Young Canadian Looking To Study In 'Merica
Hello WSO!
I am a Grade 11 student living in Ontario, Canada, and ever since a young age, (well, younger) I have always had a fascination with finance and big business. Because of this, I would like to one day be working on Wall Street for one of the BBs. Through reading a couple books and browsing online forums such as this one, I'm under the impression that the best way to get into this industry is through a senior year internship offered to students at certain American feeder schools.
My question is, what are my realistic chances for getting into one of these feeder schools? I'm currently getting through Grade 11 with a 94% average, and I plan on writing the SAT once in May and again in June, and potentially a third time next year if I'm not satisfied with my results. I'm enrolled in a bunch of ECs, such as Model UN (I'm our school's captain.) DECA, and I volunteer at a local hospital each summer.
I plan on applying to some of the Ivey League Schools, (Harvard, Yale, Penn, Princeton) do you guys have any thoughts about that? Are these schools "Canadian Friendly"? Do I have any chance of even being looked at as a foreign student?
If I can't get into a top tier American feeder school, my backup plan is to apply to get an Honour's in Business Administration Degree at Western/Ivy School of Business. That will probably end up with me getting an internship/job at Bay Street for some bank. Given the obvious fact that the market in the USA is much bigger than the Canadian market, this is not my first choice. (Not to mention that I love the idea of living in a massive city like New York, while Toronto has maybe 5 blocks of skyscrapers and that's it.) Do you know if there are any opportunities for Canadian business majors to move to Wall Street?
Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give me! Like I've said this has always been an aspiration of mine, and I haven't been deterred by some of the bad stuff being said about Wall Street recently. (100 hour weeks, awful bosses, etc...)
