University of Manitoba pharmacy admission requirements: 48 credit hours, a 3.0 AGPA, Casper and 55 seats

The PharmD is a four year program that needs two years of earlier university study. Manitoba calls this advanced entry. You must first complete 48 credit hours of university study, including set courses. For students who have not been to university, Manitoba points to direct entry options such as University 1.

Manitoba defines direct entry students as high school students, or graduates with fewer than 24 credit hours of post secondary study. So in Grade 12 you apply to University 1 or the Faculty of Science, then plan your courses toward pharmacy. Check your Grade 12 average with our Top 6 average calculator.

The core courses are introductory chemistry (6 to 9 credit hours), organic chemistry, biochemistry, biology (6), physiology (6), microbiology, math and statistics. You also need 12 credit hours of humanities or social sciences, 3 hours of electives, and a written English (W) course, which can overlap with other courses.

Course age matters. Manitoba gives no credit for courses finished more than 10 years before the year you apply. For the Fall 2026 intake, that meant nothing before September 2016.

Manitoba ranks you by an adjusted GPA (AGPA). It is 0.55 times your prerequisite core course GPA plus 0.45 times your GPA in the other courses. The minimum is 3.0.

Because the core science courses carry more weight, a weak grade in chemistry or physiology hurts more than a weak elective. Manitoba does not publish an admitted AGPA or an acceptance rate. It says admission is highly competitive. See the Manitoba admissions overview for more.

Every applicant writes Casper, a situational judgement test with 11 scenarios. It looks at people skills and other non academic traits. Your Casper score must be no more than 1.5 standard deviations below the mean for your applicant pool, or you are not considered.

Your final score is 75% AGPA and 25% Casper. Manitoba does not list an interview or a personal essay for the PharmD.

There are three pools: Manitoba residents, Canadian Indigenous applicants (up to 10 places) and out of province applicants (up to 5 places). With 55 seats in total, most places go to Manitoba residents.

To count as a Manitoba resident you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and meet one rule. You graduated from a Manitoba high school, hold a recognized Manitoba university degree, finished a full year of full time study in Manitoba while living there, or lived in Manitoba for any two year period after high school. Students from Ontario who do not meet a rule compete for the 5 out of province places.

Manitoba's requirements page still lists the last cycle. It set March 1, 2026 for the application and fee, March 5, 2026 as the last Casper sitting, March 15, 2026 for documents, April 1 for Casper scores and June 1, 2026 for final transcripts. Decisions came in late June.

The Fall 2027 dates are not posted yet. Plan for an early March 2027 deadline and book Casper early, then confirm with the College. The domestic application fee is $100. See our Canadian deadlines page.

The 2026-2027 catalog lists 143.5 credit hours over four years. In year two you do two four week placements, one in community pharmacy and one in hospital. In year four you do four eight week rotations: community, hospital, primary care and an elective.

At least one placement must be outside Winnipeg. The program does not include co-op. Year one covers anatomy, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, pharmaceutics and compounding. Year four also includes a research project.

Year one builds the science base: applied pathophysiology, human anatomy, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and pharmaceutics. You also start the applied pharmacy practice lab, compounding and pharmacy informatics.

Year two adds clinical therapeutics, biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics, drug delivery, pharmacogenetics, nutrition and an introduction to pharmacy law. Year three covers advanced therapeutics, pharmacy management, integrative medicine and the toxicology of medications and drug abuse. Year four is mostly placements in hospital, community and primary care, with an elective rotation and a research project.

Manitoba says graduates can also work in regulatory bodies, health research, government, the drug industry and education, as well as in hospitals and community pharmacies.

Manitoba charges PharmD students a flat rate, not per credit hour. For 2026-2027, domestic students pay $8,222.00 per fall and winter term, or $16,444.00 a year, in all four years.

There is also a clinical fieldwork fee of $1,872.00 per fall and winter term. Your first two years cost less. Faculty of Science courses are $187.65 per credit hour, and electives in other faculties are charged at their own rates.

Successful applicants complete a Self Declaration of Records Form. It covers academic suspensions, discipline, professional misconduct and criminal convictions. Manitoba says failing to disclose an adult criminal record, or a listing on the Child Abuse or Adult Abuse Registry, will invalidate an application.

The College is housed in the Apotex Centre, with patient care and simulation labs. It sits within the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

Pharmacy at Manitoba usually takes six years: two years of courses, then four years of PharmD. If you live outside Manitoba, only 5 seats are open to your child, so build a list with schools in your own province, such as U of T or Waterloo.

Help your child protect their core science grades, since those count for 55% of the AGPA. The Manitoba university guide has more on life in Winnipeg.