Want to be an engineer? Aim for 80-plus in your last year

Admission is competitive, as shown by these average final-year high school grades—or the R score in Quebec’s CEGEP system—of first-year undergrads starting engineering school in fall 2009.

	Average Entering Grade
Acadia	86.9%
Alberta	87%
UBC	87.8%
Calgary	85%
Carleton	83.8%
Concordia	80% / R score 26.24
Guelph	82.1%*
Lakehead	81.8%
Laurentian	79.4%
Laval	R score 27.648
Manitoba	90.4**
McGill	88.8% / R score 30.41
McMaster	86.6%
Memorial	86.7%
Moncton	82.1%
École Polytechnique de Montréal	R score 29.477
New Brunswick	86.1%
UNBC	88.6%
University of Ontario Institute of Technology	77%
Ottawa	80.9%*
UPEI	Not applicable
Québec à Chicoutimi	R score 25.5
Québec à Montréal	R score 24.25
Québec en Outaouais	Not applicable
École de technologie supérieure	Not applicable
Queen’s	86.9%*
Regina	83.5%
Royal Military College	84.5%
Ryerson	80%
St. Francis Xavier	85.9%
Saskatchewan	89%
Simon Fraser	83.1%
Toronto	90.3%
Victoria	87%*
Waterloo	89.2%
Western	86.8%
Windsor	82%
York	83%

Eight universities with engineering programs are not listed here. These institutions did not release their average entering grades to Maclean’s. *Grade average for fall 2008 incoming class. **Majority of students enter engineering after first year (University One).

Source: Engineering faculties and departments; Common University Data Ontario