Editor's Note: BusinessWeek collected graduate comments in 2000 during its ranking of full-time MBA programs. The next ranking is scheduled for fall, 2002.
Although first year was an eight-month boot camp and at times painful mentally and physically, it was one of the best years of my life. Ivey is a fantastic organization, committed to on-going improvement through student feedback and participation. Although not perfect (what organization is?), it has the admiral vision of educating/influencing the future leaders of global business. The students are intelligent, curious go-getters from whom I learned a ton. They made the program the incredible experience it was. One concern: the lack of balance in recruiting. Increasingly too much from Asian region, not enough from Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. -- Entrepreneurship
I found the program at Ivey truly satisfying. The two areas where I believe there is room for improvement are: 1. Integration of international students, 2. Richer offering of e-commerce material -- great strides are already being made in increasing the number and spread of e-commerce-based cases. Overall, very, very much worth the money and time. -- Anonymous
The second year was comparatively very low tempo as compared to the first year. Some electives did not require any work. The first year we were overworked and second year there was no work at all. I felt the second year could be condensed into half the time. I felt that the teaching was very good, but evaluations very subjective and dependant on the professor's first impressions. The international students therefore did not usually fare very well, and thus had difficulty finding jobs. Students tended to form teams with those they knew, and thus the same cliques were always together till the end of the second year. Some international students thus did not learn much, as they were stuck with other international students with the same learning level most of the year. Overall, the MBA was great in developing analytical skills. The level of finance learned was lower than what the industry requires. -- Operations
Program very strong from a general management perspective as program assures breadth of education; would recommend school to those who are thinking of investment banking or consulting, or seek general management perspective; would not recommend for those people seeking to super-specialize into technical areas or functions like financial modeling. Very impressed with the personal support given by my faculty advisor. Perceived excellent responsiveness of MBA program to improve. For example, it's commonly known that Ivey has recently hired an excellent professor to take over teaching of statistics to first year MBAs; statistics was perceived to be the most poorly taught course in my experience at the school. Would like to see more international and U.S. firms recruiting from school. Housing is quite inexpensive in London, Ontario; school is sufficiently close to a major business center for my liking (Toronto is 200km away). -- Anonymous
I found Ivey to be a very closed and narrowly focused Canadian school which however is under the illusion that it is an "international" school. Not only are ALL professors and MOST students Canadian, they displayed a surprising lack of knowledge about international business issues. More importantly, their attitude was very narrowly Canadian, and they did not seem to think it necessary to broaden their horizons. Almost NO professor had any experience with international business, not even with [the] U.S. There were exceptions, like Allen Morrison (general management) who I found to be an outstanding professor very well versed and experienced in international issues. Second, I was surprised to find that almost no professor or student was interested in sharing other students' experiences in the learning process. There was no concern for the students' past backgrounds and how that can aid the learning. I had over 15 years of management experience in 7 countries to bring to the classroom but I had no chance to utilize it except in individual exams or reports. Third, the quality of fellow students was below the standard you would expect from a top school. The quality of some international students was abysmal. There were people from, e.g., my home country who would not earn an admission to any business school in India or the U.S. This not only impeded the learning process, but helped professors and Canadian students get a wrong impression of international students. Consequently, the involvement of international students in all aspects of the program, both in-class and outside, was minimal. There was no attempt, either by professors or Canadian students, towards ethnic and multicultural integration in team exercises. In every course, without exception, teams were not assigned but students were asked to form their own teams. International students found it very difficult to join "Canadian" teams and formed their own teams. -- Investment Banking
It's my experience in going through the Ivey MBA program that often times, people tend to think of graduation as the end and that it's time to reach for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If b-school taught me anything, it was to focus on the long term and that, in fact, graduation is simply the beginning of something great. I now see things like I've never seen them before, and I ask vastly different questions than I did two years ago. The MBA doesn't necessarily provide a pot of gold, but it does teach you how to mine for it. -- Marketing
Best school in Canada! The jewel of the North will soon be discovered by the rest of the world. -- Investment Banking
The Richard Ivey School of Business offered tremendous value. I believe I received as high quality an experience as I would have experienced at Harvard at half the cost. My salary is the same as it would have been if I had graduated from a U.S. top business school. In interviews with top-tier U.S. consulting firms, I have been told that my case interviewing skills are equal if not better to those of Harvard grads.... I credit Ivey for this. -- Consulting
Our school is well known for the quality of its teaching. Unlike many other schools, teaching takes a precedence over research. The result is that the quality and attention of the professors to the program is outstanding. -- Marketing
Right now, I am in Beijing teaching an undergraduate business class the case method. I would not have had this opportunity if it were not for Ivey. When I add this experience to all of the other learning experiences Ivey has provided me, I am truly overwhelmed by the return on my investment. I certainly did not anticipate learning so much, in both a business and personal sense, in such a short period of time. -- Consulting
LEADER program is a fantastic experience as I am presently in Moscow. It provides me an opportunity to reaffirm all that I have learned, and an opportunity to teach and lead students. I only applied to, and would only attend, schools that teach by the case method. -- Finance
Being of a patriotic nature, I always held the desire to work in Canada. It, therefore, made sense to pursue a less cost-prohibitive degree at one of Canada's most reputable institutions rather than an American counterpart. -- Consulting
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