This year was probably the most competitive in UBC’s history, and the university’s acceptance rate seems unprecedented

For the 2019-2020 cycle, we saw 20,009 domestic undergrad applicants submit an application, and 11,575 receiving an offer of admission to their first choice. This equates to an acceptance rate of 57.84%.

For internationals, 16,162 applications were submitted, with 7,083 receiving an offer of admission into their first choice. This equates to an acceptance rate of 43.82%.

This year, however we saw an increase of 20% in domestic applications, and of 25% in international applications. That means that if the university accepts roughly the same amount of students as last year, we’ll see...

24,011 domestic applications, and 20,203 international applications. This amounts to a total of 44,214.

This equates to a domestic acceptance rate to the first program of choice of 48.20%.

The international acceptance rate this year to the first program of choice will equate to 35.05%.

The total acceptance rate for this year was 42.19%. Which is probably the lowest in the university’s history. Given how the number of applications isn’t likely to stop (nor would UBC want to), we have to start thinking about what this means going forward.