This is a reminder that the University of Waterloo holds its annual March Break Open House tomorrow. If you forgot to register for the event, you are still welcome to register and attend. If you have registered but are unable to attend for any reason, you can view pre-recorded versions of the presentations online on our Waterloo Engineering YouTube Channel.
My understanding is that the weather forecast is not ideal for the Region of Waterloo tomorrow. For those attending in person, please take appropriate precautions travelling to and from the event. A weather advisory has been issued by the Meteorological Service of Canada that extends from Saturday morning through to Sunday morning. I recommend checking the weather online tomorrow prior to travelling to campus. The University of Waterloo Twitter Feed is often the first social media channel to announce any closures or cancellations affecting our campuses. I do not anticipate that our campus will close.
Applicants and their families are often most excited to meet our students and tour our facilities. We will be offering lab tours to attendees throughout the event. I encourage attendees to make a plan prior to coming to campus. There is quite a bit to see and do. You won’t have time to see the entire campus. For those interested in our engineering programs, you will definitely want to check out our Pearl Sullivan Engineering Ideas Clinic in E7 and our Sedra Student Design Centre in E5.
During the March Break Open House, I am scheduled to deliver presentations in E7 4043 at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm. The presentations are designed to provide prospective applicants with information on admission requirements and the admissions process. The same material will be covered at both presentations. We will setup the neighbouring room in E7 4053 to serve as an overflow room should it be required. E7 4043 only has room for approximately 140 visitors. If you are in the overflow room, we will have a mechanism for you to ask questions during the live presentation. Please note that these presentations are designed for future applicants only. Current applicants will find that their time is better spent on department tours and facility tours.
When I am not delivering presentations, I will be at the Engineering Admissions booth on the second floor of E7 to answer questions. To answer what is likely to be the most popular question, the early admission round will conclude soon. We are currently making early round admission decisions. I am not sure when the results will be communicated. As you can probably imagine, it takes quite a bit of time to process all Admission Information Forms. My team has been working long hours to assess them.
I will leave you with two photographs that I took of the ECE Capstone Design Symposium held this past week. The symposium was well attended. I was thoroughly impressed by the projects and the teams at the symposium.
I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at our March Break Open House!
The Road to Engineering 
Hi, when would early decisions be out? Also how much of a role do adjustment factors play in this round?
Thank you!
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All early admission offers appear on Quest prior to the end of March. I cannot provide a more precise estimate. Offers could appear earlier than the last day in March. We have to provide our decisions to the Registrar’s Office with sufficient time to spare to allow for the coding of conditions on offers. Also, we have to allow some time for issues that may arise during processing.
Adjustment factors are a tool that we use to assess the likelihood of success of an applicant. These factors currently play a role in all engineering admission decisions. Adjustment factors are more likely to have a significant effect on highly competitive applicant pools. For less competitive applicant pools, we might admit most, if not all, qualified applicants in the pool.
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Hi, thank you so much for your response! I was wondering how competitive Management Engineering is?
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I feel that Management Engineering is getting stronger despite the fact that applicant numbers do not appear to be increasing. It seems that more self-selection is occurring.
We have a few programs that exhibit similar behaviour. Systems Design Engineering, for example, has a small ratio of applicants to spaces but a very strong domestic applicant pool.
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I know that there are spaces reserved for domestic and visa students. I ask if Waterloo has quotas like other schools requiring x amount of domestic students to be from Ontario, and y amount of domestic students to be from other provinces? If this is the case could you elaborate on the competitiveness of this subgroup?
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We do not have specific quotas for the percentage of domestic students from Ontario and the percentage of domestic students from out-of-province. When we select applicants, we simply try to pick the best, regardless of where they reside. We do a rough split based on applicant numbers and then we adjust the split as we progress through a round.
This may change in the future. Given changes to tuition fee frameworks, there may be targets set for out-of-province domestic students in the future. It is difficult to predict the future so I will not attempt to do so. I will simply say that things are always subject to change.
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Hello professor, I would like to ask if it is possible to receive an offer as a university transfer within the next week? My final examinations are in a month, so I was wondering if I should be looking forward to some news in the next week.
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There are some transfer applicants that will receive good news in the early round. I do not know how many as I do not count them, I simply know that I selected a few applicants from post-secondary institutions. Let’s hope you receive good news.
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How many offers are going to be given out during this early round?
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We will be giving out slightly more than 1,750 offers of admission to our engineering programs.
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When I went in person and the same question I was told that they will be sending around 45% of the acceptances in March is that right?
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Yes, we have attempted to fill approximately 45% of our available spaces for students. The exact show rate is difficult to predict. There can be wide variations by program and wide variations from one year to the next. Overall, a 50% show rate is fairly typical.
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Hi sir, was just wondering whether 105 applicants, specifically those that require a study permit (international) are also considered for early decision rounds. Additionally, what is your overall opinion on the applicant pool for Mechanical Engineering this year? Are there more/ stronger applicants as compared to previous years?
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Yes, there are many visa applicants from the 105 applicant pool that will receive offers of admission in the early round. The ME applicants are assessed by someone else so I cannot provide an informed opinion on the quality of the ME applicant pool. Given the application numbers, I would expect the quality to be similar to previous years.
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Hello, I am wondering if acceptances in the March round for 105 applicants are spread out over multiple days or whether they’re all given on the same day?
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The offer require several days to code on Quest. Offers are made conditionally. The conditions depend upon the program of study and the applicant’s educational history.
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Have the offers already been decided and began coding on Quest?
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Admission offers for 105 applicants have started to appear. Admission offers for 101 applicants will not appear until next week. All admission offers are in the queue for processing. It takes a fair amount of processing. I realize this is a stressful time for many applicants. My best suggestion is to check Quest sometime during the middle of next week.
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Were there more applications this year compared to previous years?
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We received approximately the same number of applications this year as last year. One thing to keep in mind is that while the number of applications is the same, applicants have applied to more university programs this year than last year. This means that applicants are slightly less likely to accept an admission offer if one is given to them. Most applicants will receive more admission offers than last year.
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In this case, do the university rankings come in place?
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Applicants are likely to have admission offers to several universities. Applicants will have to choose the offer they want the most. I expect that applicants will choose the offer they perceive to be the most compelling one. This might be the highest ranked university program, the program that offers the best financial package, the program that is most interesting, or perhaps even the program that is closest to home.
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If I have Waterloo ranked first am I less likely to receive an offer as you guys would be sure that if I get in I would accept the offer? As that is what I have realized from my friends that applied in previous years
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The OUAC choice is not a factor in admission decisions for a particular applicant. While it is true that a first-choice applicant is far more likely to register than a second-choice or third-choice applicant, this will not affect an individual applicant’s chance of receiving an admission offer. If we have space for another applicant to be admitted, we will admit the most qualified applicant available, regardless of their OUAC choice.
The OUAC choices of all admitted applicants will affect how many offers we give out in total for a program. We will fill spaces quicker if our top applicants are all first-choice applicants. This is why it is always difficult to predict exactly when we fill approximately half of all available spaces.
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Hello Dr. Bishop, if we have requested early consideration, when will we hear back? Thank you 🙂
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If you have provided proof of an admission offer requiring a financial commitment prior to our final round, you will receive a final admission decision by April 15th.
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Good Day Dr. Bishop
I have requested an early consideration but have not provided proof of financial commitment (though it’s already on the other university’s website (the University of Alberta) but I have mentioned it in my email. Also, I received an offer from McGill University after I requested an early consideration, which also requires me to accept the offer before May 1. Do you suggest updating the committee about the offer from McGill University and proof of financial commitment (if yes, would it be enough to attach a screenshot or link to the University’s website where they indicate the financial deposit)?
Also, I would like to thank you as your blogs have been immensely helpful throughout the application journey.
Regards
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Yes, I recommend sending an e-mail with proof of the new offer requiring a financial commitment. A screenshot suffices for proof.
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Hello, Dr. Bishop! I hope you’re doing well. I was wondering if this piece of information was also applicable to the SYDE program? Neither me, nor my other friends who requested early consideration have final decisions yet.
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The decisions were made last Thursday. Unfortunately, the team wasn’t able to communicate the decisions on Friday as planned. It is my understanding that 101 admission offers will go out to engineering programs sometime today. The next batch of admission offers will not go out until our final round in May.
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Is there going to be an April round this year for engineering admission?
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We do not do an April round. For applicants that request early consideration, we will make a final decision on their applications in April. This only occurs for applicants that have specifically requested an early admission decision. These applicants must provide proof of another admission offer requiring a financial commitment prior to our final round in May.
An April round would imply that we look at all applicants. We have not done an April round since I have been in my role. I am not sure if we ever did an April round.
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How are admission averages looking this year compared to previous years is it the same or is it slightly lower due to school getting back to normal (in person) and exams coming back?
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It is impossible for us to tell at this point. We never examine averages at this point in the cycle. The averages are simply placeholders for the final averages that we receive in the summer.
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Based on your professional experience would you say that it would be lower this year?
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There is no way to tell. My prediction at the start of the cycle was that averages would not drop significantly this year. I still believe this is likely to be true.
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My transcript for the fall semester of Grade 12 was revised accordingly based on the final exam postponed to Feb 9 and Feb 10. The exam was postponed because of the outbreak of Covid 19 last December. I did not find the issue until last week I received the transcript for Gaokao related application. Do you think it is possible for your team to review my newly uploaded file?
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Yes, if you are a Non-Ontario Secondary School (NOSS) applicant and you have received new transcripts or grade information, you should always provide an update to your admission officer. Our admissions officers will update your records accordingly. For Ontario students, we receive grade information automatically. Other jurisdictions are starting to share data electronically but as you can imagine, there are many different grading systems used around the world.
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Hello Professor, I am parent of Fall 2023 applicant. May I know the size of the applicant pool for Management Engineering this year? How likely a 90% average with a good AIF will get a seat this year. How many seats are still available after March round? If all the applicants have 95% +, will you be looking at AIF? Thank you
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We do not typically give out the sizes of our applicant pools for programs. It is always difficult to assess any applicant’s chance of receiving an admission offer. There are many variables beyond averages and AIF scores.
We have filled approximately 45% of our available spaces. We might fill another 5% of our available spaces with applicants requiring early consideration in April. This leaves approximately 50% of our available spaces for the final round of admission.
The AIF plays a significant role in admission decisions for programs that have competitive applicant pools. While the MGTE applicant pool is not as competitive as the SE applicant pool, the AIF still plays a role in our MGTE admission decisions.
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Hello Dr. Bishop,
For applicants that have participated in the recent Euclid and/or CCC competitions and want it to be considered in their application, should they amend the result? Or does the admissions committee already have access to this data when reviewing a student? Thank you!
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Amending an AIF would not have any impact upon your admission decision. The AIFs have already been assessed and scored.
A single competition score rarely has any impact upon an admission decision for engineering programs. We will likely have access to the results for both competitions when we complete our final round decisions. I usually take a quick look at them to see if there are any applicants that have been overlooked. In previous cycles, I have found that most applicants that score well on the Euclid and the CCC already have offers to study Waterloo engineering programs by the time the competition results are known.
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Hello Dr. Bishop, Just want to know if early admission offers are completed for CFM, CS & CE programs or if one can still expect early admission for these three programs?
Thank You.
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Early round offers were given out for COMPE applicants by March 31st. I cannot comment on CFM or CS as I am not aware of their admission processes. I can only comment on engineering programs.
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Can I be rejected before may round if I ask for early consideration ?
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Yes. Early consideration results in a final decision. It would not be fair to give an offer at a later time knowing that an applicant had already requested early consideration to avoid paying unnecessary fees to other institutions.
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Hello Mr. Bishop. Is it possible for applicants to switch their engineering program choice during April after seeing their midterm marks?
I am asking this because I might switch from applying to electrical engineering to civil engineering (which is less competitive) should my midterm marks be poor.
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This is not possible for Waterloo engineering programs.
It would also likely be a mistake to choose an entirely different career over a few midterm grades. You can always improve your grades prior to your final exams and then apply in a future cycle for admission.
Also, 50% of our spaces will be filled in our final round. Let’s hope you are one of the applicants receiving an offer of admission in our final round.
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Hello Dr. Bishop,
Would I still be eligible to ask for early consideration for the programs to which I have applied (CE, CS)?
Also, would asking for early consideration hinder my chances of being admitted compared to waiting for the May round?
Thank you!
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The opportunity to request early consideration has passed. At this point, the remaining applicants in our applicant pools will be considered in our final round of admission.
In general, requesting early consideration does not hinder or improve an applicant’s chances of receiving an admission offer.
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For IB students in Ontario, our final report card marks consist of solely the IB exam and internal assessments—this is what is used to calculate whether we meet the conditions in one’s offer, correct? (And not midterms/predicted grades?) I’ve been very deeply immersed in some of my extracurriculars and have only had time to study for finals rather than school-focused things.
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We use final grades for meeting conditions.
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