URGENT DECISION! Richard Ivey vs. Carleton College
Hello everyone,
I've been reading the forums for a while would appreciate some advice. I'm currently a senior in high school and was recently accepted to both the Honors Business Administration Program at UWO's Richard Ivey School of Business, Canada's premier undergraduate business program, and Carleton College, a top LAC in the United States (Rank 7 US News). Currently, I have until tommorow night to make a decision between them! Although I am aware of Ivey's fantastic reputation in Canada, I would ultimately like to start my finance career in the United States (where I currently reside), and, as I scour across past threads for information, I continue to hear things like only the top 5 to 10 percent of the class manages to break in or that US recruiting has been lackluster in recent years. So I have a couple of questions.
- What percent of Ivey students manage to get offers in the United States?
- Has Ivey recruiting been on the decline in recent years or is that just hogwash?
- Would being a US citizen give me any sort of advantage when it comes to US recruiting at Ivey, as the company would not have to sponsor a Visa for me?
On the other hand, Carleton College has an outstanding academic reputation in the United States and consistently pumps kids into top graduate school programs, but many of the students there are interested in the sciences or humanities and, as such, there doesn't appear to be a lot of OCR there. One idea I had in mind was to stay at Carleton for a year or two and transfer to a school with better recruiting, like UPenn CAS, NYU Stern, Vanderbilt, Brown, Cornell, UVA, etc. My high school grades and SAT scores are excellent and with Carleton's reputation I don't think it would terribly difficult for me to transfer to another top school if I kept my grades up there.
So what would you guys do? Go to Richard Ivey and work your butt off to squeeze into the top decile or go to Carleton College for a year or two and then transfer somewhere else?
P.S. I apologize in advance if I said something that offended anyone or made me sound rude or oblivious, as that was not my intention!
Bump?
When I was in HBA1 (third year) my section had 25 students alone receive SA offers at investment banks and PE firms. There's 8 sections in total. The recruiting has definitely not been on the decline. However, as a whole, sometimes recruiting takes a hit at every school since it depends on the year's deal flow. Perhaps that is where the "declining recruiting" talk came from.
Out of the 25 students in my section, about 5 went to the U.S.
As for the advantage of you being a U.S. citizen already, I don't think that would really have any benefit. The banks that consider Ivey students are already prepared to sponsor, so there shouldn't be any benefit really, but obviously it wouldn't hurt. However, I'm sure it would be beneficial when networking with banks that don't recruit from Ivey (though that's not really an issue if you're gunning for BB or EB, as all BBs and EBs recruit from Ivey).
Thanks for the response! If you don't mind me asking, what year did you graduate from Ivey? Also, how do you feel about the total size of the program. If there are 8 sections in a year, each having 75 students, that would mean there are about 600 students in a graduating class. Did you ever feel like it was a super competitive process? How available were Career Services during your time there? Also, how receptive did you find alumni when you were networking? Thanks again!
Would not go to Carleton if your goal is high finance. It can definitely be done, but it'll be hard. It just doesn't have the same name recognition as a Williams or Amherst, especially on both coasts. That said, it's a great school and you'll definitely have a ton of fun there. Very few people transfer out of there though.
Thanks for the response! When you talk about few people transferring out of Carleton, do you mean that in the sense that students generally choose not to or because it is difficult to do so?
My understanding is that people generally choose not to. I wasn't close to anyone who seriously considered it so I'm not sure how hard it is.
Carleton is a good school, however, outside of the upper Midwest it is not going to be as recognized - think Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Iowa and possibly Chicago. You are correct that it is geared more towards science and humanities. Ideally, if you were looking at Minnesota the U of M twin cities would be the best choice.
Go drink a beer.
I can't. I'm underage! :)
Definitely Ivey, there are probably 10 students a year from there just in IBD in Los Angeles, not to mention SF/CHI/NYC/etc. Great reputation for business and finance.
Any final opinions before I make the decision? Thanks everyone so far for their advice!
Just wondering, what was your final decision? I'm a rising junior at Carleton, so feel free to pm me if you ended up choosing it (sorry, late to the party)
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