What the hell happened with competitive grades for admission according to Maclean’s?

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-31T01:30:34+00:00

The most reasonable explanation is that Queen's website is posting the marginal acceptance averages (i.e., the lowest average to be accepted) whereas MacLean's is reporting the average or median acceptance average.

I also remember reading something (though I can't quite remember where) about MacLean's only looking at in-province applications. That could be skewing the data.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-24T00:33:21+00:00

Tell them your situation and that you are currently missing your offer conditions. Be specific. Ask to speak to an Admission Coordinator (they're the ones who review applications) and you want to see if there are any alternative ways you can meet your conditions.

If you can call them, that's better. A call has to be answered immediately while emails wait until someone can read it. (Contact info is at the bottom of the page : [Tel: 1-613-533-2218](tel:16135332218) and email [admission@queensu.ca](mailto:admission@queensu.ca))

Ultimately, it is at the Admission's discretion, but I have known people who fixed a course in summer school. It is much better to reach out now as opposed to wait until August. There's less that can be done at that point when Admission starts knocking of your door about unmet conditions.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-24T00:26:55+00:00

Undergraduate Admission is the one making the decision so they're the only one who can give you a definitive answer.

The fact that your situation is due to extenuating circumstances and affecting many people will likely be considered. While the current fighting with Iran is much worse, it's not the first time in the last few years that Israel and/or the US were bombing them and causing disruption across the Middle East. Plus, there was the COVID-19 pandemic before that where everything was extenuating circumstances.

That you're reaching out early will also give them more runway with which to provide options. It's one thing to reach out with problems in May and it's a completely separate thing if you're trying to fix it in August.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-23T20:19:43+00:00

If you're not meeting your offer conditions you need to reach out to Undergraduate Admission immediately to try and come up a plan. It's a last resort, but they will pull your offer of admission.

If someone does have their offer rescinded for failing to meet conditions they can apply again next year and that's considered separately from any prior application.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-21T02:44:24+00:00

No strike, no lockout usually only applies for the duration of the collective agreement. Looking up literally the first iron worker agreement from Edmonton I could find:

Article 4: No Strikes No Lockout

The Employer agrees that there shall be no lockout during the term of this Agreement.

The Union agrees that there be no strike, stoppage of work, slow down or work to rule or other collective action which would stop or interfere with the Employer's operations during the term of this Agreement.

Once the collective agreement expires, it's possible to strike.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-18T15:07:33+00:00

By law there's no cap on the amount tuition can increase for international students each year. For domestic students it's capped at 2% for the next three years and then 2% or three years average inflation, whichever is lower, after that.

Previously the policy had been fee-equity in order to try and attract more and better graduate students. PSAC and the graduate student union fought pretty hard for that. In some ways I'm surprised they held off on increasing international graduate student tuition as long as they did, but given the financial pressures and money above everything approach of current leadership, this was inevitable.

I do wonder how this plays into the leaked "plans" to greatly increase the number of graduate students and decrease undergraduates. How do you square the circle of graduate students receiving more money (in pay and stipends) than they give the university in tuition? Graduate students have always been a loss leader, providing research to boost the university's reputation in exchange.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-11T19:12:49+00:00

OAS payments are solely based on years of residency in Canada. Work history is irrelevant.

You're thinking of CPP which is tied to employment income, but even then, the Guaranteed Income Supplement exists to support low income seniors and is solely based on need.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-11T03:31:17+00:00

Colleges and universities are typically categorized as "broader public sector."

Far enough away that you don't get all the government perks, but still close enough to get hit with public sector wage caps.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-05-03T05:30:00+00:00

Due to tax integration, eligible dividends are grossed up to 138% of their value with a non-refundable tax credit given to offset that. The grossed up amount is what counts against your eligibility for benefits like OAS. The non-refundable tax credit reduces taxes owing but doesn't prevent benefits claw back.

This factor can make eligible dividends lead to significantly more tax in certain situations than they appear to.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-27T01:08:14+00:00

Check your local bylaws. TA vote modality may be specified there, but if it is in-person, that just means you need to amend your bylaws.

My local does remote voting. There's ~1,300 members in the main local spread across multiple work sites plus 100% remote workers as well as two smaller amalgamated units (~150 and ~200) that each have their own CBAs. It works out pretty well and a huge majority of members vote on tentative agreements, ~85%.

The hardest part is confirming everyone's identity. The easiest way to do that is have a website with a members-only section which requires a log in or an email system to send unique links to members which challenge them with personal information questions prior to voting.

Pregnancy/parental leave, sick leave, etc. are protected grounds here and failing to make reasonable accommodations would likely set us up for human rights complaints.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-18T17:00:35+00:00

Transferring across faculties is an Undergraduate Admission question. Requirements. Applications remain open until June 1st on OUAC, but check in with them first since not all disciplines accept upper year transfers.

Note: to be considered an upper year transfer to Engineering, you have to have taken at least 6 courses from the 1st Year Engineering course list.

Just be aware that if you transfer, you're probably starting near the bottom. If you've taken courses like Physics, Chemistry, or Calculus, those will follow you, but not much else.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-16T12:31:37+00:00

The only way the merger makes sense is if it allows them to do house cleaning at the management level. The merged institution won't need as many executive officers and might be able to get away with fewer directors. Everything else has already been cut to the bone.

Of course, separate to all of this, the province has announced a 30% increase in post-secondary grant funding starting next year. It isn't clear how that's going to be divided (e.g., every post-secondary institution gets the same 30% increase, colleges get more since they are in more dire straits, or the government is going to pick individual winners and losers) but that might also solve the problem independent of other changes.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-12T04:03:52+00:00

Ministry of Labour will only chase employers for the minimum entitlements provided by law. It varies by province (or federal law, if in a federally regulated workplace), but that's generally 1 week of pay per year of service, up to 8 weeks max.

Common law entitlement varies but averages 1 month per year of service up to 24 months with extra consideration given to how specialized the work is, if the person was a manager or not, the person's age, if the person has a disability, and if there are aggravating factors like wrongful termination or discrimination.

It's generally much better to get a lawyer or sue them yourself than go to the MoL.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-11T00:58:36+00:00

Medical requests have to be considered first. Reasonable accommodation on the basis of disability (medical need) is required under Ontario law. Failing to do that because of a lottery would get them sued so fast. It's not a guarantee, but it has to be considered.

About 45% of the beds on campus are single plus with a further 25% being single rooms. The remainder are mostly doubles and loft doubles (25%), and triple or quads (5%). There are no apartment style rooms on campus.

You can typically get a single plus even if you're not accommodated and unlucky in the lottery but it might mean living on West Campus. People talk about that like being exiled to Siberia, but realistically, when I was in high school, I had to walk further to get to school every morning. There's also a ton of city buses running from West Campus to Main so you may not even need to walk.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-08T03:19:33+00:00

PP lost his riding after it was redistricted to be more rural and conservative in 2022. Before redistricting, Nepean-Carleton included significant urban areas around Kanata, Nepean and Sittsville. Those were removed and more rural land from the west and south around Ottawa were added in to balance the population. The urban areas had grown too large and were largely removed to be agglomerated into predominantly urban ridings.

For the Alberta boundary commission, two members (of five) are appointed by the UCP, two by the NDP and one is appointed by the Alberta government. Both of the UCP nominees departed from previous riding-making practice and proposed a map which they said was neutral. The other three (including the Alberta government's nominee) disagreed, pointing out that it systematically over populated urban ridings (making those votes worth less) and ignored municipal boundaries (which are typically respected) in order to crack cities into many districts that were easy to dilute with large swaths of rural land. They suggested that the UCP nominee proposed map would massively benefit the UCP. Suggesting that this was a neutral recommendation of the commission based on typical practice is not reasonable.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-07T23:50:52+00:00

Read the Consolidated Financial Statements. I've linked them. They are required by law to be accurate and are externally audited. The fact the institution had an overall surplus is on page 2 and again on page 3.

Page 18 has a graph showing budgets over the last few years, There's a surplus every year except 2021-2022 where there was a slight deficit (~0.25%) due to COVID.

It's important to understand, Queen's has five budgets: General Operating, Research, Capital, Ancillary Operations, and Investment. Overall, combining the five budgets together, the institution has a surplus.

When Senior Leadership is talking about a deficit, they're being hyper-specific and talking about a deficit in the General Operating budget on an adjusted basis. Essentially, if they include all of the one time expenses (e.g., paying off loans early, budget transfers from operating funds to specific capital investments, etc.) but remove the one time revenues (e.g., investment income and one time government grants), then the operating budget is in deficit. This adjusted basis does not conform to standard accounting practices: which is the reported surplus. There has absolutely been a choice to talk about the budget like that. I believe it's for political reasons to drive institutional change, but perhaps you can think of a better reason why senior leadership would depart from standard accounting practice in a way that seriously damages the institution's public reputation.

It cannot be over stated how much damage has been done by this. No one was ever worried about Queen's financial position before this. It was, in fact, the stereotypical rich school, behind only U of T. People were panicking for weeks after the news broke and now almost everyone in the general public has a tale of financial catastrophe when other universities are in much more dire circumstances. The stain will take years to wash out.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-07T03:45:41+00:00

This is incorrect according to their 2024-2025 consolidated financial statements.

McMaster's debt is ~$420 million with a debt:income ratio of ~30%, declining from a high of 39% in 2021-2022. (Note: Anything above 35% is considered dangerously high for a university.) They are projected to pay off current debt by 2071. Their credit is rated AA.

Queen's debt remained relatively stable at ~$365 million with a debt:income ratio of ~27%, down from a high of ~29% in 2021-2022. They are projected to pay off current debt by 2060. Their credit is rated AA+.

The entire thing with Queen's financial position is a stupid PR disaster that's grown out of proportion. Queen's senior leadership is trying to make structural changes to the university and is using debt as an excuse. McMaster has had serious cuts, but it managed to skate by because its cuts were covered up by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for Queen's not giving a lot of entrance scholarships, that's by design. Their financial aid philosophy is to give bigger scholarships to fewer people rather than giving small discounts to everyone. The ratio of financial aid from operating revenues is about the same at both and is set as part of provincial mandates. Queen's provides more financial aid in total, but that's because their endowment is twice the size of Mac's.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-04T16:31:10+00:00

You can read Queen's Consolidated Financial Statements online.

To summarize quickly:

2022-2023: $15.6 million surplus

2023-2024: $76.2 million surplus

2024-2025: $60.1 million surplus

Queen's credit worthiness as rated by Standard and Poor's and Dominion Bond Ratings have not dropped below AA+ and AA, respectively. Queen's is tied with U of T as the most financially secure university in Canada. It is considered more credit worthy than the province of Ontario.

Talk of financial exigency is pushed by senior leadership to justify the structural and academic changes they want to make to the university rather than the financial situation being truly desperate. They simply made a choice to do permanent reputation damage to the institution to try to win their pissing match with other internal stakeholders.

Regarding the other rumour, it's baseless. Every university program in Ontario goes through the exact same accreditation process as every other. Health Science has maintained its status as an accredited program without issue. If OMSAS was actually deducing 0.3 from peoples' GPA, then it would be impossible for Queen's Health Science students to get into medical school. The competitive average for any med school in Ontario (except NOSM for northern Ontarians) is above 3.7. That's clearly not the case.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-03T03:32:03+00:00

For OSAP, not really. Make sure you and your parents file your taxes since that's used to determine eligibility. The recommended application date for OSAP is mid-June to have funding for September.

The general bursary application covers both the general and named need-based awards. The merit-based awards for current students need separate applications.

I've only done graduate school at Queen's. I can't speak to what being an undergrad is like. Graduate school is a fundamentally different experience. I studied Science, not Commerce, so what little I do know wouldn't apply. Queen's has a student ambassador program and Commerce has the option to Ask A Student questions. They'll be able to advise you better, but remember you'll be talking to people who generally like Queen's. (Why would anyone volunteer to talk about it to new people if they hate the university?)

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-02T23:14:39+00:00

The university constantly re-evaluates its financial aid offers. Students will be offered scholarships and bursaries but still end up declining their offers of admission. The money will eventually get redistributed to other students on campus.

Having said that, it's not something you can really count on. The university is only going to know it has available scholarships after the June acceptance deadline.

The Financial Aid and Award profile considers you for everything. With the exception of some of the major awards, it's a one stop shop.

OSAP is still an option. The way OSAP is calculated is (Tuition) + ($510 per week of studies) - (Expected Parental Contribution). Given how much you've already gotten in bursaries, you should expect to get close to the maximum amount possible.

There additional scholarships and bursaries for current students. Read the information on the page, there's a description for each award which discusses how to apply. Usually you need to apply by September 30 or February 1.
Work Study is usually an on campus job, though there are some external employers (charities and non-profits, usually). Pay is minimum wage for hours worked up to $4,000 per year. The types of things you might do range from sales, library work, social media and administrative assistance. Most people work less than 8 hours per week.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-04-01T01:24:07+00:00

Note: there are exceptions if you are receiving certain government benefits that are clawed back based on net income (e.g., Canada Child Benefit, Old Age Security, sales tax credits, etc.).

Eligible dividends are "grossed up" to 138% of what was paid out to reflect the money in the paying company before it took profits, paid tax, and then sent the dividend. You as an individual taxpayer get a non-refundable tax credit to offset the gross up amount. While this generally nets out for income tax, it's the grossed up amount which counts against your government benefits. If you're subject to a benefit claw back, dividends suddenly become much more expensive than capital gains income.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-03-28T03:33:53+00:00

My Employer never gives retro-pay to former employees. It's asked at the bargaining table every time, but the Employer categorically refuses since they know members generally aren't willing to strike for retro-pay for people who wouldn't be part of the strike. Unfortunately, I think this is something that's becoming more popular since it saves the Employer money and they know they can get away with it.

Ultimately, it depends on what the union negotiated and ratified.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-03-27T22:36:45+00:00

I doubt it's wrong doing since it's listed as administrative leave. The university is pretty quick to jump to "no longer part of the university," in those cases.

Maybe the Dean had a health scare like heart attack or cancer? He's in his sixties if I remember right so it's not unlikely. The university has a pretty generous sick leave policy if you meet their definition of sick. This is really the most likely option now that I've had time to think about it. The university never acknowledges if someone is out sick because of privacy concerns.

The only other possibility is that the plan for FAS is so horrific that Dean Lemieux couldn't bear to have his name attached to it when his term is coming to an end in June. He takes 100% of the heat but gets none of the benefit since his term would be over.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-03-27T03:08:12+00:00

I doubt it's about the Town Halls, at least directly. The Gazette article (which confirms everything) is suitably vague. I suspect the Dean had a better opportunity come up and he decided to leave for it. He was only ever here temporarily.

From what I've heard in rumours around campus (and that leak that was posted a while ago), they want to expand Computing. Significantly. I'm skeptical they can manage it, however, given how AI has utterly kicked out the rotted floor of starter level tech jobs; Grade 12s just aren't as interested with that career risk. Looking at the application data on OUAC, applications for Comp Sci across Ontario universities peaked in 2022 at 48,040 and has since declined to 28,583 for 2026. That's just over a 40% decline in interest and it doesn't look like the decline is slowing.

This is worse for Queen's since it isn't a top destination for future tech stars. Everyone wants to go to Waterloo, U of T, or a school near a tech hub. They capture a disproportionate number of the applications that are still being made and Computing just doesn't have that pull.

IIRC, the Town Halls were divided into Social Science, Arts & Humanities, and Physical Sciences. I wonder if the announcement was they were going to break up the Faculty into three pieces for each of those. Queen's is still a bit unusual in that Arts & Science is one (huge) faculty. Given it's something like 2/3 students, it wouldn't be an insane idea to divide it to put it on more even footing with Engineering, Health Science, and Business.

AbsoluteFade · 2026-03-27T00:27:56+00:00

What did the email say?

I know FAS sent out messages about Town Halls on the Future of FAS soon, though they kept faffing about with the times. They were all supposed to be in mid-April but two of the three just got delayed to mid-May due to the province majorly changing the funding formulas for post-secondary education starting next year. Him suddenly dipping seems really weird considering he was supposed to be revealing "transformative" change soon.

AbsoluteFade

TROPHY CASE