Which Canadian Program? McGill, Ivey or Schulich?

Hey Forum,

I'm a Canadian business student who has gotten into McGill Commerce, Ivey's Advanced Entry Opportunity and the Schulich School of Business. In the long term I would like to work in the States, and therefore I plan to do an MBA in a top-25 school.

Which of these schools would be my best bet? I know McGill has a great reputation in the States and their commerce program is pretty great but everyone knows Ivey is a better program and has better opportunities. I'm also looking into Schulich because of the cheap tuition and it's reputation (ranked 10th in Economist Ranking, #1 business school in Canada according to WSJ, Forbes and Economist).

Which one should I go with? Does the school you go to really matter if you want to an MBA later on to like the top schools in the States? I was even considering Carnegie-Mellon's MSCF program because it will give me the preparation I need if I choose to work as a quant @ WS.

Any help will be appreciated. Cheers!

 

You seem legitimately new to WSO so I'll politely refer you to our search function on in the top right quadrant of the page. This exact decision metric has been asked and answered 20+ times, particularly over the past two years/few months.

N.B. In short form:

i) Ivey is far and away Canada's best b-school in terms of recruiting in US/Canada, but Ivey AEO is NOT Ivey... getting and 80% average (even in BMOS) can be harder than alot of students think in what I've observed. ii) McGill Commerce is good, not on Ivey's level but very respectable alumni network this side of the border and a much better comprehensive school than UWO. ....

...

iii) I put this point lower down to express that your true decision should be Desautels vs. AEO; Schulich is not worth your time or money if you have the choice of the three. Nothing against current York students on WSO, but the recruiting/intruction quality is fundamentally sub-par in comparison the the other two institutions.

CMU's computational finance is the best of the 4 needless to say if you want to work south of the border.... If you can afford it and you get in... GO.

PM me if you have any more questions, I am a student @ one of the above and working the summer at a BB in the states (likely FT as well, fingers crossed).

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 

Alright great, thanks for help. I know this topic has been discussed over and over again but I was specifically more interested in knowing which one you guys would choose if you were to do an MBA in the States. I didn't really come across any threads that discussed which one will be more suitable for an MBA.

I personally feel like going with McGill because of its reputation in the States, cheaper tuition and some specific things like its Honors in IM program, exchange with Wharton, Intl Mgmt program.

What do you guys think? Is it worth paying so much for an undergrad at Ivey when you're going to study at the graduate level anyways? Which out of the two schools have more students going into the U.S. schools like HBS, Wharton, Stanford at the graduate level?

 

GPA/work experience/GMAT... MBA admissions are a lot less a function of undergrad school than employment. Ivey and McGill both send kids to HBS all the time.

If you want to go to Desautels so bad, go there. Just know it isn't the best option. Point c'est tout.

Ivey has the most alumni @ top firms and top b-schools. Stop trying to convince yourself otherwise.

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 

You think so? The thing is for the first two years of AEO I applied for biomed and now I really don't want to do that. I've been told to go Ivey as well so I was thinking of transferring to Ivey 3rd year from McGill.

Would you recommend that? Will I be at a disadvantage if I transfer third year? Especially for getting exec positions at Ivey clubs for an example investment club. Do I need to be there early on like as year 1 to network with my seniors so I can get a leadership position later on?

Thanks a lot for your help, I appreciate it.

 
Best Response
blackstone:
You think so? The thing is for the first two years of AEO I applied for biomed and now I really don't want to do that. I've been told to go Ivey as well so I was thinking of transferring to Ivey 3rd year from McGill.

Would you recommend that? Will I be at a disadvantage if I transfer third year? Especially for getting exec positions at Ivey clubs for an example investment club. Do I need to be there early on like as year 1 to network with my seniors so I can get a leadership position later on?

Thanks a lot for your help, I appreciate it.

Biomed is no engineering and it's only incrementally harder than BMOS @ Western. You can take whatever courses and just change your "intent to register" on SSC @ the end of first year to BMOS/Econ/Math or w/e suits your fancy. Transferring from McGill is fine but more will be expected of you. You'll need (realistically) an 85%+ or some really stellar extra-curricular leadership activities (McGill Management case comp,/Management Undergrad society leadership roles, NGO involvement, start a business etc.) This might affect you getting an analyst spot in Western Investment club first year but not in HBA 2. If you do go to Western to start you can get some exposure in Western Capital Markets Club etc.

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 
Independent Gestion:
blackstone:
You think so? The thing is for the first two years of AEO I applied for biomed and now I really don't want to do that. I've been told to go Ivey as well so I was thinking of transferring to Ivey 3rd year from McGill.

Would you recommend that? Will I be at a disadvantage if I transfer third year? Especially for getting exec positions at Ivey clubs for an example investment club. Do I need to be there early on like as year 1 to network with my seniors so I can get a leadership position later on?

Thanks a lot for your help, I appreciate it.

Biomed is no engineering and it's only incrementally harder than BMOS @ Western. You can take whatever courses and just change your "intent to register" on SSC @ the end of first year to BMOS/Econ/Math or w/e suits your fancy. Transferring from McGill is fine but more will be expected of you. You'll need (realistically) an 85%+ or some really stellar extra-curricular leadership activities (McGill Management case comp,/Management Undergrad society leadership roles, NGO involvement, start a business etc.) This might affect you getting an analyst spot in Western Investment club first year but not in HBA 2. If you do go to Western to start you can get some exposure in Western Capital Markets Club etc.

I agree. Just go to Ivey. Tons of ppl are looking for the chance to transfer to Ivey HBA including myself. It would be much easier if you went to Ivey from the beginning

 

Alright thanks a lot for the help guys. I'm visiting both universities this week and hopefully I'll be able to make a decision. Definitely leaning towards Ivey right now, after talking to some people in the banking industry in Toronto.

 

To address the concerns of AEO status, I just finished first year AEO and while I can't speak for second year or biomed for that matter, I will tell you right now that first year BMOS is not hard given that you put the desired hours in to study. Compared to AEO students in other programs, this path to Ivey is as easy (and safe in terms of grade benchmarking) as it gets. If you learned basic economics in high school, and you can work through calculus concepts you can get by just fine. BMOS will not bend you over backwards, but if you'd rather be doing something else, you will see the consequences as a result in your marks, but that can be said with any program. Just for facts, I finished first year with high 80s.

 

ivey for sure... I'm in Canada as well and went to WLU and ivey is the clear cut #1 entry point to finance in terms of canadian universities... the only other school I've seen place directly to IB jobs in New York is queen's and they do it on a much smaller scale than Ivey

 

Alright thanks a lot for the help guys. @RussianMonkey - Do you think I will be able to switch from Biomed to like Econ or BMOS if I ask Western?

Ahh and just got into Queen's Commerce today, my decision just got heck of a lot tougher -_-

 
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/company/blackstone-group>blackstone</a></span>:
Alright thanks a lot for the help guys. @RussianMonkey - Do you think I will be able to switch from Biomed to like Econ or BMOS if I ask Western?

Ahh and just got into Queen's Commerce today, my decision just got heck of a lot tougher -_-

Um I explained earlier... In Biomed you'll be able to select any courses in Faculty of Science (which includes Financial Math and Financial Modelling programs). You'll also be able to take some introductory Econ courses and 2257 (the pre-Ivey accounting course). At the end of the year (March 31) you select your Intent to register as BMOS or ECON and you continue on the same path. If you intend to change, noones going to force you to take Biomed courses even if you're registered in the program.

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 
George Parr:
If you start at McGill, you won't wanna switch. You will have the same opportunities for recruitment plus the social scene is way more vibrant.

He most certainly WON'T have the same opportunities for recruitment. Also UWO, is a huge party school... how is the social aspect not there? Yes, Montreal is a better city to be in, but I've heard that UWO is a blast.

To the OP: at minimum, spend your last 2 years at Ivey. There is no school in Canada that matches up to its reputation, network and opportunities (Queens comes close... McGill a distant 3rd). I would also encourage you to start at UWO simply because it would suck to be a junior at Ivey and have to build your social network up from scratch again. Also... I'm sure it'd be hard to leave behind everyone at McGill to finish up school.

 

I think its a no-brainer: you dont like UWO, the campus and London. Youre not sure about 2+2 and you might want to do law school.

All reasons to do mcgill. Plus there is no way UWO>McGill in terms of partying. I believe the only Canadian uni to be named to Playboy's top ten party schools in the last 5 years (or ever, for that matter) is McGill.

 

why are you guys fucking with his mind? Ivey is better hands down (which you apply into after your 2nd year in undergrad).

if 2 people have never heard of ivey or mcgill they will like ivey simply because "ivey" sounds like ivy league. get it?

also it's not so easy to switch schools in canada. for example, queen's had only 1 transfer in the entirety of 2009 transfer into their undergrad in 3rd year. how do i know this? because i picked up the phone and called the admissions director

 

^ but i hold an AEO offer, so im sure that i can do similar courses at mcgill then go to Ivey for my final 2 years if i wanted to.

I think ill go for mcgill since i know that ill be happier there, and for me thats more important than a slightly better program. Ill work as hard as possible and make the most out of my experience. thanks a lot for the advice

 

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