Getting Into UBC, McGill and U of T From Abroad, by Country

If you are finishing school outside Canada and aiming at UBC, McGill or the University of Toronto, the file that decides you is your own country’s credential read against each school’s published table, an English test most curricula do not escape, and one or two components you can still change. This is the index: one row per country, three guides per row, and the facts all 15 share.

By the AcceptMe team 11 min read Updated 21 Sep 2026

Why these 15 countries

The list is not the study-permit ranking. That one is dominated by college enrolments (India alone is more than half of the international students at Canadian colleges, and the Philippines and Nepal sit near the top on the strength of college programs). The 15 countries here are the largest sources of international students enrolled at Canadian universities in 2023/24, from Statistics Canada’s postsecondary enrolments table (all levels of study, so the counts include graduate students). India and China are neck and neck at roughly 61,000 and 60,000; France, Nigeria and Iran follow; the United States is sixth. Under the 2024 cap those numbers are falling, hardest for India and Nigeria, but the order has held.

What the three schools have in common

Every country guide below repeats the same skeleton, because the three schools do. Checked September 2026 for Fall 2027 entry; confirm each on the linked page before you plan around it.

	UBC	McGill	U of T
Where you apply	The UBC application on you.ubc.ca	McGill’s own online application, then Minerva	OUAC 105 or the U of T International Application
Deadline	January 15, 2027 (November 15, 2026 for International Scholars nomination)	January 15, 2027 (documents March 1; major scholarship January 21)	January 15, 2027 (Engineering profile January 15; Rotman and CS supplementals February 1)
Beyond grades	The Personal Profile, for every applicant to every faculty; Sauder adds a video interview	Nothing, for most programs; the transcript is the file (Music, Architecture and a few others differ)	Program-specific: Rotman timed video and writing, Engineering Online Student Profile, Trinity, UTSC Management; Arts & Science has none
English test floor	IELTS 6.5 (6.0 bands), TOEFL iBT 90, Duolingo 125	IELTS 6.5 (6.0 bands), Duolingo 125 (130 for Management)	IELTS 6.5 (6.0 bands), Duolingo 120
International tuition, first year	2026/27: about C$51,500 (Arts) to C$66,700 (Commerce)	2026-27: C$54,000 (BA) to C$71,700 (BCom), guaranteed for the degree; French citizens and treaty-exempt students pay the Canadian rate	2026-27: about C$66,100 (Arts & Science) to C$72,900 (Engineering)
Before the permit	BC Provincial Attestation Letter, issued through UBC	A CAQ from Quebec (C$135, about 25 business days), which serves as the attestation letter	Ontario Provincial Attestation Letter, issued through U of T

If you are applying to more than one of the three, or to other Canadian universities as well, the Canadian university deadline planner has a setting for students finishing school outside Canada: it lists each university’s deadlines in one timeline and adds the English test with the date to book it by. Every date for each of the three is also on its own page: UBC application deadlines, McGill application deadlines and U of T application deadlines.

The permit, which is now the hard part

Since 2024 Canada caps new study permits. For 2026 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s allocation notice sets a target of up to 408,000 permits, of which up to 180,000 go to applicants who need a provincial attestation letter, with 309,670 application spaces accepted for processing. Undergraduates still need the letter; from January 1, 2026 master’s and doctoral students at public institutions do not. The provincial shares for the three schools are Ontario 104,780, Quebec 93,069 and British Columbia 32,596.

Proof of funds, from the same department’s financial support page: a single applicant outside Quebec shows C$22,895 for first-year living costs until August 31, 2026 and C$23,448 from September 1, 2026, plus first-year tuition and return transport. Quebec sets its own figure (C$24,617 from January 1, 2026 for the CAQ). The Student Direct Stream, the fast lane for several of these countries, closed on November 8, 2024, so everyone is in the same queue. Every country guide says the same thing about timing: apply for the permit the week you accept, not the month before term.

By country

One row per country. The credential column is the name the schools use; the English column is whether a test is unavoidable for that curriculum. Each link is a full guide for that school and country: grades, subjects, the test, the dates, the money, the permit, a worked sample and the mistakes that cost applicants from there.

Country	Credential the schools read	English test	Guides
India 61,770 at Canadian universities	CBSE / CISCE Class XII; state boards case by case	UBC waives with 75%+ in Class XII English at a CBSE or CISCE school; McGill and U of T test	UBC from India · McGill from India · U of T from India
China 60,423 at Canadian universities	Senior high diploma + Huikao; gaokao where written (UBC expects a Tier 1 score or three APs)	Tested at all three; only listed international schools or AP/IB/A-level English exempt	UBC from China · McGill from China · U of T from China
France 17,745 at Canadian universities	Baccalauréat général (bac technologique case by case at UBC, not at McGill)	Tested at UBC and U of T; McGill waives for BFI/OIB British or American section	UBC from France · McGill from France · U of T from France
Nigeria 13,791 at Canadian universities	WASSCE / NECO (A1 to B3 in prerequisites; JAMB ignored)	Waived at all three after four consecutive years of English-medium schooling	UBC from Nigeria · McGill from Nigeria · U of T from Nigeria
Iran 12,984 at Canadian universities	12-year high school diploma, average out of 20 (UBC has asked for 16); Konkur unused	Tested at all three, and IELTS, TOEFL and Duolingo were unavailable inside Iran as of September 2026	UBC from Iran · McGill from Iran · U of T from Iran
United States 9,261 at Canadian universities	Regionally accredited diploma, unweighted grades; SAT/ACT optional	Waived at all three after four years of US schooling	UBC from United States · McGill from United States · U of T from United States
Bangladesh 8,688 at Canadian universities	HSC (written after decisions, so offers are conditional); many hold O and A levels	Tested unless O-level English B (McGill, U of T) or A-level English (all three)	UBC from Bangladesh · McGill from Bangladesh · U of T from Bangladesh
Vietnam 4,539 at Canadian universities	THPT graduation certificate, 10-point scale (UBC has asked for 8.0)	Tested at all three	UBC from Vietnam · McGill from Vietnam · U of T from Vietnam
Pakistan 4,359 at Canadian universities	HSSC / Intermediate (Part I marks) or Cambridge O and A levels	Tested unless O-level English B or A-level English; UBC needs A-level English A or B	UBC from Pakistan · McGill from Pakistan · U of T from Pakistan
South Korea 4,107 at Canadian universities	High school diploma with 등급 ranks and raw scores (UBC has asked for 84%); CSAT listed only by U of T	Tested at all three unless an accredited international school or AP/IB English	UBC from South Korea · McGill from South Korea · U of T from South Korea
Morocco 3,297 at Canadian universities	Baccalauréat, moyenne out of 20 (UBC has asked for 14); filière carries the prerequisites	Tested at all three (McGill waives BFI/OIB and IB English A)	UBC from Morocco · McGill from Morocco · U of T from Morocco
Hong Kong 3,021 at Canadian universities	HKDSE, four core plus two Category A/C electives; M1/M2 for U of T calculus programs	Tested at all three; HKDSE English is not an exemption anywhere	UBC from Hong Kong · McGill from Hong Kong · U of T from Hong Kong
Ghana 2,832 at Canadian universities	WASSCE, mainly A1 and B2 with Elective Mathematics	Waived at McGill (four-year list) and usually U of T; UBC publishes no country list	UBC from Ghana · McGill from Ghana · U of T from Ghana
Algeria 2,793 at Canadian universities	Baccalauréat, moyenne out of 20; UBC lists no Algeria entry (basic requirements apply)	Tested at all three	UBC from Algeria · McGill from Algeria · U of T from Algeria
Mexico 2,691 at Canadian universities	Bachillerato, 10-point scale (UBC has asked for 8)	Tested at all three; a bilingual school does not exempt	UBC from Mexico · McGill from Mexico · U of T from Mexico

What changes from country to country

Which year decides. Where the leaving exam is written after March (the HSC, the gaokao, the WASSCE, the bac, the HKDSE), the spring offer is read on the previous year and the exam only confirms it. Where the credential is continuous (a US or Korean transcript), the senior year counts in full.
Whether English is a test or a formality. Four countries on this list (the United States, Nigeria, Ghana and, at UBC only, India with a strong Class XII English mark) can avoid the test. Everyone else books an IELTS or equivalent, and for Iran that now means a test centre in another country.
What McGill costs. French citizens pay the Canadian rate at McGill under the Quebec-France agreement, and Morocco and Algeria hold small quotas of Quebec tuition exemptions. For everyone else the three schools land within a few thousand dollars of each other.
How UBC states a floor. UBC publishes a “required in past years” average for most curricula (85% for India, 8/10 for Vietnam and Mexico, 16/20 for Iran, 14/20 for Morocco, mainly B2 and B3 for the WASSCE). McGill publishes a B+ equivalent floor and, for France, last year’s lowest admitted averages. U of T publishes almost nothing.

Where to go next

The two parts of the file you can still move are the same from every country. For UBC, start with the UBC Personal Profile questions with worked examples and the activities section guide. For U of T, the Rotman Commerce supplemental application guide and the Engineering Online Student Profile questions describe the timed videos that most international applicants have never done before, and the university video interview questions guide covers the format itself. Then put yourself on camera with AcceptMe: a fresh question, a prep window, a hard answer clock, and a transcript with the coach’s notes on what you said.