Waterloo Math and CS AIF: Questions and Sample Answers
Every applicant to Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, including Computer Science, completes the Admission Information Form. It is written only, it is scored, and Waterloo says it is read alongside your grades rather than as a tie-breaker. Here are the questions in their recent form, what the readers are looking for, and how to write 150 words that do work.
The format
The AIF lives in your Waterloo applicant portal. For Mathematics applicants it has been:
- Four written questions, 150 words each, covering a passion or strong interest and what it taught you about yourself; a group or community you have contributed to and whether you led or influenced it; a situation where you or someone else was treated unfairly and what you did; and your primary goal at Waterloo, how you have explored the field, and who you turned to for advice.
- An activities list: what you do outside class, with hours in the past twelve months, ordered by significance.
- Awards and distinctions, with the size of the competition.
- A Mathematics section: courses taken outside day school, repeated courses (with reasons), and a table of contests: Euclid, Fermat, Hypatia, the Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest and the Canadian Computing Competition. Participation in the Euclid or CSMC is required for Faculty of Mathematics entrance scholarship consideration.
How it is read
Waterloo says the AIF is scored and considered alongside grades, and its published advice is to be honest and authentic and to say why you are applying to the program. The four questions map cleanly onto four things the readers want evidence of: sustained interest, contribution to a group, character under pressure, and a reason for being there that survives contact with reality.
The CS admissions context matters too. The program is extremely competitive and most applicants have strong marks and a contest score. The AIF is where two applicants with the same numbers get separated, and the separating factor is specificity. A student who has “always loved computers” reads the same as a thousand others. A student who describes the exact bug that kept them up until 2 a.m. and what they learned about themselves from it does not.
Writing 150 words
One hundred and fifty words is one paragraph with no room for a warm-up sentence. Each question has two or three parts; answer all of them, in order, in about 50 words each. Draft to 200 and cut. The sentence you cut is almost always the first one.
Question by question
A passion or strong interest
The question asks when you started, how long you’ve done it, what you learned about yourself, and how you’ll apply that at Waterloo. The learning-about-yourself part is the one applicants skip, and it is the one the reader is scoring. Not “I learned to persevere” but something specific and slightly surprising.
I started building a text adventure game in Python in Grade 9 because I wanted to make something my younger brother would play. Three years later it has a save system, a map and about forty rooms, and he has played it twice. What I learned about myself was uncomfortable: I’m much better at starting features than finishing them. For a year the game had six half-built systems and nothing playable. What fixed it was a rule I set myself in Grade 11: nothing new until the current thing works end to end. The game got smaller and better. At Waterloo I expect the same pull toward the interesting new thing in every course and club, and I plan to bring the rule with me. One project finished is worth more to me now than three that are almost there.
A group or community
Asks what you contributed, whether you led or influenced decisions, and how the community is better for it. A number in the last part is worth a lot: members added, an event that now runs yearly, a process that survived you leaving.
Treated unfairly
Asks what you did at the time and why, whether you’d act differently now, and whether it changed you. This is the character question. An honest “I did nothing at the time, and here’s what I’d do now” is a stronger answer than a heroic story that reads as invented. The resilience guide covers why a specific action beats a big event.
Your primary goal at Waterloo
Three parts: the goal, how you have explored the field, and who you asked for advice about alternatives. The third part is unusual and applicants miss it. Name a real person and what they said. The reader is checking whether your goal is examined or inherited.
The Mathematics section
- Contests. Write the Euclid and the CCC if you possibly can. Even a modest score is evidence; no score is a gap next to applicants who have one.
- Repeated courses. If you repeated a course, say why plainly. A one-line honest reason is fine; silence is worse.
- Outside courses. An online CS course counts. Say what you did with it, not just that you took it.
Mistakes specific to the Math AIF
- Treating it as a form. It is scored. Give it the drafts you would give an essay.
- Answering one part of a three-part question. Each question has a list of things asked. Tick them all.
- “I’ve always loved math.” Everyone applying has. Say what you did about it last month.
- Skipping the Euclid. Required for scholarships and a real signal for admission.
- Missing the earlier Engineering deadline when you’ve applied to both faculties.
Engineering applicants also have a video interview; the Waterloo Engineering guide covers that side.
Where to go from here
If your worry is that your activities look thin, the no-extracurriculars guide shows how a part-time job or a hobby becomes a scored answer. Before you ask a tool to polish anything, read what Waterloo says about AI on the AIF; it matters here more than on most applications. If Software Engineering is on the same OUAC list, the Waterloo Software Engineering AIF guide covers the extra programming form and the recorded interview question that CS does not ask for. When the six answers are drafted, paste each one with its question into AcceptMe’s essay coach: you get a verdict paragraph and notes pinned to your own sentences, tagged as something that works, needs tightening, or has to be fixed, and the coach never rewrites a word, so the answer stays yours.
Keep reading
- Waterloo Engineering AIF and Video: Sample Answers and Prep How Waterloo reads the AIF's 150-word answers, what the mandatory video interview asks, fifteen practice questions and a worked answer about a build.
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