OUAC Explained for Parents: How Ontario University Applications Work, With the 2026-27 Deadlines

What does OUAC actually do?

OUAC is a division of the Council of Ontario Universities. It describes its job as processing: "Each university makes its own admission decisions, and we provide the application processing service." It forwards an application to every university and program a student requests, whatever the student's qualifications.

The Undergraduate application covers first-year bachelor's programs at Ontario universities. A few programs use a different OUAC application. OUAC says to use TEAS for 3-semester consecutive Bachelor of Education programs and OLSAS for Common Law programs. It also runs OMSAS for medicine and ORPAS for rehabilitation sciences, and it does not process applications to the Royal Military College of Canada.

Who is a Group A applicant, and who is Group B?

OUAC uses one Undergraduate application with two groups. A student is Group A if all of the following are true:

• They are currently taking one or more Ontario high school courses.
• They are under 21 on or before 31 December 2026.
• They have an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or are working toward one with six 4U/M courses. A 4U/M course is a Grade 12 university or university/college preparation course.

Everyone else is Group B. OUAC's examples include a student not currently taking a course at an Ontario high school, a Canadian applying from outside Ontario, an international applicant, a postsecondary transfer student, a mature applicant, and someone who is 21 or over on 31 December 2026 and taking a course at an Ontario high school.

A family does not choose the group. OUAC says the application "is a smart application and will automatically put you in the right group", and that "If you make changes to your application, your group may change." Program selection, requirements and deadlines can differ by group. OUAC's own pages for 2027 admission use Group A and Group B. If another site sorts applicants under different labels, go by OUAC's names when you check a date.

What are the 2026-27 dates, and what does 15 January mean?

For Group A, 15 January 2027 is the deadline to submit a completed application to OUAC. OUAC adds a caveat: it "will continue to process applications received after this date and distribute them to the Ontario universities; however, specific university deadlines will apply." A late application is not automatically refused, and it is not guaranteed a full review either. That depends on each university's own rules, covered below.

Group B is different. OUAC says "There is no specific Undergraduate application deadline if you are a Group B applicant." Deadlines vary by university and sometimes by program, so a Group B family should check each program and leave OUAC enough time to process the choices before each university's program deadline.

After January, the key OUAC dates run as follows:

• 28 May 2027: the latest date a Group A applicant who applied by the January deadline can expect a response from an Ontario university. The response can be an offer, a refusal or a deferral.
• 1 June 2027: the earliest date a Group A applicant may be required to respond to an offer of admission and give a financial commitment. Scholarships, offers of residence and other financial incentives count as part of the offer, so a student may accept them earlier, but "Ontario universities will not compel a student in any way to make a decision before this date."
• 3 June 2027: the Admission Information Service opens. It "allows you to determine which Ontario universities still have spots available in first-year undergraduate programs."

On when the application opens: OUAC says a new year's application is available "beginning in September of the year before you expect your studies to begin". The 2027 application was already open on 13 October 2026. OUAC's pages do not give an exact day, so this guide does not either.

How much does the OUAC application cost?

These are OUAC's fees for 2027 admission, all in Canadian funds, as of 13 October 2026:

Two extra choices cost $102 on top of the base fee, which is OUAC's own example. All fees are non-refundable, and OUAC does not forward an application "until you submit full payment". OUAC's How to Apply page says the fee schedule is "valid for 2027 admission only."

A student may apply to as many Ontario universities as they like, but "you are limited to a maximum of 3 program choices at any 1 university (including its affiliates)." Replacing a program choice with another at the same university has no fee, while withdrawing a choice at one university and adding one at another costs $51. A student does not pay OUAC to accept an offer, and OUAC says not to send university deposits or tuition fees to it.

Other costs sit outside the base fee, and program fees are extra. OUAC lists online-transcript fees under a Group B heading, and they apply when an applicant requests transcripts from an Ontario university or college through the application. OUAC lists document-evaluation fees under "Group B applicants, unless otherwise specified"; OUAC's table, for example, lists OCAD University at $25 for Group A applicants and $90 for Group B. Western University lists a $125 supplemental evaluation fee for non-Ontario high school applicants (Group B). OUAC notes that some universities charge document evaluation fees payable directly to them.

How do grades get from school to the universities?

For Group A, the grades travel from the school, not from the family. Western's page says that if you are a current Ontario high school student, "OUAC will send us your grades", and the student has to make sure all courses, including courses scheduled in the future, and grades are uploaded correctly by the school. OUAC says the application "includes all final grades from completed Grade 11 and 12 courses and a list of all current-year courses in progress."

The practical step for a parent is the student's Ontario Education Number (OEN), which OUAC says a Group A applicant needs to apply. It is on the report card and in the guidance counsellor's records. OUAC's My Background page says to enter the OEN rather than the Secondary School Student Number. Institutions where the home school registered the student for courses, such as board virtual school, dual credit or e-learning through a consortium, do not need to be listed. Courses taken outside the regular day school without the home school registering them, such as at a private school, night school or summer school, are different: OUAC's My Background page lists all three among the institutions to include. Western's page says "If you are taking courses outside of your regular day school, those also have to be uploaded to OUAC", so a family with a student in a course like that should ask the guidance counsellor how it gets reported.

How early should a family submit, and what do universities add on top?

OUAC says to submit the application, "with payment, well before the deadlines that apply to you", and its Fees page says "You must pay in full by the application deadline." For a Group A applicant, that means the application and the fee both need to be in by 15 January 2027. Processing normally takes 1 business day, and around deadlines "it can take up to 3 business days". The university then acknowledges receipt, which "might take up to 2 weeks" depending on the time of year.

Each university then applies its own rules. These are three examples, as of 13 October 2026, from each university's own page:

The three use different terms: a recommended early date and a deadline at Toronto, extra forms with their own cutoffs at Waterloo, and a recommended date for guaranteed consideration at Western. Read the page for each program on the list as well as OUAC's calendar.

Does the order of the choices matter?

OUAC says "Typically, it does not matter how you number your university or program choices in your application." A university must make its policy clear where there are exceptions, and the order gives admission offices planning information for programs with limited enrolment. A family should still read each university's own admission page for any exception.

How does the OSSD fit in?

The OSSD is the high school diploma. A student in Grade 12 in 2026-27 usually started Grade 9 in 2023. For students who started Grade 9 in 2023 or earlier, the Ministry of Education lists 18 compulsory credits, 12 optional credits, the literacy requirement and at least 2 online learning credits. For students who started in 2024 or later it lists 17 compulsory credits, 13 optional credits, the provincial secondary school literacy requirement, the provincial financial literacy graduation requirement and at least 2 online learning credits, although its detailed section applies the financial literacy requirement only to students who began Grade 9 in the 2025-2026 school year or later. The Ministry says "Everyone needs 40 hours of community involvement activities", so that requirement applies to both cohorts. A student who began Grade 9 in the 2025-2026 school year or later must earn a financial literacy graduation requirement as part of the compulsory Grade 10 Career Studies course. The Ministry's page was updated 2 September 2026.

The "six 4U/M courses" figure belongs to a different list. It comes from OUAC's definition of a Group A applicant, and the Ministry pages read for this guide do not mention it among the diploma requirements. Each university also sets its own course prerequisites, so a program's page is the place to confirm which Grade 12 courses it asks for. Our guides to Grade 12 chemistry, Grade 12 biology and the Ontario senior math streams cover three of those areas in detail.

Families whose children are moving from another school system can read our comparison of CBSE, IB and UK schooling against a Canadian school. A separate guide covers skipping IELTS and TOEFL under Canada's four-year rule. Both are separate questions from the OUAC application itself.

How is the college route different?

Ontario Colleges runs its own application, separate from OUAC. It asks for "a non-refundable $150 application fee" and covers up to 5 program choices, with no more than 3 at any one college. Its date is also different. Ontario Colleges says to complete and pay for the application on or before 1 February to receive equal consideration for programs beginning the following September, and lists 1 February 2027 as its Equal Consideration Date. That term belongs to the college system. OUAC does not use it for 15 January.

Where Genie fits

Genie's service pages do not cover applying to university, and nothing here suggests that tutoring changes an admission decision. For the application itself, OUAC's own pages and the student's guidance counsellor are the places to go.

What Genie does offer is online lessons in school courses, including Grade 12. Its How Genie Works page says: "Genie is built around one standard: every teacher is provincially certified, and that is checked before their profile goes live." Lessons "run 1-on-1 online around the course your child is already taking at school," and the subjects run "Grade 1 to Grade 12, across mathematics, the sciences, English, French and the senior Ontario courses."