<p>I have done reasearch and I know admission requirements and what not, but I'd like to know more about the Umiversity environment. These are some of the things I'd really like to know:</p>
<ol>
<li>is there a"chat with admissions session" for Umass amherst(as in, online, not over the phone)? I know many other colleges I am planning to apply to have them.</li>
<li>How is safety at UMass? I know several other colleges have patrol people or an special organization at the college with people that would walk with you at night if you're alone heading somewhere at night(e.g. you can call a certain # and they'll come to you).</li>
<li>For dorms - are Freshman able to choose witch building they want to be in? I KNOW that I don't want to be in southwest(as far as i know that's the "zoo"). Also, along the same lines, if I have a friend that's also going to attend UMass, could I fill out a form or something to room with this friend?</li>
<li>If you are accepted into the Honors College, do you get a separate dorm for honors college people? Or is it the same dorms as all other Freshman?</li>
</ol>
<p>Any information would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!</p>
<p>1) Not aware of one, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t.</p>
<p>2) I feel like the campus is pretty safe, but then I am a large male… There is a walking escort service if you feel the need.</p>
<p>3) You will rank your dorms (actually dorm areas) when you go to orientation. The earlier you go to orientation, the better chance you have of getting your first choice. The SW area contains half the dorm rooms on campus, so somebody has to be put there. Even if you get put there, you may be able to move prior to the start of classes (my S was fortunately able to do that) but the choices will be limited or nonexistent.</p>
<p>4) There is currently no separate honors dorm, although they are building one (or will start soon); that doesn’t help now of course. There are a few honors RAPs, which will be one floor of a dorm, but not nearly enough to hold all the honors students. Again, go to the earliest orientation you can.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the information!
Could I ask a little more about “the scene/crowd” at UMass Amherst?
- how “clean” are the dorms? and the “shared bathrooms” (this still digusts me
)??
- how cassified are people? my high school clearly has a “social class ranking” - like poeple who wear Hollister, AE, AB&F and goes to all the dances and doesn’t care too much about grades are the so-called “popular class”. are most people there like that? are there definitely certain “groups of people” that you probably can’t join in their circle unless you “qualify”?
- how bad is drinking? I know all colleges have a group of people that are always over the top, but are majority of the people partiers? would it be like a day-to-day thing if on weekends you find a drunk person knocking on your door mistaking your room for their room?
- and I’m sorry, I still am a little confused on this - so you can’t choose your room mate? (like if you’re friends and not randomly choosing “a person”)</p>
<p>Could I ask a little more about the Honors College?
5. as far as i know, you don’t know if you’re accepted into the honors college or not until you get your acceptance letter, and the requirement is that you have a 1300+ on the SAT (CR +Math)? Is the the only requirement?
6. do people in the Honors College attend a different set of courses? or are there only a few classes that are like “honors classes”? and the rest you basically attend with everyone else?</p>
<p>And a few more in general, about UMass Amherst?
7. how large are most classes(honors or regular) - I’m not really excited about huge lecture halls. I would like to attend classes wih max 20 to maybe 30 people?
8. how are the professors? how many classes are actually taught by professors? I read that the math professors are bad??
9. how many international students, do you think, come every year?</p>
<p>I’m sorry - these total are not “a little” anymore, but I’d really appreciate answers to these questions. I am almost definitely sure I’m applying to UMass Amherst!</p>
<p>1) The bathrooms get cleaned every day. Floor bathrooms really aren’t that bad, you will get used to them.</p>
<p>2) It’s not high school, much much less of this goes on. And there’s 20,000 people to potentially make friends with. </p>
<p>3) There is a lot of drinking at every school. UMass is no different. I can tell you my S had no trouble meeting and becoming friends with people who don’t drink. “Zoo Mass” is not really true any more.</p>
<p>4) As an upperclassman, you can certainly room with whomever you like. As a freshman - I don’t know, you’d have to contact UMass.</p>
<p>5) “Entering freshmen with minimum combined SAT I scores of 1300, high school rank within the top 10 percent, and an A- or higher high school grade point average will be given consideration for admission to Commonwealth Honors College.” I believe there is some fuzziness around the edges if you are borderline in one area.</p>
<p>6) Not all of your classes will be Honors classes if you are in the Honors college. Generally only one per semester will be an honors class.</p>
<p>7) I don’t know the class size stats, it is probably on the web site somewhere. Any large state university is going to have some classes that are large lecture halls. Even many small schools have large lecture classes. If you only apply to schools that don’t have large classes you will really restrict your choices.</p>
<p>8) Every school has good and bad professors. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.</p>
<p>9) This page on the web site indicates there are 260 or so international students: [Student</a> Body and Admissions Statistics | UMass Amherst Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.umass.edu/admissions/facts-and-figures/student-body-and-admissions-statistics]Student”>http://www.umass.edu/admissions/facts-and-figures/student-body-and-admissions-statistics)</p>
<p>262 international students out of 20,873 total students equals 1.25%. Not a very significant international enrolment.</p>
<p>My son was able to choose his roommate freshman year. When you apply for housing just list each other as a preferred roommate. Also, regarding the Southwest dorms, there are high rise and low rise dorms. I understand the low rise dorms tend to be a little quieter.</p>
<p>Oh that’s good - I’m pretty sure my friend is going to UMass as well, so I’m happy to know I can definitely room with someone I actually know.
Am I able to apply for a converted lounge as a Freshman? and how much would that cost? is it the same cost as an Expanded Housing Room? and where are the converted lounges? are they existant in all campuses? how likely is it for me to get a convereted lounge with only 1 room mate ( 
) ?
which(dorm) is quietest/good place for studying, wchich is closes to classes? SW? central? NE?</p>
<p>Also, this is one of my greatest concerns right now: student that ranks in the top 25% in their school district in the MCAS during their Junior year get the John and Abigail Adams scholarship (right?). How do I know if I place in the top 25%?? Do most people get this scholarship? When am I notified if I am eligible for this scholarship?</p>
<p>If I don’t get this, I can apply for the Stanley Z. Koplik Certificate of Mastery Award, right?
I’ve taken the SAT, I already took 2 AP exams(got 4 on both) and 1 subject SAT exam, curently I’m enrolled in 4 other AP classes. My current GPA is a 3.9. How high is my chance of getting this scholarship?</p>
<p>IIRC, you will get a letter in the spring of your senior year.</p>
<p>Don’t get too excited about these scholarships. Yes you get free tuition, but they don’t cover fees.</p>
<p>This year:</p>
<p>tuition: $1714
fees: $10898
total: $12612</p>
<p>The scholarship is worth only $1714/year, or about 14% of the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by “converted lounge”.</p>
<p>
Closeness depends on your major. For engineering, NE is the closest.</p>
<p>OH NO!! really? 
I did NOT know that - I thought tuition was a lot more than just $1714!!
that’s ALL it covers? well thanks for educating me on that!!</p>
<p>Umm, ok so are there other scholarships UMass gives that I can apply to to cover fees?? and maybe other things? or do I need to just get out there right essays and enter competitions for scholarships??</p>
<p>About the coverted lounge - well I hope the UMass Amherst web page is updated because one of the room options is the “converted lounge” and apparently it’s a room that used to be a lounge for students, but they converted it into this much larger room, and one could have up to 3 room mates in that room. The size of the room is very appealing to me!</p>
<p>Ok, I looked at the UMass web site, you are probably talking about this page: [UMass</a> Amherst - Residential Life: Expanded Housing](<a href=“http://www.housing.umass.edu/hao/expan_housing.html]UMass”>http://www.housing.umass.edu/hao/expan_housing.html)</p>
<p>I don’t think you can select this as your dorm. UMass does this when they don’t have enough regular dorm space. The goal is to move you out into a regular dorm room if possible, so if you are in an expanded housing spot, you get first priority on changes. They don’t know from one year to the next if they will use extended housing or not.</p>
<p>
UMass is not known for its generous merit aid, nor for its generous need-based aid. Unless you are a truly exceptional applicant or have some kind of hook like URM, you will probably not get a lot of aid. Although, you never know unless you apply.</p>
<p>If you do apply, I would urge you to apply early action. These kids seem to get more merit money than regular admission kids.</p>
<p>My HS record looks something like this:
GPA: 3.9
SAT: 1960, but that last one I took, i think i did much better, and i’d know in several days
all courses taken in HS are honors, and if not, then AP
AP courses: Chem(4 on exam), US History(4 on exam), Bio, Calc BC, Stats Latin
Subject SATs so far: 1 (score 790), taking 2 more in Dec.
part of National Honors Society, Tri-M Music Honors Society, National Junior Classical League</p>
<p>am I “exceptional” or just kind of up there?</p>
<p>what are my chances of getting accepted? I mean, I was sure I could get in - until a person I know that’s in NHS couldn’t get in…</p>
<p>With that GPA and those test scores, I think your chances of admittance are probably 95% plus.</p>
<p>
I’ll give you my own personal point of reference and you can draw whatever conclusions you like about what you might get from UMass.</p>
<p>My S had SATs of 1550/2220, weighted GPA of 4.7/4.0, subject tests ranging from 750-800, nerd EC’s music EC’s, etc. He applied RD.</p>
<p>In addition to the Adams scholarship, he received an additional Dean’s Scholarship worth a whopping $1000/year.</p>
<p>I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t know to have him apply EA.</p>
<p>Wow </p>
<p>To: notrichenough</p>
<p>Thank you SO mcuh for ALL the information!!! I couldn’t have gotten all of this information from anywhere else. And I have to just say “WOW” to that incredible record. I just can’t believe a student with such an impressive record didn’t get MUCH MORE scholarships. Honestly, I was worried that UMass Amherst won’t be so great, being ranked #94 (not that I can get into an Ivy Leagure or anything, but…) but now I know a lot more about the school, and I have a better image of it.</p>
<p>Well, if it makes you feel better, in this ranking UMass is 36th in the US and 64th in the world, and number 16 or so among US public universities:</p>
<p>[Top</a> 400 - The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011-2012](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/top-400.html]Top”>World University Rankings 2011-12 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>
Yes, well, there it is. I believe if he had done early action he would have gotten more. Not a lot more, though.</p>
<p>I talked to an UMass Admissions person today, and she told me that you are only notified of scholarships after you actually tell them that you are definitely attending UMass (obviously after you’re accepted). Is that true?</p>
<p>I don’t believe this. How can you make a decision if you don’t know stuff like this?</p>
<p>I am pretty sure S’s came with his acceptance, although that was several years ago. And if you check out last year’s accepted student thread you will see that people got their scholarships with their acceptances.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-massachusetts-amherst/1052740-umass-amherst-class-2015-acceptance-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-massachusetts-amherst/1052740-umass-amherst-class-2015-acceptance-thread.html</a></p>
<p>Yes! That’s exactly what I thought - it’s strange to let students know of the aid/scholarships they’re getting only after they confirm enrollement. Hmmm, I guess I need to talk to the admissions people again.</p>
<p>I read through the posts on the link for the “2015 acceptance”.
what is this “Chancellor’s scholarship”? It’s different from the Dean’s scholarship, right?
and is it just me or does it seem like almost everyone’s getting a fairly large amount of scholarships in that thread?? were they all early action?</p>
<p>also, when are you supposed to declare your major? the Common App asks you what major you’re palnning on “taking” but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are able to take that major? this admissions person said that there are 5 competitive majors, and you need to qualify to take them. Biology wasn’t one of them - but would Accounting be under the Business School? if so, I guess that’s in the competitive major category.</p>
<p>Most of the people in that thread with large (>$3K or so) scholarships are out of state. Most of the in-staters got $2K or less.</p>
<p>I think they call the higher scholarships “Chancellor” scholarships, the middle ones are “Director”, and the smaller ones are “Dean’s” scholarships. The first few pages of the accepted students thread are all EA, check the posting date.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the competitive majors are engineering, nursing, and sports management. You have to declare these on the application. If you do not get to these on admittance it can be difficult to transfer to them later. You could still be admitted to the school even if you aren’t accepted into the major.</p>
<p>I don’t know if accounting and/or general business are considered competitive majors or not.</p>
<p>Ok, I see. So those people were OOS.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst allows double majoring (right? I think I read that somewhere).
I want to double in Biology and Accounting. Is that possible, considering they’re from two different “Schools”?</p>
<p>Sure, you can double-major. I don’t know how feasible biology and accounting is, because there is probably not a lot of overlap between them. I imagine biology involves a lot of lab classes, and there sometimes isn’t a lot of scheduling flexibility.</p>
<p>You’d have to look up the detailed degree requirements for each to see if it is even possible do both at once, or talk to someone in advising. I’d be concerned that scheduling conflicts would make it impossible to finish both in four years.</p>