How to Get Into U of T From Iran: Grades, English, Rotman Video

What U of T looks at from an Iranian applicant

U of T’s international high school requirements by country lists Iran as: “Certificate of Dore Dovom Motavasete. Prior to 2019: Pre-university Year Certificate and Diploma Metevaseth.” If you finished Grade 12 under the 6-3-3 system, the diploma is the credential; if you hold the older Diplom-Motevaseteh plus the Pish-Daneshgahi year, submit both. Nothing on the page mentions the Konkur, and U of T does not use it.

U of T Engineering, which publishes its own out-of-country requirements, adds the only published number for Iranian grades at U of T: “Grades of 14 or higher are recommended for admissions consideration.” It also states the document rule the whole university applies: “original and notarized English-translated copies” of secondary school transcripts “showing all years of study including current interim results.” U of T’s required documents page repeats it: documents in a language other than English or French need notarized translations, uploads go through the Join U of T portal, and official transcripts from the school are always required to finalise an offer. UBC refuses notarized copies, so an Iranian applicant needs two document sets.

The grades that get offers

Fourteen out of 20 is the published recommendation for Engineering consideration, a floor for being read, not a mark that gets an offer. U of T does not publish cut-offs for any faculty; Engineering and Rotman offers sit well above 14 and U of T does not say where. For Arts and Science the pool is wider and the bar varies by campus and program.

Prerequisites come from the program pages rather than the Iran entry. U of T’s international high school requirements says senior-level English is required for all programs and calculus for “most math, science, computer science and commerce programs,” with chemistry and physics varying by program. Read against an Iranian transcript:

Conditional offers are made on the previous year’s grades and in-term Grade 12 results, so Grade 11 plus the first Grade 12 interim is the file most Iranian applicants are decided on.

English proficiency: not waived, and a scale change to know about

U of T’s English language requirements exempt students with four or more years of full-time study in an English-language school in Canada or in a country where English is the dominant language. Iranian schooling does not qualify. Minimums, checked September 2026: IELTS Academic 6.5 with no band below 6.0; TOEFL iBT, for tests after January 21, 2026, overall 4.5 with 4.5 in Writing and 4.0 in Speaking on the new scale (89 with 22 in Writing and Speaking on the old one); Duolingo English Test 120 with 120 in Production; CAEL 70 with no part below 60; PTE Academic 65 with no part below 60; Cambridge C1 or C2 at 180 with 170 per component. Results must arrive by your supporting-document deadline, which for Engineering and Music is January 15, 2027 and for most other programs February 1, 2027.

How and when to apply for Fall 2027 entry

Dates from U of T’s dates and deadlines page and the faculty pages; confirm each before you plan around it.

• Late September 2026: OUAC 105 opens. U of T’s applications page offers a second route, the U of T International Application (C$196, non-refundable), only for applicants outside Canada who have never studied here and are applying to no other Ontario university. If Waterloo or McMaster is also on your list, it is OUAC 105. Submit one, never both.
• November 7, 2026: recommended application date for the first round; requirements complete by December 2. Engineering and Rotman use December 1 as their early date.
• January 15, 2027: application deadline for most programs; Engineering’s Online Student Profile and documents; Music questionnaire.
• February 1, 2027: documents for Arts & Science and most other programs; Rotman Commerce supplemental application.
• January to late May 2027: decisions, with some programs into the summer.
• About a week after applying: the Join U of T portal email arrives; every official message, including the offer, lands there.

Pearson scholarship candidates run earlier: the school nominates by October 9, 2026, the admission application is in by October 16, and the scholarship application by November 6, 2026.

The part you control: the supplementals, where they exist

Arts and Science, including Computer Science, has no supplemental application. The file is the transcript and the test.

Rotman Commerce. Rotman’s supplemental application page describes “short written and video responses” on the Kira Talent platform, a C$52 fee paid with the OUAC application, December 1, 2026 for early consideration and February 1, 2027 at the latest. In recent cycles that has meant a pre-shared video question you can prepare, a random one seen only when the timer starts, and short timed written answers. The Rotman Commerce supplemental application questions cover the format in detail.

Engineering. The Engineering supplemental application is mandatory and its timed part, the Personal Profile, is “three timed video responses” assessing “reasoning and communication skills.” Recommended by December 1, final January 15. The Engineering Online Student Profile questions and, for EngSci, the EngSci profile guide give practice questions written to the format. UTSC Management has its own supplementary; see the UTSC Management BBA supplementary application.

For an Iranian applicant the timed video is the part that punishes surprise: years of written English exams, almost no spoken English against a clock, and the accent is not the problem, the pause is. 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 closest thing to a Kira session you can run from a bedroom in Tehran. Do six before December.

Money: tuition, living costs, scholarships, proof of funds

U of T publishes fees by program in its Tuition Explorer rather than one table. Engineering’s finances page gives the clearest published figure: international tuition of C$70,060 for 2025-26 plus C$2,203.84 in incidental fees and C$792 for UHIP health insurance. Arts and Science and Rotman sit below Engineering; pull the exact 2026-27 line for your program from the Explorer linked on U of T’s finances page, and budget C$1,000 to C$2,000 a year for books on U of T’s own estimate. Residence and meal plans are priced per building on the housing site.

Scholarships, from U of T’s international scholarships page: admitted students are automatically considered for the President’s Scholars of Excellence Program (about 150 a year) and the University of Toronto Scholars on admission average. Arts and Science’s Global Scholarship, covering full international tuition for four years, is automatic; Engineering’s international scholarships, up to C$35,000 a year renewable, require the Financial Information section of the Online Student Profile by January 15; UTSC and UTM have International Scholar Awards. The Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship covers tuition, books, fees and residence for four years for about 37 students, needs a school nomination, and for Fall 2027 has the October and November dates above. Iranian schools almost never know they can nominate. Ask in September.

For the permit, IRCC’s financial support page requires a single applicant outside Quebec to show C$23,448 for living costs (applications on or after September 1, 2026) plus first-year tuition and travel; six months of bank statements are accepted, foreign accounts included. The Iranian complication is getting money there: Iranian banks have been largely cut off from international transfers since 2012 and students describe paying tuition through currency-exchange intermediaries that take ten to fourteen days per transfer, as reported in May 2026. A relative’s account outside Iran, funded before the offer, is what the deposit rests on.

The study permit from Iran

You need an Ontario Provincial Attestation Letter with the application; IRCC’s attestation page says to ask your school how to get one; U of T issues the Ontario letter to admitted students who have accepted, and the Join U of T portal is where to look for it, so accept the offer as soon as you are sure. The 2026 cap is 309,670 application spaces with 104,780 allocated to Ontario, per IRCC’s allocation notice; 2027 figures follow in the new year. The Student Direct Stream closed in November 2024 and never covered Iran anyway.

There is no Canadian visa office or application centre in Iran. IRCC’s VAC list names Ankara, Istanbul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Yerevan and says any VAC will do when your 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 treat the one-page statement as the last piece of writing in the application, because it is.

A worked Engineering video answer

Niloufar, mathematics-physics track in Isfahan, 18.7 average, applying to Mechanical Engineering. A practice question written to the Personal Profile format, not a real U of T prompt: “Describe an engineering idea that interests you and explain it to someone with no technical background.” Two minutes of prep, two minutes to answer.

Timing note: three short blocks, the idea, the mechanism, the limit. The last block is the reasoning U of T says it is assessing; if you run long, cut the second block, never the third.

Mistakes applicants from Iran make

• Uploading Persian transcripts without notarized translations. U of T states the rule twice. Files sit unreviewed until the translation arrives.
• Reading “14 or higher” as the Engineering bar. It is the floor for consideration. The offers sit far above it and U of T does not say where.
• Using the International Application while also applying to Waterloo. That breaks its conditions and cancels the later application without refund. OUAC 105 covers every Ontario school.
• Leaving the English test to January. Engineering wants it by January 15 and the nearest centre is in another country.
• First time on camera being the real Rotman session. Kira gives you practice runs on the interface, not at thinking in English against a clock.

Where to go next

The same transcript goes west and east: how UBC reads Iranian grades and its 16-out-of-20 floor and how McGill decides an Iranian file on grades alone and adds the CAQ. The by-country guide to Canadian university admissions for international applicants lines every credential up against the three schools. The OUAC 105 walkthrough is written for BC students but the form is the one you fill in, and the video interview practice method is the drill for Rotman and Engineering. Then run six timed questions on AcceptMe before December so the Kira countdown is the seventh.