<p>Hi CC,
I was recently accepted into UMASS Amherst as a Chemistry major for the upcoming Fall 2010 session.</p>
<p>My question is in regards to taking colleges at schools such as Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges. - How easy is it to take classes at these schools? In particular, science classes such as Chemistry, Biology, etc. </p>
<p>One of my original criterium for a college was that it should be medium sized with small classes sizes, and since I was only accepted to large state schools such as University of California Santa Cruz, that changed a little bit.</p>
<p>If I take classes at Amherst, I assume class sizes will be small, which may be what I need. </p>
<p>Also, is it easy to transfer to any of the 5 colleges from UMASS? For instance after the first year, if I maintain a high GPA, is it easy to transfer schools?</p>
<p>I appreciate any answers or insights that people have. MUCH THANKS!</p>
<p>-Philip</p>
<p>As a former faculty member of one of the other five colleges–with a son who will probably go to UMASS–I can speak from that perspective. It is not a problem to take classes at the non-UMASS schools, although you might have a scheduling problem getting to, for example, Smith in Northampton and back to your next UMASS class.</p>
<p>From a faculty perspective, the consortium is more beneficial to the other colleges rather than the other way around. Because of its scale UMASS has material resources not available at the colleges. Relationships are very collegial with no class distinctions. Also note that the astronomy department is a five-college program. If you majored in that, you would be taking classes all over as part of the program.</p>
<p>As for transferring, I’d say it’s no easier or harder than transferring from any other school The only possible advantage might be that taking classes at Amherst could mean developing relationships with faculty who might give you an insider’s recomendation, but your grades would still have to be tops.</p>
<p>Great, Thank you very much for your info!
I will be visiting the city during UMASS’s orientation week to get a better feel for the school as well as the distances between colleges.</p>
<p>You should really go to the UMass site and look at the classes available between the 5 schools. It is a fairly large list. You won’t get to take any classes until 2nd semester of your first year. My son took a class at Amherst in his 2nd semester of his first year. I can’t speak for the sciences because my S is into the humanities, but the classes fill up and you need to sign up as soon as they become available. It really is one a the great factors in choosing UMass. He did get that smaller class that he didn’t get in his first semester.</p>
<p>[Five</a> Colleges, Incorporated: Home](<a href=“http://www.fivecolleges.edu%5DFive”>http://www.fivecolleges.edu)</p>
<p>You’d have to check with UMass to see if classes taken for your major at the other 5 colleges would count here - I know that most people only take those classes for the gen-eds.</p>
<p>You may even get small classes in the sciences at UMass. I’m a physics major here and my second-semester intro physics for majors class only has 40 people in it.</p>