McGill's undergraduate acceptance rate is roughly 47% for its most recent entering cycle — but you'll also see a very different figure, around 19%, cited elsewhere for McGill, and both are technically accurate for different things. The 47% reflects the share of applicants actually offered admission; the 19% reflects the share who applied and ultimately registered as students, which folds in how many admitted students chose to enroll elsewhere. If you're trying to gauge your own odds of getting in, the 47% admit rate is the relevant number — not the lower enrollment figure.
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What Is McGill's Acceptance Rate? (Two Numbers You'll See, and Why)
For the Fall 2025 cycle, McGill received 38,135 applications and made 18,132 offers of admission — an acceptance rate of approximately 47%. Of those admitted, only 7,310 ultimately registered as first-year students, a separate yield figure that produces the lower 19.2% "applicants to registered students" ratio McGill's own Admissions Profile page reports. Both numbers come from the same official data set; they just measure different things. Most "McGill acceptance rate" content online conflates the two, so it's worth being precise about which one you're actually looking at when comparing sources.
Is McGill Hard to Get Into?
Moderately selective overall, with real variation by faculty. A 47% admit rate is comparable to many strong public flagship universities — not extremely selective by elite-private-university standards, but far from an easy admit either, especially once you account for how much lower some faculties run.
McGill Acceptance Rate by Faculty
McGill's own Admissions Profile breaks out applicants versus registered students by faculty, which — while technically an enrollment ratio rather than a pure admit rate (see the caveat above) — is still the most useful available signal for comparing faculties against each other:
| Faculty | Applicants | Registered students | Applicant-to-registration ratio |
| Management | 7,278 | 736 | 10.1% |
| Engineering | 8,188 | 1,028 | 12.6% |
| Science | 10,354 | 1,348 | 13.0% |
| Arts | 10,845 | 2,204 | 20.3% |
Source: McGill University Enrolment Services, official Admissions Profile, Fall 2025 data. Management and Engineering run meaningfully tighter than Arts even accounting for the yield effect built into these figures — if you're weighing which faculty to apply to and have some flexibility, that gap is real and consistent with McGill's own reputation for those two programs specifically.
McGill Acceptance Rate for International Students
McGill's registered first-year class breaks down by origin as: Quebec residents, 48.77%; other Canadian provinces, 22.39%; US students, 13.69%; and overseas/international students, 15.15%. Separately, third-party analysis of McGill's admissions data estimates the international-specific acceptance rate at roughly 46% — close to the overall 47% figure, suggesting McGill doesn't apply a dramatically different admission bar to international applicants the way many US public universities do to out-of-state students. Quebec's own provincial tuition-deregulation history means the bigger practical difference for international students is cost (below), not admission odds specifically.
McGill GPA and Academic Requirements
Admitted McGill students average a GPA of 3.7 or higher, though McGill's actual review criteria vary by your prior education system — Quebec CEGEP applicants are evaluated on R-score (similar to Concordia's system), while US and overseas applicants are assessed on their high school GPA and course rigor directly, without a single universal minimum published across all applicant types.
McGill Application Deadlines for Fall 2027
Deadlines vary by where you last studied. Applicants from overseas or US high schools, colleges, or universities must apply by January 15, 2027, for programs including Arts, Science, Engineering, Management, Nursing, and several others. Applicants from a Canadian high school outside Quebec have a later deadline of February 1, 2027 for the same set of programs. If you attended school overseas or in the US, don't assume the later Canadian deadline applies to you — McGill's earlier January cutoff is specifically for your applicant category.
McGill Tuition 2026-27: Quebec, Canadian, and International Rates
McGill's tuition structure has three distinct tiers. Quebec residents pay roughly $3,026 CAD annually — heavily subsidized under Quebec's provincial tuition policy. Non-Quebec Canadian residents pay $12,607 CAD. International students pay by faculty, and the spread is substantial: Science, $31,836.60 CAD; Arts, $56,000.10 CAD; Engineering, $65,167.50 CAD; and Management (Bachelor of Commerce), $74,678.31 CAD — figures that notably show Arts costing more than Science for international students, a reversal of the pattern at most universities, reflecting Quebec's specific historical tuition-deregulation rules by program rather than typical program cost structures. Confirm your specific program's current rate directly with McGill's Student Accounts office, since these deregulated international rates are set program-by-program rather than following a single predictable formula.
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McGill University Acceptance Rate: FAQs
What is McGill's acceptance rate? Approximately 47% for the Fall 2025 cycle (18,132 offers from 38,135 applications). A separate, lower 19.2% figure sometimes cited reflects the ratio of applicants to students who ultimately registered — a yield-adjusted number, not the actual admission rate.
What is McGill's acceptance rate for international students? Roughly 46%, close to the overall 47% rate, based on third-party analysis of McGill's admissions data — suggesting McGill doesn't apply a substantially different admission bar to international applicants the way some US public universities do to out-of-state students.
Which McGill faculty is hardest to get into? Based on McGill's own applicant-to-registered-student ratios, Management (10.1%) and Engineering (12.6%) run notably tighter than Arts (20.3%), though these figures include enrollment yield alongside pure selectivity.
How much does McGill cost for international students? It varies substantially by faculty under Quebec's program-specific international tuition rules: Science runs about $31,837 CAD annually, Arts about $56,000 CAD, Engineering about $65,168 CAD, and Management about $74,678 CAD for 2026-27.
Key Takeaway
McGill's real acceptance rate is around 47%, not the lower 19% figure some sources cite (which actually reflects enrollment yield, not admission odds) — a distinction worth getting right before you draw conclusions about your chances. Management and Engineering are meaningfully more competitive than Arts, and international tuition varies dramatically by faculty rather than following a flat international rate, so check your specific program's cost directly. If you're comparing Montreal universities specifically, see how Concordia's acceptance rate and requirements compare as a less selective, lower-cost alternative in the same city, or how the University of Toronto's program-specific acceptance rates stack up if you're weighing McGill against Canada's other major research university.
Sources: McGill University Enrolment Services, official Admissions Profile (Fall 2025 data); McGill University Student Accounts (2026-27 tuition rates by faculty, official PDF); McGill University Important Dates (official Fall 2027 application deadlines by applicant category); College Transitions (admitted-student GPA and acceptance-rate calculation).