The Ontario Scholar Award: The 80% Rule, How It Is Calculated, and What It Is Worth

What is the Ontario Scholar designation, and who gives it?

The ministry gives it, through the student's school. The rule sits in Policy/Program Memorandum 53 (PPM 53), issued on 14 April 2009 and effective "Until revoked or modified". The ontario.ca page for it shows an update date of 18 December 2024 and was still the live version on 6 November 2026. A student who qualifies receives an Ontario Scholar certificate. Principals report the award to the ministry when they submit final marks through OnSIS, the ministry's student information system.

What are the requirements?

A student must meet both of these:

• An aggregate of at least 480 marks in ministry-approved courses that provide a total of six credits.
• A recommendation from the school principal for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD), in either the current school year or the previous school year.

Two school pages restate the first rule as an average. Glebe Collegiate Institute, in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, says an Ontario Scholar achieves "an average of 80% or higher in their top six Grade 12 courses". Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School, in the Waterloo Region District School Board, says "an average mark of at least 80% in any six Grade 12 courses". The two descriptions agree with the ministry's: six credits at 80% is 480 marks.

The second rule ties the designation to the OSSD. Students who earned credits abroad can read how the OSSD works for international students in our guide to Ontario credits from overseas.

Which courses count?

The ministry lists four course types:

• A Grade 12 university preparation, university/college preparation, college preparation, workplace preparation or open course, including locally developed courses the ministry has approved.
• A cooperative education course related to any of those courses.
• A dual credit course in a college-delivered dual credit program that the ministry has approved.
• An Ontario Academic Course (OAC). The memorandum still names this course type, which comes from the older 1989 program requirements known as OSIS.

That list is wider than "U/M". A college-preparation or open Grade 12 course can count toward the 480 marks. Grade 11 courses are not on the list.

The memorandum then adds one more route in its conditions. Standing obtained at a conservatory or school of music may also be considered for the Ontario Scholar award. The memorandum points to where that standing is set out: section 2 of Policy/Program Memorandum 133, "Music Certificates Accepted for Credits", dated 5 January 2004, or section 2 of appendix 4 of the 1999 program requirements (OSS), or section 2 of appendix C of OSIS.

How is the average calculated?

The ministry sets out the conditions in plain terms:

• Each course mark is multiplied by the course's credit value, so a course worth more than one credit counts its mark once for each credit.
• Where a student has more than six credits across Grade 12 university, university/college, college, workplace and open courses, dual credit courses and OACs, the highest marks are used.
• Standing in English for English-language schools or in English for French-language schools may be counted, but not both.
• Standing in French as a second language or in français may be counted, but not both.
• A student previously designated an Ontario Scholar is not eligible for a second award.
• A student need not finish the courses in one school year.

Here is what that looks like for two students with one-credit courses. The marks are invented for illustration.

Student A has two courses under 80 inside the six and still qualifies, because the rule looks at the total of the marks rather than at each course. Student B averages 79.8% and misses by one mark. The threshold is exact: 480 marks or more.

Does "the six best U/M courses" hold up?

Partly. Some summaries describe the rule as the six best Grade 12 U/M courses. School pages say "top six" or "any six", which fits the ministry's wording, but the ministry's own list of course types is not limited to university and university/college courses. The "U/M" wording belongs to a different calculation: a university's admission average. The University of Waterloo, for example, says its admission average is "the average of your top six Grade 12 courses (U or M courses for Ontario students)" and that "C (college), O (open), and co-op courses are not used" for that calculation. Each university sets its own method, so Waterloo's page is one example of a university method and does not speak for the others.

What is it worth?

It is a recognition, and the memorandum describes it as a certificate. PPM 53 does not mention scholarships, money, university admission or the transcript.

STE Guidance, the guidance website of one school in the York Catholic District School Board, says that the honour roll and the Ontario Scholar designation "ARE NOT graduation requirements and will therefore NOT appear on your transcript", and that they "ARE NOT prerequisites to apply to any university or college program". That is one school's guidance office speaking, and nothing in the ministry text contradicts it.

For a student applying to university, the number that matters is the one each program publishes, worked out by that university's own method, as in the Waterloo example above. Which Grade 12 math course a program needs is covered in our guide to Ontario senior math streams. Our guide to the OUAC application covers how the application works, including the 15 January 2027 deadline for Group A applicants: students currently taking Ontario high school courses who meet OUAC's other criteria. If a particular scholarship says it wants an Ontario Scholar, check that scholarship's own page. Neither the memorandum nor any page listed in Sources below makes the designation an entry condition for a program or a scholarship.

How is it different from the honour roll?

The honour roll is a board or school award with its own rule. In the York Catholic District School Board, the guidance website of one of its schools, CCCHS Guidance, says the honour roll "is calculated as an average of 79.5%" based on a student's top eight YCDSB courses in Grade 9, top eight in Grade 10, top seven in Grade 11 and top six in Grade 12. The Ontario Scholar designation is provincial, uses 480 marks across six credits, and its course list has no Grade 9, 10 or 11 courses. The two can come apart, because the rules count different courses at different cut-offs. Other boards set their own honour roll rules, so check yours.

When does a student find out?

The memorandum says principals indicate the award when they submit students' final marks to OnSIS, including for students who qualified by attending summer school. It also says a student need not complete the courses in one school year, and that the OSSD recommendation can fall in the current or the previous school year. It sets no date beyond that, so schools describe the timing in their own words. STE Guidance says "Ontario Scholar is applicable in the year when a student earns their OSSD". Waterloo-Oxford says that if the courses are completed over two years, the designation "will be acknowledged at commencement after the second year".