International Master’s Award of Excellence (IMAE) — Master's Scholarship

The International Master’s Award of Excellence is a University of Waterloo award for eligible international students normally entering research-based master’s programs. Recipients pursue their graduate studies at Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

Faculties nominate eligible students from their graduate admission applications and select recipients based on academic excellence and any additional faculty criteria. There is no separate award application.

Benefits & funding

CAD 2,500 per academic term.
Funding is available for a maximum of five terms.
The award is partial support rather than a full tuition and living-cost package.

Eligibility

Applicants must be eligible international master’s students.
Applicants normally enter a research-based graduate program at the University of Waterloo.
Selection is based on academic excellence shown in the graduate admission application and any other criteria set by the relevant faculty.
The public award page does not state age, gender, work-experience, or country-by-country nationality requirements.

Can you apply?

Here's who can apply

Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.

Education required
Bachelor

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Application process

1
Review the admission requirements, supervisor expectations, documents, and deadline for the chosen research-based master’s program.
2
Create a Waterloo graduate application account and start an online application for the chosen program.
3
Submit the application, pay the non-refundable CAD 150 application fee per program, and upload the program-specific documents through the Applicant Portal.
4
Ensure referees complete their online reference forms so the admission application is complete.
5
No separate IMAE form is required; faculties nominate eligible applicants and select recipients from the admission pool.

Program timeline

Program-specific date
Graduate admission application deadline.
After the completed admission application is reviewed
Faculty nomination and recipient selection.
Each funded academic term
CAD 2,500, for up to five terms.