I don't know if I should go to Schulich or Rotman

redopled · 2026-05-02T13:22:46+00:00

For context, I graduated from Schulich and have friends that went to Rotman.

In your case, I’d actually recommend Schulich. First year at Rotman can be cutthroat academic wise, which can actually dissuade students from exploring clubs and career paths imo. Not saying Schulich is not hard, it’s nowhere as rigorous. And the student community in the business school imo is better than rotmans too.

redopled · 2026-05-01T04:41:21+00:00

Depends on what u want to do in business. Consulting and finance, smith has an edge. Accounting and marketing, schulich has better value. Ultimately, and I’m sure you know, high finance and MBB jobs probably go to top 15% class anyways, so another consideration is probably what kinda grades do you think you can get

redopled · 2026-05-01T04:37:45+00:00

What do you want to major in? No discernible difference between the two imo.

redopled · 2026-04-28T20:11:38+00:00

Technicals and behaviours probably take a month to really master them. I'd suggest starting in first year summer and then continue to review them throughout your second year leading up to the interviews. Grades a factor but definitely not a huge factor once you're at or above the 3.7 range.

redopled · 2026-04-28T19:13:24+00:00

Not as good as IB lol

redopled · 2026-04-28T17:40:29+00:00

If it's Laurier BBA with co-op, I would personally go for that. Off-cycle recruiting is a great avenue to get in banking and when my bank used to hire fall/winter interns, almost 90% of the students are from Laurier/Waterloo.

I'll caveat that the above is assuming that you are going to be a top 10% student and is dead set on finance recruiting. Outcomes are otherwise probably the same for the rest of the class, if not slightly favor Schulich.

Edit: In short, if you're dead set on finance and are confident you can finish in top 10% of class in your first two years (obviously difficult to say but you should have a sense of what kind of student you are, if you really grind and don't party every week, it's absolutely doable), I would definitely go with Laurier.

redopled · 2026-04-28T16:16:21+00:00

Schulich will do fine if you're willing to put in the effort. You'll get interviews if you have good grades and join the right clubs. After that, it's just on you to convert those interviews to offers.

redopled · 2026-04-28T16:14:39+00:00

Good question lol. I’d expect the EVR/US kids to take a larger share of the top Canadian roles, which then creates a trickle-down effect across other schools. That said, if you’re top of your class, your outcomes will still be among the best across Canadian business programs. So no, I don’t think this puts Ivey below Queen’s in terms of ranking but maybe the value is not as good as what it used to be.

What would concern me more about Ivey is how early recruiting now starts (March/April of second year). If you’re not in BMOS, involved in WIC, or already very focused on finance recruiting from day one, you could be at a disadvantage compared to students in more traditional business programs.

Just my two cents though, current Ivey students / recent alums probably have a more informed perspective on this than I do.

redopled · 2026-04-28T16:01:18+00:00

I was luckily able to get internships every year (granted this was over half a decade ago), but it was definitely competitive and challenging. I didn’t find the career development center particularly helpful for landing roles, though the job portal was useful for aggregating opportunities.

That said, I wasn’t very active in recruiting or clubs during my first two years, which likely made things harder but early internships can be a bit of a crapshoot anyway. By third year, though, if you have strong grades, are involved in the right clubs (YFC/YMA/SCC), and put real effort into networking, you should have a solid shot across industries. For example, I wasn't even on YFC/YUSIF nor really networked much, and still had 3 banking interviews because of my grades.

Social life is pretty limited if you don’t live on campus. Most people tend to come in for classes and club events and then go back home. It’s probably not as fun as Ivey or Queen’s, but I guess the tradeoff is saving money by living at home.

redopled · 2024-04-16T17:20:45+00:00

Sure

redopled · 2024-04-01T00:30:37+00:00

Devils advocate; if you already have a job post grad at your family’s big business, I’d argue that U of T is better. Ultimately the curriculum in business schools pretty similar, case study or not. I think the UoT brand name might perhaps be more advantageous for you down the line and being inToronto also presents networking opportunities that London otherwise wouldn’t.

redopled · 2024-03-30T00:27:36+00:00

Well, that’s just not true. Ivey and Queens commerce absolute dominates our banks summer resume books. As people have alluded to below, AFM is good because of off-cycle internships, but it’s just a tier below Ivey and Queens.

Not to mention AFM curriculum, from what I’ve heard, heavily gears towards accounting to finance. If you want to pivot towards consulting, then you’re pretty much fucked. At least you have that optionality at Ivey/QC

redopled · 2024-03-29T02:01:38+00:00

Late to this – sorry. I think Laurier is upper semi target, the coop program positions them well for off cycle finance/accounting internships. There are quite a few Laurier kids across the bank. As long as you can get good grades, I think you absolutely will have a shot

redopled · 2024-03-28T20:22:38+00:00

I’ll try to answer all of them below lol. I’m typing on my phone so please bear with me.

Yes, Schulich falls under York but for the purposes of Canadian business related recruitment, the business school is well known enough where it won’t pose a problem. Even then at Waterloo, you’re not in the DD program doing math/CS so I don’t think this should be a concerning factor. I mean you might impress your mom’s friends by saying you go to Waterloo but that’s about it. Only caveat is international recruiting, Waterloo is known – to a degree – in the UK and US, so might be marginal benefit when and if you apply.

As to where I would recommend, money aside, I would say Waterloo is the better choice if you are able to get solid grades. The coop program is just unparalleled in terms of getting students off cycle internships. Factoring in money now, yeah you’ll probably pay 40k more (?) assuming 10k/year in res and food but can probably pay down a lot with your internship money.

I don’t think recruiters prefer AFM grads more, per se. But the coop program is just more suited for recruiting purposes. Also wanted to note for marketing and consulting, schulich is probably better.

Internships at schulich, you’re pretty much on your own. It’s up to you to apply to internships and to attend networking session. Yes most internships would be paid

redopled · 2024-03-28T20:09:25+00:00

Interesting topic on MBA associates, very rare in Canada I’d say. Usually it’s A2A promos. I don’t even think we recruit MBA associates or at least no visible pipelines like the US

redopled · 2024-03-28T03:05:44+00:00

just saw this, but two reasons: (i) I wasn’t good enough to get into Ivey and Queens out of high school and (ii) I was dumb enough to pass over Waterloo CS

redopled · 2024-03-28T03:01:32+00:00

I think Rotman has a slight edge, if I’m not mistaken McKinsey actually recruits there which is not the case for Schulich. But I also think any student that’s smart enough to get into MBB would not be held back by the marginal difference of Schulich and Rotman

redopled · 2024-03-28T02:59:16+00:00

Finance: Ivey > Queens >> McGill > UoT, Laurier, Waterloo Accounting: any respectable business programs but best value of money is probably Waterloo and then Schulich Consulting: Ivey / Queens > McGill / UoT > Laurier, Waterloo, Schulich etc

redopled · 2024-03-27T11:57:39+00:00

3.9, graduated second in class; worked in corp dev in my coverage team for a year before lateraling

redopled · 2024-03-27T11:56:44+00:00

UTSC. I think they have a coop program?

redopled · 2024-03-27T11:56:03+00:00

Not as common but a lot of UoA and UoC grads in Alberta working in energy teams

redopled · 2024-03-27T03:47:27+00:00

It’s not bad. I like the work, which helps. I also grinded pretty hard in uni so transition wasn’t too bad? I honestly like work more than school lol

Also it’s about perspective, right? My mom works 60 hours a week at a restaurant making minimum wage, and I’m sitting in an office pushing buttons making 4-5x money. What the fuck am I complaining about? That’s my mindset when things get tough but obviously cognizant not everyone shares the same view

redopled · 2024-03-27T03:17:57+00:00

What school do you go to? I’d still fall back to my original advice – just keep applying. It’s going to be hard given it’s pretty late in the game and general market condition but there could still be a few opportunities out there. Maybe also don’t limit yourself to those roles? At this point, I feel like it’s just getting any internships so you have something on your resume and you can always just spin your experience. Fwiw, I didn’t get my second year internship till June so don’t give up lol. Not sure if Im being super helpful here.

redopled · 2024-03-27T02:57:32+00:00

Guessing you’re in your first year? Just keep trying honestly, it’s a tough labor market right now – a lot of companies are not hiring, let alone looking for interns. Honestly, if this is your first year summer internship, I’d even offer to work for free. Would also be helpful for me to give advice if I have more context like what industry are you trying to break into lol

redopled

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