Spring is in full bloom as demonstrated by my flowering pear tree so it is time to provide a final round admissions update. This will be my last scheduled blog post until all admission decisions have been communicated to applicants.
We have started to receive midterm grade data from the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre (OUAC) for Ontario Secondary Schools. Once we receive all the data we need, we will proceed with the final round of admission for the Faculty of Engineering. Our team will assess applicants over the next week with all offers being communicated prior to May 17th. During our final round, we will not be able to respond to individual inquiries regarding applications. Please be patient with our admissions team. We realize this is a highly stressful time for applicants, families, guidance counsellors, teachers, and school administrators.
Most, but not all, offers to Ontario Secondary School students will be communicated at one time. There are always a few offers that involve a bit more processing so these take longer. Offers to Non-Ontario Secondary School students often roll out in small batches. These offers have more complicated conditions that involve some manual processing. Our awards office will also be awarding entrance scholarships to selected applicants. All admitted applicants including those who have already received an offer of admission are eligible for these entrance scholarships in our final round. We must communicate all decisions by May 17th. All applicants will know whether they have been admitted and whether they have been offered a scholarship by May 17th.
New this year, some applicants to Civil Engineering will receive an email inviting them to request an admission offer to either Environmental Engineering or Geological Engineering. The Civil Engineering applicant pool is deeper than in previous admission cycles. We also anticipate that we will have available spaces in Environmental Engineering and Geological Engineering at the conclusion of our final round. We hope to fill these available spaces with students who might be interested in considering an alternate offer to Environmental Engineering or Geological Engineering. These programs share many courses with Civil Engineering and often lead to similar career paths. A special email will be sent to qualified applicants who have not been selected for an admission offer to Civil Engineering. This email will invite them to request an alternate offer to either Environmental Engineering or Geological Engineering. These individuals will have a short window of time to respond to the email. Otherwise, they will be denied admission to the University of Waterloo when the final round concludes on May 17th.
The reason for the short time window is related to ensuring that all admission offers can be made at least two weeks prior to the deadline to accept an offer. This also allows time for applicants to apply for residence while the residence guarantee is still valid. We considered giving out offers automatically to one of the two programs, but we felt it would be better to provide this select group of applicants with a choice of program. While both programs are similar to Civil Engineering, there are some key differences. Individuals will be given the opportunity to reach out to our faculty to find out more about these programs before making a decision. Agreeing to receive an offer does not require a firm commitment to accept an offer. Applicants will still have at least two weeks to decide whether they wish to accept the alternate offer. For those who are not currently applicants to Waterloo Engineering, I do not expect this opportunity to exist in future admission cycles. Our situation this year is unique and unexpected.
While we still have many offers to give out in the final round, I have no doubt that many strong applicants will unfortunately be denied admission to programs with highly competitive applicant pools. The reason is simply the competitiveness of our applicant pools. There will be students with high averages and strong extracurricular involvement that we are unable to admit. We have a limited number of spaces in our engineering programs. Hopefully, you will receive some good news next week.
The Road to Engineering 
Hello Mr. Bishop,
Approximately what percentage of OSS Civil Engineering offers are left for this round? Am I right to assume that it will be unlikely to receive a Civil Engineering offer given that:
1. The Civil Engineering applicant pool is much more competitive this year (so much so that this special email opportunity for requesting an alternate offer will happen).
2. Many if not majority of the Civil Engineering offers have been sent out in the March and April rounds.
I am concerned that I might not get an offer despite having an average that was considered to be very competitive in past admission cycles (90%+).
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We have many Civil Engineering offers to be given out in the final round of admissions. It will actually be our first priority to assess once we get grade data since we have many spaces available and many applicants. While the applicant pool is deeper this year, I still think a student with a 90’s average is likely to receive an offer to Civil Engineering. We will know better next week once we see the updated grades.
The special e-mail opportunity is more a function of the decline in application numbers to Environmental Engineering and Geological Engineering. In some ways, this is a very good opportunity for prospective Civil Engineering students. In previous years, a qualified applicant denied admission to Civil Engineering would not be given an alternate offer if they listed a program such as Mechatronics or Systems Design as their alternate choice. This year, these applicants will have the opportunity to select to request an offer to either Environmental Engineering or Geological Engineering.
Based on our applicant data, it appears that there has been a shift in applicants from Environmental Engineering to Civil Engineering. The proposed mechanism corrects for the shift and aims to ensure that as many qualified students as possible get an admission offer to Waterloo Engineering.
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such lovely blossoms on the tree! Still waiting on mines to bloom…
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Hello Mr. Bishop,
I had a question regarding admissions. Does Waterloo penalize the students for taking an online course? Being in the IB program, we cannot take any additional regular courses during the term- so the only way to accommodate an extra course that I was interested in (CS – Gr.12) was to take it online while taking all my regular courses. My guidance counsellor tells me that it will be considered in my top 6 without any penalization – is that true? It was taken online, but I was taking all my regular courses alongside during the term and this was the only way to accommodate this course.
Thank you!
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Applicants to engineering programs at the University of Waterloo are not penalized for taking online courses from recognized schools and school boards. In my opinion, universities should not be allowed to penalize students for taking online courses from recognized schools and school boards.
This may not be true for all universities and all programs. I can only comment on admission to engineering programs at the University of Waterloo.
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Hi Mr. Bishop, thank you for providing lots of insights on this blog. I just have a few questions. For this year (2024-25 applicant cycle), what would you believe were the most competitive programs to gain admission to, other than SE? I was not given an offer of admission to CE, which I understand has a competitive applicant pool. When will the probabilities webpage be updated? Please let me know, thank you!
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For domestic applicants, about half of our engineering programs have very competitive applicant pools. For international applicants, the level of competition is typically lower. Recent announcements of caps on student visas and changes to immigration processes are likely to further reduce the competitiveness of our international student applicant pool. As our international applicant pool shrinks, some international applicants may find it slightly easier to receive an offer of admission. I do not expect the recent announcements to have any material effect upon domestic applicants.
For those who may be interested, international students now represent fewer than 10% of the incoming undergraduate engineering class at the University of Waterloo.
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Hello Mr. Bishop,
if my school has a high adjustment rate(20%) around 5-6 years ago would admissions officers be able to see that. For the last 4 years there was no adjustment factor?
How much does the adjustment factor matter in programs like SWE or CS? Do students get in with a high adjustment factor?
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Admissions officers only see the current adjustment factor when assessing applicants. The absence of an adjustment factor for a prolonged period of time is an indication that students from a school have been comparable to the average student. This is generally a good thing.
It is possible to get admitted to a competitive program such as Software Engineering, even with a high adjustment factor. The adjustment factor simply levels the playing field. The Computer Science program does not use an adjustment factor when assessing applicants.
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Hello Mr. Bishop,
I have recently heard that there will be no early consideration deadline for the AIF for engineering this year. Does this mean that there is no March round this year, but rather only a May round for all engineering applicants?
Thank you!
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All undergraduate engineering program applicants must submit their application on the OUAC website by January 15th as indicated on our website. To be considered for admission, we must also receive your completed Admission Information Form by January 31st. If you are applying to Software Engineering, you must also complete your Kira Talent written interview question by January 31st.
We are moving towards a process of continuous admission, particularly for out-of-province applicants. The majority of our Ontario applicants will receive admission decisions in March and May. I expect the first offers of admission will be given out in mid-December. The last offers of admission will be given out in mid-May.
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Hello Dr. Bishop,
Could you kindly elaborate on the mid- Decmeber offers? Are those marks- only assesments, or somehow otherwise restricted in candidate scope to very special situations?
Is there a requirement or advantage to have submitted an AIF/interview in November or earlier to qualify for this round of consideration?
Thank you.
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We only make offers when we have enough information to do so. For most applicants, the earliest an offer can be made is in March. If we have enough information to confidently provide an offer earlier, we will do so. This may be the case if a strong applicant taking a gap year applies for admission, for example. It may also be the case if an applicant is applying from outside Canada and we already have enough grade information to make an offer of admission.
In all cases, we only make an offer of admission once an applicant has met our application requirements. This includes completing the Admission Information Form and in the case of SE applicants, completing the written interview question on Kira Talent.
There is no obvious advantage to an applicant by applying early in our current system. We only give admission offers to the most qualified applicants. When we give out an admission offer prior to our final round of admission, we are confident that doing so will not prevent another more qualified applicant from receiving an admission offer in the final round.
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Hello Mr. Bishop,
I am a high school student from outside Ontario, so I am a 105d student. As far as I know, if someone does IB in Ontario, they still apply with their Ontario grades, but according to the 2023 University of Waterloo Engineering adjustment factor, there is a ‘IB Diploma in Canada’ adjustment factor, so if I am from outside Ontario, would that adjustment factor be used or my provincial one? Also, as Ontario and non-Ontario Canadian students are categorized as 101 and 105d respectively, does a 105d have the same chance as a 101 student to get admitted to University of Waterloo Engineering or do 101 students have more seats reserved for them as they pay tax in Ontario and are most spots filled earlier by 101 students thereby making 105d students less likely to get a chance of getting into University of Waterloo Engineering? Finally, if a student is from a province with a high adjustment factor (like 17 or more adjustment factor), is it almost impossible for the student to get into competitive engineering programs like Computer Engineering or will doing IB make that student subject to the IB adjustment factor?
Thank You!
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Adjustment factors change from one year to the next. There was a time when students of IB programs were subject to a separate adjustment factor if their jurisdiction did not have an adjustment factor. This is no longer the case. We only calculate adjustment factors based on jurisdictions (schools in Ontario, provinces, regions of study, or countries).
With respect to target setting, this is a difficult exercise where various factors come into consideration. Also, the factors are continuously changing in response to current events. Most of our applicants and most of our admitted students reside in Ontario and study in Ontario high schools. I would not say that where a student resides has a significant impact upon admission consideration.
With respect to high adjustment factor schools, the adjustment factor simply compensates for persistent differences in grading. An applicant from a high adjustment factor school will typically have higher grades than an applicant from a low adjustment factor school. The adjustment factor simply levels the playing field. Every year, some applicants from high adjustment factor schools are admitted to some of our most competitive engineering programs.
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Hello Dr. Bishop,
I hope you are well! I’m an avid reader of this blog and I really appreciate how dedicated you are to helping us waterloo hopefuls out. I’m applying to Software Engineering as a 105 applicant and I had a few questions.
Thank you so much for your help,
Samuel
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The competitiveness of the SE applicant pool is always high. We did not see any significant reduction in the competitiveness of the SE applicant pool in Fall 2024 compared to Fall 2023. Both years were very competitive. However, there is a chance that the SE applicant pool will be slightly less competitive this year based on early application data. However, it is too early to make a reliable prediction. Applicants frequently switch between SE and other programs.
A 98% average from Alberta is a very strong average. With a strong AIF score, I would say that you will have a very good chance of receiving an offer of admission to SE. Of course, there are no guarantees. In general, every mark on the admission average helps. In the SE applicant pool, there could be 500 applicants or more whose admission averages differ by less than 1%.
The Engineering Admissions Team will not be able to read the AIFs this year. The process for AIF assessment has changed. I will be one of the readers for the programming knowledge question on the Kira Talent interview. While we sometimes review links provided by applicants, this is mostly out of interest. By the time we visit a link, we typically know that we want to admit a student. A photo of an award is fun but it won’t be the difference between being admitted or not.
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