Need help choosing schools

Hello, I am at a crossroads as to which undergrad programme to choose for pure IB.

I recently got accepted into Queens Commerce in Canada, which is one of the top 2 programmes in Canada for recruiting and I got an offer from UCL Pholosphy and Economics in the UK, which is solid. However im a Canadian citizen and I have connections in the Toronto area for IB already, and its a lot safer in terms of tuition and risk reward. If I go to UCL, I get access to London markets which can have better TC. What should I do? Is UCL much better even if I pay International tuition?

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I'm also a Canadian citizen studying STEM at Oxford, got offers from all of the Canadian universities. Think about it this way: 

  • Queens BCom usually has 500 kids / year. I feel like (just a rough estimate, someone correct me if I'm wrong) they have around 5~10 kids / year successfully recruiting to top US firms. Remainder will go into big 4, canadian banks (not front office), etc. I have a lot of friends at Ivey/Queens, seems like they're having a really hard time recruiting into US firms. Canadian banks usually want diversity hire.
  • A typical STEM degree at Oxford usually has 200 kids / year. I feel like half (maybe slightly less) will recruit successfully to some sort of finance role. The remainder will go onto do their PhD. 

However, the caliber of students at Oxford is a lot higher than Queens so this is expected. What I'm trying to say is: Do you think you'll have an easier time being the top 1% at Queens or being the top 40% at Oxford? No correct answer here. Choice is up to you. In my opinion, I really think it depends on the person but for me it was Oxford. Oxford and UCL are different of course; for UCL I'd maybe say you need to be in the top 15% of your class to get a job in high finance. 

Talk to people other than myself to see what they think. Remember I'm just a random stranger on the internet but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have :) 

 

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