Canadian schools and IB
Currently at my last year for high school with a confident sentiment to work in IB. Just have two main questions to ask:
1) Schools - which undergraduate schools provide the best opportunities for breaking into IB, particularly for bulge bracket banks situated in Toronto, not just for summer internships but a full time position. Is it still Ivey or has the ranking changed?
2) Securing internships - throughout my time on this platform, I’ve noticed that recruiting typically happens during sophomore and junior year, with positions going towards those of whom have had prior experience. With that being said, what advice could anyone offer for gaining experience and internships (during first year) before IB recruiting starts?
Pm me
Ivey/Queens is pretty even for toronto banks, ivey is better for US. Rotman is also great obv, so is mcgill but harder to come to toronto (they have Montreal recruiters and hard to work there without French). Laurier/Waterloo AFM kids place really well in toronto, but mainly for off cycle coops which are harder to convert fulltime.
If your goal is to work in toronto, and have a relatively easy time with recruiting, Ivey/Queens/Rotman is the way to go
And for experience, join clubs, attend events, read the news daily (most important, there's a few good newsletters), and reach out to people starting with 2nd years working your way up (will be less stressful and you'll feel confident with alumni).
And most importantly, avoid unpaid internships like the plague, especially firms that ONLY hire student interns and have like 2 employees that are the founders. Idc what anyone says about "the experience". I'd rather hire someone who worked a marketing or HR internship in first year at a recognized company than some random search fund with 1 employee who's also their founder in his mid 20s.
Where would you recommend I look for open applications, are there any good sites that notify when applications are open? Or is most of this information known through word of mouth? Also wondering if the interviews will comprise of highly technical questions, in that case how would you recommend preparing? Any insight on this would be much appreciated.
That’s wild putting Rotman alongside Ivey and Queens. I’ve seen more kids from Schulich in Toronto IB than Rotman.
Not saying they're the same, but having the uoft brand name and being walking distance from Bay Street comes with its advantages.
Yea there's a noticeable gap between queens and rotman, but that same gap exists between queens and ivey.
Coming from a queens/ivey guy here
Yeah I'm a Rotman alum and I'd put Waterloo with their co-op above us (and Laurier double degree co-op can be argued as well)
For American banks in Canada, either QComm, Ivey, or Waterloo AFM (though this is a case of 1a and 1b with a distant 2 and I'm really only including it because some AFM people have knocked it out of the park and they seem to represent at GS TO). For Canadian banks, I’d honestly recommend Lazaradis just because it’s so easy to stack internships through the co-op program, making you way more competitive for FT recruiting later.
This isn't to say QComm / Ivey don't also knock B5 out of the park and overrepresent, but they can just do much better. However, I've noticed that Lazaradis has produced some heavy hitters - people have placed well into roles both in Canada and the U.S. (think two kids are at d1, which is very impressive).
Don’t knock it.
Would you say that US High Semi Target or Canadian Target (Queens/Ivey) is better for banking recruiting if I only have Canadian citizenship (need sponsorship in US)? No location preference so idm working in Toronto if I have to.
If your goal is US recruiting, go to a U.S. semi target.
You will have to be one of the best at Ivey / QComm to get to the US and that is no small feat.
However if you have faith in yourself, you’ll save a lot of money going to a CAD school.
As of 2023. Would say that waterloo has improved significantly, and IMO has been seeing better placements than UofT
This^^^ by doing math you can see the gap after uoft
as someone currently at western + recruiting IB, both are pretty evenly matched
ivey undeniably places better in the states, although there are obviously some firms that queens places decently into (GS NYC, MOE LA, etc.)
in terms of bay street BBs, i'm pretty sure barclays TO takes exclusively from queens, GS has taken only ivey historically, MS is a mix, UBS is ivey usually, bofa is a mix although i know ivey has a dedicated school team, etc.
in terms of bay street globals, evercore takes queens only, ghl is usually ivey only, jefferies is mix, and roths is pretty queens leaning
feel free to correct me if i got anything wrong, these are just my observations
btw these are only referring to recent cycles ^^
So few corrections here...
Ivey vs Queen's in the states is almost equal in opportunity (excluding RX where Ivey absolutely kicks ass) at this point with Queen's having an incredibly strong Moelis pipeline (all offices) and Western having a strong Evercore pipeline - With Silverlake winding down their analyst program, KKR cutting sponsorship and Point72 considering both schools targets, there is no other processes that are really all that different.
GS took Queen's kids this year, Barclays will take Ivey kids, GHL has taken a Queen's kid last year - Essentially the set of opportunities are almost identical for the top kids - go where you understand the path to becoming a top candidate and feel comfortable executing on it.
in terms of TO processes, i'm less informed on those so i'll take your word
but for US, queen's moelis pipeline doesn't give the school an edge above western, as western has a similar pipeline carved out for SF and NYC (i'll give queens LA)
also, queen's has yet to have an actual target school status at any firm in the states, unlike western which is a core for evercore
again, correct me if i'm wrong but ivey just has more US-based alum. its 100% possible to break into US from queen's, but i'd argue it's easier from western
I want you both to know that this is the stupidest conversation I have ever read in my life.
I know non targs who are going to barclays and evr in Toronto for 25 and 26 SA respectively
Ivey and Queens are the only two relevant ones. McGill is a distant third. Then there is a block of schools where kids have to be scrappy and grind out off cycles (whether through official coop program or delaying grad) which is the Waterloo/UofT/UBC/Laurier/York of the world. Everyone else are non-target af and I commend anyone that gets into finance from those schools.
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