Senior Manager
Joined: 14 Feb 2015
Posts: 450
Location: Canada
Concentration: General Management, Operations
GPA: 3.6
WE:Supply Chain Management (Manufacturing)
Re: Canada vs US B-Schools
[#permalink]
06 Jul 2015, 11:22
Hey RG,
Something here to share from a Canadian's perspective.
Judging from the schools you have on your mind (Wharton '18, Booth PT '18, Sloan '18, CBS '18), you are most likely one of the more qualified applicants (GMAT 700+, GPA 3.5+), and that tells me you are likely going to get a nice scholarships from a good American school. Maybe Harvard will not give you 50k, but a full ride from the top 15~top 20 might be possible. Scholarships here in Canada are quite unimpressive. I only know of one school (Queen's) that offers a full scholarships while being a legit program. I applied to and got into McGill for this August and decided not to go for personal reasons, and the admission director told me I got one of the best scholarships - 40k, only 50% of the tuition. Also, getting into a good school significantly increases your chance of landing a high paying job.
Secondly, if you want to specialize in finance, by all means stay in the US. Wall Street is in the US, and strangely enough, lots of Canadians are over qualified in terms of certificate. Walking on Bay Street (Canadian Wall Street), 30% of the people probably already have received the CFA before they turned 30. If you want to stay in Canada and work after graduation, you will face a steeper competition in terms of certification. Pays are significantly lower here as well, and your network here will not be as helpful for you if you want to go back to the states and pursue a career there.
I think Canadian MBA's are great in quality, and are the best choices for people from other countries like China and India because they get 3 years work Visa's here that allow them to get jobs that pay them 120% higher salaries, but for an American this is not the case. Unemployment rate is a lot lower in the US now so chances are it will be easier for you to find a job south of the border and pay off the American student loans quicker than finding a job here in Canada and repaying the Canadian student loan.
The above was just my personal opinion, so make sure you take it with a grain of salt. I have been contemplating the same thing so I have done a bit of research, but it largely depends on your own situation. Hope that helps.
stevkang8