Western Integrated Science (WISc) Supplemental Application

Western Integrated Science (WISc) is a capped honours program of about 60 students a year, and Western says plainly that applying is a two-step process: the OUAC application to Science, then a WISc supplemental application. What the program page does not do is publish the questions on that form. Here is what Western does say, what the form is for, and how to get ready for it without guessing at prompts.

By the AcceptMe team 7 min read Updated

What Western publishes about the WISc application

The WISc “How to Apply” page is short and worth quoting. Admission is “competitive and is limited to only 60 students each year.” Beyond the general Science requirements, applicants “also require Grade 12U Chemistry (SCH4U), or equivalent.” Then the two steps: on the OUAC site you “apply to Science (code ES)” and choose Western Integrated Science as your subject of major interest, and separately you complete the WISc supplemental application, which is a Western-hosted online form linked from the page. Both are required to be considered for the program; the OUAC application on its own gets you considered for Science, not WISc.

Two things the page does not publish: the questions the supplemental application asks, and an admission average for WISc as distinct from Science. This guide will not invent either. If you have an offer of consideration in hand and the form in front of you, the form is the source; everything below is about what a program built the way WISc is built is likely to want to read, and how to prepare that material before the form opens.

Dates. Western’s WISc page, at the time of writing, still carries the 2026-entry cycle: “Applications received before April 6, 2026, will receive full consideration. Applications received after that date will be reviewed until all space have been filled.” The Fall 2027 date had not been posted. Assume a similar early-April window and confirm on Western’s WISc How to Apply page before you plan. Note that this is later than every Ontario supplementary application in January and February, which makes it easy to forget.

How the supplemental application is used

Western does not publish a rubric, so read the structure of the program instead. WISc is a four-year honours program that combines “both breadth across the sciences and depth in one particular area of science.” Every student takes the Integrated Science course series (IS 1000 and 1001 in first year, built around four interdisciplinary questions, through to an independent research project supervised by a faculty member in fourth year) alongside one of nine disciplines: Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Science, Genetics, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Physics, or Synthetic Biology. Third year includes work with local community organizations, and there is an optional 8- to 16-month paid internship.

A program capped at 60 with that shape has one selection problem: finding students who will thrive in a small cohort that moves between disciplines, and who will not spend first year wishing they had done straight Biology. The supplemental application is the only place in a Science application where Western can see that. Treat it as a fit check, not an essay contest, and expect anything you write to be read against the question “does this person actually want the integrated part?”

What WISc asks for beyond grades, and how to prepare it

  • Evidence you like more than one science. Not a claim that you do; a moment where a question in one subject sent you into another. If you cannot think of one, spend an afternoon on it now. The IS courses are organized around interdisciplinary questions, and a reader will recognize a student who already thinks that way.
  • A discipline you would go deep in, held loosely. You do not have to have chosen. But “I am interested in everything” reads as not having looked. “Probably Genetics, because of X, though the Earth Sciences stream surprised me” reads as someone who read the program page.
  • Something you did that was not a course. A science fair project, a job, a long hobby, a data set you collected for fun. Small cohorts are built from people who bring something into the room.
  • Why a cohort of 60. Western sells small classes; a form for a capped program will read for whether you want them. If you learn by talking, say so with an example.

Practice prompts written to the program

Because Western does not publish the WISc questions, these are AcceptMe’s practice prompts written to what the program page says WISc is: breadth across sciences, depth in one, a research thesis, community work, a small cohort. They are not Western’s questions. Draft each at 200 to 250 words. When the real form opens, you will have the material and the sentences; you will only need to fit them to the actual prompts.

  1. Describe a question you had in one science subject that you could only answer by using another. What did you do, and what did you find?
  2. Which of the nine WISc disciplines would you choose for depth today, and what specifically made you choose it? Name one other you would be sorry to give up.
  3. Tell us about a scientific project, experiment or investigation you carried out on your own initiative. What went wrong, and what did you do about it?
  4. Fourth-year WISc students complete an independent research project. If you had to propose one now, what would it be, and what is the first thing you would need to learn to start?
  5. Describe a time you explained a scientific idea to someone outside the sciences. What did you have to change about how you explained it?
  6. Why a program of about 60 students rather than a large first-year science cohort? Use one experience of learning in a small group to answer.
  7. Tell us about a time you were wrong about something scientific and how you found out.

A worked answer

Sample answer to prompt 1, about 230 words

In Grade 11 chemistry we were told that the reaction in a hand warmer is exothermic and that was that. What I wanted to know was why the ones from the dollar store went cold in twenty minutes and the ones my dad used for ice fishing lasted eight hours, when the packets said the same ingredients. The chemistry answer, iron oxidizing, did not explain the difference. The answer turned out to be physics and a bit of engineering: the rate of the reaction depends on how fast oxygen reaches the iron, which depends on the pore size of the packet material and how much salt and vermiculite is mixed in to hold water. I tested it badly at first, just timing packets on the kitchen counter, then better, with a probe thermometer and a spreadsheet, and I cut one of each open and looked at the filling under a school microscope. The cheap ones used a finer iron powder, which reacts faster and burns out faster. I did not get a full explanation, but I got a graph that made sense, and I noticed that the chemistry, the material science and the measurement problem were all the same problem. That is the kind of question I want to keep asking, and it is why I want a program that does not make me pick a department first.

The answer names a real question, crosses two disciplines because it had to rather than to impress, shows a method improving, admits the limit of what was found, and connects to the program in one sentence at the end rather than a paragraph at the start.

Mistakes specific to WISc

  • Doing step one and not step two. Choosing WISc as your subject of major interest on OUAC is not the application. The supplemental form is separate and on Western’s site.
  • Forgetting SCH4U. It is required for WISc on top of the general Science requirements.
  • Missing an April deadline because every other deadline was January. Put it in the calendar the day you apply.
  • Writing a straight-Biology or straight-Physics application. A reader can admit that student to Science. WISc needs the integrated part to be real.
  • Listing interests instead of showing one. One question you chased across two subjects beats six subjects you like.
  • Copying a prompt list from a prep site as if it were the form. Nobody outside Western publishes the questions. Prepare the material, then answer what the form actually asks.

Where to go from here

Most WISc applicants are holding other Ontario science and engineering applications with published formats; the guide to every Ontario supplementary application lines them up with their dates. If Western Engineering is on your list, the Casper for Western Engineering guide covers a completely different kind of assessment with an earlier deadline. The stand-out guide rewrites three ordinary drafts line by line, and the interest list in disguise it fixes first is exactly the WISc failure mode. When you have a draft answer to one of the prompts above, paste it and the prompt into AcceptMe’s essay coach and read the notes; the ones tagged tighten are usually where the integrated part got lost.

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