How Ontario universities actually calculate your admission average

Updated August 22, 2026

Six Grade 12 U or M courses, averaged — but the six are not simply your best six. Each program's required courses go in first, even when they are your worst marks, and the rest of the six fill from your best remaining. That is why the same transcript produces a different average at every program you apply to.

The rule everyone knows, and the part they miss

Ontario universities admit on six Grade 12 U or M courses. That much is true at every campus. What people miss is that the six are chosen by the program, not by you. Every program names required courses — ENG4U almost always, MCV4U for most engineering and commerce, SCH4U and SBI4U for life sciences — and those go into your six first, whatever marks you got in them. Your best remaining courses fill the rest.

So a student with a 94 in Philosophy and a 78 in Calculus does not get to swap Philosophy in for Calculus when applying to engineering. Calculus is in. Philosophy is in only if it is among the best of what is left.

A worked example

Suppose your Grade 12 marks are:

Your plain top six

Best six of seven: drop the 76. Average of 94, 92, 88, 84, 81, 79 = 86.3. This is the number most students carry around in their head.

The same transcript, for an engineering program

Required: ENG4U, MHF4U, MCV4U, SCH4U, SPH4U. Those five go in regardless. One slot left, filled by your best remaining mark, the 94. Average of 81, 88, 76, 84, 79, 94 = 83.7. The 92 in Visual Arts never counts. Your average just dropped 2.6 points without a single mark changing.

The same transcript, for a BA in Philosophy

Required: ENG4U only. Five slots filled by your best: 94, 92, 88, 84, 79. Average of 81 and those = 86.3 — the plain top six, because English was already in it.

Try it with your own marks

Enter your courses and it computes the average for every one of the 1,618 programs, each one’s way, and shows which you are in range for. Required courses are forced in automatically.

What else changes the number

1. 1
   Repeated courses. The OUAC sends every attempt. Which one a university uses is its own policy — most take the higher mark, one takes the most recent, a few average them or look at repeats case by case. Every university’s repeat policy.
2. 2
   Courses in progress. A first-semester course has a final mark by February. A second-semester course has a midterm by April and a final in July. Early decisions are made on what exists at the time; final decisions wait for finals. If a required course is second-semester, the university may extend a conditional offer on your Grade 11 mark in the equivalent course. Do Grade 11 marks matter?
3. 3
   Where you took it. Night school, summer school and online credits count the same as day school at most universities, provided the school is Ministry-inspected. The full answer.
4. 4
   Seven or eight courses. Taking more than six does not hurt you. Only six count, and extra courses just give the program more to choose from. It only backfires if a required course is weak, because that one is in regardless.

What a published range actually means

A program that publishes “80–85%” is telling you the range its admitted students’ averages usually fall in. It is not a cutoff, and it is not a promise. Two things push the real bar above it: the program is limited enrolment — more qualified applicants than seats, so they take the top of the pile — or it is marked admission by selection, which means they are weighing something beyond the average. Both flags are on every program page here.

And on the campuses that publish a minimum rather than a range — Windsor, Lakehead, Nipissing, Trent — the minimum is the lowest average you can apply with, not what gets you in. Nipissing says it on its own listing: “Min. 70%. The admission average in 2026 was mid 80s.” Read the program page before you trust the headline number.

Which courses gate the most programs

ENG4U is required by 1,525 programs — nearly every one. MCV4U by 611. The full list, and what stays open to you without each course, is on the prerequisite pages. If you are choosing Grade 12 courses right now, that is the page to read first.