<p>Has anyone heard anything about this school?</p>
<p>I live in Mass & I can tell you that nobody's heard of it. A kid from the public high school in my town goes there & i had to google it when I got his friend request on facebook! There are better state schools IMHO.</p>
<p>I also live in Mass and I have heard of it. It used to be called North Adams State. Similar to other Massachusetts state colleges, but with a greater emphasis on communications, performing arts and basic humanities. </p>
<p>It's definitely in a beautiful area of the state.</p>
<p>I think it is called Massachusetts College of the Arts?</p>
<p>No, that's a different school - Massachusetts College of Art, which is a private art & design school in Boston.</p>
<p>MCLA: <a href="http://www.mcla.edu%5B/url%5D">www.mcla.edu</a>
Mass College of Art: <a href="http://www.massart.edu%5B/url%5D">www.massart.edu</a></p>
<p>Massachusetts College of the Arts is a public art college located in Boston.</p>
<p>Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is a public liberal arts college located in North Adams.</p>
<p>I just wondered if it were worth considering as an alternative to UMass-Amherst.</p>
<p>I took a look at their course catalog, and it seems to offer plenty of good, basic courses, and I could imagine that class sizes are much smaller and the atmosphere more personal than at UMass-Amherst.</p>
<p>If your kid would consider going to Salem State or to Framingham State, for example, she might consider MCLA. Otherwise, there are probably better alternatives.</p>
<p>Okay, point well taken, I just thought there was a chance that this was an undiscovered gem....</p>
<p>One thing I forgot to mention - I was looking at Williams, and they do their teacher certification through MCLA - maybe someone at Williams could give you more info?</p>
<p>For many years, it was North Adams State Teachers College. Then, it became North Adams State College -- a non-selective regional outpost in a dead mill town of Mass. state university system.</p>
<p>They changed the name again in 1997 to the Mass College of Liberal Arts, presumably to capitalize on its location in the nearest town to Williams College.</p>
<p>Do what I did and take a look at the MCLA course catalogues. The foundation (core) classes look appealing. Biology may be a strength also. This school and other Mass state colleges may be surprisingly good alternatives to the U Mass-Amherst campus. Anyone got any thoughts on the sciences at Worcester State College and U Mass-Dartmouth?</p>
<p>My sister went to North Adams State College and loved it. North Adams is a nice corner of the world. She is now extrenmely successful in her field, so don't knock it before you check it out.</p>
<p>Don't know the school but North Adams area is rural-small town MA at its best.</p>
<p>From the 1970's or so on, North Adams was an extremely financially depressed town, an old factory town whose factories had all shut down; much of the population was unemployed and many moved out of the town. With the arrival of Mass MoCa in 1999, North Adams has been re-energized, and hopefully this growth will continue. North Adams is located about 15 minutes east of Williamstown -the physical settings are very different. I don't know much about MCLA today. Years ago I took an accounting course pass/fail at North Adams State College with several of my Williams classmates: not a great experience.</p>