Ontario, where computing has course codes
Education in Canada is within provincial jurisdiction and the curriculum is overseen by the
province, so a live online school sells into thirteen systems rather than one. Ontario has the
tidiest labels: ICS2O, Introduction to Computer Studies, Grade 10, Open; then ICS3U and ICS3C, the
Grade 11 university and college preparation courses; then ICS4U and ICS4C, their Grade 12 pair.
The prerequisite chain matters more than the list. ICS4U requires ICS3U, so a student who skipped
Grade 11 computer science cannot arrive in Grade 12 and take the university preparation course.
That one line is why an out of school track needs to exist. The diploma around it is 30 credits,
18 compulsory, including 3 in Mathematics with at least one in Grade 11 or 12, plus 40 hours of
community service and the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. The OSSLT is run by the
Education Quality and Accountability Office, sat in Grade 10, and written every year in either
October to December or March to May, with the literacy course OLC 4O available in Grade 12 to
students who do not pass.
Quebec, which is on a different ladder entirely
This is the part providers outside Canada get wrong. Grade 12 is the final grade in every
provincial secondary curriculum except Quebec, whose secondary schools end after Secondary V,
which is Grade 11, and Quebec is currently the only province treating Grade 12 as part of the
tertiary level of education. After Secondary V students go to CEGEP, where academic programmes are typically two years and
professional programmes three, and a Diploma of College Studies is required for university
admission. So a 17 year old in Montreal is a college student, not a teen batch student.
British Columbia, where computing sits inside design
In British Columbia computing lives within Applied Design, Skills and Technologies, a K to 12
curriculum area, and Computer Studies 10 is an ADST Grade 10 course. Its Big Ideas are stated as
user needs and interests drive the design process; social, ethical, and sustainability issues are
influenced by design; and complex tasks require different technologies and tools at different
stages. That framing leaves the modelling to somebody else.
The contest that crosses every provincial line
The Canadian Computing Competition is organised by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and
Computing at the University of Waterloo, with a Junior division for grades 9 and 10 and a Senior
division for grades 11 and 12. It is national, in a country where schooling is not.
Waterloo, where the form matters as much as the average
Computer Science at Waterloo sits inside the Faculty of Mathematics. It asks for six Grade 12 U
and M courses including Advanced Functions, Calculus and Vectors, any Grade 12 U English and one
other 4U course, with Grade 11 U Introduction to Computer Science recommended. Admission is by
individual selection from the low to mid-90s, and the Admission Information Form is required.
Waterloo strongly encourages the Canadian Computing Competition, the Canadian Senior Mathematics
Contest or the Euclid, and an applicant must write the CSMC or Euclid to qualify for Faculty of
Mathematics entrance scholarships. On co-op, students alternate school and work every four months
and graduate with up to two years of paid experience.
Toronto, where St. George asks for a supplemental application
Computer Science at the University of Toronto runs at all three campuses and requires an Ontario
Secondary School Diploma with six 4U or M subjects including English: ENG4U or EAE4U, MCV4U for
Calculus and Vectors and MHF4U for Advanced Functions, with MDM4U, Mathematics of Data Management,
recommended. The degree is the HBSc as Major, Minor or Specialist, under campus codes TAD for St.
George, TMX for Mississauga and TXC for Scarborough. St. George lists a supplemental application
as required.
What a parent should take from those two paragraphs
Both flagships want Grade 12 calculus and advanced functions, so the mathematics cannot be
repaired in a final term, and both attach a non-transcript component: the Admission Information
Form at Waterloo, the supplemental application at St. George. An average is a number the school
produces about a student; a trained model with a written up validation scheme is something the
student produced, and only one of the two can fill a form. Note too that MDM4U, the course Toronto
recommends, is the statistics and probability one.
