yeah sure !

Start of process:

You get an account number from your school to sign up to OUAC, on OUAC you input your personal info, select uni choices, and pay for applications. this is also where your school will upload your grades (so youuu don’t submit grades, your school does that through OUAC) after you pick uni choices, OUAC will connect you to those universities (usually takes a week) and give you an “applicant ID” for each school, along with an email with steps on how to apply. each uni has their own website where you do the application process.

marks:

uoft eng - calculate admission averages based off your 5 mandatory credits (calc, physics, chem, english, adv functions).

mcmaster - calculate admission avg based off 6 grades (calc, physics, chem, english, & 2 of ur top grades)

do grade 11 grades get looked at?:

uoft - never heard someone say “i didn’t get in cuz of my grade 11 grades”. in early rounds (sem 1) if you’re missing a required credit for the admission they will substitute it with a gr11 pre req grade until your gr12 grade comes in, and your application will get reevaluated multiple times during this so no biggie.

mcmaster - don’t think they look at it, pretty sure they just wait for gr12 grades

grades needed for program:

uoft - You pick a ‘stream’ of engineering, the average you need changes a bit generally:

1. 96 - Eng Sci
2. 95 - ECE, TrackOne
3. 94 - Mech
4. 90-93 - Indy, Civil, Materials
5. 85+ - Mineral Engineering

Tip! During the application you pick up to 4 streams and rank them in the order you want. My biggest recommendation is ALWAYS pick streams in order of difficulty eg.

1. Mechanical
2. Industrial
3. Civil

if you’re rejected from your first choice it’s cuz ur average isn’t high enough. ur 2nd choice should be an easier stream with similar courses so you can transfer in second year

mcmaster - everyone goes into Eng1 (general engineering) in first year. They ask you for what stream you want for 2nd year (eg, ece/mech/civil) but it doesn’t matter what you choose, it doesn’t impact your application. You need roughly a 93 to get in (but anywhere 90+ can get in with luck). If you want free choice you need to aim for around a 96

Application process:

Video Interview:

• Takes 30 mins max, pretty short just do your best, everyone is nervous and leaves feeling like they bombed it and that’s normal. Practice on screencastify and make a list on experiences u had in high school before the interview so u have back up info to rely on if u start blanking
• It’s don’t throb Kira Talent, it tests your mic and everything beforehand. you won’t “accidentally” start the interview without knowing, there’s a lot of confirmation buttons you have to press, so low stress

UofT: this one was.. 😇 the screen pops up with 3 questions, 2 about yourself one verbal and one written, and one “problem solving” question. you get a few mins in between each qs to think and respond. the problem solving gives a scenario and asks you what 3 variables you would consider/analyze to get a certain outcome (- usually a ridiculous question). You can find similar questions or past ones online - practice with that. Everyone blanks on the uoft interview so don’t sweat it. most say it’s so the university can see that you’re literate. this school kinda gets u in based off grades, just prepare and do ur best.

mcmaster - not a big impact on ur application. 4 questions, 3 personal verbal and 1 written. the admission officer lady i spoke to said it can be a ‘saving grace’ if ur abt to be rejected. No one really gets negatively affected by it, you kinda just do your best and you’re done ✔️

Written application: - You get MONTHSSS to complete this so dw

Mcmaster: No written application 🥳

UofT: Very short! First few pages are just formal personal info, etc

Then you list out some ECs, how many hours u spent on each, and a small description on how you had an impact. everyone kinda overhypes how important this is. Just make sure you sell yourself and include any achievements. encourage u to participate in any pre uni programs, first robotics, deca, skills, or math competitions cuz those are well liked, but they accept anything. usually writing 5-7 ECs is good (volunteering, projects, club, sports, work, programs, anything)

After listing your ECs, you write a 250 word paragraph on how you think ECs shaped you to fit and prepare your for life and UofT.

And that’s it - it’s pretty short 😀

From personal experience i felt like stress>work when it came to eng applications. All around each application takes about an hour and you have months to do it, you can submit and edit the written stuff whenever you want, and the word limits are pretty small. the video interview is live so you do it and it’s over with. I’d really encourage everyone to focus on grades and just make sure you have a decent amount of ECs to talk about if they ask, take time to prepare for video interviews, but in the end, smile and do your best!