Ideal path to IB in US from a Canadian Target School

First Year - Fall:

• Keep your grades up, as banks will only be looking at your first three semesters of grades for third year internships
• Come to all the WIC meetings and participate as a Researcher, while networking with the Executive team to position yourself well for Junior Analyst applications
  • Sign up for their mailing list as well as Western Capital Markets (WCM) to get job opportunities sent to your inbox
• Apply for search funds / other part-time remote finance internships for your Winter semester to begin to build up your resume
• Participate in stock pitches and case competitions to build up your resume
• Try to join one or two non-finance clubs in an executive role to show your interests beyond finance

First Year - Winter:

• Keep your grades up!
• Do your winter part-time remote internship and perform well while learning financial modelling, and try to utilize your managers connections to expand your network
• Apply for first year summer internships come January, ideally things like a small boutique IB / PE shop, Private Wealth Management at a Big 5 bank, unpaid relevant finance stuff
• Begin to network with firms that typically take second year students for internships and if diversity candidate, participate in those programs at the Big 5 and US firms to potentially land a Sophomore internship in IB or S&T
• Apply for the Junior Analyst position at WIC and use your knowledge from previous stock pitches and ideally land that role, it will help set you up very well for third year IB recruitment and give you priority for second year summer positions

First Year - Summer:

• Ideally, you should be working at a firm in Toronto and perform well during your internship
• Use the time in Toronto to setup in-person coffee chats with third year Canadian firms you are interested in
• Apply for the firms that open during the summer time for your second year summer internship, like Altas Partners / Generation Capital / Burgundy Asset Management / Imperial Capital, etc.
• If all goes well you should have landed your Sophomore year summer internship before the school year starts, which will provide you with leverage to put in your networking emails for third year IB recruitment
• Begin to review technical guides and aim to finish BIWS by the end of the summer

Second Year - Fall:

• Keep your grades as high as possible as this is the last semester that you will have grades available before third year IB recruitment kicks off
• Networking grind time, begin to network as aggressively and as widely as possible for the US firms you are interested in and that take Canadians
• Apply for diversity recruitment events that happen in the semester by banks and attend any on-campus recruitment events and take their names and follow up via email after
• Keep grinding technicals (by this point you should be 90% ready to go) and participate in mock interviews with your upper-year peers and alumni
  • If interested in a particular group, such as RX / Energy learn their specific technicals

Second Year - Winter:

• Send applications out as soon as they come out and follow up with all the contacts you spoke to in the Summer / Fall and setup follow up calls to express interest again, gain referrals this way
• Participate in interviews and by this point your technicals should be rock solid and only reinforced by mock interviews, also make sure behaviourals are solid
• By end of this semester you should have secured your third year IB internship and will start your second year internship and can proceed to chill for third year onwards until buy-side recruitment kicks off
  • Side Note: If you haven't applied to a program that is eligible for the Dual Degree program (Essentially anything except BMOS), I would definitely do so as it gives you a second chance to recruit due to the two degrees taking 5 years instead of 4 years

Hope this helps, feel free to reply if you need further guidance. I wish someone told me this when I was starting university.