The Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) at McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the most competitive and most popular undergraduate programs at a university that placed 30th in the QS World University Rankings 2027, the highest of any Canadian institution. For applicants weighing McGill Commerce against Toronto's Rotman, Western's Ivey, or UBC's Sauder, the pitch is a downtown Montreal campus, a bilingual city with genuine access to Canadian and cross-border finance and consulting recruiting, and a McGill brand that carries weight well beyond Canada, all without the SAT/ACT, since McGill assesses international applicants against their own secondary curriculum's grades.
This guide walks through what it takes to get into McGill's BCom program: acceptance rate realities, cost, requirements, English-test rules, and career outcomes.
Acceptance Rate: What McGill Actually Publishes
McGill does not publish a program-specific acceptance rate for Commerce/Desautels. Here is what is actually known, and how to read it honestly:
- McGill undergraduate (university-wide): McGill's official Fall 2025 Admissions Profile reports a combined acceptance rate of 47.5% (18,132 offers out of 38,135 applicants). This blends highly competitive professional programs (Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Architecture) with less competitive ones, and McGill does not publish a Commerce-specific rate.
- Commerce specifically: Desautels' BCom is consistently one of McGill's most applied-to undergraduate programs, and McGill's own admission guidance lists Management among the programs commonly expecting overall and prerequisite-subject averages at the higher end of its usual 75-85% band, though McGill does not publish an exact percentage acceptance figure for the program.
Bottom line: treat the 47.5% figure as an honest, university-wide proxy only, not a Commerce-specific number. Because Desautels is one of the higher-demand faculties in McGill's undergraduate intake, applicants should expect the BCom to run meaningfully more selective than the blended 47.5% headline suggests.
Fees and Cost of Attendance
McGill charges the Desautels Faculty of Management its own faculty-specific tuition rate, separate from and higher than the Faculty of Science or Arts rate. Approximate annual figures (2026-27, converted from CAD at roughly 1 CAD = 0.706 USD, per McGill's guaranteed-tuition schedule):
| Cost Item | BCom, Desautels Faculty of Management (International, USD/year) |
|---|---|
| Tuition | $50,611 (CAD $71,687, McGill's published 2026-27 international first-year Management tuition-only estimate) |
| Living expenses (Montreal/Quebec CAQ threshold) | $17,380 |
| Total estimated cost of attendance | ~$67,991 |
McGill guarantees this tuition rate for the duration of the program for students admitted in a given year, so the figure an applicant is quoted at admission should hold through graduation. McGill does not use a single university-wide tuition rate; Management sits toward the higher end of McGill's faculty-specific fee bands, above Science (CAD $64,786) and Arts (CAD $54,000) but below Dentistry and Medicine. Domestic (Quebec-resident) students pay a far lower rate (CAD $103.92/credit), and Canadian citizens/permanent residents from outside Quebec pay a third, intermediate rate; McGill's application fee is $99.
Admission Requirements
- McGill's own online Undergraduate Admissions Applicant Portal (no shared Common App, UCAS, or OUAC-style system)
- Official transcripts/mark sheets for the applicant's specific secondary curriculum, assessed on that curriculum's own numeric or letter scale (McGill does not use the SAT, ACT, or a 4.0 GPA)
- Mathematics as a prerequisite subject for Management admission
- English language proficiency test scores unless exempt (note: McGill's TOEFL requirement is specifically elevated for B.Com. applicants, see below)
- McGill's own India-specific guidance cites a minimum of 75% on the CBSE/Senior School Certificate as a floor; McGill more broadly describes competitive programs like Management as commonly expecting the higher end of its usual 75-85% overall/prerequisite-subject average band, though it does not publish one fixed universal cutoff
McGill's application portal for most undergraduate programs, Commerce included, opens October 1 with a January 15 deadline for the following Fall's entry; decisions are rolling, generally beginning in spring and continuing through summer.
How to Get Into McGill's Commerce Program
-
Push your Mathematics grade as high as possible, not just above the minimum. Management lists mathematics as a required prerequisite subject, and because Desautels is one of McGill's more selective faculties, a mathematics grade clearly above McGill's general 75-85% guidance band strengthens an otherwise solid application meaningfully.
-
Confirm your specific curriculum's equivalency requirement rather than assuming a flat percentage. McGill's published India-specific 75% CBSE floor is exactly that, a floor; competitive programs like Management routinely admit well above it, so applicants should benchmark against recent cutoffs for their specific country's curriculum rather than the minimum alone.
-
Prepare for McGill's elevated B.Com.-specific TOEFL requirement early. Unlike most McGill undergraduate programs, which set a TOEFL floor of 90, the B.Com. specifically requires 100 overall, a meaningfully higher bar that applicants relying on TOEFL (rather than IELTS) should plan for well ahead of the application deadline.
-
Budget realistically for Desautels' higher tuition tier. At roughly CAD $71,687/year in tuition alone, Management sits well above McGill's Science and Arts rates, so applicants should factor this into financial planning and scholarship applications earlier than they might for a lower-cost McGill faculty.
-
Apply for McGill's automatic merit scholarship consideration and, separately, any need-based bursary. McGill automatically considers newly admitted international undergraduates for its Entrance Scholarship Program at the time of admission, and international students with demonstrated financial need can separately apply to the Entrance Bursary Program (average award reported at CAD $19,000 for US/international recipients), both of which meaningfully offset Desautels' higher sticker cost.
English Proficiency Requirement (IELTS/TOEFL)
McGill applies a notably elevated TOEFL threshold specifically to the B.Com., higher than its standard undergraduate floor:
- IELTS: overall band of 6.5, no component below 6.0 (same as McGill's general undergraduate standard; no B.Com.-specific IELTS override is published)
- TOEFL: 100 overall for the B.Com. specifically (versus McGill's standard 90 floor for most other undergraduate programs), with a minimum component score of 21 in each of Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking (for tests taken before January 21, 2026's new CEFR-aligned scale)
- PTE (65) and Duolingo (125) are also accepted at the undergraduate level
- Waiver: four or more consecutive years of full-time education in a country where English is the acknowledged primary language, an IB Group 1 English score of 5+, an A-Level English grade of C or better, or a GCSE/O-Level English grade of B/5 or better can each satisfy the requirement without a separate test
For the complete breakdown, see McGill IELTS requirements and McGill TOEFL requirements.
Career Outcomes
McGill does not publish outcomes data broken out specifically for BCom/Desautels graduates. The university-wide undergraduate figures are the only proxy available, and several of the recruiters listed are directly commerce- and finance-relevant:
- Undergraduate graduation rate: 87% (six-year rate for the 2018 entering cohort, one of the highest in Canada's U15 research-university group)
- Top recruiters (undergraduate, university-wide): Deloitte, Google, McKinsey & Company, RBC, Amazon, Bombardier
- McGill does not publish an employment-rate or average starting-salary figure for undergraduate outcomes in the data used here
Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, and RBC appearing in McGill's recruiter list line up directly with Desautels' traditional strengths in consulting, accounting, and Canadian banking recruiting, and Desautels' downtown Montreal location gives BCom students practical proximity to major Canadian bank head offices and consulting firm regional offices.
FAQ
Does McGill publish a separate acceptance rate for the BCom/Commerce program? No. McGill's only officially published acceptance rate is university-wide (47.5% for undergraduate, Fall 2025 Admissions Profile), which blends every faculty from Medicine to Arts. McGill does not release a Commerce-specific figure, though Desautels is understood to be one of McGill's more selective faculties.
How much does McGill's BCom cost? McGill's published 2026-27 international tuition-only estimate for Management (BCom) is CAD $71,687/year (~$50,611), the tuition rate guaranteed for the duration of the program for students admitted in that year. Including estimated living costs, total cost of attendance runs around $67,991/year.
Is the TOEFL requirement different for BCom applicants than other McGill programs? Yes. Most McGill undergraduate programs require a TOEFL score of 90 overall, but the B.Com. specifically requires 100 overall, a meaningfully higher bar, alongside the B.Ed. (TESL). The IELTS requirement (6.5 overall, no component below 6.0) is the same as McGill's general undergraduate standard.
What grade average do I need for McGill Commerce? McGill does not publish one fixed universal cutoff; it publishes a minimum of 75% on the CBSE/India Senior School Certificate as a floor and more broadly describes competitive programs like Management as commonly expecting the higher end of its usual 75-85% overall/prerequisite-subject average range, with mathematics specifically required as a prerequisite subject.
Does McGill use the Common App, UCAS, or OUAC for Commerce applicants? No. All McGill undergraduate applicants, regardless of program, apply through McGill's own Undergraduate Admissions Applicant Portal, distinct from the US Common App, UK UCAS, or Ontario's OUAC system used by most other Canadian provinces.
Can international Commerce students get scholarships at McGill? Yes. Newly admitted international undergraduates are automatically considered for McGill's merit-based Entrance Scholarship Program, and international students with demonstrated financial need can separately apply to the Entrance Bursary Program, which reports an average award of CAD $19,000 for US/international recipients. Desautels also offers its own faculty-specific supplementary entrance awards on top of these university-wide programs.