The OUAC publishes a cycle Shutdown/Start-up Schedule [PDF] each spring.
Shutdown
Applicants are advised in the application that it is valid only until a specific, pre-determined date. If they do not submit their application and pay the necessary fees by this date, they must create a new application and begin again in the new cycle.
The OUAC and the Graduate Study Working Group set the shutdown date for all graduate applications.
The OUAC sets the shutdown date for the undergraduate contracts and, where possible, keeps it the same as the Undergraduate application date.
The date is set several months ahead of the start of the new cycle so that applicants are aware of the date when they begin the application process. The downtime allows our programmers to re-tool for the next cycle, and our Finance Department to run some reconciliation and balancing jobs. Applications are unavailable during this downtime.
We remove the online payment options from the contract applications in early August.
Start-up
The target go-live date for contract applications is subject to the university’s agreement/sign-off that all changes are in place. The earliest go-live date is included in the Shutdown/Start-up Schedule in the Start-up Online Application column.