When Evan Wray utilized to the College of Calgary engineering program final 12 months, he felt assured his common of 89.5 per cent could be adequate to earn him admission.
“I 100 per cent felt like I had the grades,” mentioned Wray, who graduated from Calgary’s STEM Innovation Academy public constitution college within the spring.
This system was his best choice — it could permit him to economize by residing at house, and he needs to work within the oil and gasoline business.
As a substitute, he was shocked to be taught he had been rejected, and left scrambling to determine a back-up plan he didn’t take into account he would wish.
“We were told growing up that if you work hard, and you work as hard as you can to achieve something, that you’ll get it, right?” mentioned Wray.
“And I worked extremely hard to get my grades up, and that just didn’t happen. And believe me, I studied as hard as I could, I did everything that I could.”
Evan Wray was shocked to be rejected from the College of Calgary’s engineering program, his best choice, after he utilized with an 89.5% common. (Submitted by Evan Wray )
Wray determined to take a niche 12 months, and was capable of finding a job working in building, for which he considers himself fortunate given the difficult state of the youth labour market.
Whereas he works, he’s upgrading a few of his highschool programs on-line, with plans to re-apply to engineering on the U of C subsequent 12 months — crossing his fingers the end result this time can be totally different. He hopes to enhance his odds with early admission.
He’s not alone. Wray says different buddies and classmates are in the identical boat, and on-line, college students with grades within the excessive 80s have shared their woes of being rejected from the exact same program.
It’s a narrative of extra college students vying for a coveted variety of areas not totally retaining tempo with Alberta’s booming inhabitants. The elevated competitors means grades that may have been sufficient to earn admission a number of years in the past now not make the reduce.
The College of Calgary mentioned in a press release it “continues to see strong domestic demand for its academic programs related to significant province-wide population growth among university-aged individuals.”
The varsity says the full variety of functions elevated 9 per cent in 2025, in comparison with the 12 months prior.
“As demand continues to outpace available capacity, admission averages are rising accordingly,” the assertion reads.
1 out of each 4 certified candidates will get in to the College of Calgary
The College of Calgary is actually at “full capacity,” president Ed McCauley informed the Calgary Eyeopener earlier this month, with 38,000 college students presently enrolled.
“This is the major challenge we face at the University of Calgary,” mentioned McCauley. “And we know in Alberta, there’s going to be a significant increase in the number of students who want to get in to post-secondary institutions”
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And which means college students like Wray, with robust averages, are being rejected.
“Right now very, very high averages [are needed] to get into the University of Calgary. For every four qualified students, we can only accept one,” mentioned McCauley.
Extra spots have been added to some in style packages on the College of Calgary in recent times.
“Since 2022, UCalgary has expanded enrolment capacity in six high-demand faculties, including engineering and science. This growth, in both undergraduate and graduate levels, has been made possible through targeted funding from the Alberta Ministry of Advanced Education, aimed at increasing access to post-secondary education,” the U of C mentioned in a press release.
McCauley mentioned the college anticipates having so as to add 10,000 extra slots by 2030 to satisfy demand, working intently with business, donors, the group and the province to fund that improve.
The College of Calgary says just one out of each 4 certified candidates earns admission. (CBC Information)
The College of Alberta calculates a three-year pattern in terms of averages from highschool college students efficiently making use of. Engineering is listed as requiring grades within the mid to excessive 80s, whereas science wants mid 80s to low 90s, in keeping with its web site.
“Because demand and capacity can change from year to year, both course requirements and admission averages fluctuate,” mentioned the U of A in a press release.
“While some programs are highly competitive, the U of A offers many accessible options for students.”
Calgary’s Mount Royal College mentioned in a press release that admission stays aggressive, “meaning students with higher grades will be considered first.” The varsity mentioned averages have remained pretty constant, with no noticeable improve in grade necessities for science or tech packages.
‘No difference’ between an 80 or a 90 in terms of capability
Lisa Davis, the founding father of STEM Innovation Academy, has been monitoring the escalation, monitoring the averages which might be wanted to get into packages like engineering and the sciences that she says nearly all of her college students gravitate towards.
“Last November, if you looked at the University of Calgary’s website, it said you needed mid-to-high 80s to get into engineering. The cutoff actually ended up being 90 per cent,” mentioned Davis.
That ‘cutoff’ is the college’s admission averages finalizing provides information, which exhibits the highschool averages for the autumn consumption of scholars. Engineering lists a 90 per cent common for fall 2025 — simply larger than what Wray had when he utilized.
The 2024 tracker put the engineering common admission at 88.5 per cent.
The College of Calgary says “as demand continues to outpace available capacity, admission averages are rising accordingly.” (College of Calgary)
“It’s particularly frustrating because when you talk to faculties like engineering for example, they will tell you that there’s no difference between a student who had an 80 per cent in entrance and a student who had a 90 per cent in entrance in terms of how they perform in engineering,” mentioned Davis.
Davis began this college 12 months talking with college students in regards to the actuality that they may quickly face when making use of to school.
“I was talking to both our Grade 11 and our Grade 12 students, sharing with them this in-year escalation on marks that we saw last year, and you could really see kind of the horror and stress on their faces,” mentioned Davis.
Strain on college students
For Alberta highschool college students there is usually a distinctive added strain in terms of their marks, provided that a lot of their closing grade will come down to at least one examination.
“Our students have this increased rigour because we’re the only province in the country with diploma exams,” mentioned Davis.
Pragnya Gundlapally is a Grade 12 pupil hoping to check well being sciences at college subsequent 12 months.
“It definitely does make me nervous, especially as … a student [in] Alberta because of the diplomas,” mentioned Gundlapally, “For any 30-level course, 30 per cent of my grade would be one of the diplomas.”
As she appears into college packages, she says she has seen grade expectations inflating when she compares year-over-year, which she says brings an elevated sense of strain for herself and her friends.
“I know a lot of people who act in the interest of keeping their grade averages. Some people try to plot their schedules … in such a way that it’s less of a heavy workload for them. Some people only choose to apply with courses they are strongest [in],” she mentioned.
Wray felt the strain all through his Grade 12 12 months.
“It is an unreal amount of pressure, like I was stressing the whole time about it,” mentioned Wray. “Back then, I didn’t know the shortage of spots within all of these programs, and even then it was still stressful.”
STEM careers in demand
Census information from Statistics Canada as of 2021 exhibits Alberta with the best proportion of people that studied engineering — 12.1 per cent of individuals maintain a post-secondary diploma, certificates or diploma within the area, in comparison with 9.6 per cent of individuals total in Canada.
And demand to check engineering is on the rise.
Christopher Yip is the vice chair of Engineering Deans Canada, a corporation that oversees engineering packages at post-secondary institutes throughout the nation. He cites a altering labour market and evolving know-how, like synthetic intelligence, with the elevated curiosity.
Whereas Yip says there was no change to the category necessities with a purpose to apply, “what has obviously changed is the demand for these programs has gone up so significantly over … even the last five years.”
“And that’s what’s really driven the the change, and probably the entering averages, if you want to look at it that way, it’s just that you’ve got so many applicants for basically a fixed number of seats”
This 12 months, his personal program on the College of Toronto has its largest first-year class ever, with 1,500 college students.
“I would love to take more students if I had more physical space, physical classrooms to put students in,” he mentioned.
However house is the important thing situation, with engineering particularly a college that features plenty of hands-on studying, like labs and area programs, Yip notes.
“And that’s not a quick fix. You definitely don’t want to start spinning portables up in parking lots to try and do it,” mentioned Yip. “We need infrastructure … And it’s tough, it’s expensive to do that, to build a building.”
An engineering pupil on the College of Calgary works at a lab desk. Engineering is a research that requires plenty of in-person studying, says Christopher Yip, Vice-Chair of Engineering Deans Canada — and that requires house. (Dave Rae/CBC)
Provincial assessment
The ministry has ordered an knowledgeable panel to assessment how Alberta’s post-secondary funding is allotted and the way it stacks up in opposition to different provinces. Economist Jack Mintz chaired the panel that has now submitted its findings to the federal government.
A report based mostly on the panel’s findings is predicted to be made public this fall.
In a press release, the ministry mentioned the assessment checked out points like “funding allocations, the impact of federal immigration policy on institutions, regulatory and administrative burdens, and Alberta’s competitiveness as a post-secondary destination.”
“We are investing in transforming and modernizing Alberta’s post-secondary system to ensure it remains both accessible and affordable for students,” the assertion mentioned.
“Our government is committed to funding post-secondary education in a responsible way that respects taxpayers, delivers value for students, and ensures Alberta continues to produce the skilled workforce needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow.”
But when adjustments don’t come quickly, Davis worries the scenario will drive extra Alberta college students to look elsewhere for post-secondary education.
“We have set these marks so high that our students are going to be forced to leave the province, pay an additional, you know, $15 to 20,000 a year in living expenses to get a degree they really should be able to access here in Alberta,” mentioned Davis.
