Re: Ranks and clusterings of various International b-schools
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06 Nov 2009, 14:01
hi guys, i just wanted to throw in my 2 cents here for the Canadian schools. being from toronto, i can say that the vast majority of canadian IB/banking/corporate/MC/other MBA related jobs are in the toronto market. the strongest program here locally is Ivey (University of Western Ontario). they feed into a lot of the top IB and MC jobs here.
then it's likely between Rotman and Schulich. however, there are drawbacks with both programs. the Rotman programt ends to focus more on GPA than GMAT/WE, which attracts a bunch of career students and not as many business minded people. i see a lot of Rotman grads in banks doing mid-office risk management or valuations type of work. they're also not very strong in consulting.
imo this program has not been successful in leveraging its strong undergrad reputation into a top tier MBA program.
Schulich on the other hand has a traditionally strong MBA program. their joint EMBA program with Kellogg is top notch. however, they've gone too international these days and the reputation of the graduates is that half of them can't speak proper english...not exactly what i'd people to think of when they hear where my MBA's from. also the academic rigor of the school is questionable, as the campus is located in one of the scummier areas of toronto and the undergrad program of the school is considered vastly inferior to University of Toronto (Rotman) or University of Western Ontario (Ivey) or even Queen's.
after Rotman and Schulich comes Queen's. they've been on the rise lately, developing a specialty in graduates with engineering backgrounds. however, they are also much less selective (and thus prestigious) than programs like Ivey or Rotman. a graduate from Queen's would need to be quite exceptional in order to compete with the other programs for popular IB/MC positions. because it's located about 3 hrs east of Toronto, Queen's also suffers from its location vs. Schulich or Rotman, which are both in Toronto.
all in all, while these are all regional elite schools, i think the ranking goes like 1. Ivey, 2. Rotman, 3. Schulich, 4. Queen's, and internationally, i believe only the Ivey name carries any weight at all. however, i think that if Rotman plays its cards right, they can really build a much more globally reputable name in the long run based on the undergraduate institution's strength in academia.