How difficult is it to transfer programs from a PC to a Mac?

You can't just copy the files over and expect them to run straight away. Either through dual-booting (Boot Camp) or virtualization (Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion, or Oracle VirtualBox), you could run Windows on the Apple computer to get all of your software. You could also try emulation, through a program called Crossover Mac, but that doesn't usually work. I know for a fact that there is no Mac version of Minitab. There is a Mac version of Maple, which you may be able to get through your University. If you really want Microsoft Office for Mac, you'd have to purchase it, but there are other productivity suites out there. NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org are capable of opening, creating, and saving Microsoft Office documents and they're both free.

Very subjective I suppose. I have a mac and have never had a personal PC. I do use PC for work and have been issued a lap top. Personally I prefer the mac. It works out of the box, I have no crashes. Office for mac is an absolute dream compared to the windoze version (my opinion). I spend a lot of time sorting problems on the PC. Comparisons I have made over the years. My mac outlasts the PC by years. Machines in work need updating more. No anti virus software on my mac, only one to check office documents received from PC users and passed on to PC users. Although I am as security conscious as you need to be for a mac, you can still get into trouble but be aware of the pitfalls. Over the many years owning a mac, zero infection from anything. Virus or trojan. Now then, as my machine is an old G4, I was looking at the new iMac the other day and it was running Windows as well as OSX. So your option could be to get an intel mac and also run windows. But if you do that then you will certainly need a good virus checker. Personally I bought one as I liked the way it worked. Applications are pretty much available even for this old clunker to keep up with the rest although support for the G4 is about to be stopped. There are things like open office available and many more if you look around. Granted there is not the range of software for the Mac as there is for the PC but I have no need for a lot of it anyway and think only the good stuff makes it to the mac. Adobe for example has quite a range including Photoshop elements that I use quite a lot. It does what I want and that is what you need to work out. And has the best operating system going...... ;)

ALL programs made for windows and with no mac verison will not on work on MAC OSX.

In most cases rebuying the software is going to be needed to get the mac version.

According to my info, there is a mac version of Maple, but not Minitab.

Sorry, most Program Applications are specific to either one or the other MAC, or PC, the developers rarely have both versions on there software as they did a few years back.

Software that runs under Windows cannot run under any other OS. You'll need to either buy Mac versions, if they exist, or install Windows on the Mac and then install the apps under Windows.