How to Get Into UBC From Iran: Diploma Grades, English, Profile
Applying to UBC from Iran means being read on your High School Diploma grades out of 20, an English test that is now hard to sit inside the country, a January 15 deadline, and a Personal Profile that every applicant writes. Iran sent 12,984 students to Canadian universities in 2023/24 (Statistics Canada), so UBC has read a great many Iranian transcripts. Here is what it does with yours.
What UBC looks at from an Iranian applicant
Select Iran on UBC’s international high schools requirements page and the general requirement reads: “Graduation from a university-preparatory program at a senior secondary school: High School Diploma. Certificates must be official. Photocopies are acceptable if certified by school principal, head, or counsellor. Notarized copies are not acceptable.” That is the 12-year diploma of the 6-3-3 system, the one every student who finished Grade 12 since 2019 holds. If you finished under the older system, you hold the Diplom-Motevaseteh plus the one-year Pre-University Certificate (Pish-Daneshgahi); UBC’s page does not name it separately, so upload both and let the assessors read them together.
Two things UBC does not ask for: a Konkur score, which plays no part in a UBC decision, and notarized copies. Official documents or school-certified copies, in the original language; UBC’s document page says the exact list is personalised to your file after you apply.
The grades that get offers
UBC is unusually direct about the Iranian scale. The same page says: “The grades you’ll need to be considered for an offer of admission from UBC differ by degree, and vary from year to year. In past years, an average of 16 on Iran’s 20-point grading scale was required.” Read that as a floor, not a target. Engineering, Commerce and Computer Science draw a bigger pool than Arts and their offers sit above 16; UBC does not publish where, so treat anything more specific as a guess.
The degree-specific prerequisites, again from UBC’s page with Iran selected, checked September 2026:
| Degree | UBC’s minimum requirement for Iran | Which Iranian track fits |
|---|---|---|
| Arts | No specific courses beyond general admission. Related: language arts, mathematics, second languages, social studies, arts. | Any track. Humanities students are not disadvantaged here. |
| Science (including Computer Science) | Grade 12 Math (Pre-Calculus), Chemistry and Physics. Physics may be waived with A grades in senior Math and senior Chemistry. | Mathematics-physics or experimental sciences. Experimental-sciences students usually have all three. |
| Applied Science (Engineering) | Grade 12 Math, Grade 12 Chemistry, Grade 12 Physics. | Mathematics-physics is the natural fit. Experimental sciences works if Physics 12 is on the transcript. |
| Commerce (Sauder) | Grade 12 Math (Pre-Calculus). Related: economics, geography, law, psychology; UBC will count Chemistry and Physics in the mathematics category. | Any track with Grade 12 mathematics. Humanities students should check their math course is at the level UBC expects. |
“Prerequisite” here means the subject must appear on your Grade 12 record with a grade, not that a separate exam is needed. A 19 in Physics on a 16.5 average is a better Engineering file than a flat 17.5 with Physics at 15; the core average versus overall average explanation is written for BC students but the logic is the same.
English proficiency: never waived for the Iranian curriculum, and hard to sit at home
UBC’s English Language Admission Standard is met by four or more years of full-time education in English, in Canada or in a country where English is the principal language, or by a test. Iranian schooling is in Persian, so unless you spent four years at an eligible English-medium international school, you are testing. The minimums, checked September 2026: IELTS Academic 6.5 with no part below 6.0; TOEFL iBT 90 with Reading 22, Listening 22, Writing 21, Speaking 21; Duolingo English Test 125 with Reading and Listening 115, Writing and Speaking 120; CAEL 70; PTE Academic 65 with each part at 60. For Fall 2027 entry the standard must be met by January 31, 2027 and the documents in by February 15, 2027, per UBC’s dates and deadlines page.
The test itself is the Iranian problem in 2026. IELTS stopped testing inside Iran on January 31, 2026, and after the United States suspended General License G on August 24, 2026, TOEFL sessions inside Iran were cancelled and Duolingo said it would stop serving people residing in Iran or holding Iranian identification, as reported on August 30, 2026. Applicants are travelling to test centres in neighbouring countries. Book a date in the autumn of Grade 12 at the latest, confirm the provider will register an Iranian passport before you buy the ticket, and do not assume Duolingo, the cheapest option on paper, will be open to you.
How and when to apply for Fall 2027 entry
Dates from UBC’s deadlines page; confirm each on the page before you plan around it.
- Early October 2026: the UBC application opens (it runs on EducationPlannerBC).
- January 15, 2027, 11:59 p.m. Pacific: application and Personal Profile deadline. December 1 matters only for Canadian citizens and permanent residents seeking certain scholarships.
- January 31 and February 15, 2027: English standard met, then documents in.
- March 15, 2027: in-progress Grade 12 transcript uploaded to the Applicant Service Centre.
- November 2026 to June 2027: decisions; most Iranian files are decided in spring once interim marks are in.
- May 1 or June 1, 2027: accept and pay the deposit; final transcript by June 30.
The part you control: the Personal Profile
Every high school applicant to UBC’s main degrees writes the Personal Profile: around six short answers of 500 to 2,100 characters each, an activities list and two references. UBC publishes the questions: how your family, friends or community would describe you; what is important to you and why; up to five activities; one or two of those in depth; additional academic information. It reads for engagement, leadership, substance and voice. The UBC Personal Profile question examples walk through each one, and the activities section guide covers the list.
For an Iranian applicant this is the only part of the file that can move. The additional-information answer is where a term lost to school closures or a Konkur year gets one plain sentence. UBC may phone a reference, so pick a teacher who can answer in English and warn them. Sauder applicants add two Commerce questions and a recorded video interview with 30 seconds to think and 90 to answer; the Sauder BCom video interview format covers that, and AcceptMe’s timed interview runs the same clock. For the written answers, paste each one with its question into AcceptMe’s essay coach: it returns a verdict paragraph and notes pinned to your sentences, tagged works, tighten or fix, the reader you do not otherwise have when your teachers write in Persian.
Money: tuition, living costs, scholarships, proof of funds
UBC’s first-year cost estimator, checked September 2026, lists international tuition for a full 30-credit first year at C$51,530 for Arts, C$53,082 for Science and Computer Science, C$66,200 for Applied Science and C$66,678 for Commerce, plus student fees of roughly C$1,350 to C$1,660. It puts a single on-campus room at C$7,935 for the year and the meal plan at C$7,712. Tuition is set each spring, so treat those as the current published figures rather than next year’s.
Scholarships, from UBC’s international awards page: the International Major Entrance Scholarship (C$10,000 to C$25,000 a year for 2026/27) and the Outstanding International Student Award (C$10,000 to C$25,000 for 2025/26) are automatic on the admission application and read the same Personal Profile. The International Scholars Program (the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow Award and its sister awards) is need-based, can cover up to the full cost of the degree, needs a nomination from your school (up to two students for the Vancouver campus), and has its own application by November 15, 2026 with documents by January 31, 2027. Iranian schools rarely know they can nominate; ask your principal in September. The UBC entrance scholarships and the Personal Profile explains how the profile feeds all three.
For the study permit, IRCC’s financial support page requires a single applicant outside Quebec to show C$23,448 for living costs (for applications on or after September 1, 2026) on top of first-year tuition and travel. Six months of bank statements are accepted, foreign accounts included, with certified translations.
Sanctions and the deposit. Iranian banks have been largely cut off from international transfers since 2012, and Iranian students in Canada describe paying tuition through currency-exchange intermediaries that take ten to fourteen days per transfer, as reported in May 2026. A family member with an account in the UAE, Türkiye or Europe, or funds moved before the offer season, is what makes the May deposit and the September tuition payment possible. Start that in Grade 11.
The study permit from Iran
Since 2024 a study permit application needs a Provincial Attestation Letter. UBC’s study permit page says it emails the BC letter about three business days after you accept the offer and pay the deposit, and tells you to apply for the permit the moment you have both it and the admission letter. The federal cap for 2026 is 309,670 application spaces with 32,596 allocated to BC, per IRCC’s allocation notice; the 2027 numbers will be published in the new year. The Student Direct Stream, which Iran was never part of, closed in November 2024, so every applicant is in the regular queue.
The Iranian specifics. There is no Canadian visa office or visa application centre in Iran; IRCC’s VAC list points to Ankara, Istanbul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Yerevan, and says you may use any VAC when your own country has none, so you apply online and travel for biometrics (C$85). The Ankara visa office’s study permit checklist (IMM 5816, August 2026) asks residents of Iran for a translated copy of the shenasnameh, a one-page personal statement on how the study plan fits your goals, language results, a police certificate and, for men over 18, the military completion card or proof of exemption or deferral. IRCC does not publish approval rates by country; its December 2025 briefing puts 2025 approvals for new study permits at 41 percent overall. Apply the week you accept, and write the personal statement as carefully as the Personal Profile.
A worked Personal Profile answer
Sara is in the mathematics-physics track at a public school in Shiraz, running an 18.4 average with 19.5 in Physics, applying to Applied Science. Question 4, one activity in depth, about 1,600 characters.
The activity I want to explain is the robotics team I have run for two years, which sounds grander than it is. We are six students in a school with no lab budget, and for the first year we built everything from a single donated kit that had lost half its sensors.
The thing I am proud of is not a competition result. Last autumn the school closed for three weeks and the team stopped meeting. I wrote out the line-follower code by hand on paper, photographed it and sent it to the group so people could trace the logic without a laptop. Two of them found a bug I had missed. When we came back we had a working robot in four days instead of the month it would have taken.
What I learned is that I am better at keeping a group moving than at being the best builder in it. Reza is a better builder. My job turned out to be making sure the work survived the interruptions, and I now think that is most of what engineering is.
Note what it does: a real, small activity; a specific decision; a number; a moment of honesty about a teammate; and a disrupted term explained without asking for sympathy. That is substance and voice, the two criteria Iranian profiles most often miss when they list olympiad rankings instead.
Mistakes applicants from Iran make
- Sending notarized translations to UBC. UBC says notarized copies are not acceptable. Save the notary for the visa file, which does need certified translations.
- Leaving the English test to spring. The deadline is January 31 and the nearest centre may be in another country. Autumn of Grade 12, booked before the application opens.
- Assuming a 17 average is safe for Engineering. Sixteen is the historic floor across all degrees. The competitive degrees sit higher and UBC does not say how much.
- Discovering the deposit problem in May. The transfer route out of Iran takes weeks and sometimes fails. Have it tested before the offer arrives.
- Writing the profile as a list of ranks and medals. UBC reads for reflection. One activity told properly beats five titles.
Where to go next
The same transcript goes to Montreal and Toronto, so read how McGill reads Iranian grades and the CAQ it adds and what the University of Toronto asks of Iranian applicants, including the Rotman and Engineering videos. For the rest of Canada, the by-country guide to Canadian university admissions for international applicants lines up every country’s credential against the three schools. When the profile draft exists, the Personal Profile review checklist is the last pass before you submit. Then let AcceptMe’s essay coach read each answer and mark the sentences a UBC reader would want rewritten.
Keep reading
- How to Get Into McGill From Iran: Grades, English Test, CAQ McGill for Iranian applicants, Fall 2027: the diploma out of 20, the B+ minimum, prerequisites, tests sat outside Iran, 2026-27 tuition and the CAQ.
- How to Get Into U of T From Iran: Grades, English, Rotman Video U of T for Iranian applicants, Fall 2027: the Dore Dovom Motavasete certificate, the 14/20 floor, notarized translations, Rotman and Engineering videos.
- UBC Personal Profile Questions: How to Answer Each One UBC's Personal Profile questions as published, the four things UBC says it reads for, how to answer within 2,100 characters, and a worked example.