We continue looking at some admissions data for some Ontario engineering programs, based on the CUDO public database. As a bit of background, applicants to Ontario universities all apply through a central system (OUAC) shared by the universities (which is where this data comes from, I assume). In this system, an applicant can rank their preferred choice of program and university. Presumably, applicants rank as first choice the university they most desire to attend. Let’s see from the data where people tend to want to go, and how many end up there after the admissions process is all done.

First some terminology that’s used in the graphs. “OSS” means applicants who are coming directly out of an Ontario Secondary School program. “NOSS” means applicants who are not “OSS”. This includes applicants from other provinces and countries, and those trying to transfer from other colleges or universities, or those who took a year or more off after graduating from high school in Ontario or elsewhere. I’m going to focus on the year 2021, which is the latest year available in the database.

Here we see the raw number of applicants who ranked Engineering as their number 1 preference at various universities. Clearly, in 2021 Toronto had a large number (over 5,000), followed by Waterloo (3,500). At Toronto, the NOSS category is quite large, possibly because of visa student applications but the data doesn’t allow specific details. For Ontario OSS applicants, Toronto and Waterloo are at similar levels (a little over 2,000), followed by McMaster and then the others.

It’s probably important to point out that the ranking specified by an applicant is only used for statistical and prediction purposes by the Universities, to assist them in determining how many offers to make. Typically, an applicant who ranks a program #1 is highly likely to accept an offer (if made), versus someone who ranks a program #20 and will probably not accept an offer. It is not supposed to be used for making individual admission decisions.

How many 1st choice applicants end up getting an offer, and then accept the offer and eventually register in the engineering program? We can compare the number of applicants and registrants for 2021 using the CUDO data, expressed as a percentage as shown in the next graph.

At Toronto, only about 20% of the 1st choice OSS applicants end up registering in the program, and less than 10% of the NOSS category. Waterloo is somewhat higher in both, and the rest are somewhat similar or higher percentages. Interpreting this graph is somewhat complicated however.

A high percentage could reflect the situation where the competition was somewhat less, so more 1st choice applicants get admitted. It can also reflect a situation where a university has one or more programs that are unique or in very high demand (e.g. software & biomedical engineering at Waterloo), so the 1st choice applicants take the offers and enroll in the programs at very high percentages. A lower percentage could mean that applicants get offers to their 1st choice and then change their mind and enroll somewhere else for whatever reasons. It’s all quite complex and this data doesn’t provide much insight into those issues. It’s even more complicated for NOSS applicants, as they may be considering universities in other provinces and countries, so ranking #1 in Ontario doesn’t mean it’s their top overall choice everywhere. (The same could be said for OSS applicants, who might also be applying to UBC or somewhere.)

So there’s some data, even if it’s hard to draw any conclusions especially at an individual applicant level. The suggestions for applying to engineering in Ontario are always to just carefully consider where the best fit might be, and rank your choices accordingly. In the end, the ranking shouldn’t make any difference to acceptance, and it’s always up to the applicant to make the final decision about which offer to accept and where to register.