University of Waterloo, Canada

Waterloo is a co-op university, and that shapes its funding in a way most university pages hide: a large share of students fund their degrees through paid work terms rather than awards. Scholarships still matter, but they are one input among several, and the records below reflect that mix of entrance awards, faculty scholarships and named graduate funds.

For international undergraduates, Waterloo's entrance awards are the main lever. Several are decided from the admission application with no separate form, and the university is known for tying award consideration to the date you apply, so an early application genuinely changes your funding odds. Graduate students mostly follow a different route: research-based master's and doctoral students are funded by their department or supervisor, often through the major federal programs that apply at every Canadian university, including Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships for doctoral students and the tri-council grants from NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR.

The named awards below, such as the university's memorial and graduate scholarships, usually have their own criteria and are worth reading individually. Each card links to the office that runs it, and the deadline shown is current for this cycle; Canadian graduate rounds often open a full year before the term they fund.