Laurier vs. UofT

Both are great schools. As long as you work hard you will get to the street from either.

That said, the answer on this one simply is fit. WLU vs UofT is completely different culture and types of students. Figure out where you fit best. Where you fit best will allow you to succeed the easiest.

Sorry if I have misunderstood, but is Co-op really the name of the business school at Laurier?

No co-op means a program, where you study 4 months and work 4 months in sequence for 3 terms.

Marcellus, do you know if there are more Laurier kids on the street than Rotman (undergrad) kids? And also do you know the approximate number that each school sends each year to the street?

The reason I ask is because I was set on Laurier before because I heard that Rotman was a total GPA kill; however, after visiting the Laurier campus and business school today, I was not very impressed to say the least.

If I will be presented with better opportunities at Rotman in exchange for working MUCH harder, than I am willing to take that challenge

U of T will rape your GPA, go to laurier and transfer to ivey

I was always under the impression that a 3.8gpa at Rotman will be able to find better opportunities than a 3.8 at Laurier

the laurier kid would have coop internships though

the U of T scarborough campus also has coop but you'll have to work your ass off either way

I would go to Laurier over U of T. Laurier's coop program is legit and will give you some interesting opportunities after only a year or two in school.

I am not a fan of UofT, it does rape your GPA. But I have friends who went there and went to Law/Med after so its not as hard as made out. But the culture of competition and no joy that UofT has somewhat is a total turnoff. But as I said again if you think you fit in with that go there.

How many WLU kids make to the street, depends on the overall year. Would say about 20-35 sounds about right.

Also as mentioned it is very easy to transfer to Ivey. Know a couple people who did that. From WLU/Mac they had a 76 average or so and some decent internships.

I don't understand why everyone shits on UofT. I went there for my undergrad and studied mathematics. I have a lot of experience with the mathematics/CS departments at waterloo, queens etc., and I can promise you that the standards and quality of education at UofT are considerably higher than anywhere else in Ontario. I agree that the co-op programs at Waterloo/Laurier are excellent for getting students experience, but you can get experience in your summers if you're at UofT. I did internships every summer and had a pretty decent resume by the time I finished my undergrad and started my MFE.

It is definitely true that getting a good GPA at UofT is harder, but that is meant to seperate the good from the great. What is the value of a 3.8 GPA at Laurier if it is so easily attainable?

As for the number of students that make it into front office roles, I think it is irrelevant. There is a selection bias from the students' point of view here. Students who know they want to go into banking/S&T generally don't choose UofT out of HS. I didn't go to UofT because I wanted a career in Finance. I didn't know what I wanted careerwise, and so I went to UofT to get the best possible education I could. And there is no denying that you will get a higher quality education at UofT than anywhere else in Ontario. Only McGill and UBC are in the same league as UofT.

If you are smart, hard working, well prepared and ambitious, there is no reason why you can't attain your goals studying at UofT.

For the sake of full disclosure, I figured out that I wanted to go into S&T very late, and wasn't able to find a way in, but I don't blame UofT for it. It's my own fault. I ended up going into consulting instead, and eventhough it wasn't my first choice, I am very happy with my career now. If I knew I wanted to be in S&T from the beginning of my undergrad, I would have done many things differently, and I have no doubt that I could have done it.

Anyway, UofT is an excellent school. It is a considerably better school than Laurier. You will be challenged much more, and your education won't be focused entirely on getting you a job. It will be focused on developing your mind instead. Not to mention that Toronto is an amazing city, and Waterloo sucks.

People shit on U of T because the resources to get into front office roles simply aren't as good as they are at queens, ivey, and other schools with co-op programs.

It's a school extremely biased towards placing you into accounting if you are in the commerce stream.

I do agree with you that the professors and the quality of education you get are very good, sadly an internship from a coop term will get you more mileage.

My whole point is that going to UofT and getting good internships in the summer are not mutually exclusive. I honestly think that people who break into front office roles from Laurier/Queens etc. would have been able to accomplish the same had they gone to UofT instead.

Kids that are gunning for front office straight away from year 1 will have a huge advantage almost regardless of school, but the U of T student will have to work harder to maintain grades and gets less help from the school to land those internships, that's the problem.

I went to U of T undergrad and the amount of kids in commerce that are completely clueless about the recruitment process and front office roles in general is astounding.

I see your point, and I agree with you that UofT needs to place more emphasis on campus recruiting.

I thought they were both Non Targets

I don't think anyone has the right to be arrogant. Getting into Queen's Commerce or UWO Ivey is not an accomplishment in itself.

I think we can agree that most people in this field and forum are arrogant to some degree... just look at how many prestige posts there are, and people ragging on "lesser" banks or firms or fields, or schools (my school is so more 'target' than your school...)

But anyway to get back on topic. The OP is asking which school will set him up with a greater chance at his/her goal.

UofT is a good school - and definitely it's math program is stellar, but the downside is its sheer numbers in student volume and that does work against you. I'll repeat what a UofT friend has told me: it's a very competitive school where there's some kids who study ridiculous amounts and have very high GPAs. As a screening metric, the companies that do recruit there, would pick out your top 1-5%. But because the UofT career management does a poor job polishing their students on their interviewing and networking skills, and the kids selected are the usually the ones that don't really spend time outside of school work - they face a tremendous uphill battle against schools that DO focus on where it counts (the interview process). And against kids from other schools that both have good GPAs, but also extracurriculars, personalities, and a deep Alumni network that's willing to help students, UofT kids have a tough time.

This isn't to say they can't succeed - but it's just that the school doesn't do them too many favors by not focusing on polishing them and bringing in a wider range of firms recruiting. You've got a huge population fighting for less positions. Whereas there are some firms that only go to Ivey, Queens, McGill and even Laurier (e.g., Gluskin Sheff) specifically. So students, in order to succeed (and they can), just have to do more work by themselves to understand how the game works.

Kanon, you bring up some great points, much like Babyj, and so I concede. I think my tangent about UofT's general reputation is irrelevant to the purpose of this thread. You guys are right that Ivey/Queens kids have an advantage over UofT kids in Finance as a whole.

Yea laurier seems to be better school

People shit on UofT. Because of grads like you dude. Come on I know so many people in engineering/CS/maths from UofT/Waterloo. Some traders who did undergrad and grad at one or the other.

None of those people who ever say UofT is above Waterloo in Maths/Engineering. Vice versa, I know guys who did well in EngSci and said Mechatronics/Systems at Waterloo is just as hard.

Getting a high GPA is so so hard at UofT? This is what every whining overworked student at UofT always says, I know guys who got 90s in advanced math at UW, I am sure they can hold their own. So can all the WLU people I know who aced CFA/UFE/etc...and got straight A's. You people use the same books and material as Ivey/Queen's/WLU so explain to me why is is so hard to get a decent GPA at UofT? Know why its the culture and how the professors treat their classes.

UofT is a great school for Law/Med/etc. But the undergraduate experience has come way down over the years. Case in point my buddy went to York and then UofT dental, and hes at the top of the class ahead of McGill/Queen's all those other so called great schools. Know why he did not goto UofT? He hated the culture, but for post-grad its different there the value of research and brand of UofT shows true.

Lastly, though I have been to Rotman met people who worked in the finance lab and other parts. I have also been to UTSC and know some stars that came out of there. You can make out of their alive with a good gig, lots of smart kids, but at the end I saw, "these ppl are all overworked and for what?" some myth that UofT is amazing and should slave you.

In all honesty, if you can't get into Ivey or Queen's, why do you think you can break into banking?

Thanks to everyone who has helped thus far, but I have one more question: Would Laurier be better than Schulich? Again, I am getting a lot of mixed signals with regards to schulich, and I now know that Laurier is a very strong school as well, but ultimately, would it be better than schulich?