How hard is it to get into Western Ivey HBA Program as an AEO Applicant?
For over a decade, the Western Ivey Honors Business Administration (HBA) program has been ranked as one of the most selective undergraduate programs to get into in Canada!
The Ivey HBA acceptance rate has been around 8% in the past few years. To be a competitive candidate one must be a well-rounded student that maintains both a 90%+ admission average and high non-academic achievement as the Ivey HBA application is split 50/50 between academic achievement and supplementary application.
Western does not release information regarding the acceptance rates and admission statistics of the Ivey HBA program publicly. When we asked the admissions team to comment they replied that they were not at liberty to release that information. However, we can use the applicant numbers for various business programs across Canada including Queen’s, UBC, and Rotman to estimate that the program received approximately 8000 applicants in 2020. The entering class of Ivey applicants is approximately 600-620 students per year giving us a 2020 acceptance rate of around 8%.
Getting into the Ivey HBA program is as hard as getting into Ivy League Schools. Here are the 2020 acceptance rates for the most prestigious and most competitive Universities in the United States: (1,2)
- Harvard University: 4.9% acceptance rate
- Cornell University: 10.7%
- Princeton University: 5.6% acceptance rate
- Columbia University: 6.1% acceptance rate
- Brown University: 6.9%
- University of Pennsylvania: 8.1%
- Dartmouth College: 8.8%
- Yale University: 6.5% acceptance rate
By the way, the name Ivey HBA comes from the fact that the Ivey family donated 11 million dollars in 1995 and the University of Western Ontario’s School of Business Administration became Richard Ivey School of Business, which was shortened to Ivey Business School in 2013.
Coincidently, Ivey and Ivy are homonyms but they are unrelated when it comes to schools. Ivy refers to the eight elite schools in the U.S. listed above.
Why is the Western Ivey HBA program so popular?
The Ivey HBA program is competitive because its graduates have great success in the job market and earn great incomes. Western University releases an employment report every year on what their graduates do after university.
We have summarized some of the most notable pieces of information from their most recent HBA employment report. As of December 31st, 2020 93% of the Ivey HBA graduating class of 2020 had self-reported being offered at least one full-time position. Similarly, Ivey HBA 2021 students seeking summer internship roles indicated by self-report that 85% had secured at least one offer as of September 30th, 2020. What’s even more impressive is that the average starting salary, including signing bonuses and other compensation, was $79,191!
The Industries of Full-time Employment vary for HBA Graduates:
We have also listed Full-time Employment Listed by Function:
The truth is the Ivey HBA Program prepares students for the real world better than any other business program in Canada. The Ivey Business School makes sure that graduates of the program are connected with 30,000+ alumni and 194 corporate partners, providing them with plenty of summer internship experiences and work opportunities to do well after University. The statistics speak for themselves:
- 69% of job offers were school facilitated
- 18% of job offers were alumni facilitated
- 297 companies posted jobs to the Ivey HBA class
- 757 recruiting companies
So is the Ivey HBA Program Worth it?
Although people can determine the Ivey HBA Program’s worth in many different ways, the easiest and simplest way is to compare its tuition costs to a graduate’s potential salary. So what is the tuition cost of the Ivey HBA Program?
Luckily Western has provided a cost estimate for how much you will spend on the program. The tuition cost for one year as an HBA student is $30,189. If you intend to live near or at the campus living expenses are approximately $13,050. In total, one can expect to pay $43,239 for each of the two years they spend at the program.
In addition to this there you must complete 2-years of any undergraduate degree which typically has a tuition cost of $8,000 per year not including living expenses.
However, with an average starting salary of $79,191 you can expect to pay back most of your tuition in the first year. For comparison, Queen’s Commerce has only a $61,253 average base salary This makes the Ivey HBA program, from a monetary standpoint, an extremely worthwhile investment.
If you’re considering applying to the Western Ivey HBA program check out our post detailing the prerequisites, grade requirements, and supplementary information including our tips and tricks to a successful application.
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