If you are an international student dreaming of a Canadian university, the most important word in your application is not your percentage — it is your stream.
Two streams, two very different races
Every Ontario university application runs through OUAC, the Ontario Universities' Application Centre. Applicants are placed in one of two streams. Group A (formerly OUAC 101) is the stream for students earning an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Group B (formerly OUAC 105) is for everyone else — students from local curricula all over the world applying from the outside.
Why the stream matters
In Group A, your file is reviewed against familiar Ontario course codes, familiar grading and familiar standards. In Group B, you apply in the same pool as everyone else from all over the world, and admissions teams must evaluate curricula they may not know, often through external conversion tables.
How an online OSSD puts you in Group A
When you earn your OSSD — even fully online, from your home country — you hold the same diploma as a student sitting in an Ontario classroom. Your Grade 12 courses are real Ontario credits, so you apply as an Ontario secondary school applicant. You can see every option in the OSSD course catalogue and compare costs on the tuition and scholarships page.
What this means for your plan
- Your marks are read on the scale Ontario universities use natively
- Your transcript travels through the same channels as local students
- You are measured against the entry requirements published for each program
The OSSD does not lower the bar for university admission — it simply moves you to the stream where the bar is defined, transparent and familiar. That is what applying like a local means. If you are comparing your options, the international students page breaks the full picture down, and you can start your application in minutes on the EGOS admissions form.