UBC Sauder School of Business | Sell Side Handbook (2024)

Undergraduates at UBC

The University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is one of the highest-ranking universities in the world, but their undergraduate business school (Sauder School of Business) is not very strong compared to schools in Eastern Canada in terms of new graduates getting good jobs in finance and marketing.

UBC Commerce students have a strong alumni network across Asia and there is a very large number of international students in Vancouver. UBC Sauder also has two exclusive programs for finance (Portfolio Management Foundation or PMF) and consulting (Strategy Consulting Mentorship Program or SCMP) where members of those programs place very well for Investment Banking jobs in New York and London for PMF and Management Consulting jobs in Toronto for SCMP. The PMF programs only selects ~7 students per year.

UBC Job Placements

UBC does not place students that well for investment banking in terms of total number – however the number of Bulge Bracket (big global investment bank) placements is relatively high. UBC tends to place 5-7 students into Investment Banking in New York and London per year (top groups in top firms, like Goldman Sachs Technology, ) – although these students are almost always from the PMF program.

UBC also will have 5-7 students land global Investment Banking jobs in Asia – in Hong Kong, students with great grades that interview in English and Mandarin well may be able to land a position at Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. However, for positions in Beijing and Southeast Asia, connections are still required.

The Big 5 Canadian banks, National Bank Financial and Macquarie like to hire UBC students in Vancouver, but there are only ~10 spots across investment banking and sales & trading for UBC students, who will have to compete against SFU students and Ivey and Queen’s.

The Big 5 in Toronto tend to hire 2 or 3 UBC students a year. Due to the high demand for investment banking jobs in Vancouver and scarce supply, UBC students will need to have an ~83% average to interview for most Big 5 Canadian banks and 85%+ to interview for RBC Capital Markets – although there are always exceptions (athlete, good work experience, strong networking).

For Toronto jobs, the standard is the same, except it is because UBC is not well known on the East Coast (UBC has a better reputation in New York than Toronto).The career centre is not aware of what students want, does not have a good relationship with Bay Street firms and is not well positioned to assist in terms of recruiting materials and prep.

On the consulting side, UBC places very well – although almost all consultancies hire directly from the SCMP (except Accenture). UBC is one of the top schools for consulting recruiting, with plenty of students joining McKinsey, Bain, BCG, AT Kearney, Booz and Deloitte every year.

UBC also places very well in Big 4 accounting, with around 7 spots at each Deloitte, PwC, and Ernst & Young and 15 spots at KPMG in Vancouver. UBC students will compete against SFU students for these spots.

UBCRankings

Times Higher Education 2017:36th, 2ndin Canada

QS 2017: 45th, 3rdin Canada

UBC Admissions

UBC Commerce or Sauder undergraduate is a 4-year program that admits students directly from high school in year 1 or as a transfer from another faculty or university. Sauder also admits college applicants to the B.Comm program in year 3, but they are largely locked out from investment banking and consulting jobs.

Similar to top US universities, UBC has a broad based admissions system which considers leadership as well as academics, so very good grades but a lack of participation on sports teams, student clubs and volunteering or work experience can mean you are rejected from UBC.

UBC commerce admits students with a minimum high school average of 84% including the highest non-honours mathematics course offered by the high school (Principles of Mathematics 12 in British Columbia).

Getting in with the minimum average is almost impossible unless the extracurricular and leadership profile of the student is extremely strong (sports team captain, United Nations, Olympics volunteering etc.). The actual average needs to be above 94% to be safe.

UBC welcomes international students with AP or International Baccalaureate (IB) scores. An IB score of 37 or 38 translates into the average mark admitted by UBC, although students have gotten in with 33 and lower.

Tuition at Sauder is around C$8,000 for Canadian students and C$45,000 for international students. After housing, food, textbooks and supplies, total costs for an international student will be around C$60,000.

UBC Sauder Curriculum

UBC is an academic institution and for finance and accounting classes, most courses are heavily weighted towards mid-term and final exams without that much of an emphasis on group work.

Accordingly, getting good grades at UBC is largely predicated on understanding corporate finance and economic market theory. The classes are curved so that the pooled average for the course must be between 72% – 77%, so once students select Finance as their specialization in their 3^rd year, the difficulty in getting above 80% (A-, and the general benchmark for interviews) rises materially.

UBC also has many international students who are very strong at math, so this combined with the bell curve makes attaining the A threshold even more difficult.

UBC students are not given career resources in bridging the academic portion of finance with the technical questions that are expected in an Investment Banking interview. If you choose to go to UBC, be sure to familiarize yourself with the technical questions and what the product groups in Investment Banking do.

Portfolio Management Foundation

The PMF program conducts interviews at the midpoint of 2^nd year, with the shortlisted candidates having good grades and some work experience. This is a very competitive process and you will meet with alumni of the program who will have a say in your selection.

If you receive a spot in the program, you will accelerate your finance course-load and will have resources to help you get a quality finance internship in your second year summer. In your third year and fourth years, you will help manage a portfolio while juggling your curriculum.

Usually, PMF students will have excellent placements for their third year summer before securing full time offers for NYC/London/HK after graduation. There is very strong representation across top tier firms such as KKR, Blackstone, Apollo, Citadel etc.

PMF students will have elite mentorship throughout the duration of the program and ample interview prep support from their PMF peers. Unfortunately, this support system is not available to the rest of the UBC Finance class.

Strategy Consulting Mentorship Program

The SCMP program is easier to get into than the PMF, and emphasizes what consultancies are looking for (leadership, empathy, problem solving). It accepts a growing class every year and sets students on a rigorous training program filled with case studies and behavioral interview prep.

Unlike PMF, SCMP admits all majors, including ones outside of Commerce. At its conclusion, there is a mock case interview where you will be vetted by successful alumni of the program. If you pass, you will be granted interviews with top and mid-tier consultancies (MBB/AT Kearney/Deloitte/PwC and sometimes Accenture).

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