Offered by HEC Montréal in Montréal, Canada, BA/BS in Business Administration with Preparatory Year is a bachelor's degree in Business Administration programme. The programme runs for 4 years, delivered on campus. It carries 120.0 credits. Tuition for international students is CAD 32,323 per year (CAD 3,118 per year for local students).
This 120-credit undergraduate program combines a 30-credit preparatory year with the standard 90-credit Bachelor of Business Administration (B.A.A.) at HEC Montreal's Cote-des-Neiges campus in Montreal, delivered full-time and in person. The preparatory year consists of eight mandatory courses (21 credits) and four or five optional courses (9 credits) intended to build the foundation needed to enter the first year of the B.A.A.; on completion, students proceed through the regular 90-credit degree, made up of a 54-credit common core and 36 credits of specialization. Fifteen specialization options are available, including finance, entrepreneurship, marketing, human resources, international business, and data science, and students may combine two specializations or choose a mixed option. First-year instruction is delivered in cohorts of 60 to 70 students, with bilingual French or French-English pathway options. Students may complete up to three credited, paid internships, and exchange opportunities are available through roughly 140 partner institutions. The program is designed for students who need additional academic preparation before beginning core B.A.A. coursework, and graduates may qualify for a post-graduation work permit.
Requirements
Admission Requirements: This route is for applicants who do not qualify for direct entry to the BBA, chiefly international candidates whose secondary schooling totals fewer than twelve years or who fall short of the entry averages HEC Montréal's admission pages set for direct entry. A French baccalauréat needs the mathematics specialty with 'mention Bien' or better; the Francophone-Africa streams (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire) need a scientific or mathematics stream with 'mention Bien' (14/20) or better. A Canadian secondary diploma from outside Quebec needs an overall average of at least 80%, or in Ontario six Grade 12 University/Mixed courses averaging at least 80%, plus a mathematics course at 80% or better in every province. French is required at an intermediate-advanced level, met either through prior education or an approved French test or programme; the page states no minimum English level. The preparatory year adds 30 credits ahead of the 90-credit BBA, 120 credits in total. The Fall-term application deadline is February 1, with no Winter or Summer admission.
Application Details
Start Date:September
Application Deadline:HEC Montreal sets deadlines per programme, not one institution-wide date. For the BAA bachelor's, domestic applicants apply by 1 March (fall) or 1 November (winter); international applicants apply earlier, by 1 February (fall) or 1 June (winter); summer is not offered. Its specialised Masters (M.Sc.) close 1 February (fall, both domestic and international) and 15 September domestic/1 June international (winter). The one-year full-time MBA (September start only) runs four rounds ending 15 May, with international applicants advised to apply by round 3 (15 March); the two-year part-time MBA does not accept international applicants at all. None of these dates are rolling; each is a fixed per-round or per-term cut-off, current as of the 2027 entry cycle. These are institution-wide dates; this programme publishes no deadline of its own.
