How Many CEGEP Program Choices You Can Rank and Whether Order Matters

How many choices you get

Each regional admission service, SRAM , SRACQ and SRASL , sets its own limit on how many program-and-CEGEP combinations you can rank in a single application. That limit is set by the service, applies the same way to every applicant, and changes between admission cycles from time to time. Check the current limit on your service's application portal when you start your file rather than relying on what a friend was told in a previous year.

What stays constant across all three services is the mechanism: you list your choices in order, from most wanted to least wanted, and that order controls how the service processes your file.

Why the ranking order matters

The service checks your file against every program you listed, starting from your top choice. If you meet the admission requirements for more than one of your ranked choices, you get an offer for the highest-ranked one you qualify for, not the one the CEGEP considers the strongest match, and not automatically your safest option.

This is why ranking your genuine first choice at the top never costs you anything. If you are not admitted there, the service moves down your list automatically and considers the next one. Putting a backup program first, hoping to switch later, does not protect you. It means that if you are admitted to the backup, you hold that offer instead of a spot further down your list.

Once you hold an offer for a higher-ranked choice, the service does not keep a lower-ranked seat open for you at the same time. If you want to try for a different combination after receiving an offer, wait for a later round or contact the service directly about your options, since the process is not built for holding multiple simultaneous offers.

Applying to more than one region

SRAM, SRACQ and SRASL run independently of each other. If your list includes CEGEPs from more than one region, for example a Montreal-area school and a Quebec City-area school, submit a separate application, usually with a separate fee, to each service. A choice ranked in your SRAM application has no effect on a choice ranked in your SRACQ application. Manage both files and both deadlines on their own.

Building your ranked list

• Put the program and CEGEP you want most at the top, regardless of what you think your odds are.

• Do not rank a program you would turn down if it were the only offer you received. An offer you accept limits your ability to reconsider later.

• Use last cycle's admission averages or R score ranges as a rough guide, not a guarantee. The applicant pool changes every year, and last year's minimum does not fix this year's cutoff.

• Include at least one choice with a lower typical admission threshold near the bottom of your list, so you have a realistic fallback if your top choices turn out more competitive than expected.

• Do not leave available ranking slots empty. Every extra ranked choice is another chance at an offer, at no added cost beyond the choices already covered by your application fee.

If you want to change your ranking after submitting

Regional services generally allow changes to your ranked list up until a cutoff point within each round, after which your file locks for processing. Contact your service directly, or check your online file, to see whether the current round is still open to changes, since this cutoff is not the same as the application submission deadline.

If none of your ranked choices work out

If you are not admitted to any program on your list during a round, you are not shut out for the year. Add or change your choices in a later round if seats remain open, subject to that round's own submission cutoff. Late admission rounds, held after the regular round closes, often include programs and CEGEPs that filled fewer seats the first time.