IVEY HBA VS QUEEN'S COMMERCE VS ROTMAN COMMERCE

Happy New Year everybody. Let's get straight to the point:

I want to break into Investment Banking and Private Equity in Toronto Bay Street (not considering US at all), and I want to know the best university in Canada to attend to maximize my chances.

Rotman PRO:

-Proximity to Bay Street, easier in-person networking

-awesome city life

-U of T is the most recognized university internationally (outside of finance circles).

CON: 

-Hard GPA, a 3.5gpa at UofT is almost equivalent to 4.0gpa at other two schools. However, recruiters do not weigh the fact that UofT is just very academically strict and mark very harsh. 

-Second year is the most important year for IB/PE recruiting for third-year summer internships, and rotman puts the heaviest and hardest courses in year two. 

-Study a lot academically on theoretical business knowledge, hard tests, taking time away from networking and interview prep.

-semi-target school, doesn't place as well as Ivey or Queen's, but improving.

Ivey PRO:

-target school pipeline, easy gpa for first two years as you will only be enrolling in Western probably BMOs. 

-I got a $40k scholarship

-Case method teaching is much more practical than traditional learning.

-Ivey is the heavyweight champion of Canadian recruiting(Same with Queen's tbh). The alumni network is massive.

-strong alumni network

CONS: 

-2 year gap, only start Ivey in year 3.

-London, small town, not much going on, personally prefer big city.

-size is around 1000 students per class year, could be harder to stand out and more competitive to join major clubs

Queen's PRO:

-Start the program immediately from year 1, could be advantage for year 1 and 2 recruiting

-Have three major clubs Quic and Limestone and QPCG whereas Ivey only has two WIC and WCM.

-Culture is so so so supportive (spoke to a lot of them, best people ever very enthuastic of helping out the next gen)

-Also the heavyweight champion of Canadian recruiting, target school pipeline.

-smallest students body compared to Rotman and Ivey, Queen's commece ~ 600 students this year.
 

-Perhaps the strongest alumni network
CONS:

-kingston, smallest town of the three, even London is a bigger town with newer and taller buildings.
-nepotism in major clubs? although nepotism is present all around the world, and talked to a few Queen's students, some say yes and some say no.


I am well aware that going into these schools doesn't automatically mean you get a job at Goldman Sachs, Moelis, or Evercore on Bay Street, and thinking so tbh is naive. however, it is important for me personally, to dig deep into researching and figure out the best move here to increase the chance of breaking into high finance in bay street in the year 2026. To be frank, it is most likely that any of these three schools are fine to attend for IB and PE, it is more up to the individual or me, to work the hardest I can to break in.

It is also important to note the importance of how clubs can help you prepare to break in. Queen's have two major clubs, whereas Ivey only has one, and Rotman one or two as well. However, the mature thing to do is not to set certain expectations and expect the other more likely thing to happen, which is I won't get into any of the major clubs. Having said that, would the average ivey student with no major club affliation win over the average queen's or rotman student? or vice versa.