MUN's Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook Versus the St. John's Campus: Choosing Between Them

Two Campuses, One Memorial Degree

When you apply to Memorial University of Newfoundland, you choose between two very different places to spend your undergraduate years. Both grant a Memorial University degree, but the campuses differ in size, program mix and setting. Picking the right one shapes your day-to-day life as much as your transcript.

St. John's: The Main Campus

St. John's is Memorial's largest campus, located in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital and biggest city. It carries the broadest range of faculties, including Business, Engineering and Applied Science, Medicine, Education, Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and Human Kinetics and Recreation, on top of the standard Arts and Science offerings. Memorial's Marine Institute, a specialized ocean and fisheries campus, also sits in the St. John's area but runs as its own distinct campus with its own admissions process.

Being the provincial capital, St. John's gives you a bigger urban environment: more part-time job openings, wider transit coverage and a larger off-campus rental market to choose from. If your program only runs in St. John's, such as medicine, pharmacy or engineering, the choice is made for you.

Grenfell: The West Coast Campus

Grenfell Campus sits in Corner Brook, on Newfoundland's west coast, and Memorial describes it as "small yet mighty," built around a tight-knit, diverse community, according to Memorial University's Grenfell Campus . Its academic programs run through three schools: Arts and Social Science (business, English, historical studies, psychology and social and cultural studies), Fine Arts (theatre, visual arts and a Master of Fine Arts) and Science and Environment (engineering, environmental programs, mathematics and physics), plus nursing and English as an additional language options.

Grenfell's Fine Arts programs in theatre and visual arts stand out here, since St. John's doesn't run a program at the same scale in that area. Corner Brook also sits close to Gros Morne National Park and the Long Range Mountains, which draws students with a strong interest in environmental science and outdoor recreation into Grenfell's Science and Environment programs specifically.

Admission Requirements

Both campuses admit under Memorial's general undergraduate entrance requirements for Canadian high school and CEGEP applicants. From there, specific programs layer on their own criteria: Fine Arts applicants at Grenfell go through a portfolio or audition process on top of academic admission, and limited-enrollment programs like engineering apply extra criteria at either campus. Because program-specific requirements change between cycles, confirm the current version on each program's own admissions page rather than relying on a general campus-wide number.

Which Programs Only Run at One Campus

If your intended major sits in the left column above, the campus decision is effectively made for you before you weigh anything else. Check your specific program's page directly, since Memorial occasionally adjusts which campus offers which concentration.

Cost of Living and Campus Size

Corner Brook is a much smaller city than St. John's, so expect a calmer pace, a smaller student population and generally less competition for rental housing. The tradeoff runs the other way for part-time work and transit: fewer employers to apply to and less public transit coverage than the provincial capital offers. Mandatory fees can differ slightly between campuses on top of tuition, so check the current fee schedule for your specific campus and program with Memorial's registrar before you budget.

Class Size and Teaching Style

Smaller campuses generally run smaller class sizes in upper-year courses, since fewer students spread across fewer sections means more direct access to your professors. Grenfell's smaller overall population points in that direction. St. John's, with its much larger faculties, offers more course sections and more scheduling flexibility, along with a wider range of electives outside your main program.

Getting Between the Two Campuses

Corner Brook and St. John's sit on opposite sides of the island of Newfoundland, connected by the Trans-Canada Highway, and driving between them takes more than half a day. Regional flights connect the Deer Lake airport near Corner Brook with St. John's, but there's no quick commute between the two. If you want to visit both campuses before deciding, budget real travel time and plan separate trips rather than expecting a same-day comparison.

Can You Switch Campuses Mid-Degree?

Some Memorial programs, particularly general Arts and Science offerings, run at both campuses, which can make a mid-degree switch possible in principle. A switch doesn't guarantee your course sequencing lines up automatically, though, so talk to an academic advisor at both campuses before assuming credits and prerequisites transfer smoothly between them.

Student Life and Community

Grenfell's smaller population supports the tight-knit community Memorial highlights, with students more likely to recognize each other across programs. St. John's larger student body supports a wider range of clubs, societies and varsity athletics, along with a bigger social scene tied to a real city rather than a smaller town.

Choosing Between Them

Pick St. John's if you want the widest program selection, a larger city, or your intended program (medicine, pharmacy, engineering, business) only runs there. Pick Grenfell if fine arts, environmental science or a smaller, closer-knit campus community matters more to you than program breadth, or if living near Gros Morne National Park appeals to you directly. If you're still unsure, book a virtual or in-person tour of both campuses through Memorial's admissions office before you commit, since photos and program lists only tell part of the story compared to walking the campus yourself.