She attended McMaster University for her first year of university on a full scholarship. Dhalla then resumed her remaining studies at the University of Winnipeg and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry with a minor in Political Science from the University of Winnipeg in 1995 and was also short listed as a Rhodes Scholarship Nominee from Manitoba. She instead moved to Toronto in the same year, and graduated with a Doctor of Chiropractic from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 1999. Upon graduating she started a chain of multidisciplinary health care clinics in the Greater Toronto Area.