Ask a UMass Student

<p>Early June? Not all schools are even out early June! (My school gets out the first week of June.) I guess I’ll just have to see which ones I can sign up for.</p>

<p>They start in June and go into the middle of July. 2 sessions a week for 6 weeks</p>

<p>Some high schools graduate at the end of May or the first weekend of June here in MA. Don’t forget, the primary customers are MA residents!! They run enough sessions to cover everybody.</p>

<p>MADad… would you recommend this college for an honors Mechanical Eng. program based on what you and your son have experienced so far? Say over WPI (yes $$ would be the motivating factor).</p>

<p>MEsearch----</p>

<p>S got into both RPI and WPI but the fin. aid just wasn’t there, so he’s in the honors college at UMass doing ChemE. UMass offered a surprising amount of non-loan financial aid, which made it attractive. After a short period of adjustment he’s liking it there. Being instate, he occasionally gets together with a high school friend or two for dinner–helped out until he started to get to know other kids. </p>

<p>He’s living in the engineering honors RAP, which is nice because it’s located in Northeast, near most of his classes–shrinks down the campus for him. Though next year, the RAPs might all be in the new complex (S says they haven’t decided yet if the engineering/science RAPs will move). The honors college definitely shrunk the size of his calculus and chem classes to about 40. He’s quite happy and sees lots of opportunities.</p>

<p>rlouisne:</p>

<p>Hi!
I’m Aakanksha, I’m a senior from India and I got my acceptance last month.
I wanted to ask if you knew which dorm area is closest to the International Relations Certificate classes?</p>

<p>You would be taking a lot of political science and a mix of language classes so those classes are for the most part near southwest but central would also be a nice location if your looking for a spot near your classes. My freshman year I know there was a social justice RAP in central so I would look into getting into that.</p>

<p>I was just re-reading the information that UMASS sent my son. It says that he has to take a language and math placement test once he decides to go to UMASS. If my son wants to take a different language in college than what he takes in high school, would he still have to take the language placement exam? Also, if he is AP Calculus B/C and does well on that exam, can those scores be instead of the placement exam for math?</p>

<p>If your son is beginning a new language he has the option to do that regardless of how he did on that placement test. The math placement test is required so either way he would have to take it but if he’s in ap calc he has nothing to worry about since the placement test is mostly algebra. During orientation he’s also going to take a writing placement test.</p>

<p>So, if I wanted to take a different language, say Japanese, could I sign up for those classes nonethless? (In contrast with my major)</p>

<p>You take the math placement test online BEFORE you attend NSO. They give you 90 minutes, S (who got a 5 on AP Calc AB exam) took about 15 minutes. As previously mentioned, it’s mostly algebra, nothing remotely related to calculus.</p>

<p>I just shot them off an email asking whether there is an ACT equivalent to the SAT requirement for placing out of the first-year writing requirement. We’ll see how quickly they get back to me.</p>

<p>They answered back in less than two hours. They don’t accept ACT scores for exemption, don’t really care about it, but I am impressed with the response time.</p>

<p>I think S used AP exam score to opt out of first-year writing requirement. They go over all that at NSO.</p>

<p>What is the story with the football program? I’m assuming that they are not going to play in Foxboro forever. Are they building a new stadium due to the their admission to a different league and just playing in Foxboro till the stadium is built?</p>

<p>I’m not to sure. I heard last year that they were going to renovate the stadium but that hasn’t started up yet. Maybe they are not rushing it.</p>

<p>UMass will be playing at least four of their home games at Gillette at least thru 2016 although they are doing some upgrades next year that might allow one or two home games on campus in 2014, 2015 and 2016. This article has some good details</p>

<p>[UMass</a> football lease agreement with Gillette Stadium has unique design to prevent total failure | masslive.com](<a href=“http://www.masslive.com/umassfootball/index.ssf/2012/09/umass_football_lease_agreement.html]UMass”>UMass football lease agreement with Gillette Stadium has unique design to prevent total failure - masslive.com)</p>

<p>The move up a division is costing more than expected and its still not clear where the funding would come from to build a whole new stadium. This NY Time article discusses</p>

<p><a href=“Universities Chase Big-Time Glory in F.B.S. - The New York Times”>Universities Chase Big-Time Glory in F.B.S. - The New York Times;

<p>That is a bummer…football is part of the whole college experience</p>

<p>Thanks for the updates on the football program. Yeah, I would imagine it would be a drag to drive (or take a bus) to Foxboro for all the games.</p>

<p>Folks in Amherst feel like somebody stole “their” team from them. Attendance decreased from 15K per game to 10K per game, except stadium size increased from 17K to 68K!! They expected to lose $ this year, but they lost 750K more than expected. Lots of grumbling and questioning of the wisdom of doing this.</p>