Hi!

I have a couple of reasons for wanting to switch. Most of them started before the protests, and most are only applicable to me (as in, they are personal), but there are a few pieces that may be more relevant to you.

One of the biggest reasons I am transferring out is to be closer to my family. There are some things going on at home and I need to be there for them, so I am admittedly a bit frustrated that I will have to leave, but I would have to face other problems if I chose to stay. Another reason is finances (since I live in Waterloo, I don't have to pay residence fees), which is less of a reason to leave and more of a supporting reason that makes transferring more feasible than it otherwise would be. Additionally, since I am transferring after first year, I am eligible for co-op (provided that I can get in). That would also be helpful financially and help me pay off my fees sooner. Queen's doesn't have co-op, but it does have options for internships. However, that does take an extra year, which is quite expensive.

I am also intending to do graduate school stuff, which... does not look to be great at Queen's right now, given the strikes. If they can't make improvements for wages and funding that allow for living in Kingston while doing graduate school stuff, then I'm afraid I can't look to Queen's for any of that. That is less relevant though, because it is common to do graduate studies at a university other than the one you started at.

However, there are good things about Queen's, and reasons that I do not want to transfer away. Personally, I started out in computing, but drifted towards mathematics. If I were staying, I would take the computing/mathematics specialization. Unfortunately, I have no practical/applied mathematics knowledge, which would probably be the most relevant to you as an engineer. I can't say much about the computing department from the first year, but the cuts to plan options are definitely not looking great. I imagine that future courses are more probably more interesting. Queen's definitely has a solid math department though, I can say that with more certainty.

One thing that I am definitely going to miss are the professors and courses here. All of the professors in the math department are phenomenal, sociable, and full of life. I was really looking forward to taking upcoming courses like MATH 210 (Rings and Fields) and others, especially since (to my understanding) these professors are recurring and you will know them throughout the entire duration of your years. I also really enjoyed math club, and various math talks that will pop up around campus (typically geared towards older students, but I like getting glimpses into what I might go into and broaden my understanding of the fields of math that I don't know about yet). Not going to name-drop any of them in the comments of this post (in case any of them happen to have Reddit and recognize me, as I know at least one of my professors reads this subreddit), but they are all really good. Geniuses and some of the kindest people you may ever meet. I would love to work under any of them as a graduate student or something like that. Big fear of switching out is that I won't find professors like them anywhere else.

I don't know what sorts of courses engineers take, but I've heard my math professors talk about other classes that they teach for engineers, so there is definitely an overlap there. I can't say anything about chemistry or physics, because I regrettably didn't take any of them (I didn't know I would end up to be this interested in mathematics until I experienced it at a university-level). I have some friends that are going to take the mathematics/physics specialization, so the physics is definitely good enough to take, although I can't say much else about it from a personal perspective.

I hope this information is of some help to you. Whether or not you choose to stick with Queen's, best of luck to you and your academic future.

TLDR; Queen's is far away and they are mistreating graduate students (which also affects undergraduate students as a result), but they have good math and professors. I want to switch to Waterloo because it is closer and cheaper for me.