westsidah408 wrote:
When considering Sauder one of the people I spoke to was a Director at McKinsey's Calgary office who recruits at Sauder. His perception of Sauder was much higher than what you say. McKinsey's Calgary office hires from Sauder, as well as other top b-schools in Canada and the US. Perhaps it is due to the heavy marketing as you mentioned.
To the OP: I think for MC in Calgary, you'll be fine at Sauder or Rotman. That said, if you want to be in Toronto, even though Sauder does place at MC in Toronto, you would do better to go with Ivey or Rotman.
Westsidah, Maroliv, jxcho,
You've all made great points, and I have to agree with most of them. I believe that you need to choose an MBA program based on three factors:
1) Industry you want to work in (IB, VC, PE or MC or corporate/managerial roles)
2) City you want to work in (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Int'l)
3) Are you a career switcher or not? (i.e. 2 yr program vs 1 yr)
More and more, I believe that the student can define where he/she wants to work and what he/she wants to work in independent of the school he/she attends. If you have the balls to cold call enough well placed individuals in the industry, you'll get the interview and it won't matter which of the big 6 MBA schools in Canada you attended. That being said, you can most definitely increase your odds by being at the right school.
I would have been admitted to any school in Canada had I applied (GMAT, GPA, age, military exp, professional exp and extra curriculars are all good). My personal decision to attend McGill/Desautels full time 2yr MBA (double concentration finance and strategy) was made because:
1) I`m aiming to work in Management consulting. (I want to work in MC because I plan to interface the hell out of clients, make a ton of connections, and gain transitional freedom five years into my career. i.e. I don`t want to burn out in IB two years in and have nowhere to go.)
2) I want to live in Montreal long term, if possible.
3) I am a career switcher (my work experience is retail/private banking and industrial engineering/construction).
4) I also feel the brand name of McGill will be able to weather the inevitable highs and lows every MBA program will suffer at the hands of the many annual rankings out there. Industry doesn`t care about rankings.
I think we're lucky to live in Canada. We've got several good schools to choose from, and once you know where your ambitions lie, it's quite easy to choose the right program for you.