Engineering I and iBioMed — McMaster

01

Timeline

Nov 26, 202675 days left
Recommended supplementary submission: may be reviewed sooner
Jan 15, 2027125 days leftCriticalWithin 14 days of another date
OUAC application deadline
Jan 28, 2027138 days leftCriticalWithin 14 days of another date
Supplementary application deadline, 11:59 PM ET
Mar 15, 2027184 days left
First round of Ontario offers (mid-March)
Apr 1, 2027201 days left
iBioMed additional documents deadline
May 1, 2027231 days left
Second round of offers (early May)

02

Supplementary application

Deadline

Jan 28, 2027138 days left

28 January 2027, 11:59 PM ET. Recommended submission 26 November 2026.

Four questions: three video responses and one written response. Takes roughly 20–30 minutes.

One supplementary application covers Engineering, iBioMed, Computer Science and BTech.

Platform: Kira Talent
Fee: $50 CAD, paid through OUAC
Questions published in advance: No
Rubric published: No

Questions

writtenNo published word limit
One written response
McMaster's own pages say 7 minutes in one place and 10 in another, prepare for the shorter.
videoOne take
Three video responses
10 seconds prep + 2 minutes response each

McMaster publishes practice questions, but states explicitly they are not the real questions.

Assessed on

EngagementCollaborationInnovation & CreativityResilience

Kira Talent invitation arrives within 10 business days of applying. Check junk and spam.

Weighting

No official weighting published. Used in combination with academic performance in a holistic assessment.

Community interpretation, unofficial
AdmissionPrep describes an unofficial clustering model in which stronger supplementary performance may offset a lower average, with estimated competitive bands from roughly 90% to 96–97%. McMaster does not publish or confirm these tiers.

Not officially published

03

Required courses

Six 4U/M courses

Required

ENG4U
MCV4U
SCH4U
SPH4U

Recommended

MHF4U: recommended, not formally required

Required for iBioMed

ENG4U
MCV4U
SCH4U
SPH4U
SBI4U

Unlike Waterloo and U of T Engineering, MHF4U is recommended rather than required.

04

Averages

McMaster iBioMed
90% published minimum for consideration
Admission is by selection. More competitive applicants sit several percentage points above.
McMaster Engineering I
No single published cutoff

Community-reported

AdmissionPrep
~90% for top-tier supplementary scores; ~96–97% for lower supplementary tiers
Third-party interpretation. Not a McMaster figure.

05

Traps

01
10 seconds of video prep is the shortest in this set
Each video question gives 10 seconds to prepare and 2 minutes to answer. U of T gives 2 minutes to prepare. There is almost no time to organize an answer before speaking, practise moving straight from prompt to story to speaking.
02
The practice questions are not the real questions
McMaster says so explicitly. Memorizing an answer to a practice prompt fails when the real question on the same competency is phrased differently. Prepare a competency-mapped story bank, not scripts.
03
McMaster's own page contradicts itself on timing
7 minutes in one section, 10 in another, for the written question. Applicants reading only the summary box get different information from those reading the FAQ. Prepare for 7.
04
Free Choice is not an admissions safety net
A strong enough admission average can earn Free Choice, letting you pick your Level II discipline without competing on first-year CGPA. Exceptions include Chemical & Bioengineering and the Management and Society options. It does not work like Waterloo's alternate choice.

06

Prep

Shape: Story bank plus speed
Time: 1–2 weeks

Build at least one strong STAR story for each of the four competencies. Practise starting immediately: with 10 seconds of prep there is no time to design a structure after seeing the prompt.

07