<p>Today my son attended the school for the whole day. It was so well organized, the free lunch was great and parking was free, we came home very happy as it was informative too. UMass is a great school and we want our son to attend . He is still thinking as he has Drexel and UNE PA programs to consider with UMass pre med.</p>
<p>My DS and hubby were planning to go tomorrow but since it’s a 2 hr drive for us and they’d be gone most of the the day my DS decided not to go because he has too much homework to do. I wish he could’ve gone. </p>
<p>Anghad - Glad you had a good experience there.</p>
<p>I’m doing premed at umass too! I hope your son chooses it, just made my decision the other day umass has an amazing premed program with 80% acceptance rate into medical school</p>
<p>We attended an accepted student day last April, and I will echo the OP re: how well organized it was–thousands of people handled effortlessly. S now enjoying freshman year in engineering.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend attending the accepted students day at any college one is considering. We attended the one at UMASS Amherst last year and I agree with the above comments. We’re out-of-state, and son ultimately decided to go in-state, which wound up being a lot less expensive even though UMASS had offered a partial scholarship. But we were impressed by the students and staff we met at UMASS. The computer science building was not part of the tour so we just walked in anyway and a staff member gave us an informal tour and introduced us to students. I sent in a note later commending the staff member for taking that time with us.</p>
<p>Doses anyone know if there is another accepted students day coming up</p>
<p>Sunset-there are a few more accepted student open houses. There is one on Fri March 8th and another on Sat March 9th. Then there are a couple of school specific open houses. On April 6th is one for the Isenberg School if Management and then on April 13th is an open house for the Engineering school.</p>
<p>Here is the list from their website:</p>
<p>Saturday, March 2 (registration closed)
Sunday, March 3 (registration closed)
Friday, March 8
Saturday, March 9 (registration closed)
Friday, March 29
Friday, April 5
Sunday, April 7
Friday, April 19
Saturday, April 20
Sunday, April 21</p>
<p>Do you think it is worth going if you have already had a campus visit?</p>
<p>I just came home from the open house, and I agree–it was extremely well-organized and the free food was a major plus. I had a chance to have an intimate conversation with the head of the communication department, which is my prospective major, and it was really helpful and informative. Definitely worth the hour and a half drive, even if UMass isn’t my top school!</p>
<p>Thanks for posting those dates guys!</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t know there all those ones in April. Hopefully we’ll be able to get to one of those since we couldn’t get there today. Thanks!!</p>
<p>If your school has an April school vacation, that is prime time for accepted student days.</p>
<p>The Accepted Student Day is what sold DS on UMass. The difference between that and their recruiting efforts like campus tours was amazing.</p>
<p>If at all possible, it is worth it to attend.</p>
<p>I’m going on March 29th so let me know if any of you guys are going!</p>
<p>We were scheduled to attend the admitted students open house for Friday the 8th but I’m wondering if anyone in the past has attended the more specific open house, ie: Isenberg School of Management and if that would be a better one if my son was acepted into that program? The school suggests making either one but not both. Is there much of a difference? Thanks.</p>
<p>I think we went to the one for Engineering.</p>
<p>Since we only went to one of them, I have no idea what the difference would be.</p>
<p>Sunset3399 and others log into your Spire account and it will give you the dates. You have to register to attend.</p>
<p>You should go RunsW scissors. This is so different from the open house. We went there for our third visit. If you are in an accepted program go to the specific one. We attended the college of natural science program.</p>
<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>My son and I went on Saturday 9-Mar accepted Sr day. Very well attended and run event. (The woman at the Education booth told us that ~1300 students were registered for the event.) Yes indeed the food was even good. (UMass has a rep for some of the best college food around. Far better than when I went there for a year (79-80). Funny to be back at the old dining commons. The breakout sessions were informative and the College Fair (or whatever they called it) with the booths at the beginning of the day was particularly helpful. We got to talk to a couple of kids in my son’s perspective department (CompSci). </p>
<p>We opted for the longer campus tour thinking it would cover more of the campus than the tour we’d taken when my son was a junior. I dunno, maybe hit some academic bldgs. or take a walk on the wild side (Southwest). This wasn’t the case. The kid that did our tour was exceptional though. (Pre med major, of course.) </p>
<p>Funny moment when the kid was giving us the schpiel in front of the dorm (Northeastern) about how the partying isn’t as much as it used to be and how his dad went to UMass when it was called ZooMass and everybody got in but now the average GPA is 3.5 and this is not your dad’s UMass. At this time a PVTA bus pulls up in front of the dorm and some Woo Girls (as in “Woo-Woo, Woo-Woo”) with green painted faces (see below) are screaming out the window and break into a chant of U-Mass, U-Mass, U-Mass and they’re obviously not completely in control of their faculties. Yup. The more things change the more they stay the same. </p>
<p>At one point the kid giving the tour said, “It’s easier to make a big school seem small than to make a small school seem big” and you know I think that was well put. Indeed mitigating the bigness of UMass and at the same time taking advantage of all the resources offered by such a big school were common threads in the presentations. At the Commonwealth College breakout the lady who gave that one stressed academic advising as something pertinent that allowed the kids in the school to keep things going right. At more than one other point getting involved in a club or activity other than academics was recommended to break the bigness of it.</p>
<p>The tour guide opined that there are a lot of kids who actually don’t talk to the prof’s that much so the ones who are interested in not just being a face in the crowd and want to deal more personally with the prof’s can do that.</p>
<p>The vibe I got was that if you want to be the party animal you can but there are also quieter dorms and living arrangements for those for whom that is not the desired scene. I’ve heard the same for the alums I work with.</p>
<p>Mr Kevin Kelly (Dean of admissions, dry sense of humor) at the kick off in the Concert Hall asked if there were any Red Sox fans present and of course 99% of the room raised their hands. Then he said something to the effect of, “I suppose I’m contractually obliged to ask this question but are there any Yankees fans here today?” (All in good fun. He is really a funny fellow, not at all mean spirited.) and of course a few folks raised their hands. Mr. Kelly then said something like. “Well that’s OK.” and then “We have a special lunch for you today”. I dunno I guess you had to be there. </p>
<p>So at the end of the beautiful day (sunny and temps in the 50’s when the day before we’d gotten about a foot of snow in metro Boston) we took the short walk to Amherst center (gee, imagine a college where you can walk to the town on sidewalks in 5-10 minutes and that town is someplace nice). We went to get a bite to eat. All the bars were overflowing with college kids, many drunk, with green faces. This was the “Blarney Blowout” or some such thing. St Patrick’s day excuse to party. The tour guide had said that’s why kids were walking around with green faces. Although given the close proximity of Amherst College (literally <em>in</em> Amherst Ctr) and Hampshire College I don’t think UMass could be blamed for all of it) A few days later at work I mentioned this to one of the recent UMass grads I work with and he said he’d read in the Globe that there was so much rowdiness in the North Apartments that day the police had to be called in.</p>
<p>To end the day we went back to the garage and noticed a car with its lights on. Went into the hotel (The UMass Hotel& Restaurant kids run it I think) to leave off the plate #. Struck up a conversation with the greeter there. He ended up giving us a great pitch for UMass. Not like anybody was watching or he was gonna get points for this. Just did it. When my son told him he was CompSci the kid gave us directions to the bldg. (We peaked in afterwards but of course it was locked up on a Saturday night.)</p>
<p>My kid (not a partier) was put off by the scene in Amherst Ctr. I on the other hand left feeling better about him going to UMass. I just told him if he felt like he could deal with the bigness of it, it could be a great place to go to school.</p>
<p>Great review of the Accepted Students Day. UMASS seemed to represent its many personalities between the scripted tours and the spontaneity of the actual students in and around campus. Like yourself, my husband went to UMASS in the early 70s (971-1975). It truly was a zoo at that point and he was totally overwhelmed by the experience. He panicked when our son decided to apply there but it was the only one of the state college universities where he had any interest in attending. I have talked to many people who sons and daughters are currently attending UMASS. Most have said that they were surprisingly impressed with the university. The professional schools (engineering, business, nursing) have excellent reputations. The new honors college facilities look amazing. Had my son not been accepted into the Honors College, I would be very nervous about him attending and living at UMASS. I’m still up in the air as to whether this is the right school for my son. Perhaps after attending the Accepted Students Day in April, both my son and my husband’s and my perceptions will be much clearer.</p>