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Our dedicated admissions and financial advisors will help you through the application process by writing about admission requirements, financial matters, the application, events and visits, and everything in between.
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Some UBC degrees still accepting applications

By Crissy Campbell on February 28, 2024

Some UBC degrees still accepting applications

Although the deadline to apply for the 2024/25 Winter Session (September to April) has passed, certain UBC degrees are still accepting applications. If you’re planning to apply, you need to submit your application soon – unless a specific deadline is indicated, degrees will close their application without notice.

 

A flood of applications

As of February 26, 2024, the UBC Admissions office has received over 48,000 applications! If you’ve already applied, thank you for your submission. We’ve been busy answering your questions and making sure you’ll receive an email notifying you of which documents you need to submit. We’re eager to evaluate your application so we can send you a decision as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience as we work through all of the applications we’ve received.

 

What comes after applying?

Check the Admissions Blog routinely for timely posts about how to submit your documents, when we’ll send offers of admission, self-reporting, and other important admissions-related details.

 

 

You’ve applied to UBC. Now what?

By Crissy Campbell on February 27, 2024

You’ve applied to UBC. Now what?

Congratulations on completing your UBC application! You’re one giant step closer to joining our vibrant community of students and faculty from around the globe.

 

Submitting your documents

Tens of thousands of UBC applicants like you have begun – or will soon begin – submitting their documents. The UBC Admissions Office is doing its best to read everyone’s personal profile and transcript as carefully and quickly as possible. We’re swamped with incoming documents, but we’re working very hard to process each one and give you a considered and fair decision as soon as we can. It may take a while for us to acknowledge that we’ve received your documents, so thank you for bearing with us at this busy time.

 

To find out what documents you need to send to us, check your email for a message from UBC, or log in to the Applicant Service Centre.

 

Your admissions decision

Depending on the degree you applied to, the standard of your application, and when your grades become available, high school applicants can expect an admissions decision any time between the end of January and May and post-secondary transfer applicants can expect an admissions decision any time between February and late June. Be sure to check your application status often in the Applicant Service Centre under Admissions > Application Status.

If you’re itching to know what comes next in the admissions process, check out the video below:

 

 

Until you hear back from us, take this time to learn more about the degree that you applied to. This is also a great opportunity to envision your future at UBC and have your questions answered by joining a campus tour, attending an event for applicants, or taking part in an online info session.

 

 

What we look for when evaluating your application

By Crissy Campbell on February 6, 2024

What we look for when evaluating your application

Yay! You’ve completed your UBC application! It’s a huge accomplishment and brings you one step closer to reaching your university goals. Now you’re probably wondering what we look for when we’re evaluating your application.

UBC receives thousands of applications a year and, as much as we’d like to, we don’t have the space to admit everyone.

Our admissions process is competitive and comparative. It’s important to keep in mind that your application will be evaluated against all of the other applications we have received this year for the same degree.

 

First, do you meet the admission requirements?

 

The first thing we look at when evaluating your application is whether or not you meet UBC’s admission requirements. This includes:

General admission requirements

  • Have you graduated from high school?

English language requirements

Degree-specific requirements

  • Do you meet the specific requirements for the degree you’re applying to?
  • You may need to take certain high school courses, submit a portfolio or complete an interview depending on the degree you are applying to.

If you meet these admission requirements, we take a closer look at your application.

 

Next, we review your grades and course choices

 

The next step in your application evaluation is looking at your grades. We look at all of your Grade 11 (Junior level) and Grade 12 (Senior level) classes, paying special attention to courses that relate to the degree you’re applying to.

UBC also looks closely at which courses you chose to take in high school:

  • Did you pursue all of your academic interests by taking a range of different subjects?
  • Did you challenge yourself by taking academic courses, advanced courses, or first-year university courses?
  • Did you demonstrate knowledge in your chosen area of study by taking courses related to the degree you applied to at UBC?

 

Lastly, we look at your achievements beyond academics

 

After making sure that you meet the admission requirements and reviewing your grades and course choices, the last thing we look at is your personal profile – the essay questions in your online application.

We read your personal profile to get a sense of who you are, what you’ve overcome and what you’ve achieved. Your personal profile helps us to assess whether you’re prepared for university studies. It also helps us determine if you’re deserving of an entrance scholarship or award by telling us what you’ve learned about your experiences, your academic and extracurricular achievements, and your leadership qualities.

Learn more about how UBC evaluates your application

 

 

Good luck!

Update on first-round offers of admission

By Crissy Campbell on February 2, 2024

Update on first-round offers of admission

This year, we’ve received almost 10,000 applications from high school students who follow the Canadian curriculum and will be considered for a first-round offer of admission. That’s a lot of Personal Profiles to read! We’re already sending out first-round offers of admission and will continue to send them through to February 28. If you don’t receive an offer by February 28, don’t worry – no one will be refused admission during first-round offers of admission.

 

If I am not admitted by February 28, what do I do?

UBC is reviewing student applications every week. High school students who applied before the December 1 deadline will be admitted on different days as the weeks go by. All students who follow the Canadian curriculum and met the December 1 deadline will be considered for first-round offers of admission, and all of those offers will be finalized by February 28.

If you are not admitted by February 28, sit tight and follow the instructions we send you by email for additional grade information.

 

Can someone tell me if I’ll receive an offer?

If you contact our front-line team, they will not be able to tell you if you will be admitted. If you want to know what your current status is, have a look at the Applicant Service Centre (ASC). When you visit the ASC, you can learn about where your application is in the process by viewing your “Applicant Status.” The messaging on your applicant status will tell you if you have successfully submitted your application, list your dates and deadlines, and lay out your next steps.

If you have already been admitted, your applicant status will tell you that. If it does not say that you are admitted, check back after February 28. At that time, you’ll see new instructions that you must follow.

 

 

Tour UBC’s Okanagan and Vancouver campuses

By Crissy Campbell on January 31, 2024

Tour UBC’s Okanagan and Vancouver campuses

If you’ve submitted your application to UBC – congratulations! We’re looking forward to learning more about you.

While you wait for your admissions decision, you can get a head start on deciding whether UBC is the right place for you by joining us for a campus tour.

You can find lots of great info and photos about what it’s like to be a UBC student on Instagram and TikTok, but there’s really no substitute for connecting with some of our current students and having them share their knowledge and experiences with you. Our students are excited to show you their favourite spaces on campus, and to answer your questions about life and learning at UBC.

 

What to expect

We have two tour options at both of our UBC Okanagan and UBC Vancouver campuses – in-person campus tours and live virtual tours.

In-person campus tours

Visit us on campus and take a walking tour to get to know UBC. Tours are run by friendly student ambassadors who are excited to show you around campus.

UBC Okanagan tours last 90 minutes and UBC Vancouver tours run for 2 hours.

 

Live virtual campus tours

During your Zoom tour, you’ll learn more about UBC, see photos from some of our favourite spots at UBC Vancouver or UBC Okanagan, and hear from real students about their experiences in class, residence, and beyond.

UBC Okanagan tours last for 75 minutes, and UBC Vancouver tours run for 90 minutes.

 

Tour schedules

We offer tours for UBC Okanagan and UBC Vancouver on multiple days every week. You can find our most up-to-date schedules and discover how many spots are available by visiting the campus tours webpage.

 

How to register

To view all upcoming Okanagan and Vancouver tours, and to register, visit our Tours and Events page.

If you are Indigenous (a member of a First Nation, Métis, and/or Inuit community in Canada) and would like to register for an Indigenous campus tour or connect with an Indigenous advisor, please email our Indigenous campus tours team at indigenous.tours@ubc.ca.

 

Can’t make it to one of our in-person campus tours or a live virtual tour?

No problem! If you are unable to attend one of our in-person tours or one of our live virtual tours or you want to learn more about UBC at your own pace, you can also experience our two campuses by taking a self-guided virtual tour.

ubc, virtual, tour, Vancouver, Okanagan, campus, visit

 

Also, if you are in Kelowna and are unable to attend one of our scheduled in-person campus tours, the staff at the Student Recruitment desk (UNC222) in the University Centre would be happy to provide you with a Self-Guided Walking Tour handout for the Okanagan campus.

How UBC will keep in touch with you

By Crissy Campbell on January 8, 2024

How UBC will keep in touch with you

Do you wonder what happens after you submit your application?

After you submit your application, the Admissions Office reviews it and creates an electronic file for you. In a week or two, you’ll receive an email listing the additional information you need to submit in order to complete your application.

 

Check your email

Your email address is a crucial piece of information to submit with your online application. Please be sure to use an email address that you will be checking frequently. Also check your email provider’s spam filters so that UBC emails with important information are not being filtered out.

If your email provider mistakenly deleted something we sent you, you can also log in to the Applicant Service Centre and click on the Message Centre to see all the emails the Admissions Office has sent to you.

If you have any questions, contact us.

 

If you applied before December 1

We have started reading the personal profiles of everyone who submitted an application by December 1.

Successful Presidential Scholars Award candidates will be contacted in mid-April.

 

 

How to change the degree you applied to

By Crissy Campbell on November 21, 2023

How to change the degree you applied to

Updated: January 23, 2024

 

Have you had a change of heart? If you’ve applied to one degree, but decided you’d rather pursue a different one, here’s what you need to do.

 

How to change your degree

  1. Check the admissions requirements for your new degree choice and make sure you meet the criteria.
  2. Be absolutely sure you want to change your degree, because you may no longer be eligible for certain UBC awards. If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and you apply by December 1, 2023 December 15, 2023 (deadline extended), your first-choice degree will be considered for a Presidential Scholars Award if you select that option on the online application. If you are an international student and you apply by January 15, 2024 January 31, 2024 (deadline extended), your first-choice application will be automatically considered for an International Major Entrance Scholarship. For all students, your new first-choice application will not be considered for an award if you make a change after those dates.
  3. After you’ve thought through the above, you can submit the changes of your first-choice and second-choice applications until January 15, 2024 January 31, 2024. Be sure to include your full name and UBC reference number, and we will update your UBC application accordingly. Your application changes will not be updated if your request is made after January 15, 2024 after January 31, 2024.

Please submit your program change request here. You can use the same link to ask any questions you might have about changing your degree.

 

Please note:

And remember, you use the same UBC application to apply for degrees on both UBC campuses. Your first choice and second choice can be on the same campus or on two different campuses. January 15, 2024 January 31, 2024 is the deadline for submitting your application, and the deadline for changing the program you’re applying to.

 

 

You’re invited to You at UBC

By Crissy Campbell on March 15, 2022

You’re invited to You at UBC

If you’re an international student or Canadian living abroad and you’ve applied to either of UBC’s campuses, you’re invited to You at UBC!

 

What is You at UBC?

You at UBC is a series of events and on-demand content that will help prepare you for your next steps in your journey to one of the world’s top 40 universities.

You’ll enjoy comprehensive suite of video presentation sessions, live chat, zoom advising, and resources to help you learn more about UBC. We’ll review all the essential to-dos after you apply, such as submitting documents, finding housing, preparing for your degree program, getting involved with student life, and planning your finances. You’ll also learn about getting your health insurance and study permit, and how to apply to work opportunities.

Over the course of the events, you’ll get the insider perspective as you hear directly from your advisors and current UBC students, and start building your community early by connecting with your new classmates.

We’re also giving away more swag than ever before!

 

Dates and schedules

From March 2 until late May, we’ll be going live and unveiling new ways to engage and connect with your UBC community. Take a look at the agenda and save the dates to ensure you don’t miss out on asking your questions and meeting your first friends.

We’ll also be uploading on-demand videos every month to stream at your convenience. Keep checking back regularly for new content and to climb the leaderboard.

 

How to register

Visit the You at UBC webpage to sign up.

Remember: if you register with your UBC applicant email, you’ll be in the running to win prizes!