In Canada most provinces have their own application portals, for example, the province of Ontario has the OUAC (Ontario Universities’ Application Centre), and the province of British Columbia has the Education Planner BC. Some universities also have individual application portals.

It can always be more beneficial to apply through provincial application portals. For example, applying through the OUAC means you can use one application to apply to several programs within a single university or even different universities within Ontario. 

Components of the application on portals

1. Personal information: This section of the application will require you to submit information like your legal first and last names, gender, date of birth and citizenship.
2. Contact information: You will have to present their primary email id, home address and telephone numbers.
3. Academic background: You will need to arrange notarized copies of your postsecondary (12th grade) and secondary (10th grade) school transcripts, along with your English Language Proficiency scores. These documents may need to be mailed or uploaded according to the requirements of the respective universities.
4. Program choices: Through the OUAC portal you can apply to any number of universities; however, you are limited to 3 programs at the most in any university. The number of programs you can apply to may differ on each portal. After selecting the programs and being satisfied with your choices, you can proceed to rank your choices, with “1” being your highest preference.
5. Activities and employment: You have the opportunity to list activities like your hobbies, sports, travel, volunteering and more. You can also enlist all your work experience; part-time or full-time that you may have had prior to the application.
6. Fees: The base application fee for using the portals is around 160 CAD (Approx. 8000 INR). 

University-specific components of the application

Essays, interviews and letters of recommendations are specific to universities.

• Essays: They may be in a typical essay format or in the form of a questionnaire. You are usually expected to answer questions such as: Why do you want to study at the university? What qualities make you the perfect candidate? And more.
• Interviews: They may include behavioural questions that may or may not be situation-specific. An example of a situation-specific behavioural question is- What steps of action would you take if you saw your friend cheat during an important exam?
• Letters of recommendations: They are typically authored by a former teacher or employer. They include content that verifies your capabilities and deem you a suitable candidate for application to the university. 

Certain universities may ask for all, some or neither of these three components. For example, the University of Waterloo requires students to submit only an essay, has optional interviews, and letters of recommendation are not mandatory. 

Applying to a university is not as complicated as you may think. Just pay attention to a few details and prepare all necessary documents. Our counselors at UniRely can help you with your application process. Visit unirely.com to get more information about the process of applying to universities in Canada for an undergraduate degree.