Skip to content

📬

Admissions

Admissions Rates (from High School)

Glossary:

  • Applicants: Number of students who apply
  • Admitted Students: Number of students who receive an offer (does not mean they accept)
  • Registered Students: Number of students who accept an offer, and register in classes
  • Admit Rate: % of applicants who receive an offer (does not mean they accept)
  • Yield Rate: % of applicants who register__

Some programs have unusually high admit rates, but few of the actual students who receive offers actually end up registering (low yield rates). Sauder, International Economics, Forestry and Engineering are the programs most prone to this. This generally (but does not always mean) that your chances of receiving an offer in a later round (i.e. not early admissions) are much higher.

This is for a variety of reasons, but generally this implies that this program is viewed as a backup program (in case their first few choices don't work out). For example, the Bachelor of International Economics (BIE) program attracts high performing students, but only a third of students that receive offers end up registering in BIE. This could be because students that are able to acquire a first-round offer in BIE are typically strong candidates for more competitive programs (e.g. Ivy League, uChicago, UofT), and therefore, most students are admitted from the last admissions rounds (after the first few rounds of offers are rejected or rescinded in favour of getting into or getting off the waitlist for better universities).

Arts

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Bachelor of Media Studies (BMS) Sum of APPLICANTS 350 218 209 213 214
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 69 72 73 78 89
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 45 41 31 37 40
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 20% 33% 35% 37% 42%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 65% 57% 42% 47% 45%
Bachelor of Music (BMus) Sum of APPLICANTS 134 144 167 129 157
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 67 85 86 75 93
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 42 61 53 37 55
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 50% 59% 51% 58% 59%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 63% 72% 62% 49% 59%
Bachelor of International Economics (BIE)* Sum of APPLICANTS 471 458 530 634 527
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 312 303 305 384 388
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 90 102 97 94 99
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 66% 66% 58% 61% 74%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 29% 34% 32% 24% 26%
Visual and performing arts Sum of APPLICANTS 1 270 513 450 396
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 1 93 107 101 120
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 0 48 57 41 53
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 100% 34% 21% 22% 30%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 0% 52% 53% 41% 44%

* No, BIE does not have a 4% admission rate. That's a myth.

Applied Sciences

Program Name Values 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Engineering Sum of APPLICANTS 2,342 2,653 2,938 3,307 3,444 3,824 3,695 3,478
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 1,573 1,624 1,879 2,035 2,346 2,473 2,772 3,048
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 650 691 772 784 883 912 1,054 1,060
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 67% 61% 64% 62% 68% 65% 75% 88%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 41% 43% 41% 39% 38% 37% 38% 35%

Land and Food Systems

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Land and Food Systems Sum of APPLICANTS 431 458 591 527 509
Including Applied Biology Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 364 372 505 458 447
Including Global Resource Systems Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 134 99 153 158 142
Including Food and Resource Economics Sum of ADMIT_RATE 84% 81% 85% 87% 88%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 37% 27% 30% 34% 32%
BSc, Food, Nutrition and Health Sum of APPLICANTS 501 534 596 535 481
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 401 446 467 463 420
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 184 216 197 210 215
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 80% 84% 78% 87% 87%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 46% 48% 42% 45% 51%

SALA

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Bachelor of Design in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urbanism Sum of APPLICANTS 371
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 66
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 34
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 18%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 52%

Sauder School of Business

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Bachelor of Commerce* Sum of APPLICANTS 2,130 2,144 2,583 2,448 2,147
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 1,490 1,502 1,524 1,584 1,442
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 680 672 722 695 338**
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 70% 70% 59% 65% 67%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 46% 45% 47% 44% 23%**

* No, Sauder does not have a 6% admissions rate. This is a myth from an uncited Tumblr post from the early 2010s, listing a bunch of random "competitive" university programs in Canada, that was later reblogged by Yahoo News. If anyone tells you Sauder has a 6% admissions rate, they are either lying to you or struggle with basic math and common sense.

** Yes, these numbers are not wrong. There was a huge drop in new BComm student enrollment in 2020 (total 470 new students, which includes post-secondary transfers and high school transfers). However, the overall class size remained the same as with previous years, indicating that nearly all internal transfers to Sauder were approved in 2020. Enrollment stabilized the following year using traditional admissions streams.

Dental Hygiene

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Bachelor of Dental Hygiene Sum of APPLICANTS 110 88 149 117 116
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 22 14 14 7 14
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 12 12 10 7 9
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 20% 16% 9% 6% 12%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 55% 86% 71% 100% 64%

Kinesiology

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Bachelor of Kinesiology (Bkin) Sum of APPLICANTS 562 573 679 694 644
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 349 315 340 350 401
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 192 175 191 196 214
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 62% 55% 50% 50% 62%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 55% 56% 56% 56% 53%

Forestry

Program Name Values 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021
Forest sciences and biology Sum of APPLICANTS 61 59 47 49 45
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 56 55 36 37 45
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 25 20 8 22 13
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 92% 93% 77% 76% 100%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 45% 36% 22% 59% 29%
BSc, Forestry Sum of APPLICANTS 123 118 110 118 112
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 110 91 79 99 109
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 47 42 41 41 46
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 89% 77% 72% 84% 97%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 43% 46% 52% 41% 42%
Forestry, other Sum of APPLICANTS 59
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 58
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 23
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 98%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 40%
Bachelor of Urban Forestry Sum of APPLICANTS 49 85 68 73 86
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 42 73 58 63 79
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 22 33 27 30 36
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 86% 86% 85% 86% 92%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 52% 45% 47% 48% 46%
BSc, Wood Products Processing Sum of APPLICANTS 20 22 29 17 26
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 20 19 25 16 25
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 14 12 14 9 11
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 100% 86% 86% 94% 96%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 70% 63% 56% 56% 44%
BSc, Natural Resource Conservation Sum of APPLICANTS 164 185 188 181 167
Sum of ADMITTED_STUDENTS 149 175 161 164 158
Sum of REGISTERED_STUDENTS 57 63 56 69 56
Sum of ADMIT_RATE 91% 95% 86% 91% 95%
Sum of YIELD_RATE 38% 36% 35% 42% 35%

Mean GPA (2012-2018)

Incoming First-Years

PROGRAM STREAM 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
ARTS Domestic 87.1 87.3 88.1 87.4 87.7 87.6 88.9
International 87.6 87.9 87.8 87.5 87.8 88.1 89.7
COMMERCE Domestic 91.9 92.3 92.5 92.7 92.6 92.9 93.2
International 91.4 90.6 90.7 90.5 90.2 90.7 90.2
ENGINEERING Domestic 90.4 91.7 92.4 92.0 92.8 93.2 93.3
International 91.1 91.3 91.6 91.1 92.6 92.0 93.5
SCIENCE Domestic 92.1 91.9 92.7 92.3 92.9 93.1 93.8
International 90.9 91.5 91.6 91.4 91.7 93.0 94.5

Notes: This does not account for personal profile/supplementary scores.

Second-Year Transfer

PROGRAM Stream 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
ARTS Domestic 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.1 3.2 3.2 3.4
International 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.2 3.1 3.2 3.5
COMMERCE Domestic 3.6 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7
International 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.8 3.7
ENGINEERING Domestic 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6
International 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.6
SCIENCE Domestic 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7
International 3.5 3.4 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.7 3.9

Third-Year Transfer

PROGRAM Stream 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
ARTS Domestic 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.2 3.2 3.3 3.4
International 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.4
COMMERCE Domestic 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.6
International 3.5 3.4 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.6
ENGINEERING Domestic 3.6
International
SCIENCE Domestic 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.5 3.8 3.7
International 3.4 3.8

Source: BC Headset

Taking Summer Courses as an Incoming First-Year Student

If you have already gotten your offer of admission and are planning on starting university early:

  1. Accept UBC's offer of admission and pay the non-refundable acceptance deposit.
  2. Contact UBC Admissions at admissions.inquiry@ubc.ca to confirm whether or not you are a) admitted for the Summer 2020 session AND b) eligible to enroll in Summer term classes. Certain faculties/schools do not allow this (e.g. Commerce due to STTs). Make sure to state that you are keen on starting your studies earlier than September in your inquiry e-mail.
  3. If you are confirmed to be eligible, pay your summer registration deposit.
  4. Register for first-year courses with general seats on your registration date. All incoming first-year students have the same registration date: Fri, Mar 6. You have a specific registration time based on your high school GPA; it indicates the earliest time you can register for courses. To find it, go to the UBC Course Schedule page. Make sure the "Session" is set to "2020 Summer." Go to "Program" on the top bar. View the "Eligibilities for session 2020S" for your time. Register as soon as that time comes, as spots fill up fast. You do not need to pay the tuition fee at the time of registration; the deadline is not until you actually begin taking the course.

Note 1: You can take courses in Term 1, in Term 2, or in both; just make sure that you fulfill the prerequisite high school course credits. Contact your Enrolment Service Advisor by phone or e-mail if you are unsure if you meet specific requirements. They may refer you to the specific department for more information. Mention that you were admitted (by the Admissions Office) into the summer 2020 session.

Note 2: If you have any issues along this process, contact u/zwischenimmerundnie, who successfully did this in 2018 summer.


Thank you to /u/kinost for putting this together!