Hey there,
I’m a freshman in the honors college of UMass. I know I was looking for people who had experience with the place when I was applying for colleges, so AMA! 
Is housing in the CHC guaranteed for freshman, or have there been cases where it was over-subscribed by admissions? Also, I understand that birch, elm, linden and maple are reserved for sophomores, juniors and seniors, but how difficult is it to retain residency in CHC as an upperclassman (due to demand)?
Finally - how do you like CHC now that you’ve been there for over a semester?
Thanks for taking the time to answer questions.
@powerdad it definitely is not guaranteed for freshman. Was at the EA admitted students open house recently and was told that CHC has pulled another dorm , Melville, under the CHC housing banner (even though this is an older dorm and isn’t right there with the “real” CHC dorms). I think she said there are 572 freshman spots in dorms and about 750 freshman honors students.
This is like a “Bait & Switch” - I had no idea that they were intentionally overbooking by 50%. The primary draw of the CHC is the mini campus within the campus, and it would be a deal breaker if I knew in advance that the CHC dorms were not going to be part of the experience. The problem is that you won’t find out until after you accept. Thanks for the information.
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I think they are hoping that some honors students won’t want to live in the dorm!
Maybe more kids want to live there than they had planned for. That’s why they have now made Melville part of honors housing.
Yes, it stinks that you don’t find out till later. I know that this a big deal for my D too. I think she would be very disappointed if she didn’t get in to honors housing. Would be a bad start to her UMass experience.
Admissions already has 2 years of stats on CHC, so they should be able to model the acceptance rate. I just take issue with intentionally overbooking by 50% after factoring in the acceptance rate. I realize that would mean fewer students would be accepted into CHC, but getting accepted into CHC and ending up in southwest is deceptive. I would much rather have this information up front to use as part of the college selection process.
Found this sentence in last years Housing guide for students:
The CHCRC was built to accommodate most first-year members of
Commonwealth Honors College in two residence halls: Sycamore
and Oak.
Is the honors college quiet and boring?
@ConfusedMominMA @powerdad - I would strongly recommend choosing one of the dorms in the “Northeast” area of campus as an alternative option. They have a mix or honors and normal students and most of the students are a mix pre-med or engineering majors so all of them are usually quite strong academically. Also these are the oldest dorms on campus and they are renovated so I guess you could say they feel very “Ivy League”. Anyway, I just wanted to put some extra options out there. 
PS- here’s a pic (http://■■■■■■■.com/mltxdgh) also, here’s some extra details: (http://www.housing.umass.edu/reshall/northeast.html)
Also I would advocate not going to Southwest. I’m very surprised that they didn’t use the dorm area listed above as extensions to the CHC complex. (Northeast is the second best option IMO)
Thank you for that additional info^^
Northeast does look nice. Another reason my D likes CHC housing is its proximity to Isenberg.
I’m assuming CHC chose Melville because it is close to the other CHC dorms so students can more easily take advantage of events, advising opportunities, etc happening at the CHC dorms.
The only reason my D is even considering UMA is because of the honors housing. If they can’t guarantee her a spot, I’m not sure she’ll commit to the school. I wonder if applying for a RAP would guarantee the housing in a certain area? She was invited to and has applied for the BioTAP and if I understand correctly, there are only 38 students who are housed together (the same floor maybe?) Personally, I think that is too segregated but its not my four years of college lol.
On another note, my nieces refused to live in honors housing although they were in the program. The preferred being in the mix (and they had a party side, which D does not). They eventually went to off-campus housing, preferring an apartment for six. So there are students who do NOT want to live in honors housing.
In the CHC, freshmen get the dorm rooms, sophs get the suites, seniors get the apartments, and juniors get nothing. After spending sophomore year in a CHC suite, S had to find other housing this year–hopes to get a CHC apartment next year.
To NEPatsGirl: Yes, if a freshman honors student joins a RAP, they are guaranteed a room in the corresponding building. So for BioTAP, she will be placed in Sycamore. I would not worry about it being too segregated (wait till she sees the size of her freshman biology class!). The CHC dorms are worth it.
Sorry for the late replies everyone! I wasn’t bookmarked to this thread for some reason.
@powerdad - “Is housing in the CHC guaranteed for freshman, or have there been cases where it was over-subscribed by admissions? Also, I understand that birch, elm, linden and maple are reserved for sophomores, juniors and seniors, but how difficult is it to retain residency in CHC as an upperclassman (due to demand)?
Finally - how do you like CHC now that you’ve been there for over a semester?”
Nope, definitely not guaranteed. Every year, more and more Honors kids want to live in the nice dorms. So there’s more demand, less “supply”.
So, I’m currently in Sycamore. I’m going to be living in Linden next year. Everyone was given a randomly assigned “priority number”. Mine was really bad, and I definitely would not have gotten Honors housing. But, I found a group of friends to room with, and one of their numbers is 64! The group takes on the best “priority” number. So we got in tl;dr - make friends.
@theHoodedHood - “I am from India and I’ve been accepted to UMass for Computer Science. I’ve got into CHC as well. I just wanted to know if freshmen at CHC get a lot of research oppurtunities. Also, is it hard for international students to get internships.
Thank you very much for starting this thread and taking your time off to anwer our question. I really needed someone to help me out. Thanks again.”
Hey there! I’m not from India, but I lived in Mumbai for a few years I’m not too sure about research because I’m not too interested personally, but UMass CS is great. There’s lots of support, students are great, and professors are amazing so far. I’m CS too by the way. About international students? Again, I’m not too sure, so sorry about that. But to be honest, you don’t need to over think these things. Everything is there for you. You just need to take the initiative and grab it!
@fallenwinter - Nope, definitely not quiet and boring! You’ll find all kinds of kids. Some party hard, but all study harder 
By the way, John Adams Tower in southwest (Right next to Berk DC! <3) Is also becoming part of the Honors residential community. Just a thought.
@1Tortoise2 ~ apparently the BioTap is 48 students, not 38, just need to correct myself. Is it only Bio 101 and 102 that is crazy big? She’ll place out of those I assume. Big classes is her #1 reason for UMA being a safety. We both know its a great school but she prefers small classes and we figured she wouldn’t be in any of those crazy huge lecture halls? Please elaborate.
A few posts back someone mentioned they had good housing for freshman and sophmore years, NOTHING for junior year???, and an apartment for senior year? Is this the norm?
Usually intro classes (100 levels) for a majority of the majors are gigantic. Ex. Intro Psych and Intro to CS have like 500 people each. Classes don’t get small (like below 100) in most majors until like the 300 levels. Also, the school is as large as you make it. Discussions help with down-sizing a class and if a particular class is for your major, it’s not difficult to establish relationships with your professors if YOU take the first step
Honors housing has been in high demand because the freshman honors class keeps getting larger and more people keep getting accepted as internal transfers. This year, about 200/750 freshman got shafted for honors housing. Of the 500 who got the housing, half of them lived in a RAP. Signing up for a RAP in a particular dorm guarantees the housing. The other half just got lucky. Of the 200 that got unlucky, several of them didn’t want to live in Comm Coll. So really about 150/750 students wound up in a bad situation.
For upperclassmen housing, sophomores get priority on the suites and seniors get priority on the apartments, so juniors get the worst of the draw. Junior year is when many people go off-campus (both honors and non-honors)
@Violet1996 Beat me to it
“For upperclassmen housing, sophomores get priority on the suites and seniors get priority on the apartments, so juniors get the worst of the draw. Junior year is when many people go off-campus (both honors and non-honors)”
That’s correct!
Thing is, once you move off-campus, you supposedly cannot move back on-campus.
@MADad Is that a thing? I’ve never heard of that.