<p>Well its an interesting question and I think the honors residential area will raise the bar a bit. But as others have said, UMass has so much competition from so many top notch schools in the area that its hard for it to distinguish itself amongst its peers except on cost.</p>
<p>I attended UMass for a few years and will make this observation that I think is true at most publics. There was a huge drop off in the caliber of student between different majors. Engineering and CS had very strong students while some of the LA majors seemed to have a much lower academic bunch. This was a long time ago but I think its still true there from what I hear.</p>
<p>This discrepancy is probably far less pronounced at the more elite publics such as Berkeley and UVA.</p>