How do McGill students place on Wall / Bay street?

Hi everyone.

I'm currently a high school student looking at Canadian universities and while its not my first choice, I'm looking at McGill as a backup to Ivey and Smith.

I'm aware that the Honours Investment Management program regularly places students in top tier BB's but the problem is they only accept like 12 applicants a year and I'm not enough of a genius to bank on that. I'm curious how regular BComm students do, if top students place on Bay or Wall street regularly or not?

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I have two friends who go to McGill , that are not in the investment program who were able to intern with big five banks this summer. Mcgill may not be the first choice in comparison to UWO and Queens but the reputation of the university does provide you with a really great chance however it's up to you to separate yourself from the others by joining the investment club , networking with alumni ,etc. If you ultimately decide to attend , you should really make the effort from freshman year to become really friendly with professors and upper year students to show your interest and have a better chance when recruiting comes along.

Bay street does target mcgill but wall street is a serious uphill battle for any canadian university not just mcgill. If you want to work on wall street, you most likely would have to spend 2-4 years in the bay street office then try to lateral to the wall street office.

 

Obviously it doesn’t place as well at Qcom or Ivey but if you’re a good candidate from McGill you can still very much make it happen. The fact that you’re in high school and already thinking about this tells me if you go to any of these three schools you’ll be ok. Getting to Wall Street right away is harder but there’s a huge market for experienced analysts/associates and if you go a good job you can move to the US later

 

McGill is definitely behind Ivey and Queens however it is a very strong Canadian school. It's location of being in a big city definitely helps for international recruiting similar to Rotman commerce. Definitely work hard for Smith and Ivey if you can, but McGill is a great backup. From personal experience I would emphasis how important a strong essay/story is for Ivey and Queens as grades are not as important at Ivey and Queens and your essays hold the majority of the weight above a certain cutoff.

 

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