McGill Desautels for IB

Hello, I'm an Ontario student who recently got accepted to McGill and I have some questions about the program and how good it is for finance. From what I've gathered from reading online, it places worse than Ivey/QC, but better than the rest of the T2 programs. So, questions for students at McGill:

1. Is not being able to speak French a significant issue? I saw on their employment report that the majority of their graduates stay in Quebec.

2. How is the difficulty of the program and ability to maintain a high GPA? Is it closer to Rotman or Queens Commerce in those criteria? Is there a significant math requirement?

3. How are the placements for IB at Big 5 and BB/EB in both TO and US offices? Do they place better than the T2 schools (Laurier, Schulich, AFM, Rotman) and is there a significant gap between it and Ivey/QC?

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McGill student here: 

Don't look at the placements for Desautels overall, it is irrelevant because a lot of students don't take recruitment seriously. However, if you are serious, your #1 priority is to join one of two investment clubs. These are highly selective, roughly 5% acceptance rate, but they offer great training, networking, learning, mentorship opportunities. Without being part of them, chances of breaking into great BB, EB, PE, AM, and trading are slim to none. The clubs are RedPoint Capital and the Mcgill Investment Club. The members regularly break into BB, EB, AM, PE, VC, and prop trading. Check their team's section/LinkedIn to see for yourself. They also have great alumni. Highly recommend

https://www.mcgillinvestmentclub.ca/ 

https://redpointcapital.ca/ 

 

pr_fr

McGill student here: 

Don't look at the placements for Desautels overall, it is irrelevant because a lot of students don't take recruitment seriously. However, if you are serious, your #1 priority is to join one of two investment clubs. These are highly selective, roughly 5% acceptance rate, but they offer great training, networking, learning, mentorship opportunities. Without being part of them, chances of breaking into great BB, EB, PE, AM, and trading are slim to none. The clubs are RedPoint Capital and the Mcgill Investment Club. The members regularly break into BB, EB, AM, PE, VC, and prop trading. Check their team's section/LinkedIn to see for yourself. They also have great alumni. Highly recommend

https://www.mcgillinvestmentclub.ca/ 

https://redpointcapital.ca/ 

McGill Alumni here, largely agree with the above. Those two clubs will be the bread and butter to your success.

 

Not current McGill student, so I understand opinion is completely unwarranted. But I was looking at school there and called several students/alum who had no problem getting IB jobs. From my understanding gap between it and Ivey/QC is not massive, and they are super respected in US. Also, if you live in QC for 4 years you could easily pick up French so would not look at long term language as much of a barrier to anything. I go to school in the US (like high semi target, think UVA/ND/Gtown) and have a ton of American friends who are at McGill right now. Would check LinkedIn to verify but I'd say your opportunities for US IB are just below or on par w/ Ivey. You're a lock for TO as a McGill kid unless you sit with your thumb up your ass for 4 years. Best of luck. Did you apply to Ivey/Smith/Sauder as well? 

 

Rankings for IB/PE for US from Canada are as follows:

  1. Ivey
  1. Queens
  1. Waterloo
  1. Laurier
  1. McGill
  1. Sauder
  1. Schulich
  1. UofT

Happy to explain further but as someone who recruited for summer 2023 and summer 2024, and knows people at almost all these schools, I’m confident in these rankings

There was also a thread recently about consolidated Canadian school placements

 

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