Do I need to apply for University of Waterloo entrance scholarships?

Not for the President's and Merit scholarships or many faculty awards. Other faculty, leadership, identity-based, need-based, and specialized scholarships require an application. Waterloo applicants should review every award under the Awards and financial aid tab in the applicant portal because current deadlines include March 1, April 1, and April 15 depending on the award.

How do I apply for the Waterloo entrance bursary?

Eligible Ontario residents entering full-time university or college for the first time can open the entrance-bursary form in the Waterloo applicant portal starting February 1. The current deadline is April 15. The bursary is worth $1,000 to $5,000, is based on financial need, and requires prior-year income and tax information for the applicant's parents, guardians, or spouse.

Can University of Waterloo students receive OSAP?

Eligible Ontario residents can apply for OSAP, which assesses grants and repayable loans using educational costs and expected financial resources. OSAP is separate from Waterloo scholarships. Current domestic students seeking a Waterloo bursary may need a complete OSAP or other provincial-aid assessment, including all required documents, before the bursary is assessed.

Can I receive OSAP during a Waterloo co-op work term?

Yes. A student on an official co-op work term in Quest can apply for full-time OSAP for living costs even without taking an academic course. Waterloo instructs students to report a 100% course load and report co-op earnings as study-period income. A student with a processed application for the same academic year can use an extension form; otherwise, a new OSAP application is required.

Explore guide

Related resources

Browse universities Browse all resources

On this page

← Back to Resources

University of Waterloo Scholarships & Financial Aid: 2027 Guide

Waterloo does not use one financial-aid application for every source of funding. This guide separates automatic entrance scholarships from application-based awards, explains the Ontario entrance bursary and OSAP, compares current tuition examples, and shows how co-op terms and international-student funding affect a realistic first-year plan.

Reviewed August 25, 2026 · Fall 2027 dates are labelled only where Waterloo has published them

University of Waterloo campus — Waterloo scholarships, bursaries, OSAP, co-op funding, and international awards use separate eligibility and application routes.

2026–2027 cost and funding update

University of Waterloo scholarships and financial aid

Waterloo financial aid is a combination of automatic entrance scholarships, application-based faculty and program awards, need-based bursaries, OSAP or other government aid, work-study, and co-op earnings. There is no single financial-aid application that covers every source. Applicants should use the Waterloo applicant portal for entrance awards and bursaries, then use Quest and Student Awards and Financial Aid after enrolment.

Automatic entrance award

Starts at an 85% average

Eligible first-time, full-time students are automatically considered for Waterloo's Merit and President's scholarships.

Ontario entrance bursary

$1,000–$5,000

Eligible Ontario students with financial need apply in the applicant portal by the current April 15 deadline.

First-year living costs

$16,950–$24,480

Waterloo's current estimate combines $8,250–$10,980 for residence, $4,400–$9,200 for a meal plan, and $4,300 for personal expenses, before tuition and books.

Waterloo first-year tuition estimates for September 2026

Waterloo publishes program-specific estimates for two academic terms, or eight months of full-time study. The figures below include tuition and incidental fees but list books and supplies separately. They are current estimates for students starting in September 2026—not guaranteed Fall 2027 prices. Exact charges appear in Quest roughly one month before each term.

Program or faculty	Ontario domestic	International	Books and supplies
Arts	$9,000	$58,000	$1,500
Computer Science	$16,000	$73,000	$1,500
Engineering and Software Engineering	$19,000	$75,000	$1,500
Environment, Health, or Science	$9,000	$51,000–$54,000	$1,500
Mathematics majors	$9,000	$62,000	$1,500

Canadian citizens and permanent residents living outside Ontario have a separate domestic fee schedule. Architecture has higher supplies costs, aviation students must add flight training, and accounting and finance tuition can rise in upper years. Use Waterloo's official table rather than treating one row as a university-wide price.

Automatic Waterloo entrance scholarships

Waterloo automatically considers students admitted to a full-time, first-year degree program who are beginning university or college for the first time. The admission average includes the required courses for the accepted program, so a student with multiple Waterloo offers can have a different scholarship result for each program. Awards are normally confirmed after early-May grades are reviewed.

Admission average	Automatic scholarship	Current value
95% or higher	President’s Scholarship of Distinction	$2,000 entrance scholarship plus a $1,500 International Experience Award and/or a $1,500 Research Award, subject to award conditions
90% to 94.9%	President’s Scholarship	$2,000 one-time entrance scholarship
85% to 89.9%	Merit Scholarship	$1,000 one-time entrance scholarship

Faculty and program awards can sometimes be combined with a President's or Merit Scholarship. Waterloo currently lists Engineering awards worth up to $25,000, Mathematics awards worth up to $50,000, and Science international awards worth up to $80,000, but eligibility and application rules differ. Read the exact program row and do not assume that every large award is automatic.

Waterloo scholarship deadlines for Fall 2027

Waterloo has started publishing application dates for students who will begin in 2027, but the cycle label is not yet attached to every award page. Treat an explicitly dated 2027 deadline differently from a recurring month-and-day deadline, and confirm the live form after the applicant portal opens.

Published deadline	Opportunity	Fall 2027 status
April 1, 2027	Faculty of Environment leadership, excellence, engagement, and other application-based entrance awards	Explicitly published for students beginning in 2027
April 15	Ontario entrance bursary for eligible first-time, full-time students	Current Waterloo deadline; the bursary page does not yet attach a Fall 2027 year label
April 15	Selected Engineering, Health, Black, and Indigenous entrance awards	Current central-page deadline; confirm the Fall 2027 form in the applicant portal

Do not reuse the February 13, 2026 Science international-scholarship deadline or the March 6, 2026 Mathematics Olympiad Scholarship deadline for Fall 2027. Waterloo has not yet published their 2027 replacements on those faculty forms.

Waterloo entrance bursary for Ontario students

Waterloo's entrance bursary is need-based and does not need to be repaid. It is currently worth $1,000 to $5,000 and is intended for eligible Ontario residents entering full-time university or college for the first time. Waterloo says approximately 1,000 first-year students may receive one.

The form opens February 1 under Awards and financial aid in the applicant portal and currently closes April 15. Applicants need the prior year's income and tax information for parents, guardians, or a spouse. This form is separate from an admission application and separate from OSAP.

Waterloo funding application checklist

1.Use the exact program and residency category in Waterloo’s tuition table or cost calculator; Engineering, Computer Science, accounting, aviation, and Architecture do not have the same costs as a general faculty estimate.
2.Separate automatic awards from application-based awards. A high admission average can trigger a President’s or Merit Scholarship, while some faculty, identity-based, leadership, and need-based awards require forms.
3.Open every Awards and financial aid item in the Waterloo applicant portal. Scholarship, bursary, and faculty forms can have different deadlines and supporting-information requirements.
4.Apply for OSAP or the relevant provincial aid early enough to resolve documents before fees are due. Waterloo bursary eligibility for current domestic students can depend on a completed government-aid assessment.
5.Build a term-by-term plan for academic and co-op terms. Tuition, co-op fees, earnings, OSAP treatment, housing, and bursary eligibility change when the work-study sequence changes.

OSAP and Waterloo bursaries after enrolment

OSAP is an Ontario government assessment that can provide grants and repayable loans. It is not a Waterloo scholarship. Current domestic students applying for a Waterloo bursary may need a completed OSAP or other provincial-aid assessment first. Waterloo's Fall 2026 current-student bursary window runs from July 27 to October 16, and the Winter 2027 window runs from November 23 to February 19.

Waterloo currently lists a maximum full-time bursary of $3,000 per term for Ontario domestic students and $1,200 per term for out-of-province domestic undergraduates. These bursaries address a modest assessed shortfall and are not available during a co-op work term. Applicants should use the current OSAP guide for 2026–2027 rule changes, documents, course-load definitions, and deadlines.

How OSAP works during Waterloo co-op

A student on an official Waterloo co-op work term can apply for full-time OSAP for living costs even without taking an academic course. Waterloo instructs students to report the official work term as a 100% course load and report co-op earnings as study-period income. A student with a processed application for the same academic year can request an extension; otherwise, a new application is needed.

Waterloo's current first-year fee page lists an $836 co-op fee per academic term in which the fee is charged. Students do not pay regular tuition during co-op work terms, but the number of co-op-fee charges varies by program. Compare the full sequence—not just first-year tuition—using the Ontario co-op planning guide.

Waterloo scholarships for international students

Waterloo currently guarantees a $10,000 International Student Entrance Scholarship to eligible international fee-paying students entering most full-time first-year programs in September 2026. No application is required, and the amount is applied as $5,000 toward each of the first two term bills — in late July for the first term and late November for the second. It can be combined with other eligible Waterloo entrance awards.

Waterloo has not yet confirmed that this same universal award and value will apply to September 2027 entrants. The current page also lists exclusions, including transfer students with transfer credit and several professional programs. Fall 2027 applicants should verify the international scholarship page and applicant-portal award before relying on the $10,000 in a financing plan.

Official Waterloo sources

Reviewed August 13, 2026 · Verify Fall 2027 values and deadlines before making a financial commitment

Frequently asked questions

Direct answers based on Waterloo's current tuition, scholarship, bursary, OSAP, co-op, and international-student guidance.

Waterloo's September 2026 estimates cover two academic terms and vary by program and residency. For Ontario students, tuition and incidental fees are approximately $9,000 for Arts, Environment, Health, Science, and most Mathematics programs, $16,000 for Computer Science, and $19,000 for Engineering or Software Engineering. International estimates for those examples range from $51,000 to $75,000. Books, supplies, housing, and personal expenses are additional.

Eligible students entering full-time first-year study for the first time are automatically considered using the admission average for the accepted program. Waterloo currently awards a $1,000 Merit Scholarship for 85% to 89.9%, a $2,000 President's Scholarship for 90% to 94.9%, and a President's Scholarship of Distinction at 95% or higher with a $2,000 entrance award plus eligible $1,500 international-experience and/or research awards.

Waterloo explicitly lists April 1, 2027 for several Faculty of Environment application-based entrance awards. Its central scholarship and bursary pages currently list April 15 for selected Engineering, Health, Black, Indigenous, and Ontario entrance-bursary applications, but those entries do not all carry an explicit Fall 2027 year label. Applicants should not reuse the passed February 13, 2026 Science or March 6, 2026 Mathematics Olympiad deadlines and must confirm each live applicant-portal form.

Waterloo currently guarantees a $10,000 International Student Entrance Scholarship to eligible international fee-paying students entering most full-time first-year programs in September 2026, with no application required. The same universal award has not yet been confirmed for September 2027. Waterloo also lists faculty awards, including Mathematics global scholarships worth up to $40,000 and application-based Science awards worth up to $80,000.

Yes, for students who meet the applicable financial-need and enrolment rules. Waterloo currently lists maximum full-time bursary funding of $3,000 per term for Ontario domestic students and $1,200 per term for out-of-province domestic undergraduates. Co-op work terms are not eligible for this bursary, applications are term-specific, and domestic applicants generally need a completed government-aid assessment.