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Western University
Western University is by far the best Canadian school for investment banking and finance placements. Western consistently sends an impressive number of graduates into investment banking, competing with some of the top U.S. schools in the world.
Western is ranked #27 on our investment banking target school list and ranks #20 based on # of Total Hires. Western earns a designation as a semi-target school, alongside several top U.S. schools.
We note that Western also has a strong presence in private equity, sending many graduates directly into top private equity firms and hedge funds.
Western University is home to the Ivey Business School, a highly-regarded Canadian business program for undergraduates and MBAs. Western uses a "2+2" system, in which students only begin their Ivey studies in their junior (3rd) year of university. Prior to Ivey, students are free to study another field and many students opt to pursue a double degree as a result.
Ivey teaches students using the "Case Method" popularized by the Harvard Business School.
Western leads all other Canadian schools on our ranking by a healthy margin (Queen's and McGill are the only other schools that make the top 60). We note that Western also has a dominant presence in Canadian finance, with top-tier representation at virtually every Bay Street firm.
Western sends the greatest number of investment banking hires to Goldman Sachs (21%) and Evercore (19%), which contribute to its solid Elite Firm Hires % of 52%. Western also has a strong relationship with Silver Lake and is one of the only schools that consistently sends analyst hires to the investment firm.
Western's ascent as a finance school can be traced back to its relationships with U.S. west coast offices (notably linked to UBS and DLJ Los Angeles).
Our investment banking target school list is a complete rank of 60 schools and analyzed >60k LinkedIn profiles of professionals who worked in investment banking between 2008 and 2023. We filtered the data to examine U.S. hires into the top investment banks.
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School Factsheet
Established: 1878
Location: London, Ontario
Business School Name: Ivey
# of Undergrads: 27,174 per Western
# of Business School Undergrads: 1,300
Median Starting Salary (2022): $81k
President: Alan Shepard
U.S. News Global Rank (2022-2023): #300
QS World University Rankings: #13
Financial Times MBA Rank: #97