How Much Does a Supplementary Application Really Matter?
Whether you are asking how much Kira matters or how many hours the Mac health sci supp app deserves, it is the same question: is this worth the hours against your top 6? Some programs publish an answer and some don’t. Here is what each one actually says for Fall 2027 entry, where the supp app decides outcomes and where it doesn’t, and an honest time budget per program.
What programs publish about weighting
Every claim below is from the program’s own page, linked, and where a program does not publish a weighting we say so rather than guess. Confirm before you plan; programs rewrite these pages every autumn.
| Program | What the program says | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Ivey AEO | Academics and leadership “each weighed equally. This 50/50 balance is unique to Ivey.” | Published, explicit. Half your file is essays, activities and the Kira video. |
| Schulich BBA | “Based on two equally weighted criteria: 1. Your academic performance 2. Your supplementary application.” | Published, explicit. Same 50/50 as Ivey. |
| McMaster Health Sci | “Grades and the scores on the Supplementary Application are the only elements we consider.” Scored by multiple reviewers, with an extra reviewer on big disagreements. ECs are explicitly not considered. | No ratio published. Two inputs only, and the program says the supp app exists to show what grades can’t. In practice the supp app is what separates applicants in the 95 to 97 band. |
| Waterloo Engineering | “The interview score is added to your admission average.” The AIF lets them “learn about applicants who may have very similar grades” and is scored by trained readers plus an AI system with a human check. | Additive to your average; Waterloo does not publish how many points. Students with lower averages are admitted over higher ones on a strong AIF, in Waterloo’s own words. |
| McMaster Engineering | “A holistic admissions process, which means we consider both your academic performance and your supplementary application together.” | No ratio published. |
| Queen’s Commerce, Health Sci, Nursing | “If your grades place you above a minimum admission average… we will use your Supplementary Information to learn more about you.” | A gate, then a read. Grades get you into the pool; the PSE and video decide within it. No ratio published. |
| Rotman Commerce | “Considered alongside your academic record when evaluating you for the program.” | No ratio published. |
| U of T Engineering | The Online Student Profile is mandatory; the applicant page does not describe how it is weighed. | Not published. |
| Waterloo Math and CS | Same AIF language as above: scored, considered alongside grades, for applicants with very similar averages. | No points figure published. |
Two programs say 50/50 in writing. One says the supp app is one of exactly two inputs. One says the interview is added to your average. The rest say “alongside” or “holistic,” which is not nothing; it means a human reads it and it can move a decision, and it also means nobody outside the room knows by how much. Anyone who tells you Rotman is “30 percent supp” is making it up.
Where the supp app decides, and where it doesn’t
There is a pattern here that the programs would never put on a page: the supp app decides the middle of the pool, not the top or the bottom.
- The bottom. If your top 6 is below the range a program actually admits from, the supp app is very unlikely to rescue you, and for the Queen’s programs it will not even be read. Waterloo says a strong AIF can beat a slightly higher average; slightly is the word.
- The top. A 98 with a competent supp app gets into most things. It does not get into everything: McMaster Health Sci is the well-known exception: a 98 average is not a guarantee there, because the program itself says grades are one of only two inputs. Ivey and Schulich are 50/50 by their own statement, so a top average with a weak leadership half is a real risk there too.
- The middle. Everyone from roughly the cutoff to four or five points above it. This is most of the applicant pool for every competitive program, and here the supp app is the deciding document, because the averages are too close to separate people. If you are a 92 applying to Ivey, a 94 applying to Schulich, or a 95 applying to Health Sci, you are in the part of the distribution the supp app was built to sort.
“How much does Kira matter?” specifically
Inside a supp app that has both a written and a video part, you probably want to know whether the video is the small piece you can wing. No program publishes a split between its written and video components, so nobody can tell you Ivey’s five videos are worth X and the two essays Y. What you can read off the formats is where each program put its effort. Ivey built a five-question, one-sitting interview and says the video is required of every applicant; that is not a piece you add for decoration. Schulich built four videos and one written exercise; the count tells you the priority. McMaster Engineering and U of T Engineering built two or three videos and a single timed written; the video is most of the assessment by minutes. Queen’s and Rotman are one and one, or close to it, so treat them as equal. Waterloo Engineering’s single video is the one piece explicitly described as added to your average.
The other reason the video matters more than its share of the file is that it is the piece where applicants vary most. Two students with a 92 and decent essays are indistinguishable on paper; the same two on camera, one who has done ten one-take runs and one who has never spoken to a lens for 90 seconds, are not. Reviewers watching thirty videos in an afternoon notice the difference in the first fifteen seconds. So even at Queen’s, where it is one video out of two pieces, the video is disproportionately where the middle of the pool gets sorted. Do not wing it. It is the cheapest score to move, and the one most people leave on the table.
How much time to spend, per program
Honest numbers, assuming you have not started and you write at a normal pace. They assume you bank your stories once and reuse them (see the last section), which is what makes the later programs on the list cheap.
| Program | What you are producing | Sensible budget |
|---|---|---|
| Ivey AEO | Two 500-word essays, up to seven referenced activities, five Kira videos | 20 to 30 hours. Half of it on the essays; at least five one-take practice runs for the video. |
| McMaster Health Sci | Two or three answers at 1,500 characters each, no outside help allowed | 15 to 25 hours across three weeks. Forty-plus hours usually means rewriting the same paragraph; three hours usually means regret. |
| Schulich BBA | Leadership Profile (3 to 5 experiences), four Kira videos, one 5-minute written | 10 to 15 hours. The profile is fast if stories are banked; the 45/90 video shape needs a dozen timed runs. |
| Waterloo AIF + Engineering video | Short written answers, plus one video on a question you know in advance | 6 to 10 hours. The video question is published, so the risk is sounding scripted, not being surprised. Practice it out loud, not on paper. |
| Rotman, Queen’s Commerce, Queen’s Health Sci | One or two short written pieces, one or two Kira videos | 5 to 8 hours each, mostly timed practice. The written parts reuse banked stories. |
| McMaster Eng, U of T Eng | One timed written, two or three videos with very short prep | 4 to 8 hours, almost all of it on-camera reps against the real timer (ten seconds for McMaster). Writing a script is wasted time here. |
Add it up for a typical business or health sci list and it comes to 40 to 60 hours between November and mid-February. That sounds like a lot until you compare it with the hours you will spend raising a single course by two percent, which is the alternative use of the time. For the middle-of-the-pool applicant, the supp app is the cheaper point.
Where the hours actually pay
Not evenly. Three places return more than the rest.
- The story bank, before any prompt. Six stories across leadership, teamwork, resilience and initiative, each with a decision and a number, written once. Every written answer on every list above is one of those six fitted to a prompt. Students who skip this step write each application from scratch and spend triple the time producing worse answers.
- Timed, unseen video practice. The Kira video is where the middle of the pool separates most visibly, because the average applicant has never spoken for 90 seconds to a lens with no do-over. Ten one-take runs on the real timer changes the outcome more than ten more hours on an essay. The Kira Talent interview practice guide explains why the platform’s own practice mode does not do this.
- One round of honest feedback on the written answers. Not a rewrite, and for McMaster Health Sci not another person at all; but for everywhere else, someone or something that tells you which sentence is a claim with no evidence. Most first drafts have three of those in the first paragraph.
Where the hours do not pay: a fourth draft of an essay that already has a decision and a number in it, a script for a video question, and anything spent reading other people’s admitted-student essays instead of writing your own.
Where to go from here
If you are still working out which of your programs even needs one, the what is a supp app guide lists who needs what and when it is due. The Ontario supplementary applications hub puts every program’s format and deadline in one table so you can build the calendar. If you would rather skip the whole question, the no-supp-app programs guide lists what admits on grades alone. The other half of the equation is the average itself: the Ontario top 6 guide covers which Grade 12 courses count and how each university treats repeats. Then spend the first of the hours where they pay: AcceptMe’s Story Bank gets your six stories written once, and its custom interviews put each one on your program’s exact clock with a coach transcript at the end.
Keep reading
- What Is a Supplementary Application? Ontario 2027 Guide Plain-English answer to the question every Ontario grade 12 asks in November: what supp apps are, who needs one, and when each is due.
- Supplementary Applications in Ontario: Every Program Compared Every Ontario business and engineering program with a supplementary application: what each asks, the video and written timings, and all the deadlines.
- Kira Talent Interview Questions and How to Practice Ontario's most common supplementary video platform, explained: practice questions, prep time, retakes, notes, and what schools actually score.