Queen's Applied Economics vs McGill Joint Honors Economics & Finance
Hi everyone, I'm a pending sophomore transfer student in BC, Canada. I've been reading WSO since the middle of last year, but recently my aspirations for banking has intensified, so here I am.
I have two options to consider for September. Both of them are BA, specializing in some form of economics. I really love economics, hence applying for them over BComm.
To cut to the chase, my question is which of the two is more favored in the world of banking? Does a Queen's degree trump over a McGill degree? Does Queen's have better OCR than McGill? Does taking a Joint Honors appeal to IB more than Applied Economics?
Please share some of your opinions or experiences with either of these schools. Thank you!
Not so sure about Queen's Applied Econs but I've heard that McGill's Joint Honors is extremely difficult and the effort required to maintain a 3.5 GPA is abnormally high. McGill's HIM program is much better than the Joint honors program (for finance related jobs) but remember if your goal is to break into IBD, GPA + networking > everything else. Queen's BCOM does have better OCR than McGill but I'm not sure whether this carries forward to econs.
You gave me my first ever reply on WSO! Haha
I've heard the same about the Joint Honors, though I may just stick with Honors Econ if I go to McGill. I'm pretty confident about my academic abilities, and taking Econ courses would be playing to my strengths. For extracurriculars, I actively participate in Toastmasters International as a Treasurer for my school's division. Barring any major obstacles, my competitiveness won't be a big issue. However, if McGill's HIM really increases my chances, do you know whether it's possible to transfer into it after second year econ?
You said GPA and networking are much more important. In this case, going to Queen's would give me an upper hand in networking opportunities due to the alumni and OCR in IB from there. The downside is missing out on McGill's reputation globally, not to mention a chance at the HIM.
I won't limit myself to IBD; anything in high finance would be in my domain. That includes HF, PE, VC, and Asset Management.
It's called "BCom Honours in Investment Management" so I think you need to part of desautels to enter. The acceptance rate is really low - only about 12/90 are accepted and the applicant pool is really strong. You need to go through multiple interviews, stock pitches and have a stellar GPA/resume. You can apply during your spring semester.
There's a Honours in Economics for Management Students so you might want to check it out - it's part of Desautels so you have access to the OCR/networking events. There's even a standard econs major listed under desautels.
What I'd suggest is apply to desautels and then decide what you want to do - it's much easier to transfer to A&S than vice - versa.
Canadian banks tend to recruit pretty exclusively from Bcom programs as mentioned above. McGill forced banks a couple years back to open OCR to all (and I don't remember if it was the case at Queen's) so you'd be able to go to the events and see the postings, but it would be an uphill battle to get an interview. When we got our resume book, we would have HR separate the Desautels applications from the rest and TBH, we wouldn't really review them (and pick candidate for interviews).
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