How does it feel to go to a 3rd Tier b-school?

Protip:
Tier 1 - Ivey, Queen's, McGill
Tier 2 - Schulich, UBC
Tier 3 - Laurier, McMaster

We all know that certain business schools are better off in the different areas of business. For example if you want Finance/Investment Banking you would consider Ivey, if you want International Business you would consider Schulich, if you want Accounting you would consider Laurier. In fact, Laurier has consistently scored high in the CA-entrance exams. I would agree Laurier is one of the most under-rated B-schools in Canada, however that is not to say it is a "3rd-tier school". If you've been on our website, we're building a brand new Business Building to accomodate more students in the BBA and double degree programs.

Some reasons why people choose Laurier over other schools is because what the professors here teach you is practical, rather than all theory based. For example in first year BBA, we are working on whats called a New Venture Competition. Basically in a nutshell, you (as an entrepreneur) create or develop a business in a group. Throughout the whole first year, your professors teach you the critical areas of Finance, Accounting, HR, Management, etc that will help you develop your business. At the end of the year you present your business to your class. The New Venture competition is a huge part of the Laurier BBA experience. There have been successful real businesses today because of this competition. In fact, the business that I have developed I am going to pitch it to the President of Laurier to get his approval. I would have never had this chance if I went to Rotman or Ivey. Overall, so far the Laurier experience has been a solid one. A lot of grads from Laurier do well because the whole BBA experince is practical and so when you get into the real world, you actually know what to do, as opposed to learning a whole bunch of theory that you probably will never use.

Cheers

Hey loo,

I am a first year Double Degree at Laurier, and I'll answer your questions.

1. First year classes are not really difficult if you simply put in the time and effort to be successful (but that goes for everything in life). The largest class you will have would be just under 300 people which will probably be your business and economics classes as well as a few of your electives(the largest lecture hall at Laurier). But you will also have labs which consist of numbers from 20-30 students.
2. For the first term I enjoyed all my profs, they were absolutely excellent. Going into my second term I have found some profs that I "despise" for one reason or another.
3. The three maths:
MA103: for students that have taken high school calculus, course is 0.5 credit
MA110: (I'm in this course) it is the same course as MA103 but it is over 2 terms for 1.0 credits. Talking to my friends in MA103 I have found that MA110 goes much more indepth on the content than MA103.
MA129: if you are mathematically "declined" then you should take this course, most single BBA students take this math and most of the double degree students make fun of this math.
4. Other than the one first year calculus course, no other calculus is really required for single BBA, just understand that math does pop up in your other courses as well

Well, it's clearly better than McMaster (no offense to McMaster). And funny how you put Mac ahead of UofT (not saying UofT is the best). It has an excellent co-op program and is one of the top programs for accounting. Robert Herjavec's son attends there now.

that actually sounds SO cool!

If you're in BBA you must take a math, I think its the same for economics but I could be wrong. If youre applying for Arts (other than economics) I dont think you need math.

At Laurier you have to apply for co-op prior to second year. Approximately 600 students apply for co-op (give or take, I think a little over 600 applied last year) and they aim for somewhere between 275-315 people in the co-op program. Last year they took ~290 (you can do the math). Out of those that get into co-op, somewhere in the 90s percent get placements (I think in first year the year before last it was 94%, don't quote me though). It is easier to get jobs after your first placement. Laurier co-op is quite good and is especially good for accounting.

Brock has 2 terms in the busy season (winter), and then 1 in the fall (there's also an optional one in the summer of first year).

Laurier has 1 term in the busy season, 1 in the fall, and 1 in the summer (the first year summer you have off, so you can still pursue an internship). You can go to the co-op website to see the exact sequencing with all of the courses and such.

If you go through the BBA program in accounting, you will have an Honours BBA with an Option in Accounting.

1) http://www.lauriercc.ca/...accounting-sequence.htm

2) There's a few things that are considered: marks, ECs, volunteering and work experience. I think you need a 7.0 or 8.0 to apply (it's on the website) and realistically anything 9.0+ is good. Depending on your ECs and work experience, you could get in with really low marks or you could fail to get in with high marks. There's been some stuff posted about it here on the forums, you could try searching or perhaps someone in the program with more info will respond.

I have a few questions:
1. Are you in co-op? How competitive would you say co-op is to get?
2. Would you recommend a dormitory style living or apartment at laurier?