Canada is an unprestigious shithole

For all you international kiddies, don't go to Canada for undergrad or to work. Or alternatively, for Canadians with dual citizenship, attend a US/UK target and work there instead.

Pros:

• Easy(ish) to get a visa, although still harder than in the UK.

• Low cost of living compared to the US and UK (higher savings rate)

• Peaceful(ish) country

• Not as many political extremists

Cons:

• Schools are internationally unprestigious (Coming from a (domestic) supertarget alumni). The "big 3 Canadian schools", UToronto, UBC and McGill all have acceptance rates in the 50-60%s (comparable to Penn State and Ohio State) and admission averages in the mid-80s for most programs (that's around AAB for the Brits, a ~3.1 for the Yanks)

• Schools are underfunded and relatively new (most founded in the last century)

• Schools do not do a good job of selecting good candidates (no interviews, holistic application, etc). Top targets generally rely on pure grades and maybe a supplemental application with an essay or two. You don't need to be well rounded or high achieving. This turns off employers because the candidate pool quality is lower.

• Low comp at mid and senior levels

• Shitty deal flow for almost all groups (hard to exit)

• Lack of exit opps in PE or VC (big PE players here are all pension funds, meaning you don't get carried interest, which is what makes PE so lucrative)

• Lack of exit opps in corpdev (speaks for itself)

• Cold weather (especially Calgary)

• Dead nightlife (compared to NYC/London)

• Banking/finance is not seen as prestigious here (similar to London), but there's more competition than London despite its lack of prestige because a lot of internationals and immigrants are desperate for money due to the housing crisis or to send back to their home countries. Prestige might be a non-factor for some, but the competitiveness is unholy. Toronto has something like twice the CFA charterholders per capita (and that's probably not even for high finance seats).

• The people you will meet in both undergrad and work are generally of a lower social quality, as the wealthy/successful tend to gravitate towards NYC/London. It's like working in Houston, you're mostly rubbing elbows with the semi-targets and underachievers. 
   

Now I'm not coping or compensating for anything, because while I have Canadian citizenship, I currently work in London. But I have worked in Toronto for a couple of years, and most of my friends in high finance are still in Toronto/Calgary, so my pros and cons are based on personal experience and observations.

Honestly this post is just to make sure you guys know what you're getting into. I see a lot of kids on here or Reddit who are internationals and want to study in Canada (easier to get visas) and seeing kids shell out something north of 150k for a degree, then not landing a good seat isn't ideal. Because in Canada, there's no "decent" finance-y roles outside of high finance that pays well (compared to COL), unlike the US.