<p>Hi NewEngland - what is a RAP? My son was accepted to UMass - we’re going to the accepted student open house this Friday. Thanks!</p>
<p>A rap is a living community with people of similar interest. There’s engineering raps, social justice raps, connecting arts and society. The engineering rap is in ohill so maybe I’ll end up living there. But, is central really packed? Is there a low chance that I get a room in there without a rap?</p>
<p>Thanks, Countess! I’d really like for my son to NOT live in those giant skyscraper towers - I appreciate the information.</p>
<p>Well, there’s only one tower that freshman can live in called Kennedy. I would hate to live there too not because its a tower, but it’s also my name. That would be terrible!!! Eventhough I’m an engineering major, I think I’m going to join a nonrelated rap in order to not live there.</p>
<p>Towers are in Southwest–living area that is party central and riot central.</p>
<p>Here is the RAP by location listing for Fall 2013</p>
<p><a href=“Student Success at UMass Amherst”>Student Success at UMass Amherst;
<p>Thank you, but I know how to do a simple search. My question is: how likely is it for a freshman to get their first choice in housing? Is it rare to not get first choice? If anyone could provide me some info to this, I would be very grateful.</p>
<p>Thanks, New England - much appreciated!</p>
<p>@rlouisne or anyone else who might have some insight </p>
<p>I’m psyched to be admitted to the Honors College and to have the opportunity to live in the new honors dorm, opening this fall, but I’m worried that doing so will somewhat isolate me from other freshman that aren’t members of the Honors College. I’ve read that a lot of freshman socialising occurs in the freshman residence halls, so do you think I would miss out by not living in a freshman dorm and choosing the new Honors College dorm?
I care about the petty stuff aha. But thanks in advance!</p>
<p>There are 2 buildings in the new honors area dedicated to freshman - roughly 300/building. Can’t imagine not choosing a brand new building, AC, central location, and 599 of your peers, age wise and intellect wise, to socialize with. Plus with such a large campus there are plenty of opportunities to meet others.</p>
<p>They will fill honors. They have already filled the upperclassman portion. Freshman are required to live there I think. But I’m sure there will be exceptions.</p>
<p>As far as socializing. You will probably be with people who also have the same major as you if you select a honors rap. Which is good because they probably have the same personality as you. As far as branching out the best way to do that is just getting out to clubs that interest you and other activities on campus.</p>
<p>You will likely get somewhere in your top 3 choices that’s what I saw my freshman year. If anything goes wrong you can always switch during the summer if you do not get what you want.</p>
<p>Biased comment. Southwest in my opinion is the better residential area. More diversity of students as far as majors and ethnicity. Better dining halls and closer to the gym (commonwealth now has the proximity factor). I’ve been on campus for the 3 years. Was in northeast 1 year and the past 2 years in southwest. Like I said before people party at every section of campus on the weekends. It happens in college.</p>
<p>
Everything I’m about to say is based on when I entered 2 years ago. I don’t know if anything has changed since then.</p>
<p>All of the freshmen got a seemingly random “priority number” for housing. A lower number (closer to 1) was better because having priority number 1 meant you would be the first freshman to pick housing. If you have a roommate, UMass automatically uses whoever has the better priority number.</p>
<p>So everything depends on your priority number and how many other people want to live in the same place as you. Even if you end up somewhere completely different, there are still processes you can go through both before and after the semester starts to switch with other people in the same position as you. For example, if you wanted to be in Southwest but ended up in Orchard Hill, and someone else wanted to be in Orchard Hill but ended up in Southwest, you guys could do a room-for-room switch to be where you each want to be.</p>
<p>That’s great! Thank you!</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ll see this, but if you do, could you please tell me about the campus, campus life, dorms, etc? I applied to the school but I want to know more about its physical aspects</p>
<p>There’re always construction somewhere on the campus. Torn pavement and construction cranes aren’t an uncommon sight. In terms of building aesthetic, UMass is a mix of newly constructed buildings that projects a cutting-edge learning environment, and old unsightly slabs of concrete. It’s not the prettiest campus you will ever visit/live in, but the fall foilage on campus is quite a sight.</p>
<p>The campus is quite large too, so you best get used to walking a lot. Dorm environment varies in terms of room size, aesthetic, cleanliness, and accessibility to amenities and classes. The newer dorms like Commonwealth dorms and North apartment are very nice in general, while there isn’t much nice comments for the older dorms in Northeast (though some have been renovated recently, I heard). The stereotype about different residential area is true up to an extent. Choose a residential area that best fit your habit. </p>
<p>For me, I chose Sylvan because I preferred not sharing the bathroom with the entire floor, the quiet environment so I can concentrate to study, and close proximity to my classes. </p>
<p>There are a lot of student organizations with different interests. There must be at least 1 that will intrigue you. This isn’t a boring campus at all. Of course, if you are into the party scene, there’s never an absence of that. I don’t have any knowledge of that though.</p>
<p>Where do juniors live if they aren’t in apartments or off campus housing? Does anyone still live in dorms or is that considered way too lame? I’m concerned because I’m transferring in as a junior so obviously I don’t have a group of friends I can just get an apartment with. How does the housing/roommate selection work in this situation? It would be nice to be where the most fun and parties happen. </p>
<p>UMass has a relatively high percentage of students who live in dorms, and thus a higher percentage of upperclassmen who live in dorms, especially in comparison to most state flagships. </p>
<p>When my son was a transfer student three years ago, there was a shortage of dorm rooms and as transfers had lowest priority, he was unable to live in a dorm, which would have been a better environment for him to him to meet people. </p>
<p>I lived in Brett many years ago and it had many upperclassmen then, some of whom chose it because it had well equipped kitchens, and many of them chose limited or no meal plans. I see that Brett now has a living learning community for non-freshman, and I don’t think you would feel out of place in Brett or another dorm with a similarly high percentage of older students. </p>
<p>There is also the option of on campus apartments in North.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>