<p>I've recently been looking into the five college consortium schools (Hampshire, AC and UMass, i'm a guy), and I wanted to ask a few questions about UMass. I'd really prefer it if students answered, but anyone who has knowledge or an opinion on any of this please chime in!</p>
<p>First, how reputable is the honors college at UMass? And how large? Is it off on its own or is it very much part of the college as it is at some other schools?</p>
<p>Second, how often do kids take classes at the other four schools in the consortium? Is it common for UMass kids to take classes mostly at other schools? Also, how does tuition play in in that respect? Do you end up paying per class and thus paying AC or Smith level tuition, or does your aid/tuition level transfer over to other colleges? </p>
<p>Third, what are the requirements like for the school, and are they the same for the honors college kids? Must those requirements be fulfilled at UMass or can they be met by a range of classes at the consortium? And how easily do AP credits transfer over to fulfill requirements?</p>
<p>Finally, is it easy to get merit aid at the college? And if so, is it primarily based on grades, SAT/ACT scores, or are there a variety of ways to get aid? (IE i'm really big into debate, is there extracurricular merit aid?)</p>
<p>Anything you could tell me would be a great help, thanks!</p>
<p>From what I understand, ComColl is pretty reputable and you really can’t go wrong not doing it. I know smart, driven people both in and out of it. The website can really answer most of your preliminary questions ([Commonwealth</a> Honors College | The Premier Honors College in New England](<a href=“http://www.honors.umass.edu/]Commonwealth”>http://www.honors.umass.edu/)). I didn’t participate to much in the goings on of the college, so I’m not the best person to ask. (though I of course took plenty of honors courses and seminars).</p>
<p>I know a few people that took courses through the consortium, most happened to be comcoll students too. You don’t pay anything extra, but are capped at 2 classes per college per semester. There might be a total cap per semester, but I’m not sure. However, you can’t take five college classes until at least your second semester at UMass. It’s trivial to get into most five college classes, the only ones that may be hard to take are the small seminars required for majors at other colleges. That said, it’s a great opportunity and you should definitely take advantage of it at which ever college you end up. </p>
<p>AP credit transfers are easy, and if you do any pre-college summer stuff that is accredited (like summer @ brown) that will likely transfer too. I got AP credits to cover about 1/4 of my general education requirements coming in. Honors kids have extra requirements, namely a 3 credit seminar sequence and a capstone thesis or project, and taking a certain number and type of honors course (it’s all on the website). </p>
<p>You can get a five college course to count as a honors course provided it meets certain requirements, namely that it has less than 25 students. I think there is a limit to how many five college classes can be used to meet requirements, but I’m not sure since I never needed them to meet my requirements.</p>
<p>Merit aid is not easy to get. Pretty much all of the aid given is need based, but there are a small handful of merit based awards for incoming students. First, each year there are two Jack Welch scholars (full ride) selected, and you must be entering into either the business school, or engineering school to win. I’m fairly certain you can’t apply for it either, you have to be chosen. However, they should still be doing full ride scholarships for national merit finalists/winners (i forget which), and if you’re from MA and are valedictorian I believe you also get a full ride (half-ride for salutatorian). Other than that, the only merit scholarships are smaller ones run by different departments and colleges in the university than are usually awarded to juniors and seniors. If you make it into comcoll out of high school, I believe they still give you 1000$ a year as well.</p>
<p>D was a National Merit winner 4 years ago and was NOT offered a full ride. In fact, UMass would have cost more than 4 other private colleges, who all offered generous merit aid that UMass did not offer. And she was in-state to boot.</p>
<p>As the valedictorian of my high school, I can throw in that valedictorians do not get a full ride. All I got in terms of merit aid was a small Dean’s Scholarship.</p>
<p>Also, the OP asked about how integrated ComCol is into the school. For freshman year, it will depend on whether or not you decide to live on an honors floor. I did (and loved it and met all my best friends, but probably would have had the same experience if I hadn’t lived on an honors floor). After freshman year, there are no honors floors so as for housing you’re integrated with everyone else (but a lot of the honors kids will choose to live with people they met on an honors floor freshman year and thus some halls will have huge proportions of honors kids). </p>
<p>Most of your classes will not be in ComCol.</p>