The burning question on the minds of millions of students, answered!
Introduction
In school, the measuring stick for your success is the marks given to you after a test, project, and term. As you grow older, the importance of these grades grows alongside you. Your last few years in high school are some of the most important academic and personally formative years of your life; your scholarships, schools and institutions, future professional life, career, and path in life are ahead of you. "But does higher education see it with that level of importance too?" "Does it matter if your schools is or is not semestered?" "Are there hard and fast rules?" Well, those are some excellent questions! Let's dive in and get to the bottom of this academic mystery!
Long Story Made Short
In the simplest of terms, as a general rule of thumb and for safety, yes, your grade 11 marks matter. Often, post-secondary institutions require some pre grade 12 input to determine your aptitude, potential, and capabilities, on average. However, it should be noted that exceptions to this rule exist, and every post-secondary institution is unique and has their own specifications for their incoming freshman and applying students. In addition, remember that most early acceptance averages also correlate with scholarship requirements.
The Long Story
While it's easy to generalize and lump together items in a list, it would be an injustice to say the same in this context. No two universities are the same, each have their own unique timelines, admissions process, prerequisites, etc. A variety of factors will vary in your post-secondary experience, such as the institution you apply to, the program or courses you apply for, when you apply, and how you apply.
Non-Semestered Schools
In this category, the majority of your marks will be taken either from midterms, or midyear marks. However, certain programs and universities may require grade 11 courses to achieve a better understanding of you, your progress throughout high school, and how you've changed. In general, if you apply for early admissions, your grade 11 marks will be weighted with more importance, at most other points in the admissions process, your yearly grade 12 marks as of the last major checkpoint in the year will be taken into consideration (e.g. midterms, midyear, final term); again, this depends on each university.
Semestered Schools
This category will be a bit messy, and the majority of the information here applies almost exclusively to early acceptance. When applying, universities will use your midterm marks for the subjects you have during the first semester, especially if they're part of a mandatory prerequisite. Now, what happens if your program demands that you have a certain number of courses completed in time for application consideration? Well, it's more than likely that the institution you're applying for will use grade 11 marks to predict what your grade 12 marks will be like.
For example, if you apply for a fictional program that requires you have ENG4UO, FSF4UO, MHF4UO, BAT4M0, and SCH4U0, and you only have ENG4UO plus SCH4UO completed in the first semester/quadmester, the fictional program will check how you did in FSF3UO, MCR3UO, and BAF3M0 as an indicator/predictor for how you will do this year.
Conclusion
High school is the first stepping stone on the staircase to adulthood. While it should be a time to have fun, flourish, and begin to understand yourself and the world around you, it's also a time to work hard. Be sure to do your own research, look up the program and universities you aspire to attend! Open the doors of opportunity for yourself, and be your own self advocate; make sure you sort out your grades early on, so you can thrive later on.
NOTE: If you don't get accepted for early admissions, don't fret. Oftentimes there are later rounds of admissions that will use more grade 12 marks. So you still have a shot at getting in! Just do your best and let the admissions teams handle the rest.
**Be sure to research your individual programs rounds of admissions and whether they consider Gr. 11 marks**
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