Getting Into a Competitive Ontario College Nursing Program: Admission Averages and Requirements

Choosing between RPN and RN

The Practical Nursing pathway gets you working sooner, since it runs about half the length of the collaborative BScN. Registered Practical Nurses work across hospitals, long-term care, and community settings, often with a defined scope of practice that differs from a Registered Nurse's.

The collaborative BScN takes longer and costs more overall, but opens a wider scope of practice and a path toward specialized nursing roles later. Some Practical Nursing graduates apply to a BScN program afterward with advanced standing, so the two pathways aren't fully separate if your goals change partway through.

Two nursing pathways at Ontario colleges

Ontario colleges offer two main nursing pathways. The Practical Nursing (PN) diploma runs about 2 years and prepares you to write the licensing exam to become a Registered Practical Nurse. The collaborative Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN), delivered jointly by a college and a partner university, runs about 4 years and prepares you to write the licensing exam to become a Registered Nurse.

Both pathways lead to registration through Ontario's nursing regulator, and both place you in real clinical settings during the program, so both carry requirements beyond your academic average.

Prerequisite courses to plan for

Most nursing programs need an OSSD or equivalent, with Grade 12 English among your completed courses. Grade 12 Biology is a common prerequisite too, and some programs add Chemistry or a Grade 11 math course. Check the specific program page for your target college and campus, since exact prerequisites differ and change between intakes.

Conestoga College , for example, lists its Practical Nursing diploma as a highly competitive program and also offers a Pre-Health Sciences Pathway for applicants who need to complete prerequisites first.

How selection works

Nursing programs at busy colleges are competitive because the number of applicants outpaces the number of seats. Colleges rank eligible applicants by their admission average, calculated from required prerequisite courses, then offer seats from the top of that ranking down until the program fills.

There is no single published cutoff average that applies every year. The average needed to get an offer moves with the size and strength of that year's applicant pool, so a program that made offers at one average one intake sometimes needs a different average the next.

Apply before the college's equal consideration date. Conestoga's Practical Nursing program , for example, lists February 1 as its deadline for a September intake and July 15 for a January intake. Applying after that date still works, but the college reviews your file after everyone who applied on time, when fewer seats remain open.

What happens after a conditional offer

Nursing programs require health and safety clearance before your first clinical placement. Common requirements across Ontario programs include proof of immunization, a Vulnerable Sector Check, and current CPR certification.

Start gathering these documents as soon as you get an offer. Immunization records and background checks take weeks to process, especially if you lived in more than one city. Ask your specific college's nursing department for its exact document checklist and submission deadline, since requirements differ by college and by hospital placement partner.

Improve your chances

• Take the university (U) level version of a prerequisite course over the college (C) level version where a program accepts both, since competitive programs weigh course level in practice.

• Apply to more than one nursing program if you qualify. Your ontariocolleges.ca application lets you list up to 3 choices at any single college and 5 choices total.

• Watch for waitlist movement. Competitive nursing programs keep a waitlist and make additional offers into the summer as accepted applicants decline seats.

If you're a mature student or studied outside Canada

Colleges run mature student admission routes for applicants without a recent Grade 12 record, often using an assessment or upgrading courses instead of an OSSD average. If you completed your schooling outside Canada, expect to submit your transcripts for an equivalency assessment before a college calculates your admission average.

Contact your target college's admissions office directly if you fall into either category. The prerequisite courses stay the same, English and Biology among them, but the path to proving you meet them looks different from a current Ontario high school applicant's path.

Build a folder with your official transcripts, any equivalency assessment results, and English proficiency test scores if your prior schooling was not in English, well before the deadline. Nursing admissions offices process these files by hand, and a missing document delays your file behind applicants whose paperwork arrived complete.