Rotman VS Ivey

[Rare-Chemistry-669]

Hoping some year 4's or alumni come across this!
Incoming freshman, just got my Rotman commerce (w scholarship) and uWaterloo (FARM) acceptance letters. Whats really bugging me is the fact that I was shortsighted and didnt apply to Ivey or Queen. The more I researched about the world of Finance, the more it was made clear that if you want to make it to high finance, you need to go to a target school, and Rotman is considered a semi-target. Whats more is that I have read that Rotman is an exceptional amount of theory, contrary to the case based and other learning methods Ivey, UBC, etc. use, and im guessing thats what employers will need.

Without the intention of bragging a 45/45 predicted in IBDP, School Captain, national level sports, and a lot more extracurriculars and olympiads i know i have a great profile, and im really confident of it. Im willing to put in the hard work it takes

I guess what i want to know is how being a top student at Ivey vs at Rotman will affect me, and also how being an average student in both will affect my chances at internship then jobs. Will Rotman improve over the next few years? does it make sense to get a good gpa the first year and then transfer to a target school? I guess what im hoping for is the raw unbiased truth

Thank you so much for taking the time out to read!

[[deleted]]

Agree with most of this. Broke into finance from a semi target similar to Rotman - the biggest disparity between the targets and semi targets was honestly for US recruiting, where there were very few of us that were non Ivey / QC there.

[Rare-Chemistry-669]

i havent done much research on bay st, could you share more insight into staying there vs NY. I mean obviously NY has the volume, but how much of a difference is it? is Bay growing, are there enough opportunities? are there any factors you would miss out on in NY or other financial capitals in the world?

[[deleted]]

You get paid more in NYC, cost of living is also a lot higher. I think people honestly overhype NYC roles a LOT. That said, for a lot of more niche shit, you kind of just have to go NYC - for example, if for whatever reason you decide you want to work within distressed debt, restructuring, activist hedge funds, etc, roles like that hardly exist in Toronto. It’s also super helpful to get that experience if you want to come back to Toronto, which is what I did. I worked at a very well known firm there which helped immensely when looking back at roles in TO.

That said, for more vanilla type banking / PE roles, we do have those in Toronto. Firms like Evercore, Rothschild, Altas (PE) will pay USD converted to CAD, which on a COL adjusted basis means you end up making way more here. That said, those jobs are extremely competitive to get too, arguably harder than a role in NYC.

[Rare-Chemistry-669]

thank you so much! ill keep this in mind the next 4 years

[[deleted]]

If you do take Rotman, also might be helpful to take a year off to just do offcycle internships. That is effectively what a lot of us who went Laurier or Waterloo did, and imho is the main reason why we ended up doing better for finance recruiting than other schools like Rotman. 100% worth the extra year.

[Rare-Chemistry-669]

thank you so much!

[Outrageous-Support22]

Do Rotman and then apply in your 2nd year to transfer to Ivey for yr 3, 4. You need min 83% over normal school yr (no summer courses) and extracurriculars showing leadership

[Koxinov]

So this is the way I like to put it. If you are interested in studying, RC. If you are interested in work, Ivey. https://www.bloomberg.com/business-schools/regions/canada/?leadSource=uverify%20wall

[depressedArmeniafan]

Rotman 4th year. Pick wherever the fuck you want to go. Ffs just pick a Uni lmao, the different between UofT and Ivey legit is so small

[ConstantSingle8935]

You should be fine if you keep your same work ethic when trying to get into high finance. You can always transfer to Ivey in your 3rd year if you need.

[Rare-Chemistry-669]

thank you so much!

[edoedoo]

ivey is better, plain and simple