Real examples, not abstract categories
Cégep foundation bursaries generally fall into three kinds of criteria. Academic merit, like the Cégep de Sainte-Foy Foundation's Sciences de la nature excellence bursary, open to students in that program with an R-score of 27 or higher. Community involvement, like the same foundation's Desjardins Community Involvement Bursary, matched against your "volunteering" or "community engagement" tags. And perseverance, like the Perseverance Bursary, reserved for students who've reached their second session or later.
Alongside foundation bursaries, MaCote also shows province-wide programs open to everyone, like the Quebec government's AFE student loans and bursaries program — no cégep or program requirement, always sitting in the "explore" group.
How you actually apply
MaCote never fills out a bursary application for you and never hosts an application itself. Every matched bursary links to the foundation's real application page, when one exists. When a foundation doesn't publish an online form — like the Perseverance Bursary, which runs through an internal recommendation instead — MaCote says so plainly rather than showing a dead link.
Every bursary also shows the date its information was last verified — the same standard MaCote applies to university admission cutoffs.
Frequently asked questions
Does MaCote ask for my parents' income to show me bursaries?
No, never. Matching only uses your cégep, program, session, and the activity tags you choose yourself. Some individual bursaries may require proof of financial need once you apply directly through the foundation — but that happens entirely on the foundation's own form, never inside MaCote.
What's the actual difference between a "Matched" bursary and a "Close" one?
"Matched" means you meet every strict requirement for that bursary. "Close" means you're missing only a soft one — usually your R-score is within two points of the threshold, or you haven't added the target university program to your profile yet. Either way, it's worth checking the full criteria on the foundation's site.
Why does a bursary not show an amount or a deadline?
Some foundations don't publish those details publicly, or only share them with students who apply directly. MaCote never invents an amount or a date — when the information isn't available, the bursary says so instead of showing a made-up figure.
Can I actually apply through MaCote?
No. MaCote helps you find the relevant bursaries and points you to the foundation's real form — or to your cégep, when a bursary has no public form. The application itself always happens on the foundation's side.
How matching actually works
Every bursary in MaCote comes from a cégep foundation or a provincial program, like the bursaries run by the Cégep de Sainte-Foy Foundation. MaCote checks each bursary's criteria against your profile — cégep, program, session, R-score if a threshold applies, and your activity tags — and sorts the result into three groups instead of one flat list.
"Matched" covers bursaries where you meet every strict requirement (cégep, program, session). "Close" covers ones where you're only missing a soft requirement — your R-score is within two points of the threshold, or you haven't added the bursary's target university program to your profile yet. "Explore" covers bursaries open to everyone, like provincial programs, always shown as a starting point.
Your activity tags (sports, volunteering, leadership, and so on) never exclude you from a bursary — they only add a positive signal when there's a match. If you forgot to tag "volunteering," you still see bursaries that ask for it; you just don't get that extra match signal.