Universities in Alberta: ApplyAlberta, Fall 2027 deadlines and costs

ApplyAlberta is the province's online system for applying to its public colleges, universities and technical institutes. You make an Alberta.ca account and fill in your profile once. Then you choose Start a New Application at a school, and ApplyAlberta sends you to that school's own portal. You finish the application and pay the fee there.

So it isn't like OUAC. There's no single fee that covers several choices. Each school charges its own fee, and you should expect to pay more than one if you apply to more than one school. The University of Alberta charges $150. The University of Calgary charges $125 if all your education is Canadian, or $145 if any of it is international.

The big benefit is transcripts. Transcript requests are always free through ApplyAlberta, and your Alberta high school transcript is ordered for you. That only works for Alberta records. If you go to school in Ontario or the Caribbean, ApplyAlberta can't get your transcript. You order it yourself, and you list all your Grade 10 to 12 courses, final grades and current courses on the application.

The University of Alberta tells Canadian applicants who aren't already U of A students to start at ApplyAlberta. International applicants start on U of A's own form instead. Mount Royal says to use Apply Alberta if you're a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. St. Mary's in Calgary and The King's University in Edmonton both send you through ApplyAlberta as well.

The University of Calgary tells students who studied in Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan and Yukon to start at ApplyAlberta and pick UCalgary. If you're in Ontario, read UCalgary's how-to-apply page for your own route before you begin.

Athabasca University works differently. It's an open, online university, and you apply on its own site at any time of year.

The research universities in Edmonton and Calgary close early. Both the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary want your Fall 2027 application by March 1, 2027. UCalgary also wants your unofficial transcripts by March 15.

Other schools stay open longer. Lethbridge's general deadline for high school students is June 30, 2027. MacEwan uses June 30 for most programs but March 30 for competitive ones such as Nursing. St. Mary's closes August 1, 2027 for Canadian students, and Mount Royal closes all applications on August 31. These later dates don't mean seats will still be there. Mount Royal makes early offers from November 1 to February 1, then fills the rest while space lasts.

Money matters too. Lethbridge automatically considers you for its Board of Governors Admission Scholarship if you apply by December 15. For dates across Canada, see our Canadian university deadlines page, and compare fees on our application fees page.

Every U of A program uses five Grade 12 subjects, and English 30-1 or an equivalent is always one of them. The U of A's Ontario page maps your courses to Alberta ones. ENG4U or EAL4U counts as English 30-1. MHF4U counts as Math 30-1, MCV4U as Math 31 and MDM4U as Math 30-2. SBI4U, SCH4U and SPH4U count as Biology 30, Chemistry 30 and Physics 30.

Only Grade 12 U or M courses count. Open (4O) and college (4C) courses won't be used, so plan your Grade 12 timetable with that in mind.

U of A admission is competitive. Meeting the minimum average doesn't guarantee a seat, and competitive averages can move during the year. For program-level detail, see our U of A engineering, U of A nursing and UCalgary nursing pages, and the U of A acceptance rate page.

Alberta universities split tuition into two groups: Canadian (or domestic) students and international students. The U of A's estimate is labelled for Canadian students, and UCalgary's calendar shows one domestic rate. Neither page lists a separate, higher rate for Canadians from other provinces.

For 2026-27, the U of A estimates $7,200 in tuition for a first-year general Arts student, plus about $3,700 for books, supplies and fees. Add a single room with a private washroom and a seven-day meal plan, and its estimate reaches $25,700 for first year.

International students pay much more. At UCalgary, a 3-unit course in most faculties costs $3,078.21 for international students compared with $738.66 for domestic students, at the Spring 2026 rates in its calendar. Study in Alberta puts international university tuition at $11,780 to $45,208 for two semesters. If you're applying from the Caribbean on a study permit, use the international figures and read our international students guide.

Alberta has five polytechnics: SAIT in Calgary, NAIT in Edmonton, Lethbridge Polytechnic, Red Deer Polytechnic and Northwestern Polytechnic. They focus on apprenticeship, diploma and certificate programs, and some offer bachelor's degrees. Eight comprehensive community colleges, including Bow Valley, NorQuest, Medicine Hat, Olds, Keyano, Lakeland, Northern Lakes and Portage, offer diplomas and certificates, and some offer degrees.

Transfer Alberta is the province's planning site. Its search tool checks high school course equivalencies and shows whether a post-secondary course or program will transfer to another school. That matters if you start at a college and want to finish a degree later.

Browse our college directory, including SAIT and NAIT, and read our college transfer guide.

Four of the universities in our Alberta directory are independent academic institutions: Burman, Concordia University of Edmonton, The King's University and St. Mary's University. Ambrose and MaKami College are in the same group. They run under their own legislation and are only partly governed by Alberta's Post-secondary Learning Act.

Their dates are usually later than U of A's. Concordia opened Fall 2027 applications on October 1, 2026, and its 2026-27 calendar listed June 30 for BA, BSc and BMgt programs. St. Mary's closes domestic applications on August 1, 2027. King's opens fall applications on October 1 and asks international students to apply by June 15.

Transcripts work differently from out of province. King's requests Alberta transcripts for you, but schools outside Alberta must mail your official transcript straight to King's. Concordia also says students who finished high school outside Alberta must request their own transcripts.

Student loans in Canada come from the province where you're a resident, not the province where you study. Alberta's own policy says its residency rules exist to decide which province each student should apply to. If you're a dependent student, Alberta counts you as a resident only when a parent is living in Alberta when your studies start.

So if your family lives in Ontario, you'd normally apply through Ontario. Our OSAP guide explains how that works. Look for Alberta awards on our Alberta scholarships page too.

Plan for more than one application fee. Each Alberta school charges its own, so three schools means three fees. The U of A's is $150 and UCalgary's is $125 for students with Canadian education.

Put March 1, 2027 on the calendar if your child is looking at the U of A or UCalgary. That's earlier than many families expect from a school far from home. If you're comparing Alberta with schools at home, start with our Ontario universities list and our guide for parents.