When guidance transmits profile information to OUAC and OCAS, the schools are able to see all the classes you are enrolled in for the 2024/25 school year as well as all of our completed courses. They may make decisions based on your grades after first semester and may use grade 11 marks to fill any gaps. Schools continue to consider your application until they receive your semester 2 midterm marks.
For students graduating in 2024 or 2025, the requirement is that at least 40 Community Service hours be completed and evidence be submitted. These must be completed to earn your OSSD. If you do not complete them, you do not graduate.
In June, the AIS (Academic Information System) will make available information about all the Ontario university programs that still have available spaces. These programs are on a first-come-first-served basis. College program availability are shown on the Ontario Colleges website and can be applied to at any time before September 2025.
Part of the process in becoming a certified teacher (concurrent/consecutive programs) is to complete practicum/in field experiences. Feel free to stop by Guidance if you need more information.
Returning to BHSS for a fifth year is decided on a case by case basis. Book an appointment with your counsellor to discuss what this might look like if you think this is the best option for you.
You can create your account and begin applying to college programs in October.
When guidance transmits profile information to OUAC and OCAS, the schools are able to see all the classes you are enrolled in for the 2024/25 school year as well as all of your completed courses. They may make decisions based on your grades after first semester and may use grade 11 marks to fill in any gaps. Schools continue to consider your application until they receive your semester 2 midterm marks.
Please visit the OUInfo website to research specific degree programs. You can research information about all diploma and certificate programs on the Ontario Colleges website as well.
Majors are primary fields of study, and minor are secondary concentrations that may or may not be related to your major. The difference is the number of courses in a particular area of study. Majors typically require 7+ full-year-equivalent courses in a particular area of study while minors require less than 5. You do not need to declare a major and/or this may done after you begin with your degree. If you are interested in having a minor area of study, you should connect with your Academic Advisor at your post secondary institution. Please Note: Not all programs or subject areas are allowed to be minors. Please connect with your post secondary school to confirm.
My Pathway Planner is a great resources to research potential career opportunities. Most program descriptions online will also provide insight into the types of careers that your program would prepare you for.
You can not apply for early admission. All students are eligible to receive early conditional offers of acceptance once they submit their application. All students marks are submitted by Guidance at specific points in the year, regardless of when you choose to apply.
The year of completion is not considered. Your top 6 U/M level marks (including any program prerequisites) will be used by schools to make admission decisions.
All post-secondary institutions have access to your grade 11 marks. Some may use these marks to make early conditional offers of acceptance using these marks as a proxy for your grade 12 marks. Most programs prefer to have your grade 12 marks as they are the best evidence of your current achievement. Some programs will not consider your grade 11 marks at all.
A trusted site to find scholarships is Scholarships Canada. Each school will also have scholarship information, including entrance scholarships, available through their Financial Aid Office. Be sure to ask your parent/guardian to ask at their workplace if they make any scholarships available for children of employees.
If you decide to apply to university after a gap year, you will still apply through OUAC using the same application process.
Many schools consider all courses taken at accredited schools equally. Some schools/programs may apply an academic penalty to any grades achieved outside of regular day school (ex. summer or private school). Check the admission policy for programs you are interested in to determine their position.
Postsecondary institutions will se that you are projected to complete the course and will consider your application. They may use your grade 11 version of the prerequisite course as a proxy to make an early offer. If the program does not extend early offers, they will wait on the semester 2 midterm mark for the course.
You will need to research the application process for non-OUAC schools. Guidance can help provide you with any required documentation but you are required to meet the specified deadlines.
All of your grades from high school are included on your transcript.
Only your final grades are included on your transcript. Guidance transmits midterm marks to colleges and university to provide them the required information to make admission decisions.
Each program's requirements are different. They may consider a College Applicant different than a High School Applicant. Please connect directly with them to confirm.
All courses taken through day school (BHSS or SVS) are looked at equally. Schools are not able to determine if they were completed face-to-face or through SVS. They may treat courses taken at private schools, night school or summer school differently.
SAT dates are rolling and occur at various times. You will need to check the College Board website to determine when opportunities to complete the SATs are available to you. You only complete SATs if you are applying to a school in the United States.
You can not apply for early admission. All students are eligible to receive early conditional offers of acceptance once they submit their application.
Yes, successful completion of the OSSLT requirement must be met.
You can not be rejected early. You are considered for admission until semester 2 midterm mark are received. In May 2025, every program you apply to will give a final response: a conditional acceptance, a waitlist offer, or a rejection.
You can apply to a maximum of 3 programs per university.
Your OUAC number is your unique identifier that schools will use to access your information. All of your grade and profile information is linked to your OUAC number.
Many programs make admission decisions based only on grades. Some programs like nursing have co-requisites like the CaSPR test and others require a supplemental application. The descriptions of each program online will describe their admission criteria. If a supplementary application is required, your admission will be based on your grades and your performance in the supplementary application.
Majors are primary fields of study, and minors are secondary concentrations that may or may not be related to your major. The difference is the number of courses in a particular area of study. Majors typically require 7+ full-year-equivalent courses in a particular area of study while minors usually require less than 5. Decisions to pursue a specialist, major, or minor usually occur after you begin university.
You are able to speak about the skills you learned and experiences you have had while completing SHSM when you complete any supplemental applications that a program may have.
Programs that have co-requisites will not offer early acceptances.
Yes. OCAS is the Ontario College Application Service for applying to degree, diploma and certificate programs at Ontario colleges. OUAC is the Ontario University Application Centre for applying to degree programs at Ontario Universities.
You are responsible for completing out of province applications yourself. Guidance is available to support you and help you understand the process. Ex. sending required information to the school if you request it.
Transcripts are updated with your final grade when you complete a course. We upload data about your progress in courses after midterms and finals.
For in province school, you have to make a decision by June 1, 2025. For an out of province school, you will need to respond by their specified date. In-province and out of province schools do not communicate with each other so you could technically accept an offer from one province while waiting for a decision from another province.
The initial $156 fee allows you to apply to 3 programs of your choice. They may be at the same or different schools. Each additional program you apply to requires an additional $50 fee. You can apply to a maximum of three programs at any one school.
Guidance will submit all your information to OUAC. We will send initial profile data including courses you have signed up for this year and your grade 11 marks. At each reporting period (midterm and final) we will send new updated data.
Schools can begin to make offers at any point after you submit your application. Early offers could be to the program you applied to or they may be to a related program at the school.
McGill does require you apply to them directly but they are able to access your grades through OUAC if you apply to an Ontario program. You will need to provide McGill with your unique OUAC reference number for them to access your academic history.
Out-of-province schools may have their own criteria and deadlines. It is your responsibility to research those requirements and to contact guidance well in advance if you need support in completing their application process.
You can review your report cards to see all your past marks. If you don't have access to those, come by guidance and ask Mrs. Steffan for you Credit Counselling Summary (CCS) that shows all your past courses and marks achieved. MyPathwayPlanner should be reactivated shortly to show your academic history if it doesn't already.
Continuing to contribute to your community is always a great idea! Some scholarships use aspects of your Community Hours as criteria for their awards.
You are able to speak about the skills you learned and experiences you have had while completing your Community Hours when you complete any supplemental applications that a program may have. Some scholarships also use aspects of your Community Hours as criteria for their awards.
Supplemental applications are program, not school, specific. The majority of degree programs do not have supplemental applications. Their decisions are based entirely on your academic average in your top 6 grade 12 U/M courses.
You can book an appointment with your alpha counsellor at any time to talk about your pathway plans.
If a program offers an optional supplemental application, we certainly recommend completing it as it has the possibility of providing more information about you to the school for their decision making process. Completed supplementals showcase your skills and experiences beyond your grades and can only improve your overall profile.
University: All applications submitted before the published deadline (January 15 in 2021) will have equal consideration.
(NOTE: U of T Commerce and Computer Science shared last year that they prefer applications by early Dec. This is rare. If guidance hears this messaging from any school, we will let you know.)
College: All applications submitted before the published deadline (February 1 in 2021) will have equal consideration, but applications are reviewed as soon as they are received. Acceptances can go out starting February 1. Highly competitive programs will prefer earlier applications (e.g. Practical Nursing, Paramedicine) - consider applying in November for these programs.
Consider:
Don't wait until the last day or two to apply, the system can be overloaded and there may be problems.
Our advice is to have everything planned out before winter break so that you are organized and ready.
Also, you do not have to apply to all your programs at once. If you are sure of a program/university/college, go ahead and apply. You do not have to do them all at once.
Courses that were taken in Summer School are considered equal to all other courses for the vast majority of programs. Some select programs will penalize you for taking a course outside of day school.
Check with the Financial Aid office at the institution. They will be able to help you and give you information.
They will look at whichever courses are better for your “top 6 4U/4M courses”.
ENG4U/ENG4C is a prerequisite and cannot be replaced with FIF4UF, but French Immersion postsecondary programs often make an exception to this.
Check the university admissions page for details.
You can apply to as many universities as you like, but can only apply to a maximum of three programs within any university.
You can begin applying to Ontario universities when you receive your individual application PIN around the beginning of November.
You can begin applying to Ontario colleges in October by creating your own account.
Not at all. Schools do not know you have an IEP unless you share it. It is advisable for you to share it so that you can get the accommodations you require.
Sign up for Scholarships Canada. You will create a profile and they will funnel appropriate scholarships for you.
Once you know where you are applying, you need to look on the school’s website and apply for school-specific scholarships there. Feel free to contact the school’s Financial Aid Office for advice on bursaries and scholarships.
Guidance will be putting out a scholarship doc in the next couple of weeks, and will host a Scholarship Info Session in sem. 2. Guidance will share some helpful links in the classwork section in the meantime.
Yes. If you apply to a university outside of Ontario, check with the university and see if OUAC can help. Generally, you have to apply to the school directly.
If you drop it before the full disclosure date (Dec 15), it will vanish from your transcript. However, we are sending mid-term marks to OUAC/OCAS on Nov. 20. After we send mid-term marks, the next update sent to OUAC/OCAS is on Feb. 11, so a dropped course between Nov. 20 and Feb. 11 will remain on OUAC/OCAS.
Submit marks:
If the course is completed, make sure we have it by the first week of November (if you are worried about mid-term mark submission to OUAC/OCAS).
If it is not completed, we do not send private school mid-term marks to OUAC/OCAS, the private school can do that for you.
Once it is completed, make sure Guidance receives the official report card by the first week of February for our second round of mark submissions to OUAC/OCAS.
May 15th. You must have 40 hours (minimum). There is no exception to this.
Schools do not see the mark; they only see that it was completed successfully.
Registration for second semester night school courses usually begins in December. Where possible, these courses will be captured in our 2nd OUAC/OCAS transmission on Feb.11. If you register after, it will show up in the 3rd transmission in April.
It depends on the program.
It is common to make program switches. You will need to check with the school to see if they offer first-year courses to substitute the grade 12 pre-req. you are missing.
You can apply to programs in March, April, May. The difference with applying at these times is that the program reserves the right to penalize your application for applying after the ‘equal consideration’ date (Jan 15, 2021).
In early June, OUAC releases all the Ontario uni. programs that still have spots. You can apply to those.
Colleges continually accepts applications until programs are full. OCAS will post a red circle beside programs that are full and a green circle beside programs that have space/are still accepting applications.
You cannot get it back. It is gone.
Yes, but it depends on the program.
Often, you get into a general program and don’t choose your major until second year.
You will always be a candidate until you hear back on OUAC/OCAS. OCAS programs applied to by Feb. 1 will respond with a decision before May 1. OUAC programs will respond with a decision by May. 27.
Look at the Ontario Colleges and Ontario Universities Info for cutoffs and admission requirements. Compare that to your academic history/performance. You need to make an educated guess about what programs you want to apply to.
You must complete the sheet. There must be a supervisor sign off and contact info.
You can bring the sheet to Guidance. There are also blank sheets in Guidance if you need one.
You can have the supervisor send an email/letter confirming your hours and their contact info and attach that to the hardcopy.
Yes. These will count as two different applications. You get three (3) applications for $150. You can apply to more programs for $50 each.
Yes. Your marks will be sent this year. This does not mean you must apply.
For some universities, you can apply and then if you are accepted you can request a deferral. (Check with the school)
If you take a gap year, and want to apply after your gap year, your marks will not be sent (because you are not enrolled at BHSS).
If you apply after a gap year, you will apply to OUAC as a 105D applicant and on OCAS (colleges) you would apply as you normally would.
Yes. They look at prerequisite courses.
Yes.
They are looking for vision, passion, and program fit.
Consider:
What impact have you had?
How can you show your depth?
No. They will not look at these because they are not U/M.
80% or above.
Yes, both. This is the advantage - two credentials!
If the CASPer test requires your OUAC info., then you cannot complete it until you have received your PIN. All YRDSB schools will be distributing PINs at the same time. Remember, applying earlier for an OUAC program usually does not mean you are given preference.
Take a look at the university/college website and do some research about the application. Feel free to make a guidance appointment to double check your understanding of the process and to discuss how Guidance can support (e.g. sending transcripts, etc.)
Everyone is eligible to receive an early offer of admission - which is receiving an offer earlier than usual (between Dec. and Feb.). There is nothing that you need to do other than the regular application process.
Yes, your OUAC/OCAS applications are only sent to the programs you are applying to. When you apply, you are asked to rank your selection choices - some schools consider these rankings, other schools do not.
You do not apply for Specialist, Major, or Minor programs through OUAC. You are applying to faculties (departments that house multiple programs e.g. Social Science) or to specific programs. (e.g Chemical Engineering). Any decisions for selecting Minors or Majors at the school once you are in the program/faculty.