Which BC Universities Require a Personal Profile and Which Admit on Grades Alone
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Jan 13, 2026 • Admissions & Applications, Canadian Universities & Colleges
UBC requires a written Personal Profile from almost every direct-entry high school applicant, on top of your grades. SFU and UVic admit most programs on grades alone, though both ask for extra material for a handful of limited-enrollment programs like fine arts, theatre or music.
🎓 UBC's Personal Profile covers your accomplishments, leadership and personal voice, and factors into both admission and entrance scholarships
UBC exempts a short list of programs from the profile, including Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism, Dental Hygiene and Music
SFU evaluates most BC high school applicants on grades and prerequisite courses alone
UVic follows the same grades-first approach for the large majority of its direct-entry programs
Portfolio, audition or supplementary material shows up mainly in creative and limited-enrollment programs across all three schools, not as a general rule
UBC: a personal profile for almost every applicant
UBC asks nearly every high school applicant to complete a written Personal Profile alongside their academic application. UBC describes it as your chance to explain your significant achievements, what you learned from your experiences, and the challenges you worked through, separate from your grades.
UBC reads your profile against four things: your engagement and accomplishment outside class, your leadership and contribution to people around you, the substance and depth of what you write, and your voice, meaning how authentic and specific your answers are rather than generic. The profile affects both your admission decision and your eligibility for UBC's entrance scholarships, so a rushed or generic profile costs you money even where your grades clear the bar.
UBC exempts a short, specific list of programs from the profile requirement for high school applicants: Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urbanism, Dental Hygiene, and Music programs, which use portfolios or auditions instead. A small number of transfer-specific programs, including Bachelor of Commerce and International Economics at the Vancouver campus and Bachelor of Nursing at Okanagan, add a profile requirement for transfer applicants too.
Quick comparison
| School | General admission basis | Extra material required |
|---|---|---|
| UBC | Grades plus a Personal Profile for almost all high school applicants | Portfolio or audition instead of the profile for Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism, Dental Hygiene, Music |
| SFU | Grades and prerequisite courses for most direct-entry programs | Portfolio, audition or supplementary material for select limited-enrollment or creative programs |
| UVic | Grades and prerequisite courses for most direct-entry programs | Portfolio, audition or supplementary material for select limited-enrollment or creative programs |
SFU: grades and prerequisites carry most direct-entry decisions
SFU evaluates most BC high school applicants primarily on their academic record: your overall and course-specific averages against the program's prerequisites. SFU publishes historical admission grade ranges by program so you see roughly where recent cohorts landed, rather than layering a general personal statement requirement on top of every application the way UBC does.
UVic: the same grades-first pattern
UVic follows a similar approach to SFU for the bulk of its direct-entry undergraduate programs, admitting on your academic average and required courses without a general personal profile. As with the other two schools, specific limited-enrollment or creative programs are the exception rather than the rule.
Where extra material shows up regardless of school
Across UBC, SFU and UVic, the programs that ask for something beyond grades tend to be creative, performance-based or capacity-limited: fine arts, theatre, music and similar programs typically want a portfolio, audition or sample of your work, since a transcript alone doesn't show the skill these programs evaluate. Treat any such requirement as program-specific, and confirm it directly on the program page you're applying to rather than assuming your experience with one school's process applies at another.
What this means for your application strategy
If UBC is on your list, start your Personal Profile early. It takes real drafting and revision time to move past generic answers, and it affects scholarship money as well as your admission decision. If SFU or UVic are your target schools, put your effort into your course selection and grades first, since that carries most decisions, and budget extra time for a portfolio or audition only where your specific program calls for one.
Why UBC added a profile and the others didn't
UBC's Personal Profile exists to look at more than a report card when the school reviews tens of thousands of applicants for a limited number of seats. It gives UBC a second, standardized way to compare applicants who land at a similar academic level, and it opens the door for a strong applicant with a slightly lower average but clear evidence of leadership or sustained commitment outside class. SFU and UVic run smaller applicant pools relative to UBC for most programs and lean on grades and prerequisites as their main comparison tool instead, which keeps their process faster and more predictable for applicants who know their exact standing.
Writing a stronger Personal Profile
Answer with specific stories and outcomes rather than a list of activities, since UBC explicitly evaluates the substance and depth of what you write, not the length of your activity list.
Write in your own voice rather than a version you think sounds impressive, since UBC evaluates authenticity as one of its four assessment areas directly.
Start drafting well before your application deadline, since a profile written the night before rarely shows the depth UBC is reading for.
Ask a teacher, counsellor or parent to read your draft for clarity, not to rewrite your voice into theirs.
What SFU and UVic ask for instead
Where SFU and UVic do not require a general personal profile, they still expect a complete, accurate application: your full course list, your self-reported or official grades, and any program-specific document a particular major asks for. Read your specific program's application checklist at each school in full, since a missing document, not a missing personal statement, is the most common reason a grades-based application stalls in review.
Scholarships tied to your application
At UBC, your Personal Profile directly affects entrance scholarship consideration alongside admission, so the same document works double duty. At SFU and UVic, entrance scholarship consideration for most awards tracks your admission average automatically, without a separate written component, though some named awards at every school add their own application on top of general admission. Check each school's awards or financial aid page for your specific program once you have an offer, since scholarship processes run on their own timeline separate from admission.