildly. You will see "total course fee" numbers for OLFU circulating on consultancy websites that bundle tuition, hostel, food, agent commission and airfare into one rupee figure, with no line items. Those are marketing numbers, not school numbers. The only figures we will publish are the ones on fatima.edu.ph, and the gaps stay gaps. For the wider picture of what medical study costs across schools, see medical school tuition in the Philippines.

The Documents OLFU Asks For

From OLFU's own application page for College of Medicine applicants living outside the Philippines:

• Authenticated/Apostille Transcript of Records (B.S.)
• Authenticated/Apostille College Diploma (B.S.)
• Authenticated/Apostille Police Clearance from the country of origin
• National Medical Admissions Test (NMAT)
• Copy of Passport biopage (if dual citizen: photocopy of valid Philippine passport or recognition from immigration)
• 4 pcs 2x2 photo, white background
• Bureau of Quarantine stamp — additional requirement for the student visa application
• NBI Clearance, valid — additional requirement for the student visa application

The university's general requirements page adds items that show up for foreign students across programs: an apostilled letter of financial support with a bank statement, letters of recommendation, personal history sheets in multiples, a birth certificate, the ACR I-Card, and the student visa itself.

The financial support letter is the one applicants underestimate. It is a bank document, it has to be apostilled in your home country, and getting an apostille on a bank letter is slower than getting one on a university transcript. Start it early.

Three Steps OLFU Does Not Do For You

1. The NMAT

The NMAT is administered by the Center for Educational Measurement under CHED authorisation, and CEM requires that a test-taker "must be a graduate or a graduating student of any college degree course at the time of testing." CMO 18 adds that the test must have been taken not more than two years before admission.

CHED sets a national floor: "An NMAT score cut-off of at least 40th percentile will be implemented by all higher education institutions offering medical program." Schools may set higher, and some do — St. Luke's Medical Center College of Medicine, for example, publishes a required percentile rank of 85. OLFU does not publish its own cut-off on the international application page, so ask.

Registration mechanics, test windows and what to do about a weak score are in our NMAT registration guide.

2. The CEMed

This is the step foreign applicants most often miss, because for Filipino applicants the school itself issues the certificate. CMO 18, section 17.4, splits it:

• "On the basis of foregoing documents, the medical school is responsible for and accountable for the issuance of the Certificate of Eligibility for Admission to medical school."
• "Foreign students must secure a Certificate of Eligibility from CHED Central Office prior to admission in any medical school in the country."

Prior to admission. Not during first semester. We wrote a full walkthrough in the CEMed certificate foreign medical students need, including what CHED asks for and where the process commonly stalls.

3. The 9(f) student visa

OLFU says it processes study permits and student visas after acceptance, and that is genuinely useful — the university acts as your liaison. But the Bureau of Immigration fees are yours, and they are published. For an initial conversion to a student visa the BI lists application ₱2,000, implementation ₱1,000, service ₱1,000, certificate ₱500, visa ₱1,000, ACR I-Card ₱1,400, head tax ₱250, legal research ₱70 and express fees ₱1,500, for a total of ₱9,720 plus US$50 for the ACR I-Card. Annual extension is listed at ₱4,020 plus US$50.

The BI also states the 9(f) is for foreign nationals at least 18 years old taking a course higher than high school. Details on the route, including the difference between entering on a 9(a) and converting, are in our Philippines student visa 9(f) guide.

Realistic Money Beyond Tuition

OLFU does not publish accommodation costs, and its international students page carries no housing section at all — it lists an admissions portal and two named staff contacts. That is worth saying plainly, because agency pages for other Philippine medical schools publish confident hostel-and-mess figures that the schools themselves never posted.

Valenzuela is in Metro Manila, so Metro Manila cost data is the right reference point. Crowd-sourced figures for Manila put a one-bedroom outside the city centre near ₱17,900 a month and basic utilities for a larger unit near ₱7,500, and the electricity rate a Metro Manila household paid in August 2026 was ₱14.7833 per kWh. Jeepney minimum fares rose to ₱14 traditional and ₱17 modern from 19 March 2026. We put the full city-by-city breakdown in living costs for Indian medical students in the Philippines.

How to Apply, in Order

1. Finish the bachelor's degree. CMO 18 requires "holder of at least a baccalaureate degree."
2. Sit the NMAT, and keep the Examinee Report Form. It expires for admission purposes after two years.
3. Get documents apostilled at home: transcript, diploma, police clearance, bank letter, birth certificate.
4. Apply through OLFU's international admissions portal and pay the application fee through the listed channels.
5. Secure the CEMed from CHED before the school admits you.
6. Once accepted, run the visa process with the university's liaison, including the Bureau of Quarantine stamp and NBI clearance.
7. Register, then keep every receipt and every written fee confirmation.

Contacts OLFU publishes: College of Medicine registrar at [email protected], the Dean's office at [email protected], and international admissions staff [email protected] and [email protected].

Honest Verdict

OLFU publishes more than many Philippine medical schools do. A named international fee page with a dollar figure on it is more than most competitors offer, and the document checklist for foreign medicine applicants is specific rather than a generic "contact us."

What it does not publish is the rest of the fee schedule, any housing cost, or its own NMAT cut-off, and its recognition list is a set of country-specific claims that you have to test against your own regulator. None of that makes it a bad school. It makes it a school you should only commit to after you have a written four-year cost sheet and independent confirmation that the degree will be usable where you intend to practise.

The one thing not to outsource: the CEMed and the recognition check. An agent's assurance is not a CHED certificate, and it is not an NMC listing.

Sources

• Our Lady of Fatima University — College of Medicine
• OLFU — College of Medicine Tuition Fees, International Students
• OLFU — Enroll Now, College of Medicine, students living outside the Philippines
• OLFU — Requirements
• OLFU — International Students
• CHED Memorandum Order No. 18, s. 2016 — Doctor of Medicine Program (PDF)
• CEM — Admission to Philippine Medical Schools
• Bureau of Immigration — Student Visa (9F)
• St. Luke's Medical Center College of Medicine — Doctor of Medicine admissions