Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila: Admission Requirements and Process

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila does not run one admission process. It runs three, and they barely resemble each other: the PLMAT for undergraduate programmes, the CLAT for the Juris Doctor, and a separate ranked application for the College of Medicine. Applying through the wrong one wastes a cycle.

The undergraduate route also carries an eligibility rule that costs people a year without their realising it: if you have taken any college or university units before or during your application, you no longer qualify. Enrolling somewhere as a placeholder while you wait closes the door you were waiting on.

This guide walks each route as PLM publishes it, plus the full undergraduate programme list by college. For the university's location, contacts and profile, see our Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila page.

Undergraduate: the PLMAT

Who may apply

PLM states that an applicant may apply provided they comply with any of these:

1. A Grade 12 student currently enrolled in a senior high school accredited by the Department of Education; or
2. A graduate from senior high school who has not taken any college or university units or programmes prior to or during the application; or
3. An Alternative Learning System completer and Accreditation & Equivalency passer, recommended for tertiary education, who has not yet taken any college or university units or programmes prior to or during the application.

Read groups two and three carefully. The exclusion is not about failing or dropping out. It is about having been enrolled at all. Anyone treating a semester at another school as a holding pattern is disqualifying themselves from the route they are holding for.

If you finished basic education outside the standard track, our ALS to college pathway guide covers how the A&E certificate is treated across institutions.

What you upload

Three items, all as scanned PDFs:

1. PSA birth certificate — everyone.
2. Grade 11 Certificate of General Weighted Average — senior high school applicants.
3. Certificate of Completion — ALS completers and A&E passers.

That is a notably short list compared with most universities, and note what is not on it: no good moral certificate, no Form 137, no medical clearance at application stage. Those belong to enrolment. Note also that the academic document is a Grade 11 GWA certificate, not a report card — it is a document your registrar issues, not one you already have in a drawer. Request it early.

The application steps PLM publishes

PLM's own walkthrough runs six steps, and steps 3 to 5 exist because there are two different Apply Now buttons:

1. Go to the official PLM website.
2. Click through to the Admission section, which brings you to the PLMAT area.
3. Scroll to the first Apply Now button and click it. This takes you to an information page.
4. Read that page before doing anything else — PLM specifically names three sections to read: Who May Apply, How to Apply, and Programs in PLM.
5. Click the second Apply Now button in the upper-right corner to reach the Online Application Module.
6. In the module, if you are a new applicant: click "Not yet an Applicant? Apply Now!", fill in the profile verification fields — last name, given name, middle name, birthdate, email address — select PLMAT and choose a campus. Create the account, enter the verification code sent by email, read and accept the data privacy agreement, then continue from the temporary applicant account into the full application form.

The application form itself covers programme preference, applicant information, academic information, family information, and the upload of your document and ID photo. You then click Submit Application and continue into the official applicant account.

PLM adds a line worth acting on: both the temporary and official account details are also sent by email, and you should log in frequently to monitor the status of your application and confirm your documents uploaded. An application that silently failed an upload looks exactly like one that is waiting.

Two other things to know about the module. The exam is selected at account creation, so an account made under the wrong exam is not a form you can switch later without going back. And a campus is chosen at the same point.

What PLM offers at undergraduate level

PLM publishes its undergraduate programme list by college on the PLMAT page itself, which is the list your programme preference is drawn from.

College of Engineering (CEng) — BS Civil Engineering, BS Chemical Engineering, BS Computer Engineering, BS Electrical Engineering, BS Electronics Engineering, BS Manufacturing Engineering, BS Mechanical Engineering.

College of Science (CS) — BS Biology, BS Chemistry, BS Mathematics, BS Computer Science.

College of Nursing (CN) — BS Nursing.

College of Physical Therapy (CPT) — BS Physical Therapy.

College of Education (CED) — Bachelor of Elementary Education, Bachelor of Early Childhood Education, Bachelor of Physical Education, Bachelor of Special Needs Education (Generalist), and Bachelor of Secondary Education with specialisations in English, Science, Filipino, Mathematics, and a major in Social Studies.

College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) — BA Communication, BS Psychology, BS Social Work, Bachelor of Music in Music Performance.

College of Public Administration — Bachelor of Public Administration.

College of Business Administration — BS Business Administration majoring in Business Economics, Marketing Management, Operations Management or Human Resource Management; BS Entrepreneurship; BS Real Estate Management.

College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (CTHM) — BS Tourism Management, BS Hospitality Management.

College of Information Systems & Technology Management — BS Information Technology.

If you want the cost side alongside the course list, our PLM courses and tuition guide covers what a PLM place is actually worth, and free tuition universities in the Philippines explains the wider state-funded picture.

College of Law: the CLAT

The Juris Doctor programme runs its own route entirely. PLM states plainly that the CLAT is a requirement for applicants to the Juris Doctor programme of the PLM College of Law.

Admission requirements:

• Official Transcript of Records from a recognised university or college.
• A general weighted average of at least 2.00 or 84% in the bachelor's degree.
• 18 units of English, 6 units of Mathematics and 18 units of Social Science subjects. Applicants lacking units must satisfy these during the summer before they are allowed admission.
• Any government-issued ID as competent evidence of identification, and/or a community tax certificate.
• Income tax return of the applicant or the applicant's parent from the year prior to the date of application.
• Two recent passport-size identical coloured photos.
• A letter of recommendation from the Dean or Head of the former school.
• Manila residency evidenced by a voter's ID or certification and a barangay certification — for Manila's partial scholars only. Non-residents of Manila may apply as regular full-paying students.

The process: submit requirements to the College for the Committee on Admission and for an initial screening interview; the application form is issued to applicants who meet the criteria and whose documents are complete; pay the non-refundable CLAT fee via Land Bank's LinkBiz Portal or bank deposit to PLM's Land Bank account.

Admission then requires all four of: compliance with admission requirements, submission of required documents, passing the CLAT, and a personal interview and evaluation by the Committee on Admissions. PLM states the decision rests on the evaluation of all required documents together with the entrance examination and the interview, with the Committee recommending to the Dean, who recommends to the University President.

One warning PLM prints and means: any evidence of fraud, misrepresentation, or non-disclosure of information relative to the requirements is ground for cancellation of admission or enrolment.

The unit requirements are the part to check first. Eighteen units of English and eighteen of social science are not automatic in every bachelor's degree, and finding out in the summer before classes is late. If you are comparing law schools generally, our roundup of the best law schools in the Philippines covers the wider field.

College of Medicine: ranked, not just passed

The PLM College of Medicine accepts applicants to its Doctor of Medicine programme annually, and it selects the highest-ranking applicants based on the admissions criteria rather than everyone who clears a bar.

Who may apply, per PLM:

• NMAT score of 75 or higher, taken within two years prior to the application deadline.
• Complied with all preparatory courses.
• No failing grade in any subject.
• No record of dropping from any medical school.
• No record of having been denied admission to PLM-CM.
• No conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude.
• Lateral entrants from other medical schools will not be entertained.

Documents: official transcript of records — or, for undergraduates, a certification of grades showing all grades up to the first semester of the current school year; a certificate of general weighted average from the registrar or college; a certificate of ranking, to follow after graduation for undergraduates; Form 137 for undergraduates who took Grade 11 and Grade 12; official NMAT result; birth certificate; a copy of the parents' latest income tax return; a certificate of voting history such as a COMELEC certification of voter registration and voting history, for Manilans only; and for indigent applicants a Certificate of Indigency from the DSWD.

The process: complete the step-by-step application procedures, submit the documents, and watch your status. PLM says an application is either "Complete" — proceed to payment — or "With deficiency", in which case you submit the missing documents.

Two notes on the numbers. The NMAT figure PLM publishes is written as a score of 75 or higher; how that maps to the percentile ranking most applicants are used to seeing is not spelled out on the page, so confirm with the College before you assume. Our NMAT scores explained guide covers why the difference matters. And the "no failing grade in any subject" rule is absolute as written — it is not a GWA threshold you can average your way past.

PLM notes that its College of Medicine has consistently achieved a passing rate of 95 to 100% on the Physician Licensure Examination in recent years, and that the Professional Regulation Commission named it the top-performing institution in the October 2025 licensure examination.

What PLM does not publish

• No PLMAT passing score, and no per-programme cut-off.
• No PLMAT test coverage, item count or duration on the current PLMAT page.
• No PLMAT application fee stated in the published steps.
• No stated weighting between test result and academic record in the undergraduate admission decision.
• No CLAT fee amount — the page names the payment channels, not the figure.
• No published quota per programme.

There are widely circulated figures for the PLMAT's format, fee and honour-graduate automatic-admission rules. They come from older primers and third-party write-ups, not from what PLM publishes now. Where a number is not on PLM's own page, treat it as unverified.

Timing: a pattern, not a date

PLM's own admission text describes the shape rather than a fixed calendar: applications for undergraduate freshmen open online well ahead of the academic year they lead into — for a recent cycle, roughly a year before the intake began. The College of Medicine runs a shorter, separately announced window in the early months of the year preceding the intake.

PLM also maintains an Important Advisories and Important Dates feed on the PLMAT page itself, which is the only live source for a given cycle. Do not plan around a date you read anywhere else, including here.

While you wait, apply in parallel. Our comparison of entrance exams in the Philippines shows which other tests land in the same stretch of the calendar. Just remember the constraint that makes PLM different: enrolling in a degree elsewhere to fill the gap ends your PLMAT eligibility.

Sources

• Admissions: PLMAT — about PLM admission, who may apply, how to apply, the required PDF uploads, the step-by-step application walkthrough, and the undergraduate programme list by college, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
• Admissions: College of Law Admission Test (CLAT) — admission requirements, application process, payment channels and admission criteria, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
• Admissions: College of Medicine — who may apply, documentary requirements, application process and application status rules, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
• Admissions overview — admissions requirements, procedures and guidelines for undergraduate and graduate programmes, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila