How to Get Into the George Brown – St. James Campus

You may be eyeing George Brown’s St. James Campus specifically because you either want to join their well recognized chef school or their hospitality & tourism program, or want to get into business. Whatever program you are interested in on this campus, I will give you a heads up on what you need to do currently in your high school to secure your spot at the St. James campus.

General

It is important to note that each program varies, even if they are within the same department. So I highly suggest looking at your specific program requirements even after reading this article because there may be slight differences in what is required of you. To find what your specific intended program requires, find your program at the following link, and click on the “How to Qualify and Apply” option after going to your program’s page: https://www.georgebrown.ca/programs/program-availability?year=2021&availability=domestic

Nonetheless, in this article I will detail some of the common programs that people apply to at the St. James campus to give you an idea of what is required.

Chef School

Bachelor of Commerce Program (Culinary Management)

There are many diploma programs in the chef school but they also offer two bachelor programs. For the commerce program for culinary management, you need your Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent with six grade 12 courses that can be a mix of either university level courses or mixed level courses. However, in your top six marks, you are required to complete grade 12 university level english and at least one of any grade 12 university level math courses. You must also get a grade of at least 60% or higher in each of these two courses. Your overall top six average should be at least 65% but the higher the better as it will make you a more competitive candidate. The program also recommends that you take basic computer software courses in high school as this will be helpful for when you are admitted and studying in the commerce program. 

Bachelor of Food Studies Program

The requirements for the food studies program is similar to that of the culinary management program in terms of having your top six courses be at least 65% average. However, you are not required to take any university level math courses for this program, as the only specific course requirement is university level english and you must achieve a grade of at least 65% in that course. As you can see from the above two bachelor programs, there are no specific cooking requirements that you need to apply to these programs. So it is not too late to chase your culinary dreams! However, again be wary of specific program requirements as some other culinary programs at the Chef school such as the Baker/Patissier Apprentice program requires that you be registered as a Baker/Patissier with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and that you have a registered employer sponsor. This is mainly because it is an apprenticeship program, but just a heads up that if your culinary program isn’t explained here, to check it out yourself in case there are special requirements like that.

School of Hospitality & Tourism Management

Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (Hospitality)

One of the bachelor programs at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management is the Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in hospitality.  The requirements for this bachelor program are exactly the same as those for the culinary management program. Even the recommendation to take basic computer software applications also apply for this bachelor program. 

Centre for Business 

Within the Centre for Business, it includes the School of Accounting & Finance, School of Human Resources, School of Management, and School of Marketing. So you can imagine that there are lots of different business programs you can apply to.

Bachelor of Commerce program (Financial Services)

This is one of the bachelor programs for business that you can take. The requirements for this are just as rigorous as the ones for the bachelor of commerce program for culinary management. Again the requirements for the top six courses are the same and the recommendation to take basic computer software courses also apply here. However, there is an additional recommendation to take data management at the university level since that specific math course will benefit you in your studies at this bachelor program. 

Business Administration – Accounting Program

This is just an example of the more specific business diploma programs that you can go into if you think the requirements for the bachelor programs are too harsh. For a lot of these diploma programs, there are not usually any minimum mark requirements. For example, for the accounting program, you just need your Ontario Secondary School Diploma or equivalent and you need to complete grade 12 english but this can be done at the college level too, not just university level. You also need to complete grade 12 math at college or university level but if not, you could supplement it with a grade 11 mixed or university level math course.

Conclusion

From these programs, you can see that some requirements overlap but there may also be specific program requirements you need to check on the link provided above. Overall, to be safe ensure you complete your grade 12 english courses and try to attain high averages to become more competitive.

Published on September 9, 2021

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