This page is most focused on my experiences in Civil Engineering, including what I have heard from people in the department and faculty. However, the points are generally true for all disciplines.

Applying to U of T Engineering

High-school students and parents tend to overthink university applications. They are much like job applications, but for the cohort of students to be admitted by U of T's respective departments. Much like for any job application, students are not just chosen based on their apparent intelligence. Other factors will impact their assessment of you as well.

Between 2023 and 2026, U of T Engineering has become slightly more competitive due to an above-average proportion of accepted students accepting their offers and going to U of T, without an increase in provincially-funded seats (The Ontario government funds 25% of tuition for Ontario (possibly all domestic) students up to a specified limit for each program). There appears to be an incoming increase in this limit, though I am unaware of how many new seats Engineering is getting.

Grades

Standardized tests are not really a thing in Canada. As a result, high school grades are the primary measure of acaedmic achievement. Only the five prerequisite courses count for admission decisions, as well as their 11th-grade prerequisites. AP scores may be submitted but do not have much of an impact (if at all). According to the Faculty, the following grade ranges are where you will start to be competitive for your chosen program:

-Electrical, Computer, EngSci: Low to mid 90s -All other programs: High 80s to low 90s

The above is based on historical data and may be subject to change if the demand for any program changes or new provincially-funded seats are added. If you achieve these grades, you have a shot of getting in. This is by no means a guarantee. Higher grades will help you but will not necessarily guarantee your admission (although for less competitive programs your admission is very likely with particularly high grades).

Applying on OUAC

You should be able to log in to the Ontario Universities' Application Centre (OUAC) by the end of September. There, you can pick your programs to apply to. U of T's engineering departments care a lot about where their program is ranked among other U of T engineering programs. I have not confirmed if this is true of OUAC ranking as well, but most students believe it does matter for U of T admissions (unlike for the University of Waterloo).

Applicants will need to pay $150 for up to 3 OUAC applications to each university, and an additional $50 for each additional program. If you apply to too many programs, you may pay a lot for it. If you apply to too few, you may be out of options in case of a rejection. Some schools may limit the different programs you apply to (e.g. U of T only allows you to apply to 1 program per faculty). You can apply to any engineering program you want as your first choice, you can determine your top 4 choices on the supplemental application (this includes changing your first choice) later.

OUAC applications for early consideration are typically due in early November, and for regular consideration in mid-January (check for the real dates). Early consideration gives you another opportunity to get in which may or may not increase your chance of being accepted (a Feb. round in addition to March and May).

The supplemental application

Around a week after your OUAC submission, you'll get an e-mail giving you access to the supplemental application. You can submit any AP test scores here, but most important are the extracurriculars and personal profile (interview).

This is the part that feels most like a job application. You are looking to convince your department (which only runs one or two undergraduate programs) that you belong in their program. As a Civil Engineering applicant, the best application would be one that convinces someone that you belong in U of T Civil Engineering. All three parts of that are important, otherwise they may think you prefer another university or another engineering program (you might even try transferring out). When you are doing your supplemental application, think about how you can convince the department of this.

When attempting to convince the department of this, avoid praising U of T too much. The University knows how good it is and they know students want to come here because of that. Why do you want to come to U of T? Perhaps there are things about a program, the co-op, research opportunities, specific student groups, and other things it would be hard to find anywhere else. That will allow you to more easily talk more about yourself and convince the department you would not like the University of Waterloo more.

You will be able to rank your top four engineering programs here. If you select alternate choices, consider how you might convince your alternate program choices that you are worth accepting despite them being your second, third, or fourth choice. Deferrals will happen, and sometimes different departments will view an applicant differently. You can get deferred from Mechanical to Electrical, or from Electrical to Mechanical.

Any skills you may benefit from as an engineering student or engineer may help as well. Time management, general group work skills, and problem-solving abiliies are all very valuable. If you can demonstrate these through your extracurricular activities, you will look more ready for engineering (think about how you can use them well, rather than just blandly listing off experiences).

Don't overthink it. Most students I know at U of T Engineering did not have extracurricular activities directly related to their field of study before university. This may be more common in Electrical, Computer, and Mechanical Engineering which benefit from robotics and programming competitions, but not everyone will have these.

Extracurricular activities

Most of this section is rather simple: List out your extracurricular activities, how many hours they required, write a short description. It is good to note what you did here. Elaboration on how your activities impacted you will occur in a 250-word written response at the bottom of the extracurriculars list. Here, you will be able to reflect on your extracurricular activities and what you have gained from them. It is also an opportunity to show how what you gained from them can benefit you as a prospective student.

Think about what might benefit you as a student or engineer. Perhaps read my other advice to understand where engineers and engineering students might struggle. What have you gained from your activities that will help you there? Notice my emphasis on skills, both soft and hard: Those are what is truly valuable from your extracurricular activities. Make sure those are present in your 250-word reflection.

A common pitfall among smart high-school students is to assume your position, or a test score, matters a lot. High-school clubs are good but very common. Without a showcase of your own personal strengths it does not stand out. Same applies to math competition scores: Everyone in the program can do math, almost everyone struggles most in the group design courses. If math competitions were a big part of your story, think about what you learned from them or how you may have been involved beyond just a high school club.

Personal Profile (Interview)

Previously, there was a written response question here. This has been replaced by another oral-response question. I suspect an increase in AI use for this one was the primary culprit. I have heard rumours that this interview only exists to test your English speaking skills, these rumours are likely not true.

The personal profile is a pre-recorded interview with three questions: Two personal and one thinking. Each question will give you two or three minutes to respond orally to the prompt. Your responses will be recorded to be assessed later by the department. The personal questions are (from my recollection) what you might expect from an interview.

If you are asked about why you chose U of T (or how something made you choose U of T), I strongly recommend using your own personal reasons rather than things people might already know about U of T (e.g. "#1 Engineering School in Canada", PEY program). Perhaps you might prefer longer co-ops for your own reasons or you want to spend your university years in Toronto (instead of somewhere else), that is something that applies more to you rather than just what makes U of T a good school. For the personal questions, think about your place in your engineering program. Why Engineering? Why this engineering discipline? Why U of T? All three are important in showing you value your preferred or alternate program choices.

Ths "thinking" question will look at your problem-solving ability. While it varies every year, it always relates to the earlier stages of the engineering design process, which you learn about in Praxis or Engineering Strategies & Practice. Think about how engineers approach a problem. Perhaps you should learn a bit more about the design process for this (judging by how many students struggle in these courses, it appears most students don't do this).

Practicing will never hurt. For later job interviews, I found myself getting better with every interview I did. Much of that came down to knowing roughly what questions they will ask. It is good to try figuring that out, although unfortunately I don't remember my personal questions. I know I searched up potential interview questions. I'm not sure if this is still a good way to prep (ChatGPT was very new at the time of my interview, and I don't know if it could give you good questions, or pollute the internet with bad ones).

Preparing in advance

It is good to start looking toward your application early if you can. Don't stress too much, but consider how you can get more into engineering while balancing your need for sufficiently high grades.

Well before you apply, think about how to get the right skills and knowledge outside the classroom and think about how to stand out. Pretty much any role can be done well, even the club roles most students would have. The focus is not on what you do, but what skills you gain from and showcase through it. You sound much better when you can show good leadership through your actions (perhaps you'll come help our clubs and design teams). The similarity between math competitions and tests (similar skills required) are why I think math competitions are overrated if you don't do more than the contest itself.

My emphasis on skills is why I think extracurricular activities unrelated to engineering are still very good. However, extracurriculars related to engineering are still a very good idea. Hi-Skule often runs events for high school students, although I find their design competitions tend to be geared toward electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering more than other disciplines. Keep in mind (especially in electrical, computer, and mechanical) that robotics or hackathon participation, while great for building skills, does not make you stand out alone as too many people are doing it.

Finally, make sure your grades are still good. High school grades matter too much, and as a result you will need to spend a lot of time getting them. Good extracurricular activities will not save you if you are below the "low to mid 90s" required for the most competitive programs, and even at that point you'll probably need a really good supplemental application or better grades. U of T engineering will take Grade 11 grades into onsideration even when your Grade 12 marks are available (they don't want your Grade 12 to seem like a fluke). Don't worry if you took summer school or night courses, I have been told they do not really care if you took those (much to my surprise).

Submission and Offers

Once you are done your supplemental application, you can stop worrying about your university application. Check on it every so often, but don't stress too much about it. You have grades to maintain and committments to honour, those are a better use of your time and energy.

There are three admission rounds for domestic students: February (for early applications), March, and May. Each round, departments reviewing your application can make a decision (including deferral - those have occurred early before though this is rare) or decide to wait until the next round. Typically, acceptances occur around the same time. Don't assume a round has occurred until someone you trust has gotten an offer: Social media simply has too much trolling to be trustworthy.

If you get an offer, congratulations! Perhaps it's time to start thinking about first year. Make sure you have some alternate options to avoid serious problems if you do not get an offer. You will probably need to maintain an 80% or 85% average, including your sixth course.

Common Pitfalls

Don't look at Reddit too much. While social media is can be a great way to connect with existing students, it is also easy to get fooled there, especially on Reddit. People troll on the university/application subreddits regularly, and on OntarioGrade12s I can name some existing students who troll on those subreddits. Take any statements there with a grain of salt, and wait for a trustworthy source (e.g. the applicant portal) before jumping to conclusions.

Math competitions are great, but too many students assume they matter a lot more than they actually do (...). Your score will not save you unless you do so well as to stand out (even in waterloo math where they actually count, this appears to be the case), and I have found no evidence that they're better for engineering than any other extracurricular activity. If you gained valuable skills from them, those will likely help you much more (especially if you contributed well to a school club or organization running them and can showcase your skills that way).

Volunteer hours are great, but "I have 90 volunteer hours" does not tell me much about what you actually did. As part of this odd push toward volunteer hours-maxxing, I have seen plenty of non-profit organizations spring up (I think they only got that designation to make getting volunteer hours easier) despite how difficult those are to run. Volunteer hours are a good way to get high school students to get skills well before university, but it's the skills they gained and showcased that will likely matter more unless they devoted a ton of time to a cause they are deeply passionate about (that would make you stand out).

Don't overthink it. Admissions officers are human. Their decisions have flaws and there is no equation that can predict whether they'll be satisfied. I have seen public crash-outs from people getting rejected result in them getting rejected from their alternate programs as well. Admissions officers also aren't necessarily looking for the smartest student, or even the one who might succeed on their own. Engineers are collaborative, and groups who work well together may be greater than the sum of their parts. In APS100, the faculty cites research on how diverse teams lead to better results to justify accepting a more diverse, gender-balanced pool of students. Whether or not this is the right way to think, it is clear that U of T is not necessarily looking for what you might think it is looking for. I hope I've explored that properly.

Looking toward first year

I am currently working on a more specific guide to first year. For now, you can read my other advice pages.

Last updated: 10/15/2026