How Ontario universities calculate your top 6 average

McMaster calculates its admission average using the best six Grade 12 U or M grades, including all required subjects. Guelph uses your top six completed 4U/M (Grade 12 university or university and college preparation) courses, including required courses. Laurier bases admission on your top six 4U and 4M courses and includes the required ones. Nipissing uses the best six 4U/M marks including prerequisite courses. Lakehead calculates on the top six Grade 12 U or M courses, and Laurentian on your best six Grade 12 U or M courses plus the required ones.

Waterloo and Western say the same thing without the words top six. Waterloo: it does not weigh courses differently, but it will always include the courses required for admission in your average, then use your remaining courses with the highest grades. Western: your grades in the required courses for your program, plus your highest other Grade 12 grades.

In practice this means a required course you did badly in cannot be pushed out of the six by a better elective. That is the rule that surprises people.

TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University) says its overall average is calculated using the marks in your best six Grade 12 U or M courses, which may include repeated or upgraded marks, and that the overall average may or may not include the prerequisite courses. You still need the prerequisites, and TMU says the marks in them must be competitive on their own.

Trent says that for most programs it calculates on your best six 4U/M (Grade 12 university or university and college preparation) courses, which means it may not necessarily include a prerequisite in the calculation; its Nursing and some science programs use the required courses plus your next best.

At these two schools a weak prerequisite does not drag your average down, but it can still keep you out if it is below the program's minimum for that course.

Queen's calculates the final average on your offer using final grades in six 4U/4M (Grade 12 university or university and college preparation) courses, five for Engineering, including the program's required courses, and you must reach the minimum average in your offer by June 30. Course-specific minimums are due by August 1.

The University of Ottawa changes the formula by round. Its first round, from mid-November, uses your best five final grades across Grade 11 and Grade 12 (3U/3M and 4U/4M), with at least one math and two sciences counted for programs that require them. By its third round, from mid-May, the average is six Grade 12 grades including the prerequisites.

The University of Toronto, York, Ontario Tech, Windsor, Algoma, OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design University) and the Université de l'Ontario français state only the requirement: six 4U (Grade 12 university preparation) or 4M (university and college preparation) courses including English, plus the program's prerequisites, and often a minimum such as 70%. None of them prints how the six are chosen.

Toronto adds that it reserves the right to take repeated courses into account. OCAD says offers rest primarily on the portfolio or writing sample, with the 70% average as the academic floor. Ontario Tech says students are selected on a wide range of criteria including marks and the distribution of courses.

We could not read Carleton's pages (down for maintenance on 21 October 2026), Brock's (its site refused our request) or Hearst's (a certificate problem), so their rules are not quoted here. Carleton's admissions site answered when we tried again on 30 October 2026 but prints no formula; Carleton's calendar gives a 70% overall minimum and says the required average is set each year program by program.

Repeats: Waterloo, Western, Guelph, Trent, Lakehead, Nipissing and Ontario Tech use the highest attempt. McMaster uses the highest mark for up to two repeated courses and may ask for a letter beyond that. Laurier's Science and business programs use a weighted average of the first and latest attempt for required courses only. No Ontario-wide rule exists; each school sets its own.

Rounding: McMaster and TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University) calculate to two decimal places and do not round up; Laurier says it does not round up either. An 84.99 is not an 85.

Co-op courses are never counted at Toronto, McMaster, Western, Guelph or Nipissing, and no school says it counts them. Minimum English marks exist at some schools: Laurier and Trent ask for at least 60% in Grade 12 university English (ENG4U), OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design University) at least 70%, and Western at least 70% in every required course.

Suppose you are applying to an engineering program that requires Grade 12 university English (ENG4U), Advanced Functions (MHF4U), Calculus and Vectors (MCV4U), Chemistry (SCH4U) and Physics (SPH4U), and your marks are: English 84, Advanced Functions 91, Calculus 78, Chemistry 88, Physics 82, Economics 95 and Biology 93.

At a school that always counts the required courses, your six are the five required plus Economics: 84, 91, 78, 88, 82 and 95, which average 86.3. Calculus at 78 stays in because it is required, and Biology at 93 is left out because there is only room for one more.

At a school whose best six may exclude prerequisites, the six are your six highest: 95, 93, 91, 88, 84 and 82, which average 88.8. Same marks, 2.5 points apart. That is why the same student can be in range at one school and just under at another, and why a required course is the worst place to coast.