Guide for Ontario parents
Ontario Course Codes Explained: What 1W, 2D, 3U and 4U Mean
Every Ontario secondary course has a five-character code, and it is not arbitrary. Once you can read one, a timetable stops being a list of abbreviations and becomes a map of which university programmes are still open.
Reading a code
Take MCV4U. The first three characters identify the subject and course — MCV is Calculus and Vectors. The fourth character is the grade: 1 for Grade 9, 2 for Grade 10, 3 for Grade 11, 4 for Grade 12. The fifth is the destination, and it is the one that matters most.
What the final letter means
U — University Preparation. Required for direct entry to Canadian universities. Available in Grades 11 and 12.
M — University/College Preparation. Counts toward the Top 6 and is accepted by many university programmes, though not all. Always check the specific requirement.
C — College Preparation. Does not satisfy university admission requirements.
O — Open. Available to any student at that grade level, regardless of destination.
D and P — Academic and Applied. Grade 10 only. Academic leads to Grade 11 U courses; Applied does not, without an additional transfer course.
W — De-streamed. Grade 9 only, since the province removed streaming at that level. MTH1W, SNC1W, ENL1W and CGC1W are all taken by every student.
Why the letter is the whole game
A student in MFM2P rather than MPM2D in Grade 10 cannot move directly into MCR3U in Grade 11. Without MCR3U there is no MHF4U, and without MHF4U there is no MCV4U — which closes engineering, mathematics, physical sciences and most commerce programmes.
None of this is announced. It is simply a consequence of a Grade 10 course selection made when the student was fifteen. This is why the Grade 10 choice deserves more attention than it usually gets.
The codes that matter most
If you look at only a handful on your child’s timetable, look at these: MPM2D in Grade 10, MCR3U, SCH3U and ENG3U in Grade 11, and MHF4U, MCV4U, SCH4U, SBI4U, SPH4U and ENG4U in Grade 12. Between them they gate almost every competitive university programme in the province.
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