Investment Banking or Financial Engineering as a Canadian?

Right now, I'm debating pursuing a career in investment banking (the usual lateral from banking to maybe PE and HF) or financial engineering (not particularly as a quant trader, but structuring derivatives and financial products/deals).

As such, since I'm applying to universities later this year, I was wondering which program I should pursue or if I should drop the idea of either becoming an IB or working in FE.

Looking through WSO and this sub, the current sentiment around universities for IB seems to be:

  1. Western Ivey AEO

  2. Queens Smith

  3. McGill Desautels/Waterloo AFM

  4. Others (UBC PM program, Schulich BBA, etc.)

That said, as I've said before, I also wanna keep my options open for the more quantitative role of financial engineering.

Considering everything, am I right in considering Waterloo AFM/CFM above all, since they seem to rank very high in quantitative fields such as mathematics and computer science? And Waterloo doesn't seem too bad in terms of IB and other high finance placements.

Or should I commit to Ivey/IB, networking for it, etc.

Or should I fuck it, go to some non-target and live a normal-ass balanced lifestyle in Corp dev or smth.

While we're at it, is working in Canada even worth it, considering lower pay and higher cost of living?

Thanks in advance!

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