Haskayne (Calgary) vs DeGroote (McMaster)

Question

Hi All,

I need some advice on University of Haskayne School of Business(University of Calgary) Vs DeGroote Business School(McMaster University) for my MBA as I'm really confused in deciding the better option.
I have 3.2 years Work-Exp in IT and am looking for a transition to Finance.

Calgary:

Pros: 
1) Cheaper Tuition Fee --> 60k CAD (Merit-based scholarship available that may bring this down to 42k CAD)
2) Great location for a well-balanced life with plenty of outdoor activities possible.
3) Average salary stated by the school is pretty high: ~90k CAD (Though this may be subjective as the people maybe already coming in with 6 digit salaries)
4) Excellent Adcom staff - highly organized and processed the application in a timely well-planned manner, Students have given a great feedback as well.
5) Very nice campus with multiple facilities available.
6) Voted as the cleanest city in the world. (Also it's the Largest city in Alberta)

Cons:
1) Predominant in the Energy&Oil Sector. My desire for a Finance job may be in trouble due to this. Calgary does have Finance positions, but I'm not sure how relevant they would be for an International fresher candidate like me.
2) Terrible temperatures, much colder than Ontario and for longer durations. Hits and stays at -35 for long durations.
3) May not be as reputed as McMaster - but I'm not sure about this. Since Calgary is famous in Alberta. I am not aware of the reputation outside Calgary and it's Canadian recognition.

DeGroote:

Pros:
1) Excellent Co-Op Program (The best Co-Op MBA in Canada) - will help greatly in connecting and finding a job. McMaster University is very famous.
2) Situated in Ontario - gives me access to the Toronto market.
3) DeGroote is a Finance school known for its Finance Specialization - tonnes of courses to choose from and greatly coincides with my desire.
4) Very helpful Adcom.
5) No. of students in the program are a lot (Co-Op+Full Time students) and this increases networking options.

Cons:
1) Extremely high Tuition Fees (~90k CAD for the Co-Op Program)
2) DeGroote building is isolated in Burlington while the main McMaster campus is situated in Hamilton. Finding a place is challenging and need to keep moving every alternate semester due to the Co-Op Program.
3) Not as well reputed as its other Ontario counterparts such as Rotman, Schulich, Ivey, Queen's, etc. Brock and Wilfrid Laurier also have Co-Op MBA Programs. Thus, competition is extremely high in the region.
4) I've read reviews on GMATClub and other places and 1 review specifically mentioned that the professors and cohort are not up to the mark. This may be subjective to the person.

Is an MBA from DeGroote really worth double the tuition fees of Calgary?
I sincerely request any person with the slightest of knowledge to please help me out with this as this is a very challenging decision and one mistake can ruin everything.

Thanks,
Arijit

GMATINSECT · Answer

Hi ,
I'm writting this on the basis of my experience and what I've learnt by exchanging thoughts with few of my friends , who have done their MBA from Canada (North America), and are citizens of Canada. 
Calgary is close to Edmonton, most of the people living in Ontario or VC or Ottawa call it as Deadmonton for some reasons. First , ONGC sector is not at it's rise for what it was known for , there is a job scarcity. However , if a candidate is looking for easy visa process and immigration , any thing other than ontario is the best choice. 
Reasons behind : Large Immigrants ratio month on month. Uni of Calgary , has more heritage if been compared to McMaster. If employment are compared , McMaster will give you a better network. But not all the candidates make the most out of their Co-op programme. Financial jobs are strong if you have a CFA certificate. You have to balance your needs , what holds the first priority. If your 5 year plan is to stay back and get a PR then Calgary would be the best choice. If jobs are compared most of the candidates do bag a job offer from both the Universities. This doesn't certainly mean McMaster is not the best choice. McMaster mostly is known for it's Business programs.

Sent from my SM-G935F using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

arijit2 · Answer

That's a great feedback Sayan and I would like to sincerely Thank you for it. Yes, I guess the PR aspect does work better with Calgary while the job option better with DeGroote.
But, does this mean that Ontario will not process the PR's? They may take some time but ultimately get around it right?

I've also encountered the CFA Requirement quite a bit and need to look at that option. I don't see that happening for me along with the MBA. Do you have any insights regarding the Finance positions without a CFA?

Thanks,
Arijit

GMATINSECT · Answer

Hi Arijit ,
I'm glad my two cents of feedback helped. No this certainly doesn't necessarily means that Ontario state province won't process your PR. The inconvenience you will find , is the competition of applications when you are in Ontario. It takes longer than any other states in Canada. Reasons behind, most of the immigrants fly off and their first choice automatically becomes Ontario because of better down- town living experience and bit of multi-lingual City feeling. On the other hand , Calgary & Edmonton , you will find the state very Calm and bit of Country side feeling as it is covered with a huge national park and lakes. University of Calgary , has been long in the business and carries lot of heritage particulary concerned with Science and Biotechnic. McMaster , advertises alot about their business programmes, however you won't find any sort of extra ordinary advertisement from Haskayne. Though it depends upon their own tradition. 
Both the Universities comes in B+ Average Rating , when it comes to Business Programmes. This certainly means , candidates have to participate alot more in various networking events. On the other hand , you will find ROI's are pretty handsome in the both of them. There will be a Median size of the class , who will be getting placed ahead of you or you may be in that median batch as well. As this happens in all the MBA schools. 
Carrer transition , is definitely not an easy cake if you are not getting a proper platform from IT to Core Finance. North American market , has a strong emphasize on CFA. But the good news is , most of the IT background students are also getting employed as a financial analyst , which involves dealing with various statistical tool. For an Example : In my network , couple of my colleagues got employed in Pubic sector (with canadian state govt as analysts) because of their finance major. You can definitely take a course on added financial programmes from the University , to make your resume more strong. There's no end of learning. Average PR conversion time in Ontario can range to approx 4-5 years , whereas in Calgary you may get it in 3-4 years. In every quarter , there is a skill shortage announcement that comes out from the government, you will be happy to note finance is one of the aspects where North America lacks manpower. Also , your career will depend how you network in these two years. 
If your career goals are bit inclined towards Financial Markets , I will strongly recommend Mcmaster. Fee hike , is something that can't be avoided if you want to have a nice piece of fresh strawberry from the field. If you want an overall University experience with heritage and a proud alumni segment , then Haskayne is a good option.

Sent from my SM-G935F using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

arijit2 · Answer

WoW, now I'm just confused :D

You made some very valid points and would involve a deep thought process.
I'm going to ping you.

Thanks,
Arijit

prathams · Answer

Hi Arijit,

Thanks for asking this question, I am myself confused on which one to go for between Haskayne and DeGroote.

Following are the things I found out from my research about both the schools.
1. DeGroote and Haskayne are ranked the same with Degroote being right above Haskayne i.e. 7th-8th, 9th-10th and 11th-13th from the rankings that I have found out online.
2. They both have equally good notable alumni's
3. Haskayne shows higher average starting salary, which is probably because of the EMBA program; however its starting salary for freshers should be around DeGroote (I am assuming).
4. DeGroote located in Ontario which is a big job market but a lot of competition as well with many well ranked business schools in the region.
5. Haskayne located in Calgary, Alberta which is the 3rd largest city in Canada and 2nd to Toronto in terms of companies having their headquarters. There are only two good schools in this region and that is Alberta Business School and Haskayne, so although the job market is smaller compared to Ontario the competition is significantly lower.
6. Alberta is an Oil state and hence most of the jobs are in the Oil industry, however looking at the placement report of Haskayne and LinkedIn profiles of alumni, I have found most of them to be working in the Finance or Management Consulting positions. The oil prices have started to increase hitting over $72 mark which is a great news for oil industry and from here on the prices are only going to go up for the next 8-10 years before we experience another bust of 2-3 years (which has always been the tendency of oil prices since 1920's). So you should not be worried about the low oil prices anymore.
7. McMaster has strong Finance program (which is of my huge interest) and I do not have a finance background, so people I spoke with told me that I will have to hold CFA certificate to get a good finance job, McMaster program will only make it a little easy to prepare for CFA and once you hold CFA then I guess be it McMaster or Calgary it will not make much difference.
8. McMaster Co-Op program is very attractive and great opportunity to convert that Co-Op into a job. Haskayne doesn't have any such program, however I have found that many Haskayne students have been able to secure summer internships which is similar to McMaster's Co-Op program.
9. Both have excellent international exchange programs, with Haskayene's looking a tad more attractive.
10. Comparing the tuition fees DeGroote is around 90K and Haskayne is around 60K which is a huge difference and there is also a possibility of getting some kind of merit based financial support from Haskayne (around 10-15K) which will drive the cost down to 45-50K. From my research I have found out that there isn't much difference in starting salaries of both the institutions but there is a significant difference in their tuition fees.
11. I recently read a comprehensive QS business school ranking report where both these institutions were ranked almost the same, with Haskayne being ranked significantly higher (higher than Rotman,Schulich,Ivey,Queens,Sauder) in terms of 10 year and 20 year ROI. It is ranked 1 in Canada for ROI with its 10 year ROI showing $650,000 and is ranked 25th in the world with Stanford leading the world ranking with $1 Million. So here Haskayne seems pretty attractive.
12. Ontario has seen large number of Indian immigrants and the number is increasing every year drastically with the new PR system, plus it has many good universities and colleges with large number of international students who would be eventually applying for PR under high skilled labor category. So getting a PR from Ontario will definitely take longer than it would from Alberta.
13. Ontario's climate is good compared to Alberta's but then again once you have Canadian PR you can move freely to other cities and by then you will also have gained post MBA experience which can help in getting a job and moving to Toronto.

So comparing the above points that I made, I guess Haskayne makes a more affordable and stable choice compared to DeGroote. Hence, for me I would most probably be going for Haskayne. Ultimately, its your ratiocination on deciding which school you want to go for.

Please feel free to share any information you have and I will be delighted to discuss more over this with you.

Best regards

arijit2 · Answer

Hi Prathams,

Thanks for your response. You have made some valid points. Yes, the CFA is something important as deemed by many people and Haskayne does look better on paper but DeGroote has it's own set of pros.

I'm gonna drop you a PM, let's connect and discuss.

Thanks,
Arijit

Haskayne (Calgary) vs DeGroote (McMaster)

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