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University of Waterloo · Waterloo

Engineering (BASc)

Gated at the doorinferredanalysisEngineering

The decision is made while you are still in Grade 12. High stakes, one shot, but you know where you stand by May.inferred

You are admitted to a specific discipline and you graduate from it. There is no documented post-admission competition to stay in or to pick a discipline.inferred

A supplementary application is required. Its deadline for this cycle has not been published.

Supplementary app
Required
Next deadline
72 days left
OUAC application deadline
Enrolment
Not published
Faculty
Faculty of Engineering

OUAC codes

  • Computer Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Mechatronics Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Management Engineering

Verified 2026-09-15/2026-09-17. Confirm against the university's own page before you act.

01

When you're evaluated

Gated at the doorinferredanalysis

Decided before you arrive.

You are admitted to a specific discipline and you graduate from it. There is no documented post-admission competition to stay in or to pick a discipline.

Conditional offers require a final admission average of 85% to remain valid. That is a condition on the offer, decided on Grade 12 marks before you arrive — not a post-admission competition. No progression gate is documented in the data.

You are admitted to the program you will graduate from. There is no second competitive filter on university grades.

What this rests on (1)

  • Direct entry by discipline · One Engineering program per applicant

    programs.json → waterloo-engineering.admission_structure

02

Timeline and deadlines

  • OUAC application deadline

    72 days left

  • AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents

    89 days left

  • Early-consideration deadline

    None — "Waterloo Engineering does not have an early consideration deadline. There is only one application deadline."

    Not yet published

  • Admission decisions

    Decisions begin December 2026 (small number only), all finalized mid-May 2027 (Engineering FAQ; the offer-timing page says January, OUInfo says February).

    Not yet published

Dates close to other programs

  • U of T TrackOne — OUAC application deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • U of T TrackOne — Complete OSP and required documents — final deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • U of T Core 8 / EngSci — OUAC application deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • U of T Core 8 / EngSci — Complete OSP and required documents — final deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • McMaster Engineering I — OUAC application deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • McMaster iBioMed — OUAC application deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • Rotman Commerce — Final application deadline (OUAC), Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • McMaster BHSc — OUAC application deadline, Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • Western Medical Sciences — January 15 equal-consideration deadline (full-time undergrad), Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • Western Health Sciences — January 15 equal-consideration deadline (full-time undergrad), Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • U of T Life Sciences (St. George) — Application deadline (St. George Arts & Science), Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • UTM Life Sciences — Application deadline (U of T Mississauga), Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • U of T KPE — OUAC application deadline (shared with Engineering, Arts & Science, and most other St. George faculties), Jan 15, 2027 (same day as OUAC application deadline)
  • McMaster Engineering I — Supplementary application deadline (high-school applicants), Jan 28, 2027 (4 days from AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • McMaster iBioMed — Supplementary application deadline, Jan 28, 2027 (4 days from AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • McMaster Engineering I — Supplementary application deadline (high-school applicants), Jan 28, 2027 (13 days from OUAC application deadline)
  • McMaster iBioMed — Supplementary application deadline, Jan 28, 2027 (13 days from OUAC application deadline)
  • Queen's Commerce — Application deadline — Commerce, Health Sci and Nursing only, Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • Rotman Commerce — Final supplemental + documents deadline, Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • U of T Life Sciences (St. George) — Documents deadline (St. George Arts & Science), Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • UTM Life Sciences — Documents deadline (U of T Mississauga), Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • Queen's Health Sciences — Application deadline for Commerce, Health Sciences and Nursing, Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • Waterloo Kinesiology — Application deadline, Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • U of T KPE — Supporting documents deadline, Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • U of T KPE — Statement of Interest deadline, Feb 1, 2027 (same day as AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • Queen's Commerce — Supplementary Application deadline, Feb 15, 2027 (14 days from AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • Queen's Health Sciences — Supplementary application deadline, Feb 15, 2027 (14 days from AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)
  • Waterloo Kinesiology — Documents deadline, Feb 15, 2027 (14 days from AIF, Online Interview and all supporting documents)

03

Supplementary application

Admission Information Form (AIF) + Online Interview

A supplementary application is required.

Platform

AIF: native form inside the Waterloo applicant portal (not Kira Talent); Online Interview: Kira Talent
Not individually verified

Fee

No separate fee is charged for the AIF or interview themselves
Not individually verified

Weighting

"The interview score is added to your admission average." Final Engineering admission averages incorporate a school-specific historical adjustment. Not published: interview points, AIF weighting, per-question breakdown, combining formula.
Not individually verified

Format published

Waterloo publishes the complete, verbatim AIF question set on its own website.
Not individually verified

Question selection

All 5 AIF questions are fixed and published in advance; the only unknown component is the specific Online Interview question (not published).
Not individually verified

What they look for

  • "We're not looking for specific extracurricular activities and do not expect you to have engineering-related experience. Instead, we look for examples of strong time management, interpersonal, and leadership skills, along with a variety of interests."
    Not individually verified
  • "We have seen that students who can excel academically while also engaging in activities outside the classroom are more likely to be successful in a demanding Waterloo Engineering program."
    Not individually verified
  • For the interview, reviewers are trained to focus more on content than on presentation, and gauge co-op interview readiness.
    Not individually verified

Ai policy

"The Admission Information Form (AIF) is reviewed both by people who have been trained on reviewing supplementary information forms and by artificial intelligence (AI)... If the AIF scores differ significantly, a second human scorer reviews the submission." Applicants may not use AI to write answers ("No one, including ChatGPT, knows you better than you do."); Waterloo reserves the right to revoke an offer if the AIF was not self-written.
Not individually verified

Submission rules

Cannot edit after submission; can only submit once; submit the AIF once even if applying to multiple Waterloo Engineering programs.
Not individually verified

04

Required courses

  • ENG4U
  • MHF4U
  • MCV4U
  • SCH4U
  • SPH4U
  • One additional 4U/M creditnot checkable
ENG4U, MHF4U, MCV4U, SCH4U, SPH4U — required; one additional 4U/M credit — required; six 4U/M courses total
Not individually verified

No published minimum percentage per required course for these six programs (Architecture differs: drops SCH4U, raises ENG4U minimum to 75%; not tracked).

05

Averages

Published minimum

No published cutoff
No published single cutoff — Waterloo states that applications are reviewed holistically rather than using one fixed cutoff.

Spot-checked on the Engineering FAQ ("we do not have a cut-off").

Grade ranges

  • Civil (WE)mid to high 80sOUInfo
    Civil (WE) — mid to high 80s
    Not individually verified
  • Management (WEM)mid to high 80sOUInfo
    Management (WEM) — mid to high 80s
    Not individually verified
  • Computer (WWJ)high 80s to low 90sOUInfo
    Computer (WWJ) — high 80s to low 90s
    Not individually verified
  • Mechanical (WWH)high 80s to low 90sOUInfo
    Mechanical (WWH) — high 80s to low 90s
    Not individually verified
  • Mechatronics (WMT)high 80s to low 90sOUInfo
    Mechatronics (WMT) — high 80s to low 90s
    Not individually verified
  • Electrical (WWF)low to mid 90sOUInfo
    Electrical (WWF) — low to mid 90s
    Not individually verified
These are competitiveness ranges, not guaranteed admission cutoffs.
Not individually verified

Applicant-reported — not official

  • Broadly describes Waterloo Engineering as approximately: Mid-80s to mid-90s depending on discipline with Software/Computer Engineering among the most competitive.
    Third partyCommunity unverified
  • A dated source cited a claim that even an applicant with a 90–95% average had approximately a 1-in-10 admission chance for Software Engineering in the year being discussed.
    Third partyCommunity unverified

    Exact year unclear; not verified against the current cycle; not a Waterloo statistic.

06

Traps

Supplementary application — author analysis

07

Additional details

Admission structure

Direct entry by discipline · One Engineering program per applicant
Not individually verified

Alternate offer

Only one Engineering program can be listed as the first choice; one alternate Engineering choice can be requested through the optional Engineering Program Alternate Choice form (not the AIF itself). Biomedical and Software Engineering are excluded from the alternate-choice system and must be applied to directly.
Sources disagree

Biomedical/Software exclusion spot-checked on the AIF page.

Conditional offer requirement

Conditional offers require a final admission average of 85%+ to remain valid (85% not found on Waterloo's or OUAC's pages; the conditions are listed in each offer).
Unconfirmed

Adjustment factor

Waterloo's admissions FAQ states that it applies an adjustment factor based on historical performance from a given school: first-year university averages minus final high school averages, measured over the past six or more years.

09

What the university hasn't published

  • Enrolment: not published
  • Minimum average: no published cutoff

10

Where sources disagree

  • Waterloo Engineering online interview: required or "strongly recommended"?

    unresolved

    • University of Waterloo (Engineering FAQ; AIF page)

      "The Admission Information Form and online Engineering interview are mandatory parts of an application to all Engineering programs (excluding Architecture)." / AIF page: "Online video interview (required for admission)"

    • OUInfo (Waterloo Engineering program pages)

      "NEW: All Engineering program applications require an online video interview." and, on the same page, "An online video interview is required for Faculty scholarships and strongly recommended for admission."

    Treat the interview as required (Waterloo's own pages).

  • Waterloo Engineering: when admission decisions start

    unresolved

    • Waterloo Engineering FAQ

      "The Engineering Admissions Committee will start to make admission decisions in December." "Only a small number of decisions will be made in December." "All decisions will be finalized by mid-May."

    • Waterloo offer-timing page

      "The faculties of Engineering and Mathematics will send offers of admission starting in January and ending in May."

    • OUInfo Waterloo Engineering pages

      "…make admission decisions beginning in February and ending in May."

  • PDF says Rotman's video is "strongly recommended"; elsewhere it is required

    unresolved

    • PDF p.15 (Waterloo supplementary section)

      Both are "required for admission" according to Waterloo's own language. This is not a "strongly recommended" situation like Rotman's video.

    • PDF p.10 (Rotman reference)

      It includes a written component plus a required asynchronous video interview.

    • Rotman Commerce — Our Supplemental Application

      "The application includes short written and video responses which give us the opportunity to get to know you better." (the Supplemental Application is required of every applicant)

    No official Rotman page checked calls the video "strongly recommended" (that phrase is OUInfo's wording for Waterloo's interview — see K01). Found while building programs.json; the PDF text was not changed.

  • PDF: "Waterloo is the only one … that explicitly disclaims an early-round advantage"

    unresolved

    • PDF p.21 (editorial)

      Waterloo is the only one of these three — and of the eight programs covered across both research documents — that explicitly disclaims an early-round advantage.

    • PDF p.110 (Queen's BHSc)

      Decisions communicated by mid-May. Submitting early does not get you an offer earlier — Queen's states this explicitly.

    • PDF p.51 (McMaster Engineering)

      McMaster explicitly states that submitting early may allow your application to be reviewed sooner but does not guarantee an earlier offer.

    Waterloo's statement is about having no early-consideration deadline; Queen's and McMaster say early submission does not guarantee an earlier offer. The "only one" wording may overstate the difference. Found while building programs.json; not changed in the PDF.

  • PDF: "Rotman is the only one of our five with a real fallback"

    unresolved

    • PDF p.73–74 (editorial)

      THE ALTERNATIVE OFFER — Rotman is the only one of our five with a real fallback … it is the only built-in safety net across the five programs.

    • PDF p.22

      Waterloo has a limited safety-net system … one alternate Engineering program if rejected from their first choice (Engineering Program Alternate Choice form).

    • PDF p.36 (U of T Engineering)

      Applicants rank at least 2 and up to 4 Engineering programs within the same OSP. This creates a built-in safety-net system.

    • PDF p.52 (McMaster Engineering)

      Fall 2027 change: applicants rank up to two choices (a program or the Discovery Track)

    The comparison on p.74 lists only Queen's, Western and McMaster; the Engineering programs covered earlier in the same document do have application-time alternates. Found while building programs.json; not changed in the PDF.

11

Sources

Dates and codes checked 2026-09-15/2026-09-17.

Cited on this page