Here are the Target Undergraduate Schools in Canada

**EDIT**: Changed rankings to place Ivey in 1st place instead of UBC Sauder PMF as people I've talked to think it's unfair to compare the top 7 kids at Sauder to entire schools. And, to be fair, the top 7 kids at Ivey/QC place comparably to Sauder PMF kids and Sauder as an entire school doesn't crack the top 3.

I've seen a lot of posts asking about target schools for finance in Canada. Since I've done a lot of research, I'm going to provide a quick summary to current/future students in Canada looking to break into Bay Street or Wall Street right out of college (without MBA, CFA, etc.)

The major difference between US schools and Canadian ones is that Finance recruits almost solely from undergraduate business programs whereas in America, as long as you study any subject at a prestigious university with lots of alumni connections like the Ivy Leagues, you are considered in a target school. So in Canada, you kinda have to know you want to do finance/business early on if you want to break into the industry out of college.

canadian target schools

Richard Ivey School of Business

HBA Program - This is a 2 year Case Method-based program that takes place 3rd year and 4th year in class of ~600 students. In the class of 2016, 32% grads worked in Finance (with avg. compensation of $90k) and 14% worked in Consulting. Ivey is the most significant Wall Street target in Canada with about 10% of grads working in the states. In class of 2016, 9 Ivey grads got FT IB positions at Goldman Sachs (compared with 11 for Wharton Undergrads class of 2016... pretty darn good for Canada). Elite boutiques like Evercore and Moelis and Qatalyst Partners recruit Ivey grads regularly. There are places that take students only from Ivey such as Silverlake and GS LA. Ivey has the best career guidance, networking guidance, and on campus recruiting. The alumni network is OP (grads have been recruited to GSIP, Leonard Green, and others b/c of alumni networking). They likely have the most extensive network in high finance in North America out of all Canadian schools. Consulting firms like Bain also love Ivey students b/c the case method IS essentially consulting. S&T recruitment is decent but definitely not the focus of Ivey.

Queens Commerce

This is considered Ivey's rival school and in some aspects it's the same/as good as Ivey but Wall Street recruitment is not as strong. About 26% of grads work in Finance and 10% in Consulting. There's a club named QUIC that has members/executives who regularly make it to Wall Street/Bay Street - though only 4% work in USA. QC is known as a haven for privileged incoming private high school students who dominate networking and get most of the prestigious club positions and ultimately jobs. It's a 4 year program so there are some benefits for students who want to solely study business. Many say Bay Street has more QC students than Ivey but I haven't found info/data to support this. QC has less attention from Elite Boutiques compared to Ivey but QC still gets awesome regular recruiters like GS NYC and Morgan Stanley... and if ur interested, QC sent 7 of 2016 grads to Goldman IB.

McGill University Desautels

Students from c program is also a notable school. Particularly praised is the Honours in Investment Management Program/Major that sends a quite a few kids to Wall Street and a lot of Bay Street including a few to Goldman Sachs. The alumni network and campus recruiting/guidance are definitely not as substantial as Ivey/QC. The program has a lot of international students. 9% work in the states and 16% work internationally (Non-US) after graduation. Employment statistics are not up to par with Ivey/QC in terms of grads' ability to find jobs and graduating salaries.

Other Schools to Consider (in no precise order):

UBC Sauder

As an entire school, not just PMF program. UBC has a lot of international students and although generally it isn't considered a target by any means, Sauder has the most presence in Asian Pacific Finance b/c of alumni connections. However, you likely have to be asian and have connections to the region to get these positions. UBC occasionally sends kids to Goldman S&T most likely because the first female S&T MD in GS NYC is a Sauder grad. Vancouver is a not a great finance location in Canada - much less going on here than in Toronto and Calgary. Vancouver has a lot of wealth/asset management firms because the city is home to many wealthy retirees and immigrants.

UBC Sauder Portfolio Management Foundation

this is a program within Sauder that selects about 7 kids per year during second year. It's really competitive to get in so don't go to Sauder just to bank on getting into the PMF program. PMF manages a real multimillion dollar investment fund and PMF students have GUARANTEED internships at top firms as well as mentors and access to networking with top Sauder finance alumni. Grads of PMF go on to work in the most prestigious positions such as in Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) or in KKR as a PE analyst.

Waterloo University

Waterloo is the NUMBER 1 PLACE FOR QUANTITATIVE FINANCE!! If Math, Computer Science, and Finance is your jam, Waterloo has a lot of grads placing in US quant hedge funds (like D.E Shaw and Citadel) and in other quant roles within Banks. Waterloo also has pretty good amount of Sales and Trading opportunities too. The Waterloo Math/Computer Science and Laurrier BBA Double Degree is an example of a strong program at Waterloo. Sales and Trading is also becoming popular and extremely strong, especially with the increasing demand for technical skills like programming in S&T. Prop Trading firms also strongly recruit Waterloo grads - an example is Jane Street.

Rotman Commerce

Although Rotman's MBA program is stellar, it's undergrad program isn't great. The Finance and Economics specialist isn't that useful (Academic/Theory/Research focused). Career services is really trash and you most likely have to rely on your own ability to network in order to find placements. However, being the the center of Toronto does give you an edge with accessibility to networking and unique opportunities like part time jobs in the city. Rotman is not known to send many students in finance. The Rotman Commerce classes/offices are located in the basement of Woodsworth College - you don't actually get hang around in the nicer MBA building often. Rotman also a lot of international students. Talking to Rotman grads, all in all, they send about 5-10 grads into Banking each year which is not ideal.

University of Alberta

UCalgary, UAlberta sends a lot of grads to energy-related finance and IB in Alberta. The PRIME program (which manages an Investment Fund like Sauder's PMF) is where all the finance-keen students are. Regional S&T is also strong here as well as regional IB BB offices (though these offices tend not be as good at ones in NYC & Toronto due to prestige, pay, and deal-flow). UAlberta is a powerhouse for energy-related finance such as commodities trading, Acquisitions & Divestures, etc.

University of Calgary Commerce

UCalgary is seimilar to UAlberta when it comes to banking in Alberta region which fyi is the energy rich area of Canada. For example, JP Morgan has an IB office located there which regularly takes UCalgary's Bcom students. However, UCalgary isn't known to place well in Bay/Wall Street.

Schulich School of Business

Does decent for Bay Street but presence on Wall St. is non-existent (w/ few exceptions like ones who go to GS Equity Research in Salt Lake City which is not as good at IB). Schulich recently placed ~10 students in IB, S&T, and ER altogether.

Feel free to comment to add anything I missed! I might add other schools to the list later but they really are insignificant and not really considered "targets".