At our recent Fall Open House I met several prospective applicants who are enrolled in the CEGEP system. That’s a long trip for a few hours at an open house, but it was nice to meet them.
The Province of Québec has a somewhat unique junior college system that starts after Grade 11, called CEGEP. We don’t get a whole lot of applicants from CEGEPs, but we certainly admit a few each year and they tend to do quite well in our engineering programs.
The posted admission requirements for CEGEP are:
Linear Algebra; 2 English 603 or 604 series; Calculus I (Calculus II recommended); Chemistry I and II; and Mechanics plus either Electricity & Magnetism; or Waves, Optics & Modern Physics, with a total of 12 academic courses.
It’s sometimes difficult for CEGEP students to complete all those courses in their first year (especially Linear Algebra), so many applicants come from the second year of CEGEP. Since our programs are designed with to work with the Ontario high school curriculum, CEGEP applicants tend to be over-prepared (which is probably why they do so well), but that’s better than being under-prepared.
The good news is that our generic posted admission averages don’t really directly apply to CEGEP applicants. Our adjustment factors for CEGEP will allow for applicants with average grades (for the required courses) in the low 80’s to have a decent chance at admission to most programs (but as usual, the higher the grades the better). So CEGEP applicants should pay no attention to stuff they see online about needing 90s or 95s to get into Waterloo.
A Professor in Waterloo Engineering 
I myself came from the CEGEP system (Marianopolis College) before going to McGill for my undergraduate degree. Although I don’t directly influence admissions, I am happy to answer questions from CEGEP students about what it’s like at Waterloo from a CEGEP background.
Hi sir,
1. I am doing my second year health science at Marianopolis, and I went a French high school for 4 years (including one year of welcoming class). Now I want to apply for Waterloo math program, but I am not sure should I do a Toefl test.
2. they say 85 average on the website. Is it all courses including phys-ed, or it is about my 12 top-mark courses including the prerequisites and some other couses.
I will be really appreaciated if you or someone else could answer my questions.
I can’t comment on what Math might require, and you’re better off contacting them directly or through myapplication@uwaterloo.ca
Among the CEGEP applicants that are accepted, how many are from first year? Does the adjustment factor differ if you are from first year CEGEP?
I can’t answer that; I’ve never tracked the breakdown between 1st and 2nd year CEGEP admissions. I know there has been a mix, but not the specifics. The adjustment factor is the same either way.
Hey sir,
I’m currently doing the IB system as a student in Kenya and will apply to Waterloo as a 105D applicant. Do you have a rough idea for admission averages (specifically for mechanical engineering) on the IB 45 scale?
Your articles have been great help.
Thanks
No, we don’t really use the IB scale like that. We use the individual course grades (or predicted grades) for Math, Chem, Physics & English. It depends a bit on whether the courses are SL or HL, but having mainly 6s in those courses would be good. The occasional 5 is OK, and of course 7s are great.
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