So I’ve almost decided that UMass is where I’d like to go however I’ve heard it can be a huge party school, overwhelmingly so. People say that students only care about their social life and its hard to make real friends because of it. I find it hard to believe so I was just wondering how current students of prospective students feel about the campus vibe and social life.
This stereotype is antiquated and I guess it exists for three reasons:
1) UMass used to be a very average school just ten or so years ago and therefore you got a greater percent of students that could care less about academics. This resulted in a lot of partying and causing a ruckus and therefore gave the school a bad reputation. After 2004 however the school was designated the top school in the UMass system so funding and academics subsequently and gradually improved. Today there is still lively parts of campus but the majority of dorms are borderline boring. North, Northeast and Sylvan have little to no true parties as well as Orchard Hill and the Honors college dorms. Lastly, only Southwest and Central seem to keep some stereotypes alive but I have heard alumni comment on how even those dorms aren't "what they used to be".
2) There were many large scale events that got out of hand in the, mostly because of two reasons. Firstly there where thousands of NON-UMass students at these party's... (invited or not...) Secondly because police were understaffed and unprepared they showed up with riot gear and teargas guns which provoked the stupid, mostly non Umass students, to start a scene so they wouldn't be "bored". This year during the Superbowl UMass banned/limited guests from off campus. Guess what happened when primarily UMass students showed up? I'll give you a hint...
NOTHING- well nothing newsworthy and certainly nothing compared to past years. There was of course some stupidity, but would it be a celebration without it?
3) Massachusetts has more super elite colleges than any other US state. People in the past tended to look down on UMass partly because they wanted to justify spending up to 200k to go to a private college and the thought that they could get a similar education for less than a quarter of the was crazy talk to most. Additionally, perhaps the students from working-class family's who go to UMass get stereotyped as less civilized then their piers who go to schools like BC and BU. This perception is changing, however gradually, towards seeing UMass in a better light. Since the combination of UMass increasing it's funding, freezing it's tuition, and raising it's stats has shined through it's old reputation, people are beginning to notice. UMass Amherst is shooting up in the ranks and I am willing to bet it will break the top 50 National Universities within five years.
Phew… Anyway, I just wanna say that there is no perfect school and I can’t guarantee you that you wont be stuck with a couple of loud people if you come here. (I have seen very very few so far) What I can guarantee you is that as long as you pick an appropriate dorm you will have more problems with boredom than too much partying.
Thank you I had always thought there had to be more to the rumors just wondering what dorm would you suggest then? @Halcyon77
@KezM97 - Depends on what you want?
I have commented on this, please check out this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18056954/#Comment_18056954
Hope this helps!
@Halcyon77 great info!