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McMaster University

Canada Canada

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THE World Ranking: 103

Overview

Overview

McMaster University has been helping students achieve academic success for over 125 years across its four regional campuses around Hamilton, Ontario. McMaster is a public university doing an amazing amount of important research. Its total research output is actually bigger than some universities that are twice its size. When a potential future student adds up the high-quality teaching and the research output, it’s easy to see why McMaster is one of the top universities in all of Canada.

 

Hamilton, McMaster’s city, has a nickname: the ‘City of Waterfalls’. This is because the nature that surrounds the area includes many natural waterfalls and perfect hiking sites. Students living in Hamilton and learning at McMaster can enjoy the excitement of the city and the beauty of nature all in one place.

 

Though Hamilton is a great place to live, it’s not the main reason students choose McMaster. McMaster has been innovating since 1887, and it’s not stopping now. Some of Canada’s smartest scholars teach at the university, and there are some globally recognised research centres across the campus sites. From doctors to scriptwriters, there are lots of famous and respected McMaster alumni to look up to.

 

As mentioned briefly, McMaster University does a lot of research and funds many valuable, world-improving student and staff projects. The institution can take credit for lots of advances in the fields of science and medicine. On the topic of funding, McMaster also offers many scholarships and awards to its students to support their studies. Many of these awards are open to international students.

 

Success and hard work are ways of life at McMaster University. For any student who wants to learn, grow, and develop in an environment that will prepare them for work and give them access to some of the best professors in Canada, this university must be high on the list of options.

 

Explore more about studying at McMaster University:

 

Teaching quality

Entry requirements

Scholarships & funding

University structure

Facilities

Student support

Graduate outcomes

 

Teaching Quality

McMaster is one of the top 100 universities in the world (and one of the top five in Canada). It’s known internationally for its amazing teaching quality, important research projects and famous, successful alumni. For example, Nobel Prize winner and physician Bertram Brockhouse was a teaching professor at McMaster University for 22 years, and Lincoln Alexander, a former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, studied at the institution.



Talented academics provide quality teaching to students at McMaster University while completing important work related to their professional field outside of the classroom. Meanwhile, students get the chance to learn from award-winning academics and get involved in exciting work placement and internship opportunities during their studies.

 

Academic researchers at McMaster have been leading the science world for decades with crucial studies like the TOGETHER trial, which won the David Sackett Trial of the Year Award for its role in researching preventative treatments for COVID-19.

 

McMaster University prides itself on creating space for new research projects. Whenever possible, it nominates staff and students for research awards and honours. McMaster research is bold, successful and innovative, and the institution is proud of this.

 

Enjoy high-quality teaching in the classroom and help with essential, world-transforming research in the laboratories and specialist facilities. McMaster is a great jumping-off point for almost any industry and a chance to work with some of the best professors in Canada, whether as an undergraduate student or a postgraduate student.

 

Entry Requirements

McMaster is one of the best universities in Canada, and applications to this institution are competitive. Each course has different entry requirements and deadlines, so careful research is required. Potential applicants can compare programme requirements on the McMaster website to get an idea of what is required for one versus another.

 

There are also some overall university entry requirements. Successful international applicants at the undergraduate level should have completed six grade 12 courses or have a grade average of at least 80 per cent (grade A or the equivalent in their home country), especially in subjects relevant to the course they’ve chosen to study.

 

For example, applicants hoping to study at McMaster for an undergraduate degree in biology will be expected to have received an A in biology at the pre-university level, as well as mostly As in the rest of their classes.

 

Similar university requirements apply to international postgraduate applicants, though they will instead need previous relevant university qualifications (at least a bachelor’s degree in most cases). International students at both levels of study who don’t speak English as a first language and haven’t been taught in an English institution for the last four consecutive years will also need to prove they have the right level of English proficiency.

 

English Score Required

Classes at McMaster are taught in English, and McMaster assessments are submitted and graded in English. So, every student who attends McMaster University needs the right level of English understanding. Without this level of understanding, they won’t be able to get the best out of their educational experience.

 

As mentioned, there are certain exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, international students who don’t speak English as a first language will need to prove their proficiency by getting a certain English score on a test. Lots of different tests are accepted by McMaster, including the Duolingo English Test, the Canadian Academic English Language Assessment (CAEL), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

 

To use the IELTS as an example, applicants will need an overall IELTS band score of at least 6.5 to be considered, with no individual band scores below 6 (the individual bands are reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Applicants with overall band scores above 5 but below 6 can be accepted into the McMaster English Development programme and better prepared for their upcoming education.

 

Admission

The admission rate can vary a lot at McMaster. To give an idea, it has been as low as 12.5 per cent and as high as 44 per cent in just the past five years. McMaster has a selective student admission process, but applicants should see this as a good thing.

 

The university wants to create a culture of excellence by accepting talented, hard-working students into a challenging academic environment. In this environment, the students will be given lots of opportunities to learn, grow and take part in important projects that leave them fully prepared for a professional career. Applicants will benefit from this approach a lot if they do get in.

 

Application forms for each academic year are available from mid-September on the McMaster University application portal. There is also a full guide available on this portal, explaining the university admission journey from start to finish.

 

The application usually takes one to three days to be processed but can take up to a week to be processed during peak times like January and February. There are two undergraduate application form options (one form for applications from Canadian high school students, another for international applicants and Canadian citizens who have been out of education for seven months or more). There are separate forms for postgraduate courses in law, medicine, education, and rehabilitation science.

 

With their applications, all applicants must also provide supporting documents. These documents include secondary education transcripts, legal documents, and a letter of recommendation. International applicants will also be asked for additional documents related to coming over to Canada and continuing their academic studies in a new country.

 

Scholarships & Funding

McMaster University students benefit from lots of different funding and fee support options at every level of study. There are university scholarships, research prizes and bursaries available to claim, usually awarded on academic merit.

 

One exciting postgraduate opportunity is the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. This fellowship is two years long and offers CAD 70,000 per year to fund elite researchers from a range of backgrounds (domestic and international). McMaster University does a lot of real-world research and is known across the globe for its high standards in this area. This means that there’s a lot of research funding available.

 

For undergraduates, there are over 30 different scholarships and prizes in total, reducing fees and awarding monetary gifts to hard-working students. To give an example, the Rainbow Fund is available to students who are LGBTQ+ and in financial need. The Rainbow Fund offers up to CAD 2,500. Another example is the Myra Baillie Academic Grant. Every year, two students from any McMaster programme get this CAD 1,000 Grant if they’re in need of financial aid and have an A grade average.

 

Fees at McMaster are an average of CAD 6,000 per year for domestic students or CAD 50,000 per year for international students. Though it costs more for an international student to attend, fees for overseas study at McMaster are still lower than they are at most other top-ranked universities in Canada.

 

University Structure

McMaster University offers over 3,000 courses across lots of different subject areas. Every programme falls into one of the institution’s six core faculties/schools of learning. Every faculty produces great research each academic year, teaching tomorrow’s leaders and equipping students with academic knowledge and practical skills. The six faculties/schools are:

 

  • The DeGroote School of Business
  • The Faculty of Engineering
  • The Faculty of Health Sciences
  • The Faculty of Humanities
  • The Faculty of Science
  • The Faculty of Social Sciences

 

DeGroote School of Business is recognised across the world for the high-quality training it offers young entrepreneurs and for how fully it prepares them for the world of business. There are seminars, work experience opportunities and lots of chances to learn from award-winning, experienced professors.

 

The science faculties at McMaster are also internationally appreciated for their achievements (including the achievements of McMaster graduates while they were studying). Lots of students at McMaster go on to make big contributions to the scientific community, helped by the modern, fully equipped laboratories and study centres available to them on campus. Research centres and institutes at McMaster include the following (and many more):

 

  • The Biointerfaces Institute
  • The Centre for Mechatronics and Hybrid Technologies
  • The Chanchlani Research Centre
  • The Bertrand Russell Research Centre
  • The Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging
  • The McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI)
  • The McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind (MIMM)
  • The McMaster Physical Activity Centre of Excellence (PACE)
  • The McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute (SCC-RI)
  • The McMaster University Centre for Effective Design of Structures 
  • The Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre
  • The Origins Institute
  • The Statistics Canada Research Data Centre (RDC)

 

Facilities

McMaster was a small school in 1887. Now, 135 years later, it has four student life centres across the area, one campus in Hamilton, one in Niagara, one in Burlington, and one in Waterloo. These campuses contain almost 60 buildings in total, including a brand-new research centre that was carefully designed and built in 2018 to meet new research needs. Keeping things modern and up to date is a big focus at McMaster, as the university never wants to lower its education standards for future students.

 

Campus buildings include student recreation centres for sports and fitness, student activity centres for studying (individually or in a group), teaching rooms and lecture theatres. Every space is designed to support different learning types, from collaboration to quiet study.

 

The library is huge, with bookable rooms and different floors for different study modes. The librarians regularly host free talks, and the library also offers residences to established creative writers, who can then mentor students throughout the year.

 

McMaster has nearly 70 research institutes and a state-of-the-art research centre, which shouldn’t be surprising for potential applicants who are already aware that this is the most research-intensive university in the country.

 

Plus, every campus is designed to have lots of room for socialising and relaxing between classes. There are shops, cafés, and restaurants for every student to enjoy. There’s a Students’ Union building. There’s room for a million different extracurriculars.

 

Accommodation

McMaster has a competitive admission process. The university gets a lot of applications which unfortunately end up being unsuccessful. This means that although on-campus student accommodation is available at McMaster University, it can’t be applied for until a student has officially been accepted.

 

Living on campus isn’t a guarantee or a requirement, but many students (especially first year students) do start their student life in university accommodation just a short walk from their classes. 70 per cent of students share a bedroom with a roommate. McMaster does also offer single-occupancy rooms and self-contained studio apartments, but these are more expensive.

 

Across the four McMaster campus sites, there are 13 accommodation buildings. Some of the buildings are modern. Some of them are historical, like Wallingford Hall. Wherever a student chooses to stay, they will benefit from a clean, well-maintained room with all the amenities and facilities they need easily available to them. The options are:

 

  • The Bates Residence
  • Brandon Hall
  • Edwards Hall
  • Hedden Hall
  • Les Prince Hall
  • The Mary E. Keyes Residence
  • Matthews Hall
  • McKay Hall
  • Moulton Hall
  • The Peter George Centre for Living and Learning
  • Wallingford Hall
  • Whidden Hall
  • Woodstock Hall

 

All students planning to live on a McMaster campus will need to purchase a meal plan, and this will grant them access to three freshly cooked meals a day during the academic year. All students not planning to live on a McMaster campus will need to find their own accommodation close to the site where they’ll be studying. McMaster University is in a beautiful part of Canada, and there are lots of private rental options available, from shared student houses to self-contained studio apartments.

 

Student Support

Every year, McMaster hosts a Welcome Week to help new students find their feet. This orientation phase guides them through getting used to the campus and acclimatised to their accommodation (whether on campus or off). Returning students can also use Welcome Week as a chance to say, ‘Hello again!’ There are social gatherings, welcome events, workshops, and games to encourage new connections and make everyone feel at home.

 

This Welcome Week is one small part of McMaster’s wider student support programme. This is a caring university that wants to support its driven and hard-working students as well as possible. Other student services cover everything from academic student support to financial advice to protecting students’ mental health and wellbeing.

 

The Student Affairs office has departments for student guidance, career advice and mentorship. The financial aid department gives out scholarships and bursaries and provides a place where students can always turn with their money worries. There are specialist services for international students and Indigenous students.

 

Finally, there’s the McMaster University Wellbeing Centre, responsible for medical advice and counselling. Counselling is available to students online and in person. One-to-one or group sessions with a student guide can be arranged (whichever the student in need would prefer).

 

 

Graduate Outcomes

McMaster University wants every enrolled student to have a great educational experience. The institution also wants every student to be fully prepared for the world of work. At McMaster, there are lots of placement, research, and networking opportunities with respected industry professionals. When combined with the university’s great career services, these opportunities create some strong graduate outcomes and post-university job prospects.

 

A great student resume full of important academic work and professionally recognised projects is hard to beat in terms of employer interest. This is especially true when it’s combined with a graduate who fully understands the expectations of the working world, performs well in interviews, and has lots of helpful, practical skills.

 

McMaster employment services include regular career fairs, one-to-one career guide appointments (where students can talk through their career options and get personalised, detailed advice about their future path), employability skills workshops and more.

 

There’s also a strong McMaster University alumni network. Students benefit from this because talented professionals will regularly return to the university to speak with them and share their expertise. Meanwhile, recent graduates continue to benefit from useful career services, networking events and McMaster’s relationships with local, national, and international employers.

 

This university’s powerful combination of research/internship opportunities and networking events makes it much more than a place to learn. McMaster is also a place to start a career. Past undergraduates tend to make, on average, between CAD 50,000 and CAD 60,000 a year. Past postgraduates who continued their studies often earn around CAD 100,000 a year (and there are lots of unique, highly rated postgraduate programmes to consider at McMaster).

 

Subjects you can study at McMaster University

  • Applied and Pure Sciences Applied and Pure Sciences
  • Business and Management Business and Management
  • Computer Science and IT Computer Science and IT
  • Creative Arts and Design Creative Arts and Design
  • Education and Training Education and Training
  • Engineering Engineering
  • Health and Medicine Health and Medicine
  • Humanities Humanities
  • Law Law
  • MBA MBA
  • Social Studies and Media Social Studies and Media
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Key facts and figures at McMaster University

Rankings

Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024
Source: THE

103

OVERALL SCORE

66.3%

TEACHING

43.8%

INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK

87.3%

INDUSTRY INCOME

100%

RESEARCH

51.3%

CITATIONS

93%
QS World University Rankings 2024
Source: QS

189

Academic Ranking of World Universities 2023
Source: ARWU

98

Student life in numbers

COSTS PER YEAR
LIVING COSTS

CAD$12,680

CAMPUS ACCOMMODATION

CAD$7,925

AVERAGE TUITION FEE PER YEAR

UNDERGRADUATE

CAD$36,650

POSTGRADUATE

CAD$92,000

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