I'm a prospective student and there are three issues I'd like to get some opinions about by Queen's students.

1) How is Kingston? I'd obviously prefer to be in a big city. Do you ever take trips to Toronto/Ottawa/etc.? Is it a college town?

2) How diverse is the student body? Is it elitist, cliquey or racist at all?

3) How much do people party there? I'm not anti-social but I'm not into partying every night either. Will I be able to find enough other like-minded people?

I'd appreciate any help you can give regarding these questions, and any other aspects of Queen's life you'd like to address.

I don't go to Queen's, but let me answer your questions based on a weekend I was there visiting my friends:

1) I have lots of family in Kingston so I go there a lot. It's a pretty nice city with things going on. The area surrounding Queen's definitely feels very student-oriented (but Queen's students don't often leave the Queen's area, so if you venture outside of that zone you'll find that things change drastically).

2) I noticed slight elitism at Queen's when I went there, but obviously not from everyone. Of course it isn't nearly as diverse as Toronto schools, but you shouldn't feel uncomfortable in Queen's. As long as you're a nice person, it should be super easy to find friends.

3) There are definitely enough people who party often there, but there are also quite a few who don't. You will have no problem finding like-minded people. If you're willing to be flexible about your social circle, you might also find people who appreciate both the partier and non-partier culture like I do.

Haha I dont think there's anything to worry about, they have pretty tight security in these places

Okay - I live in Kingston, work at Queens , and applied to Queens. First of all, Kingston is a great city and has all the stores, falcilities, and transit and as any other city like Toronto. Queens is VERY diverse - I work with first year arts/sci students and there are ALOOOOTTTT of different ethnicities. In terms of partys.. have you ever heard of arberdeen? Biggest university party around pretty much...

And finally.. to your penitentary comment, no offense but are you serious? That is probably the dumbest question I have ever heard in my entire life. Do you expect someone to jump over the wall, run 10 KM to Queens, burst into your dorm room and kill you? I laughed SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hard when I read that question

oh looks like they dont do tours weekends im gonna snap gotta call them tom nd see if i can work something out

Your view of Kingston will depend on where you're from. People from Montreal and Toronto seem the most "shocked" at the smallness of Kingston, while there's people from small towns who think Kingston is crazy busy. I'm from Toronto, and a lot of my friends from high school have struggled with how "boring" it is here compared to home. It took me a while to adjust, and I still miss the city. Most people go to Montreal for weekend trips. People don't really go to Toronto or Ottawa unless they're from there. Kingston itself is not a college town, but the area where Queen's campus and student ghetto are is extremely fixed, and Queen's students rarely venture out of this area nicknamed "the Queen's Bubble."

The student body is not really diverse, 80% is white probably. Commerce and engineering have more diversity, while arts has less. It is obvious sometimes how wealthy the student body is, but I've never encountered elitism. There are not cliques, other than the huge faculty cliques that pop up. People in general are really nice here, and anyone can make friends. I'm a minority, and as I am from Toronto it's never been a big deal at all so it did take some adjustment coming here. There have been some instances where I have been made quite aware that I am a minority, but it's never been like racist. Again I haven't ever encountered outright racism or hate crimes, but there's always the racist joke that is thrown around in jest (but you legitimately find that on any university campus).

People party hard here, but you don't have to if you don't want to! There's tons of people who don't drink here, and people don't really pressure you to party with them. During the first month of the year, froshies are kind of all rah rah rah lets drink as they adjust to the freedom, but it's really not a big deal and it dies down.

I love Queen's a lot and I'm happy I'm here. It's a great community. That said, I do miss the city, and if I could get the same marks at McGill, I'd go there instead just because of the diverse student body and the city. But Queen's offers kind of the stereotypical university experience

Not like that really changes anything. It just means the school isn't taking responsibility for what happens.

I've been accepted to Queen's recently and I also have a few questions! I was really excited about the university so I took a look at their student news paper online, and there was one section where this girl talked about her past experiences at Queen's and how it was just plain horrible. She said the Queen's community is very unfriendly and people who are gay or even of a different color are frequently despised there. But on a much different note from a friend of mine I hear that Queen's is awesome and that everyone is friendly and feels like a community there and that the school spirit is very inclusive and addicting. Being someone who is bisexual and a non-white student (although my friends think I'm really white washed), I'm starting to feel skeptical on my first choice university, is Queen's really that discriminatory? Sorry for the essay btw :P

here's the article I read
http://www.queensjournal...ialogue/Reflections-on/

Thanks Ooosh, I really appreciate the advice :) Either way I think I would've picked Queen's anyway haha. I'm just hoping for the best, I plan on running for AMS in the future too. It's good to hear Queen's is accepting, hopefully it stays that way! Thanks again, I really appreciate it!

It's not going to be as diverse as U of T or McGill because it's not in a big international city, but it's not all elitist whites either. I toured today and saw a lot of Asians.