An Introduction to OUAC

Written by Sawsan Al Rabadi

Before 1971, graduating secondary and post-secondary school students applied and received admissions offers from high level education programs individually. Naturally, this caused many often-occurring filing and response errors as universities received an information surplus for the thousands of aspiring students, annually. Students had to navigate through multiple application systems which were chaotic and stressful in nature.

Soon enough, it was 1972 when 135,361 first-year undergraduate applications were processed through this application center. Since then, OUAC has guided students in their applications, providing instructions through their processing system that helps both students and admission coordinators. Ontario’s University Application Center (OUAC) is a non-profit organization which processes all online university applications and admissions for Ontario universities.

The OUAC website coordinates the applications to undergraduate programs in Ontario for current Ontario high school students (101) as well as for other Canadian residents and international applicants currently attending secondary schools outside of Ontario. In addition to the undergraduate programs, it also coordinates the application processes for medical schools, law schools, rehabilitation science programs, and teaching education.

All Ontario university undergraduate programs are applied to via the OUAC portal except for the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC). The usual university undergraduate program application process contains very simple instructions explained to each applicant on the OUAC website. The usual advised deadline for senior high school students to submit their university applications is mid-January. This application system has made the lives of applicants and program coordinators much easier, and will surely continue to be Ontario’s university application portal for many years to come.

Works Cited

“101 – Important Dates.” Ontario Universities' Application Centre, Barking Dog Studios, 5 Oct. 2020, www.ouac.on.ca/guide/101-dates/.

“Ontario Universities' Application Centre.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Universities'_Application_Centre.

“Our Story.” Ontario Universities' Application Centre, Barking Dog Studios, 25 Feb. 2020, www.ouac.on.ca/about/our-story/.

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