What average do you need for university in Ontario?

Updated August 25, 2026

It depends on the program far more than the university. The median published floor across Ontario is in the low 70s, a mid-70s average clears most programs' floors, and the famous 90s bar is real but guards a small slice of the province. The full distribution — computed from every published range, not estimated — is below, with the tools to turn it into your answer.

The short answer, from the numbers

There is no single admission average for “university in Ontario” — there are 1,572 published ones, one per program, and they run from open admission to the high 90s. The honest summary of that distribution: the median published floor is 73%, a mid-70s average clears the floor of 65% of ranged programs, and the famous 90s bar guards 142 programs — real, but a small slice of the province.

What each average opens

Floors, not offers: the counts below are programs whose published range starts at or below each average. Clearing a floor makes you an applicant in range, not an admit — and 40 programs say outright that admission is by selection, meaning the real bar sits above the printed one.

Two things the table hides. First, the biggest single band in Ontario is 70–74: 821 programs start there, which is why the median lands at 73. Second, the 42 floors below 70 are almost all one campus — 41 of them are Algoma, which runs closer to open access. Low floors are a real path in, but they are concentrated, not spread across the province.

Where the bar is actually highest

The top of the market, by the universities’ own published ranges: Computer Science (regular and co-op) at U of T (Scarborough) (93–100%), Business Administration (BBA) + Computer Science (BCS), University of Waterloo at Laurier (Waterloo) (93–97%), Health Sciences at Queen's (93–97%), Honours Medical Radiation Sciences at McMaster (93–97%). Ranges like these describe the students who got in last cycle — in the low-to-mid 90s the offer really does track the average, because there is little else left to separate files.

A published minimum is not the bar

Windsor, Lakehead, Nipissing, Trent and Algoma print minimums — the lowest average they will consider, not the average that gets in. Windsor lists nursing at 70% while its own nursing page recommends an 85% average for the top 6. When a listing says “minimum”, go to the program page and look for the university’s statement of the real average — several print it.

Getting your answer, not the province’s

1. 1
   Type your top 6 into the calculator — it computes your average each program’s way (some force required courses in) and shows where you stand against all 1,613 programs at once.
2. 2
   Browse the full list filtered to your subject, and read the wording on anything you like: “admission is by selection” and a supplementary application both mean the number alone won’t decide it.
3. 3
   For each university you’re considering, its acceptance-rate page ranks its programs by their published bar — every campus’s version is here.
4. 4
   Then check what the university does around the average — repeated courses, summer school, Grade 11 marks — on its campus page. Two students with the same 86 can be scored differently.