How to Get Into U of T From China: Gaokao, Video, Fees

What U of T asks of a Chinese senior high school applicant

U of T’s international high school requirements by country entry for China lists the minimum admission requirements as an “Accredited Senior High School (Upper Middle School) Graduation Diploma”, the “Academic Proficiency Test/Upper Middle School Graduation (Hui Kao) Exam” and the “Chinese National University Entrance Exam (Gao Kao)”. The diploma “needs to be issued by the provincial Ministry of Education or an official accredited education body”. Three more lines matter:

• SAT or ACT scores are optional: students who wrote them “and wish to have these considered in their assessment, may submit their scores”. But “applicants to Engineering are required to fully disclose any and all test scores”.
• “Applicants who have written AP exams are encouraged to submit their results.”
• Students in a dual-diploma system (Sino-US, Sino-UK, Sino-Canadian) are told to follow the requirements for that accredited diploma, not the Chinese one. A BC or Ontario offshore school graduate applies as a BC or Ontario applicant; an A-level or IB student applies under those curricula.

So is the gaokao required? U of T lists it as one of the three minimum requirements. The Engineering faculty’s international page is the one place U of T spells out the alternative: applicants from Chinese high schools present prerequisite courses in Senior 3, Huikao results and “Gao Kao: Chinese National University Entrance Examinations in the prerequisite subjects”, and students not writing it “provide a written explanation why they are not writing the Gao Kao and submit AP exam scores for each prerequisite subject (i.e. Math, Physics and Chemistry)” with minimum scores of 4. For the other faculties U of T publishes no equivalent rule; if you will not sit the gaokao, say so in the JOIN U of T portal and be ready with APs. U of T publishes no gaokao score expectation and no percentage cut-off for this curriculum; its international requirements page says only that it expects “competitive applicants to be enrolled in a rigorous academic course load, and to have taken the highest level of course available to them in prerequisite subjects”.

The grades and subjects by faculty

Because U of T decides by program, the prerequisite is what a Chinese applicant should check first. Read “senior level” as on the Senior 3 transcript, and keep the subject through graduation even if it is not one of your gaokao electives.

English: no exemption for schools in China

U of T’s English language requirements exempt applicants with four or more years of full-time study “in a recognized Canadian school (in Canada)” or in an English-language school “located in a country where the dominant language is English”. An international school in Beijing, or a Canadian offshore school in Jiangsu, is neither, so nearly every applicant from China tests. The minimums, checked September 2026:

• IELTS Academic: 6.5 overall, no band below 6.0.
• TOEFL iBT: for tests from January 21, 2026 on the new 6-point scale, 4.5 overall with 4.5 in Writing and 4.0 in Speaking; for earlier tests, 89 overall with 22 in each of Speaking and Writing.
• Duolingo English Test: 120 overall with 120 in Production.
• PTE Academic: 65 overall, no part below 60. CAEL: 70 overall, no part below 60.
• Cambridge C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency: 180 overall, at least 170 in each component.

Scores must be received “no later than your deadline for submitting supporting documentation”: January 15 for Engineering, February 1 for most other programs. Electronic scores take two to three weeks to match to your file, so sit the test by December.

How and when to apply for Fall 2027 entry

Two routes, explained on U of T’s applications page. If you are applying to any other Ontario university as well, use the OUAC 105 application. If you live outside Canada, have never studied in Canada and are applying only to U of T, you may use the U of T International Application, fee C$196, non-refundable. Either way you then get the JOIN U of T portal, where the document checklist, English score and supplementals live. The OUAC 105 application walkthrough is written for BC students but the form is the same one.

Dates from U of T’s dates and deadlines page, to confirm before you plan around them:

• November 7, 2026: early consideration application date, with documents by December 1. Rotman and Engineering both run this early round.
• January 15, 2027: application deadline for most programs, and the document and Online Student Profile deadline for Engineering.
• February 1, 2027: documents for most other programs, and the Rotman supplemental, Architecture, Computer Science and Kinesiology pieces.
• January to late May 2027: decisions, in rounds; UTSC lists late January, February, March, April and May.
• Offer acceptance by the date in your offer letter; the Ontario student date is June 1, 2027.

Documents: upload the transcript and graduation certificate with “notarized translations” if not in English or French, and complete the self-reported grades form if the portal asks. Official transcripts from the school “are always required to finalize an offer of admission”; U of T does not accept documents by email. The gaokao score arrives in late June, after most decisions, so it is a final-document item; a CSSD verification report from the Ministry of Education’s centre delivers it in English, and UBC requires one anyway.

The part you control: the timed video supplementals

Arts and Science has no interview and no essay; the decision is grades. The programs that ask more are the ones many Chinese applicants target.

Rotman Commerce. Rotman’s supplemental application page says every applicant completes it and that it “includes short written and video responses”, with the format given inside JOIN U of T. In recent cycles: one video question you see in advance, one you do not, each with under a minute to think and about a minute to answer, plus short written responses. The Rotman Commerce supplemental application questions guide has the format in detail and fifteen practice questions written to it.

Engineering. The Online Student Profile has “three timed video responses” and an optional personal statement. The faculty does not publish the prep and answer times; the U of T Engineering Online Student Profile questions guide describes what recent cycles used, and the EngSci Online Student Profile guide covers Engineering Science’s version.

For a Chinese applicant the video is the part of the file the school system never trained: a clear spoken answer, in a second language, on a webcam, to a question you have not seen. That is a reflex, built by repetition. AcceptMe puts you on camera with a fresh question, 30 seconds to think, 90 seconds to answer, then a transcript with the coach’s notes; the transcript shows you the filler words and the missing ending you cannot hear while talking. Run it in December, before the portal opens the real one. UTSC Management and Trinity College have their own written pieces; see the UTSC Management BBA supplementary application and the Trinity College applicant profile.

A worked video answer, Rotman-style

Timing note: roughly 85 seconds at a natural pace. Belief, evidence, change, why it matters for business, and it ends on a sentence rather than trailing off when the clock runs out.

Money: tuition, Pearson, proof of funds

U of T’s Tuition Explorer lists the 2026-27 international Arts & Science (St. George) program fee at C$66,110, or C$69,158 with incidental fees and UHIP. Rotman Commerce, Computer Science and Bioinformatics carry “deregulated program fees” in upper years that are higher; Engineering is its own schedule. Look your program up in the explorer for 2027-28 when it is published in spring 2027, and add Toronto rent and food.

The one scholarship that changes the arithmetic is the Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship: tuition, books, incidental fees and full residence for four years, about 37 scholars a year. Your school nominates one student; verified schools get the form each July, and a school that has never participated must apply by October 9, 2026. You must apply to U of T by October 16, 2026 and complete the Pearson application by November 6, 2026, and you must be in your final year in 2026/27 or have graduated no earlier than June 2026. If you are a candidate, the conversation with your principal happens in September, not January. U of T’s other admission awards are listed on its finances page; none of them approaches the international fee.

For the permit, IRCC’s proof of financial support page asks a single applicant to show C$23,448 in living costs for applications on or after September 1, 2026, plus first-year tuition and return transport, typically as six months of bank statements.

The study permit from China

The Student Direct Stream ended on November 8, 2024 (IRCC notice); you apply under the regular process. An undergraduate file needs a Provincial Attestation Letter, which Ontario issues through U of T once you accept and pay; IRCC’s PAL guidance says an application without one “will not be accepted for processing”. IRCC’s 2026 allocations set 309,670 application spaces nationally, 104,780 for Ontario; the 2027 figures are announced in late 2026. U of T’s own international timeline puts the PAL and permit step in February to May. Do it the week you accept: request the PAL, then file with the CSSD reports, the translations and a study plan that says why this program, in your own words. The file that gets through is the one where the money and the purpose are both obvious.

Mistakes applicants from China make

• Missing the Engineering January 15 document date because the general date is February 1. Engineering’s profile, transcripts and English score all close on the 15th.
• Hiding an SAT score from Engineering. The faculty requires full disclosure of every test written.
• Skipping the gaokao without saying so. Engineering wants a written explanation and APs at 4 in Math, Physics and Chemistry; do not leave the line blank.
• Assuming a Canadian offshore school in China waives English. U of T’s exemption says “in Canada”.
• Finding out about Pearson in December. The school nomination closed in October.

Where to go next

The UBC admission guide for Chinese applicants explains the Tier 1 gaokao expectation, the three-AP alternative and the Personal Profile every UBC applicant writes, and the McGill admission guide for Chinese applicants covers the published 85% floor, the Huikao format rule and the CAQ. Every other country and a side-by-side of deadlines is in the by-country guide to Canadian university admissions for international applicants. For the camera itself, the university video interview questions guide lists the question types Rotman and Engineering draw from, and how long a video interview answer should be settles the 60-versus-90-second question. Then set AcceptMe’s timers to your program’s and run it until the first ten seconds stop being the hardest part.