Hello StudentAwards forumers!

My name is Artur Tsurkan and I am a first-year student at Western University studying Political Science (Honours) with Advanced Entry Opportunity (AEO) to the Richard Ivey School of Business. I am also the incoming president at the Pre-Business Students' Network (PBSN).

About PBSN
PBSN is a student organization at Western that promotes initiatives and events for students at the university to develop their interest in business and connect with like-minded students. We cater to both AEO and non-AEO students at Western, providing a network that is not exclusive to a particular major. You'll see that, especially within our executive, our members come from a wide range of backgrounds.

We aim to be actively involved with incoming students at Western. One of our initiatives has been the PBSN summer dinners. They take place all over Canada (last year: Toronto, Mississauga, Calgary, Ottawa and Vancouver). We invite our exec, AEOs and Ivey to speak with incoming students and answer any questions you may have. In the past they have been very successful. We'll be releasing details later on our Facebook page.

Anyways, with all of that background shenanigans aside. Why are we here? Many of us used this forum when applying to universities and found it to provide a wealth of information. I am personally reaching out as a first year student as a potential resource who you can ask questions. I've also invited my executive to introduce themselves and join in the process.

About Me
Just to give you guys a bit of background. Last year, I also applied to Rotman (BComm), Schulich (iBBA), Queen's (BComm), Laurier (BBA) and Waterloo Computer Science (BMath), and was fortunate to get into all of these schools. My top 6 average was about 94% and my extra-curriculars included being part of my school Robotics Team, Varsity Tennis, Debate Society, extensive part-time work involvement (roughly 3 years worth at a local logistics firm) and volunteering work as a summer time junior tennis coach at a local tennis club.

Feel free to ask us about Western, Ivey, AEO, business schools in Canada, jobs, etc. We are looking forward to your questions and hope that myself and my team can be a useful resource for you.

Disclaimer: The PBSN does not officially represent Western University or the Richard Ivey School of Business. All sentiments expressed in and outside this forum are purely the personal opinions of the respective students.

Hey Artur thanks for volunteering your time to answer our questions!

1. How was recruiting this year at Ivey (summer and full-time for finance)
2. Does Ivey offer scholarships to people entering HBA 1 (having excelled academically at Western for the first two years and been really involved with the Western community, etc)
3. Are double-degrees really worth it?
4. Is Western as much a "party-central" school as the media make it out to be? (4th on Playboy's list of North American party schools)

Hey :)

I was wondering what Ivey considers as strong extracurriculars in university, since it would probably be hard to have the same level of leadership like in high school. Thanks!

Heya,

I don't know my first year average yet because final grades are not out, but I am expecting/hoping for something around 90. My first semester average was 92, but that only comprised of 3 half year courses, so it may not be representative of my overall average.

I am going to pursue a double-degree; and in response to one of the questions FlakingGold posed, I do think that double-degrees are worth it. You might think 1 year is a lot, but time flies and in the big scheme of things it is not that long. The job market is getting more and more competitive so I am of the opinion that any advantage you can get is worth it. It is very likely that if you excel academically and show strong leadership skills you may still land the job of your dreams with a single degree. Double-degrees simply give you a way to differentiate yourself from among the thousands of other applicants and all else the same, a person with a double degree will be preferred over one with a single degree. The only drawback is the perpetual confusion as to whether you are the class of 2016 or 2017...

With regards to Math, I will again say that it depends on your comfort level with math. I was in the IB program in high school and got 7 in HL Math. In 1501 this year I went into the final with a 96. So it is definitely possible to get high marks in 1501. Also, 1301 is a different format. They have multiple choice questions and since it is perceived as an easier course you need >85% to get into math centric modules. 85 is pretty high for a university course, but that too is achievable. Also 1501's tests are not much harder than 1301, but they do have a few challenging questions. tl;dr if you are comfortable with math and good at problem solving, go for 1501.

Hope that helps you and answers your questions.

-Sid

Hey FlakingGold,

I don't know the answer to your first question, so I'll skip over that. I recommend you call Ivey and ask them where you can find the PDF which outlines the industries where their graduates are in. That PDF is very concise and helped me make my decision, but I cannot remember where I found it.

Ivey does offer scholarships, totaling to $1 million for HBAs. However these are very competitive and are based on academic performance and extra-curricular involvement. Even if you do get these I would not expect them to amount to more than $2000-3000 due to the sheer number of students. This page outlines ways in which you may finance your HBA.

For your third question please refer to my 2nd answer to Bubbletea's question.

Regarding the party-school label, I will have to say that Western definitely has more parties than any other University in Canada. However, I do not drink often and I had no problem socializing this year and having an amazing first year experience. For every person that drinks, there are 1-2 people that do not. You will just need to figure out who those people are and spend time with them on the nights that many people are partying. For example this year, me and some guys from my floor watched so many Japanese horror movies and scared ourselves crapless rather than partying. Also, I find that most people are very accepting of people that do not drink. They will not force it on you and since they are sober for most of the day, you can still be really good friends with them. The guys who lived across the floor from me partied pretty hard, but we still got along like butt buddies even though we met that year. All in all, please don't base your decision too heavily on that stigma of Western. You will have an amazing time whether or not you choose to drink and will shed tears more than a few times when you have to go back home after first year.

Hope that helps,

-Sid

Good Evening PBSN,

My name is not as important as my situation. Here is the problem, I have recently received word that the Joker has joined forces with the Riddler. This is no laughing matter. They have already killed many PBSN hopefuls and I do not think I can stop them without further help. Here is what I need, either some funding for this situation, or a brave volunteer to fight along side me.

Please respond soon,
The Dark Knight

Hey all,

My name is Jim Phillips, and I will be entering my second year at Western University where I'm studying Consumer Behaviour (Honours). I am a dual-citizen raised in Texas, the starting centerfielder for the Mustang Varsity Baseball team, and a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. In first year, I took the following courses: MOS 1021, MOS 1023, Psych 1000, Calc 1000, Anthropology 1025, Business 1220, Econ 1021, and Econ 1022. This summer, I will be working as a Data Maintenance Specialist with Info-Tech Research Group.

Feel free to ask any and all questions that you have, and I, along with the rest of the PBSN executives, will try our best to provide an answer for you.

Cheers.

Hey Guys,

Just to continue with the introductions, my name is Anthony and I am entering my second year at Western, in the BMOS program, and as an AEO (advanced entry opportunity) student with the Richard Ivey School of Business. This coming school year I will be coordinating the Careers Committee at PBSN, which aims to help members through the job application process, from start to finish, from the most basic concepts, to the most detailed and challenging aspects. Being a part of this committee last year, I found it really helped me vastly improve on my career oriented skills. And now I'm here to pass that on to you guys! Feel free to ask any questions regarding careers, or anything else for that matter, and myself or one of my fellow amazing exec will help you out! Check us out like Rochelle mentioned on Facebook and Twitter, and spread the word! We are a resource for you guys, and if your heading to Western next year, or thinking about it, be sure to come find us! Thanks guys, good luck with your university acceptances!

Anthony

Bumping the thread again.

I'd just like to remind everyone that we've got a full AEO group here. Three of the exec that have introduced themselves are studying BMOS, one in Financial Modelling (a branch of Economics), one in Biomedical Sciences, one in Global Studies (Huron) and one in Political Science.

I stress these details because a lot of the questions I see on the forum are talking about the different majors one can choose, their difficulty, their applicability to Ivey and other general concerns.

Please feel free to utilize myself the other exec as resources!

Hey,

I am a grade 11 student interested in Ivey AEO :)

I am considering doing financial modelling for my first two years at Western. Can any of the execs comment on the difficulty of maintaining an 80%+ avg for HBA1, is it good for private equity/ IBD / hedge fund as a double degree with HBA, etc?

Thanks