I was wondering if anyone knows anything about admitted students day. We have already taken a full tour of the school-however it did not include Isenberg or any of the residential halls. My son was admitted and as of now it is his first choice but we want to see more of the business school and the residential life. Many schools offer the opportunity for admitted students to stay overnight. Before I follow up with admission, can anybody give me some guidance? Thanks in advance!
I went to the spring open house for admitted students and their families last year. In the morning there were the opening activities, and there was also an early campus tour that finished before the start of the opening activities (additional tours took place after the opening activities as well). A free lunch is included and the food really is amazing. My tour group happened to go through Isenberg, but I’m not sure if they all did. In the afternoon, each school within the university (including the Isenberg School of Management) provided information sessions that were an hour in length. I highly recommend that you attend. If I recall correctly, UMASS offered the spring open house for admitted students and their families on multiple dates over a three week period or so, whereas other schools had the event on a specific day. Good luck.
There are four Early Action Admitted Students Days. They are Friday, Feb. 20, Sat. Feb. 21, Sun. Feb 22, and Fri. Feb.27. Since none of these days work for us, I inquired about any others they will be having. They will be offering other dates, TBD, for regular decision applicants and anyone else who couldn’t make it to the February dates.
Hello, I wold suggest calling the undergraduate admissions office for advice on getting a tour of the Business facilities and the dorms. I would think that they might not have very specific tours like that due to them receiving upwards of 38,000 applications this year. This is one of the slight inconveniences of large schools such as UMass Amherst and NYU. All i can tell you, is that the business school as well as the entire campus has been on an upward academic trend lately and that as far as the residence halls go picking the right dorm should be easier once you know what each area’s “personality” is like.
Dorms:
North Apartments: Likely the nicest residences on campus besides the Commonwealth Honors dorms, but are only available to upperclassmen. (Juniors and Seniors)
Northeastern: This is where a lot of the business students + engineering/STEM students go. These are the oldest, but sill nice/renovated, dorms on campus. They look like something out of the Ivy league as they are all brick and built well over a hundred years ago.
Central: This is a very sociable dorm with a balance between fun and academics. Some partys, but truly you get a large mix of personality types.
Southwest: These are the stereotypical “Party Dorms” on campus, but from what I heard they are less crazy than their reputation portrays them to be. (Perhaps because the average student at UMass has been (somewhat) less partyparty in recent years)
Orchard Hill: Where the quiet people go, and hobbits. Just kidding…well kinda, I don’t know much about Orchard hill besides it’s quiet and the people tend to keep to themselves.
Lastly, Sylvan, arguably the cheapest out of all the dorm areas, it has a bad reputation for being… well… boring. This being said I have lived here and it’s actually pretty good considering you have friends living in your little Quad. (This is the best positive besides being cheap there is quad living there) The negative is it looks quite ugly from the outside.
BONUS! -The new honors dorms are quite nice and new and depending on how well your son does he can switch into the honors program. (Unless he is in there already, I think you didn’t specify) This area, like north and northeast, is full of driven, and smart students. (Some of which got accepted to ivy league but want to save $$$ for graduate school) So this overall is a great place and I hope to move in here next year as my GPA is up lately.
PS- Best of luck with the college picking process! UMass is a great option especially if you’re paying in-state tuition. (It’s also a pretty good choice for OOS students as well) Please appreciate the deal you’re getting since he got into Isenberg, which is near impossible to switch into. (Need a 3.8+ GPA at UMass to have a good shot) Hopefully you can get the info you need.
Thanks so much!!
@Halcyon77 Is Sylvan only for transfers and upperclassman? Also, do you know if it is possible to live in the freshman residences if you’re not a freshman but new to the school? Sorry if I’m hijacking the thread
@fallenwinter - Sylvan is generally a mixture of transfers and upperclassmen. (sometimes sophomores) This being said, I’m not sure about living in a freshman specific dorm. I would guess you could try McNamara Hall in Sylvan if you wanted to have a bunch of new transfers to make friends with. Hope this helps
@Halcyon77 Thanks, see the thing is I haven’t heard too many good things about Sylvan and since this is will be my first time living on-campus I want it to be a good experience lol (Not sure if I even have a choice being a transfer). I will still be about the same age as most freshman so I thought that living in the freshman dorms could be a better option. I may have to ask the school about this or I will probably get stuck in Sylvan :(.
@fallenwinter - I have lived in sylvan, there is lots of pros to it’s cons. One, you will be surrounded by transfers, two, every room is a single. Secondly the bad things living there, and the reason it has a mixed rep, is that it’s very quiet and most importantly it’s very ugly. (At least on the outside, the rooms are simple but sometimes very large) Given the way transferring works, you may be stuck there. 
. (But you can switch later in the semester)