Q1. When was The Manila Times College of Subic established?
+It was founded in 2007, originally under the name George Dewey Medical College, before being renamed to reflect its connection to The Manila Times.
People mostly just call it TMTCS for short. It was founded in 2007, by Dr. Dante A. Ang, a genuinely well-known Filipino journalist who serves as Chairman Emeritus of The Manila Times, the Philippines' own oldest English-language newspaper. Here is a fact most guides skip entirely. TMTCS was originally established under an entirely different name, George Dewey Medical College, before being renamed to reflect its own connection to The Manila Times and its wider mother institution, The Manila Times College in Intramuros, Manila.
Here is genuinely the single most important, honest detail worth knowing about this specific institution. TMTCS's own School of Medicine is considerably newer than the wider college itself. The college first offered BS Nursing back in 2008, but only received its own official permit to offer the Doctor of Medicine programme starting in August 2021, meaning the Medicine programme specifically is genuinely young, with a real, limited track record so far. At least one detailed consultancy source is directly honest about this, explicitly noting that TMTCS is not currently listed among the top 15 medical colleges in the Philippines, a real, non-flattering detail worth knowing rather than glossing over.
TMTCS is located in the Subic Bay Gateway District II, within the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, in Zambales, Philippines. Here is a genuinely distinctive detail about the wider location worth understanding directly. Subic Bay itself was formerly one of the largest overseas United States Naval installations anywhere in the world, before the US withdrew and the site was converted into a civilian freeport and special economic zone. So, TMTCS's own campus sits within a genuinely unique, historically significant former military site, now repurposed for civilian commercial and educational use.
The college's own materials describe Subic itself as offering a genuinely calm, safe, and well-managed community setting, with clean surroundings and green spaces intended to help medical students concentrate on their studies while maintaining personal wellbeing. TMTCS's own School of Medicine describes its programme as student-centred and outcome-based, with a specifically stated commitment to serving marginalised and underserved communities, emphasising teamwork, peer mentoring, and lifelong learning throughout a physician's own career.
TMTCS offers a genuinely broad range of academic programmes beyond Medicine alone, including Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science, Entrepreneurship, Radiologic Technology, Journalism, Multimedia Arts, and an IB School, spanning preschool through postgraduate levels. This genuinely wide academic scope, particularly the continued presence of Journalism as a specific programme, directly reflects the college's own real institutional roots in The Manila Times' own media legacy.
As with other Philippine medical schools covered in comparable guides, the Doctor of Medicine programme itself follows the country's own standard graduate-entry structure, requiring applicants to already hold a completed bachelor's degree before beginning MD study, genuinely distinct from the general senior-high-school-graduate admission process used for TMTCS's own other undergraduate programmes like Nursing or Medical Laboratory Science.
Zambales itself sits along the west coast of Luzon, giving students at TMTCS genuine access to the South China Sea coastline, alongside the wider Subic Bay Freeport Zone's own developed commercial and logistical infrastructure, a real legacy of its decades as a major US Naval facility. This combination of coastal setting and genuinely modern zone infrastructure gives the college's own campus a distinctive character compared to studying medicine in one of the Philippines' larger, more purely urban cities.
Given how genuinely new TMTCS's own Medicine programme still is, prospective applicants should weigh this real, honest limitation carefully against the genuine advantages the wider college does offer, including its own specific, documented media-industry founding connection and its calm, secure Subic Bay setting. This is not necessarily a reason to dismiss TMTCS outright, but it is a genuine, practical consideration worth factoring into any serious comparison against the Philippines' more established, longer-running medical schools covered elsewhere in comparable guides.
Fee figures here represent a genuine information gap worth being upfront about, since only a vague upper-bound estimate was found rather than a specific, itemised figure.
Cost Item | Amount | Notes |
Course Fee (reported upper estimate) | Up to approx. USD 20,000 | Reported as a general upper bound rather than a specific total or annual figure; genuinely imprecise |
General Philippine Private Medical School Reference (for context only) | USD 25,000-40,000 total, all-inclusive | A general reference range for comparable, more established Philippine medical schools; not confirmed as TMTCS-specific |
Application Documents | Certified diploma, transcript of records | Confirmed for TMTCS's general undergraduate admission process; MD-specific document requirements should be confirmed separately |
Scholarships | Not consistently detailed in available sources | Confirm current eligibility and amounts directly |
Application/Registration Fees | Not consistently published | Confirm directly with the college |
Total Cost | Genuinely unconfirmed as a specific, itemised figure | Request TMTCS's own current, official, Medicine-specific fee schedule directly before budgeting |
Note: this is one of the less specifically itemised fee structures covered in guides like this one, consistent with how genuinely new the Medicine programme itself still is. Request a full, itemised, written fee schedule directly from TMTCS before making any financial commitment.
Why TMTCS Deserves a Harder Look, and a More Careful One
Most lists mention TMTCS only briefly, if at all, given how new its Medicine programme genuinely is. However, they do not explain its own genuinely specific former name, or how honestly at least one source addresses its current standing. The reason is simple. It is about a real, documented former identity most guides skip entirely, and a genuinely honest acknowledgement of where this programme currently sits nationally.
TMTCS is not like most other Philippine medical schools when it comes to its own founding identity. In fact, it was originally established as George Dewey Medical College, before being renamed to reflect its own connection to The Manila Times. Furthermore, this genuine former name is worth knowing directly, since applicants researching this institution's own older records may encounter it under this different, earlier identity.
The college's own honest self-positioning also matters more than most guides let on. For example, most guides describing a medical college avoid directly stating where it ranks nationally. At least one detailed source describing TMTCS explicitly states it is not currently listed among the Philippines' top 15 medical colleges. Moreover, this genuinely honest acknowledgement, rather than being hidden or spun, gives applicants a real, direct data point for weighing this specific programme against more established alternatives.
One thing most other blogs miss is just how recently TMTCS's own Medicine programme actually began. In addition to the wider college's own 2007 founding, and its 2008 start with Nursing, the Doctor of Medicine programme specifically only received its official permit in August 2021. Since this represents a genuinely short track record compared to many other Philippine medical schools covered in comparable guides, applicants should factor this honestly into their own decision-making.
