The 2017 Admissions brochures for Engineering and other programs have recently been uploaded. We have continued to include a table showing admission probabilities (“chances”) for different programs and grade ranges. Many people find it useful for getting a realistic impression of their chances at admission, and then they can plan accordingly. The online version of this table can be found here. This is based on the 2016 results and as usual we caution that 2017 may be different, since it all depends on the competition level (which is unknown in advance).
One difference this year: I’m going to break the chances data up into two categories, “Visa” (or study permit) applicants, and “Canadians and Permanent Residents” applicants. The tables mentioned above lump everyone together, but looking back at the last year or two it seems like it may be too pessimistic for Canadians and overly-optimistic for Visa applicants, as we’ll see below.For convenience and readability, we lump the grades into ranges in this table. Some people find the big jumps in probability between the different grade ranges to be difficult to understand or interpret, so for several years I have been generating graphs that provide interpolations between the various grades in finer detail (see the end of the post for methodology, if interested). As usual, the grades shown here are the raw, unadjusted averages of the Grade 12 required courses (or equivalents), not including any other factors such as scores for extracurriculars, work experience, or awards.
Canadians and Permanent Residents
We have around 1,350 spaces reserved in Engineering for applicants who are Canadians or Permanent Residents of Canada. For this group, the chances by program are shown in the following graph.
Looking at the results we can make some comments. The various programs were chosen to be lumped together because their chances are very similar. The green and blue lines look pretty good for an interpolation. The red line has an odd little blip around 87%, which is an artifact of the way cubic splines work; in reality having an 87% average is not an advantage over a 90%.
Clearly some programs like Biomedical and Software are very competitive (lots of applicants for a small number of spaces). Other programs have more spaces and a bit fewer applicants per space, so not quite so competitive. Level of competition has nothing to do with quality or career prospects, it’s just a matter of supply and demand for spaces.
As usual, these are rough estimates and not guarantees of any sort. It’s possible to have a 99% average and not get admitted if, for example, you don’t submit an Admission Information Form or other required document, or don’t meet the English language proficiency requirements. It’s also possible that changes in competition levels will move a certain program from one line to another (either left or right) in the upcoming admissions competition.
Study Permit Applicants
We only have around 220 available spaces in Engineering for non-Canadians, and last year over 3,000 applicants for those spaces. So the competition is pretty intense for this group of applicants, and it takes a very strong application to get an offer. These applicants are generally considered as a whole, not so much on a program by program basis, and so there is only one line in this graph. 
For applicants not in a system using percentage grades, what is a 95%+? It’s difficult to say exactly, but for IB students the grades should be pretty much all 6’s and 7’s. For the British curriculum, the A level grades (predicted or actual) should be all A’s or better (A*).
Methods
For the past few years I have used a cubic spline interpolation technique (with linear endpoints), which is one popular method for finding values between sparse data points. I like the results, so I continue to use the same method. As before, I assumed that the probability in the table corresponds to the mid-point of the grade range, and that there is zero probability below 80%, and 100% with an average grade of 100%. As before, I used MathCAD for the number crunching (here is a nice description, for those that might be interested in more details).
A Professor in Waterloo Engineering 
what is the acceptance and graduation rate for Waterloo engineering?
The overall acceptance rate is around 30% (less than 20% for visa student applicants). The degree completion rate last reported is 81.2% (from http://www.cudo.on.ca)
Hello Professor Anderson,
I have a rather specific question here: I had low 60s in grade 11. Now, in grade 12, I have mid-high 90s and I anticipate that I will continue this way next semester. Is there an impact in regards to admissions by my grade 11 marks or are they irrelevant since you would have my grade 12 marks instead?
Thanks and happy holidays
An early offer would be unlikely, but by the major round in May all the grade 12 marks will be used and grade 11 won’t be very relevant.
Hi Professor,
I am an International student and I have already sat for my AS exam earlier this year. I got more than 90% in all my subjects(Physics, Chemistry and Math). In my A2 year I will complete those 3 subjects and will also sit for AS Further Pure Math. I am predicted to get 3As and 1A*(A* in Math). Can you tell me what are my chances? I am applying to Electrical Engineering
It’s not possible to quantify, but you’re on the right track with all A and A* grades.
Hi! Are the probabilities here based on just marks, or are these marks after the AIF is included? For example, if I have a 92% average and were to get an extra 3% thanks to my AIF, should I look at the chances of admission for a 92% average or for a 95% average?
Also, does waterloo and by extension other universities have access to grade 11 marks? (personally, I’d prefer if they did!)
As the post notes, these are just marks. Yes, we can access all grade 11 and 12 marks.
Dear Prof,
I am a Quebec CEGEP student and I have a few questions:
1) The minimum college cumulative average is a B, is this a Canadian standard B (70-79%)?
2) Are college grades weighed more heavily than high school grades?
3) Could college grades be considered (given reasonable error) equivalent to the post-adjusted score? i.e.: 93% HS grade equiv to 78% CEGEP.
4) Your blog post about 2017 chances doesn’t necessarily reflect CEGEP applicants. The admissions requirements state a minimum of 70% average in certain courses, is this minimum requirement a realistic acceptance standard?
Thank you for this blog! I’ve gained a lot of insight on the admissions process,
Take care.
The grades indicated in this post are specific to high school levels, and are not really applicable to CEGEP, college or university. As a rough rule of thumb, applicants from those types of institutions can shift the curves about 10% points to the left, i.e. an 80 in CEGEP is something like a 90 in a high school.
Good day professor,
Thank you for the chart. I will be applying for Master of Science (Electrical Engineering) for the upcoming Fall semester (as an International student). I have 2.5 years of working experience and 2 years of research experience. The problem is my undergrad GPA. I got 3.03 (3.46 for the last 2 years) from the school in the USA and currently, I am a student at the local university in my country and I am doing pretty good (5/5 GPA taking graduate level classes in power engineering).
Now the question. Will I be automatically rejected because of my undergrad GPA (and based on the graph it seems so) or my post-baccalaureate studies GPA will leverage my low undergrad GPA? Thank you for the help.
Sorry, I don’t deal with graduate school admissions and nothing on this site is relevant to that.
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Hi Professor,
I’m a second year cegep student in Quebec. If I have more than the courses required to calculate the admission average, let’s say I have completed both Calculus II and Linear algebra, how is my admission average calculated, as the admission website states only one of the two is required? Does it simply use the higher grade or rather does it use all available marks at the moment. Thank you!
If there are more than the minimum required courses I think that we usually use the higher grades.
Does this apply to undergrad courses such as Life sciences and health studies?
No these grades are for secondary school levels.
Hello Prefessor Anderson,
I’m a VISA, and I’m curious about that, how are successful Visa applicants usually doing in ENG4U?
If I take it in private school but for no any justifiable reasons, how much the deduction is likely to be? Thanks so much(!).
I don’t have any particular insights into ENG4U for visa applicants. There are no automatic penalties for private school, but there must be some sort of reason for it.
OK get it.
Besides, is the level of competition of each program roughly the same for international students as for PR/Canadians(Biomedical, Software very tough for people of either identity, some ones less competitive, the rest least competitive for both people)? Are there any kind of basically fixed quota/proportion for different disciplines within these some 200 spots? And, by any chance if you have, any ideas about Nanotechnology’s situation?
For the 200 visa student spots there is no hard quota for each program, but we also can’t have them all go into one or two programs either.
Hi professor, I am a Chinese high school student who is applying for CE 17 fall. I think I can achieve approximately 94% in Grade 12 first semester’s final exam（92.6% in grade11’s final exam). And I got A in all subjects in Chinese High school graduation exam (also called Huikao). The problem is that I didn’t meet the English Language requirement (My TOEFL overall score is higher than 90 but I got 25 in writing and 22 in speaking, and my IELTS overall score is 6.5 but I got 6 in writing and 6.5 in speaking). Do I need to submit SAT to prove my English ability? And am I likely to be admitted by UW CE?
Thank you, professor.
If you don’t meet the TOEFL or IELTS requirements, you might be offered the iBASE or BASE programs. But direct admission is unlikely.
Hi professor! I have a rather specific question.
I am an international applicant who has already sat for his AS exams on May/June 2016 session. During that time I had achieved a grade of 2 As(85% in math and 85% inChemistry) and a C(68% in Physics). Due to my abysmal physics score, I sat for a retake of that exam on November 2016,and I managed to convert that C to an A(85% in physics) . My scores now are 3 As in all my subjects, with a predicted score of 3 As also. My question is, that C is still in my record. Will they judge me negatively because of that? What are my chances of admission? I have also sat for the new SAT exam where I managed to score 1450 out of 1600. Does that help my case? Should I send my SAT scores to the University?
Good SAT scores can always be helpful to your case. I can’t predict how it will go however, as it all depends on what other applicants are like.
Hey Professor!
I have a question about IB as it seems no one is able to seem to answer my question. How does Waterloo convert IB grades to percentages? I know we are aiming for 6 and 7s but I can’t help to wonder what is the actual percentage or is there none since B scores being a range of percentages?
There is no easy answer to that, so the best we can say is that with 6 and 7s you’re likely in a good competitive range for our programs.
Hi Professor Anderson,
I’m a Visa applicant. If I got an overall score of 7 in IELTS, but my writing fall short of the requirement for this category(Listening: 6.5; Reading:8.5; Writing:6; Speaking:7). Yet Waterloo officially states on their website that as long as the overall is 7, my language proficiency will be admitted. What do you make of it?
The website states that with a 7 you might be given individual consideration, however it does not automatically meet our requirements.
Hi professor I would really like to thank you for preparing such a great a article.
I would kindly like to ask if you happen to know about the requirements out of 20 for French baccalaureate students. I’m an International student and I got 7.5 in IELTS ( 7 in writing and 7.5 in all other sections).I’m doing my french bac in an an “International french school abroad” in Egypt.
For Canadian student you ask for ~90+%, but on a scale of 20, it will be about ~ 18/20, which is an extremely rare/impossible score in French schools.
Yes we recognize that the French Bacc is a nonlinear grading scale, so something like a 15 or higher is usually pretty good.
Hi,
On my OUAC, I selected civil engineering as my first choice, and on my AIF, I chose nanotechnology as my second choice. However, now I want to switch those options around. I’ve already submitted my AIF for early admission, but considering civil and nanotechnology are in the same “admission average,” am I able to switch my options around? And how would that work considering my AIF is catered to civil engineering?
It should still be possible to change choices through OUAC, and alternates through the Quest AIF system.
Hi professor, I recent submitted my application, where my selected programs were mechatronics with a systems design alternate. However, recently my interest in systems design has increased while my likelihood of being accepted into mechatronics has unfortunately, decreased. Do you know of any way to change my first choice program to systems design at this point? Thank you!
It should be possible to change choices through the OUAC online system, while it remains open.
Hello Professor Anderson, thank you for creating and maintaining this informative blog!
Roughly how many students will there be in the software engineering cohort for the 2017 academic year?
Thanks!
-Gord
The Software Engineering class size target is about 120.
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