Queen's Commerce or Waterloo AFM
So I'm currently a Grade 12 Student in Ontario and I've received offers from Waterloo AFM and Queen's Commerce
Which school should I go to if I want to pursue Investment banking?
I know that Waterloo's co-op is really good and my friends are going there so I'm leaning more towards Waterloo. However, the prestige of Queen's Commerce and it being the hardest business program to get into in all of Canada is really enticing.
Hi meme1, check out these threads:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
What I’ve learnt is that co-op really doesn’t matter. Yes, the internship opportunities are less competitive given it’s non-target kids mostly. But, alumni and prestige of program matter more
del
I know of extremely bright kids at Waterloo who struggled to get in process due to the simple fact of alum and legacy. Do not undervalue the importance of strong networks and reserved seats
Disagree with the coop doesn't really matter... if you have the opportunity for up to 5 internships (being realistic, you won't get shit for your 1st), with most being off-cycle, that is a huge advantage vs only being able to do 3 on-cycle internships (you aren't getting shit for your 1st as a Freshman). This allows yourself to build your way up to a great IB role, vs Queen's kids doing these part-time no-name search fund interships which only use is to pad your resume (I'm talking about "SF/NY IB/PE internships that occur WHILE you are in school.. yeah right buddy)
Send me a DM
Hands down, Queens. Alum will go to bat for even the worst candidates.
Would echo Queen's like above posters, but I'd take a less aggressive stance than the people above. UW is still a semi-target, but there's been a lot of recent success and lot of fresh alumni in solid sellside and buyside roles in both Canada and the US.
I'd suggest to strongly factor in the environment and school culture into your decision, as you need to do well regardless at both schools to get into front office finance, and how much you enjoy your time in undergrad would heavily influence your performance also.
One thing I’d consider is for Queens Commerce, unless you start prepping for finance since day one, it will be very difficult to compete and get the top positions. You have to make sure you get a good first year or second year summer
With AFM, since it is a 4 1/2 year program, you recruit a year later so have significantly more time to prepare, and with co-op, have the opportunity to do two entire internships before you apply for your main summer.
From AFM, I would say this used to be the case. Nowadays, you're having first-year kids rip search funds and some fairly cool internships and people are straight gunning for finance a lot earlier
I come from a school similar to Waterloo. I must admit the quality of students they have has excelled, they have upcoming placements at PJT, BX, BAML, EVR, Moelis and P72. With that being said Queens Commerce still has a stronger legacy and alumni network as a result.
I would urge you towards Queens Commerce but Waterloo is overly slept upon at times
what kind of prep can I be doing first year outside of clubs?
I do want to add that Waterloo will likely place 3rd here in 3-5 years. Currently a lot of people either signed full time at top EBs/BBs graduating soon, as well as a ton of people doing that this summer.
UW also has a ton of opportunities for off-cycle IB internships that are usually less competitive to get compared to a summer. Ex: there's a 2ndyear student who is currently working at a big 5 in IB
Small correction, technically a 2nd year, but in a 5-year program, so she effectively will be recruiting in the same cycle with current freshmen which is crazy to think about. Most of the people I've spoken to at Waterloo don't think this will happen again anytime soon though
Yeah, correct.
We will see. Although it does seem that Waterloo's overall placements have seen a notable step up over the past year or so, with younger and younger students getting top internships (Moelis, Evercore, Lazard, Blackstone, Goldman, Big 5) in Toronto, NY and SF. I think the support system in Waterloo for breaking into IB is going to be solid and keep getting better with these great placements
Edit: idk who MS'd, but you're a retard. A quick linkedin check would easily fact check what I said lmfao
I’ve heard from various sources the banker you’re referring to had additional help, so that would be an unfair data point. Regardless Waterloo may rise to a much stronger semi target to target in 20 years
From AFM, done the whole student investment fund bs and landed big 5 and pension pe roles. Would absolutely take Queens Comm if I could redo everything again. Coops don’t mean shit the only thing that matters is ur SA. Queens take the massively lead given they acc have pipelines to US and a way more supportive alumni base. I personally had a higher response rate from queens alum than Waterloo alum.
If ur the type to land big 5/pe for ur first few coops u definitely could get a good sophomore SA from queens.
QUIC and Limestone miles ahead of SIF in mentorship, training, experience, recruiting pipelines, and fund performance.
Even the edge in off cycle coops are eroding given more queens/ivey kids are doing gap years or just taking a term off.
In the end, only the top 5/10 students from Waterloo can match placement of the top 25% of students from queens. Only once every few years we get students that can match the best of queens.
My man the top 25% of Queen's would be like 150 kids each year, nowhere close to that number lands good offers each cycle.
Like 10-15 gets good US seats, another 10-15 gets Big 5, some 10-20 more gets pensions/Canaccord/assorted buyside.
Sure i got the class size wrong, but lets compare that number to Waterloo. 0-3 gets good US seats. 1-5 gets Big 5. 2-5 gets pensions/canaccord/assorted buyside. There are less people making it into "high finance" in the whole program than there are members of QUIC + Limestone.
del
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Agreed with the comment up until the 25% lol gonna need to see how you’re modelling these assumptions
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Can u repeat that one more time?
Hey, I'm a grade 12 student from toronto and I have offers to Rotman Commerce, Laurier BBA, and UW AFM.
I was leaning towards AFM in hopes of breaking into a FO role, would you advise against it? Should I take Rotman or Laurier over it?
You also have to realize that most of the people in AFM are gunning for accounting roles not finance roles
Going to Waterloo will open up your networks to the brightest CS/Eng kids, which might be helpful in the long term.
Queens. Way hotter girls
Queens 4 is a Waterloo 8
There are tons of abg in waterloo saf
Waterloo, way more geese
imagine... kids who want to work in finance talking about finance
del
You can tell he's from Waterloo by the "TLDR"
Is this a surprise? If you're interested in finance, you'll spend a lot of time talking about finance and you will have friends in finance. Waterloo is doing better than other schools in recent years because the people there genuinely enjoy finance instead of just memorizing the guides before interviews
Got into both Waterloo and Queen's. Honestly as an international student l it wasn't even tough. I read the other comments talking about it like it's tough to get into these programs. I completed the applications like 10 minutes before, never talked to anyone at the school before. Don't worry so much tbh. It's not that bad. In queens rn obv. From what I've seen just the school name gets a lot of leverage in apps. Both schools are great. I rejected Waterloo while finishing the app because I realised I could never do Accounting in my life after high school. Here I am in third year going into fourth hoping I get KPMG Audit. It's all about luck. Take a breath.
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