My teenage son spent this past fall working on university applications. The process was intense. He was applying to film production programs, and each application required extra elements on top of his transcript. Some schools asked for essays. Two asked for a resumé. One school wanted a reference letter. Another asked for a short film based on a provided theme. Some wanted three-minute portfolio submissions, others wanted five-minute ones. One school asked applicants to make a three-minute personal video essay—a cinematic memoir in which the teen describes the events that have shaped them. Each school had different deadlines. It was a lot to juggle.

Getting into Canadian universities is much more complicated than it was back in my day. Thanks to widespread grade inflation, it’s not enough anymore to get marks in the mid-90s to guarantee acceptance. Some of the most competitive programs—in computer science, engineering and health sciences—turn away straight-A students. Extracurriculars matter more than ever. Plus, schools are finding new and creative ways to assess students. A friend’s daughter spent the fall doing live digital essay-writing exams as part of her applications. (The schools were trying to stop kids from cheating with ChatGPT.)

How should people navigate this new reality? My advice for parents of high schoolers is to immediately order the new edition of The Ultimate Guide to Canadian Universities from Maclean’s. The guide provides everything they need to know about post-secondary education in 2024: picking a school, paying for school and, yes, the ins and outs of the new application process, including a story about how to create supplemental material, the type of thing my son and his friends spent the fall working on.

The guide also provides information on the best programs, the top schools, how to win scholarships, and the trends in higher education—co-ops, work-abroad programs, online learning and more. And it offers guidance on what students should study if they’re thinking about med school or law school. We also feature a story about how admissions officers are dealing with the use of AI in application essays. (Spoiler alert: not all university administrators think it’s such a bad thing.)

Maclean’s is uniquely qualified to provide advice on post-secondary education: for decades, we’ve been chronicling campus life and, since 1991, we’ve ranked universities using a carefully developed methodology. This guide provides all the resources students will need to make the right choices for their education, submit winning applications and prepare for university life.

—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief

The Maclean’s University Guidebook 2024 is available now for just $19.99. Order your copy here.

When the parents of today’s high schoolers were teenagers, getting into university was all about grades. But now, admission essays are now a common requirement—and the rise of ChatGPT is making things complicated. Some argue that using AI to create admissions materials can level the playing field, giving a leg up to those who can’t afford coaches to guide them through the process. But where does ethical use veer into misconduct? Can admission committees sniff out applicants who’ve used AI? And what do prospective students risk when they use these tools on their university applications? In this piece for the university guide, Tamar Satov explores the new AI normal.

The cost of a university education keeps rising: Canadian undergrads pay an average of $7,076 per year in tuition fees, which is more than double what they paid in 1990. Amid a larger cost-of-living crisis, cobbling together funds for university can feel like a daunting task—but it doesn’t have to be. Before remortgaging the house, parents and students have plenty of options to save up, borrow money or cut costs. We have the details.

Applicants need a strong sense of purpose, hard work and plenty of smarts to impress scholarship juries. To demystify the process, here’s the inside story on how four students beat the odds to win some of the country’s most prestigious awards—like the hefty $100,000 Loran Scholarship and the coveted TD Scholarship for Community Leaders.

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