Posted on Jan. 15: Student demand high for McMaster

The numbers are in and the message is clear. McMaster is a popular place with students seeking entrance into university. So popular, in fact, that about 39,000 applications from Ontario high school students have been received for the approximately 3,900 spaces McMaster will be able to offer this year.

And as Wednesday's midnight application deadline neared, this number out of the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC) continued to grow.

McMaster signed an enrolment target agreement with the government, which means the University has agreed to admit approximately 3,900 Ontario high school students. The total level one class target is about 4,900.

Once the OUAC has received the applications, it will gather the grades of students who are writing final term one exams this month. Grades will be submitted to OUAC in February, which will then process, verify and submit marks to universities electronically by April 3, Granger says. McMaster's Enrolment Management Team (EMT) will review the grades with deans and “at that point, the University will start to make early offers of admission to the best students,” Granger says. A second round of offers will be made in late May after the receipt to term two interim grades. All offers will be made to McMaster applicants by June 9 and those offered admission are required to respond by June 16.

While it would be normal for McMaster to make 16,000 to 18,000 offers of admission, this year all benchmarks are lost because of the abnormal growth in application numbers, says Granger. “While we know there is an increase in the number of applications, it is too early to know the academic standing of students. Every statistic we typically use to predict is different this year because we don't know what is in the mind of students. There have never been circumstances like this to compare it to. In addition, we know that some applicants who do not receive an acceptable offer of admission will consider returning to high school.”

Recommendations made by the EMT will help the University forecast for next year, he says. “It remains to be seen how many students will decide to extend their high school experience. We will need to assess that at the end of the cycle and then we will look ahead to 2004.”

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The numbers are in and the message is clear. McMaster is a popular place with students seeking entrance into university. So popular, in fact, that about 39,000 applications from Ontario high school students have been received for the approximately 3,900 spaces McMaster will be able to offer this year.<p><br />
<br />
And as Wednesday&#039;s midnight application deadline neared, this number out of the Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC) continued to grow.<p><br />
<br />
McMaster signed an enrolment target agreement with the government, which means the University has agreed to admit approximately 3,900 Ontario high school students. The total level one class target is about 4,900.<p><br />
<br />
Once the OUAC has received the applications, it will gather the grades of students who are writing final term one exams this month. Grades will be submitted to OUAC in February, which will then process, verify and submit marks to universities electronically by April 3, Granger says. McMaster&#039;s Enrolment Management Team (EMT) will review the grades with deans and "at that point, the University will start to make early offers of admission to the best students," Granger says. A second round of offers will be made in late May after the receipt to term two interim grades. All offers will be made to McMaster applicants by June 9 and those offered admission are required to respond by June 16.<p><br />
<br />
While it would be normal for McMaster to make 16,000 to 18,000 offers of admission, this year all benchmarks are lost because of the abnormal growth in application numbers, says Granger. "While we know there is an increase in the number of applications, it is too early to know the academic standing of students. Every statistic we typically use to predict is different this year because we don&#039;t know what is in the mind of students. There have never been circumstances like this to compare it to. In addition, we know that some applicants who do not receive an acceptable offer of admission will consider returning to high school."<p><br />
 <br />
Recommendations made by the EMT will help the University forecast for next year, he says. "It remains to be seen how many students will decide to extend their high school experience. We will need to assess that at the end of the cycle and then we will look ahead to 2004."

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