<p>I'm a hs senior who was admitted to umass isenberg and the commonwealth honors college, and am almost definitely enrolling. Here's my dilemma - I can't stand umass - Most of it is my mindset and slight bitterness at my financial situation, but both times I visited I didn't like anything about it.</p>
<p>I only applied to umass because my parents said I had to (I was going to apply to tufts ED), and when I heard back from all my other schools, I was most excited about Urochester (they offered me 12k a year in merit plus admission into a select small business degree program), Uwisconsin-Madison, Brandeis, and the college of William and Mary. </p>
<p>The problem is this - Fafsa (which estimated a 70k EFC) didn't account for 1/2 a year where my dad had no job and no income, and a number of other things, so my family can only pay $21,000 a year but I get no need based aid anywhere. This means I can either attend umass debt-free or Wisconsin/Rochester with $20,000+ loan debt each year.</p>
<p>Obviously I'm not going to take on that much debt because it would screw up my future, but the only thing I like about umass are the delicious burritos at bueno y sano in Amherst.</p>
<p>I don't mean to sound spoiled or ungrateful because I know plenty of people who go to umass and do have to go into debt or who can't get into umass. That being said, I would like to feel a bit more excited than I do. </p>
<p>Was/is anyone in the same boat? Could someone list some of the things they like about umass? Thank you so much!</p>
<p>My son is a freshman in mechanical engineering at UMass Amherst and his roommate is a freshman at Isenberg. Neither were admitted to Commonwealth College. Both have had an excellent year by all reports. They have enjoyed their classes, worked hard and had fun. My son chose UMass over Syracuse and Delaware, partly for financial reasons, but partly also because he preferred it. It’s disppointing not to be able to go your preferred school, but UMass is really what you make of it. There are a lot of opportunities there–including the opportunity to take classes at the 4 liberal arts colleges in the area–Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Hampshire. I have been impressed by their efforts to make a large school seem smaller with themed housing and RAP’s (Residential Academic Programs). As a CommColl member, you will be able to live in honors housing. Isenberg is an excellent school and one of the harder ones to get into at UMass. Between CommColl and Isenberg, you’ll meet some of the more more serious students. The campus is nicer than it appears at first glance and Amherst is a great college town. Rochester and Wisconsin are not worth $80,000 in debt. Coming out of college debt free is a great gift, which you’ll realize when your friends who went to private colleges are moving in with Mom and Dad after graduation and you can afford an apartment because you have no loan payments. These are some rather rambling thoughts, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by UMass Amherst if you approach it with an open mind.</p>
<p>This was my mindset. Everyone else from my honors floor had this mindset as well. The thing is, (if you came from a competitive Massachusetts high school) Umass is generally not the first choice for many people. They choose to go because it is decent and definitely allows the possibility to go to medical and graduate school. Some people go into umass saying that they’ll transfer and then they just end up staying since they like it so much.
The key is to go in with an open mind. Umass is what you make of it. You will find people who think like you (people play where else did you get in game for the first couple of weeks and I’ve seen quite the range, from lower state schools to MIT and Cornell) and people who are genuinely psyched to have the typical college experience.
People really start loving the school when they find their niche or group (a cliche but hey it’s true). Sometimes its not the first group of friends you meet (this happened to me) but Umass has every single type of person and you can and will definitely make academically focused friends(if thats what you want) that you will keep the rest of your life.
Basically there’s a reason everyone I know likes Umass. It’s because you can do whatever you like while your’re in and out of school and with whomever you like.
Unfortunately Umass is wrapping up for me (I’m going to medical school next year) and I am genuinely saddened to say this because this was in effect 4 of the best years of my life. I was prompted to respond because this was exactly how I felt entering here but good luck. Message me if you have any questions.</p>
FAFSA is extremely heavily income-dependent, so something in here doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Does he have a job now? Will your family be able to afford more in future years?</p>
<p>All that not-withstanding, I can tell you that literally every single person I have met who went to UMass <em>loved</em> it, and I have met many over the years.</p>
<p>Give UMass a chance. At worst you can transfer out after a couple of years and in the meantime saved yourself $40000+.</p>
<p>Our son decided on UMASS over Clark, Brandeis, and Northeastern. He had a scholarship to Clark that would have made it financially feasible without loans but Brandeis and NU did not offer any merit aid and our EFC was too high for any need based aid. He is a biology major so going into debt for undergrad was not that appealing.</p>
<p>He is finishing up his freshman year and so far he loves it. Studies for the most part are going fine and he has been involved in other activities on campus which would not have been available at a smaller school like Clark (which we actually thought would be better for him because of the smaller size).</p>
<p>I would echo other advise to just go and give it a try.</p>
<p>unless you have an EFC of 0-$20k it is unlikely that you will actually get financial aid anyway. I used to get an EFC of $19k and I never was awarded any money. Now I get an EFC of 0 and I get some aid but not a lot, I don’t even get work study. So, it probably would not have made much of a difference if you had filled it out correctly, so…I highly doubt you would’ve gotten any aid because…you really don’t need it. To pick a school that has a good reputation AND fits your budget are very important. Umass has both of those things. As someone whose parents never gave me any money and had to pay my own way for the first two years of college with no help from them or financial aid—yes you do sound a tad bit ungrateful or perhaps just inexperienced. After you graduate with a Bachelors degree with no debt, can buy a new car, start saving for a house immediately, or get a masters degree and all your friends are getting harassed by sallie mae you will be thankful you went to the ‘cheap’ school. Student loans are insane these days, we are told that they will get paid off right away, they are easy etc. A lot of people are still paying them off 30 years later. This is part of what the occupy movement was about. Student loans are a trap you do not want to find yourself in. Goodluck.</p>
<p>I am in almost the exact same position you are, and I am choosing UMass! I’m a smart kid at a good school, the FAFSA kind of screwed me over, and I really didn’t want to go at first. However, after a great visit and a good long think, I’m enrolling. Some of the things I would think about:
-The Isenberg school is pretty fantastic, as well as the commonwealth college. (I’m in too!) You’ll get an education that is worth the price, which is more than a lot of academically similar private/out-of-state schools can offer.
-Just like any school, if you meet the right people, it will be amazing no matter what. I don’t know if you visited or did an overnight or not, but at a big school there are bound to be people who share your interests or are just plain awesome. I stayed overnight and met so many nice, smart, really cool people that made me drop any of the stereotypes I had about UMass.
-Graduating debt-free is its own reward. Be proud that you’re smart enough to make the right decision here.</p>
<p>(The food is also really, really good. It makes a difference. )</p>
<p>S got into some good private universities, but their financial aid offers were lousy. Being the analytical type (chem E), he cannot justify going into HUGE debt for a private school education that is not appreciably better than that offered by UMass. He was shocked to see the USNews/World Report list that ranks UMass engineering very highly.</p>
<p>It may be a huge school, but for engineering/science majors, you spend most of your time in the northeast quadrant of the school, maybe living in Northeast or Orchard Hill. </p>
<p>The new Integrated Sciences building in stunning, and its expansion (ready next fall) is enormous!</p>
<p>We went to lunch in the dining hall. I had a very tough time deciding between the marinated flank steak or the custom made-to-order omelet.</p>
<p>I decided on the steak. And some salad. And a piece of BBQ chicken pizza. And some apple crisp. And some soft-serve with M+M’s and sprinkles to finish it off. </p>
<p>They had a banner hanging in the hall trumpeting that their food was voted the best in the country for 2012 by the Princeton Review.</p>
<p>If I went there, for me it would probably be the Freshman 50. </p>
<p>I’m in a very similar situation. I got accepted to one of my top schools (UC Berkeley) and really wanted to attend but the financial aid just wasn’t feasible, despite receiving scholarships/etc. </p>
<p>But, speaking as someone who knows UMass VERY well, it has a lot of things in its favor:
the study abroad opportunities (there are programs for one semester or a full year in a huge array of places)
the faculty are very available (although admittedly I don’t know much about the Isenburg faculty) and helpful
the amazing quality of food (which other people have mentioned but is worth mentioning again)
the library (open 24/5, it’s a fantastic research resource as well as a great place to hide away or get some peace for studying)
the student groups: from my experience they’re very open to new people and quite friendly
the international students/honors students: there are people from all over the world, and there are the honors students, all of whom (in my experience) tend to be very hard-working, focused, ambitious, etc., so if you’re unhappy about the caliber of your classmates, keep this in mind
the Five College System: I’ve known people from Mt. Holyoke who took about half their classes at UMass, so presumably you could take a load of classes at Amherst, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, or Hampshire if it suited your fancy, without having to pay the cost of those private schools
<p>I’m in the exact same situation right now, essentially choosing between UMass Tulane and Rochester. I don’t have much to contribute to what’s already been said, but as it’s becoming clearer that my family simply can’t afford a private education for me, I’m trying to settle on the idea of going to UMass. With almost a full ride, it’s hard to tell myself at 18 that this is the smartest decision even though it may not be the most fun or the most prestigious. Student loan interest rates are expected to almost double (from about 3-4% to 6-7%), and in a number of years the amount of student loan debt is going to be more than that of credit card debt. The cost of higher education is absolutely insane right now, and ultimately becoming valueless. I guess that’s the only piece of information that’s keeping me sane and somewhat okay with this decision. The only difference between choosing the right path over a school I really liked, is that I really strongly did not like UMass when I visited. It was way too big for me, and I just didn’t get a real sense of school pride. If anyone has anything else to add that’ll make me feel a bit better about going to this school, I’d really appreciate any input. Right now I’m just trying to convince myself I’ll be making the right/smartest decision.</p>
Why would UMass be less fun than any other college? As I said before, every single person I’ve known who went there raves about what a great time they had. “Fun” is much more dependent on you than where you are.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with Rochester is the weather, when we were there they bragged about the tunnels between the buildings so you didn’t have to go outside. Really?!? I don’t think that’s a feature…</p>
<p>
One site I like, [Online</a> University Degree Search - U.S. University Directory - State Universities and College Rankings](<a href=“http://www.stateuniversity.com%5DOnline”>http://www.stateuniversity.com), has UMass and Tulane in a virtual dead-heat. If UMass was in LA instead of MA it would very nearly be the top-ranked school in the state.</p>
<p>The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranks UMass as 64th in the <em>world</em>. Rochester - #81. Tulane - in the 200-225 group.</p>
I think a common mistake when visiting a school is that after taking the tour, you project the experience of walking the entire campus end-to-end in a hour ( which of course makes it seem huge) with what your every-day experience will be like. You won’t be walking the entire campus every day, you won’t be personally interacting with 20,000 kids every day. The campus naturally shrinks to where your dorm is, and where you go to class.</p>
<p>Finally, if your parents really can’t afford the $200,000+ for Tulane or URoch, and you go there anyway, you may find yourself needing to transfer in a year or two because all the money is gone. And at that point your full ride to UMass will be gone too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies - I am indeed feeling a bit better about the opportunity that has been given to me.</p>
<p>@goosesdream, I applied for an appeal from UofR, and they upped my award from $10k to $12k, but it’s still out of my range.</p>
<p>@notrichenough, I wouldn’t rely on a ranking that has Umass above tufts, Vanderbilt, and Dartmouth, as well as university of Utah over trinity college Dublin. Those rankings simply make no sense</p>
Because you “know” that those schools are better than UMass.</p>
<p>And how do you “know”? </p>
<p>Probably from some other set of rankings that you have internalized and now believe to be “true”.</p>
<p>The Times Higher Education rankings are heavily influenced by research - both performed by the school and cited by those at other schools, and is international in scope. They believe their methodology is sound, and though you may not agree because it doesn’t exactly match up the USN+WR rankings, that doesn’t make them less valid, only different.</p>
<p>@catspajamas - When I was in high school, I partially judged UMass and other schools by the modest differences between the GPAs and SAT scores of the fellow seniors headed to those schools. It wasn’t fair but it was all the data that I had.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve graduated and worked for a few years, I’ve come to really appreciate the school. Not only did I have a fantastic time as a student, I went into the workforce very well prepared and my degree gets me all the job interviews I want. Moreover, I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt from BU or Northeastern and I make as much if not more money as most of my friends who ended up at those schools. I will admit that the kids who went to Harvard and became i-bankers still make more than me but I’d argue that I’m less miserable. :-P</p>
<p>Your college experience is mostly defined by your decisions while in college, not by the college itself. You can challenge yourself by taking tougher and more interesting courses. By extension, the students you’ll meet in those courses will be of a higher caliber.</p>
<p>You’ll probably love the school. Just about everyone I know who went there did.</p>
<p>I also just got admitted to the Commonwealth college and the Isenberg school, but as a marketing major. I, too, wasn’t entirely convinced of UMass’s potential, so I recently visited the campus to talk to a job/internship placement representative and get a feel for things. I found out that the Isenberg school has their own career center, the Chase Career Center. I am obviously talking from limited experience, but I have to say, the separate career center is very tailored to Isenberg students, and seemed very comprehensive. I was able to talk to the director of the Center, with no appointment which I think is a testament to the availability of their personnel and their eagerness to help students. (It sounds cliché, but that’s the vibe I got). The amount of full-time and part-time internships available was incredible, especially for finance and accounting majors. Even for marketing majors (which, based on the other colleges I’ve visited, typically have the fewest available internships) there seemed to be quite a lot of successful job placements and internships. The director did stress that the Chase’s services are only useful if a student seeks them out, and applies oneself to attain an internship and/or job placement. But you seem like a very driven person, so I’m sure this wouldn’t be a problem for you. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>Cats pajamas- our S will be going to Umass for the same financial reasons as you. We have high EFC in paper but not enough in income to pay $52k to Syracuse or UPitt’s 40k. He feels just like you. However he wants to do premed and we would rather he graduate without any debt. That means we pay all $26k for him for 4 years. Hornet dad is right. School is what you make of it. Go somewhere for you not to show off to the world. At the end of it no one will help you pay loans but you. We really have a good state school and they are building the new honors dorms. Good luck.</p>
<p>Awsome thread. I know this is a year old, but I almost want that my son would not get in into Northeastern, but instead UMASS. And we are in state. Few more days till find out where he ends up. </p>
<p>My child is a current student in the Commonwealth Honors College and the Isenberg School. Her experience at UMass has been nothing short of exceptional, and as a parent I feel that I am getting tremendous value for my hard earned dollars. Her classes have been overwhelmingly positive and her professors competent and available. The Chancellor is top-notch and is a visible, involved leader on campus. Groundbreaking research, lectures, and cross-disciplinary studies are happening all the time. Her advising has been excellent. There are dozens of extracurricular activities, intramural sports, and clubs to get involved in. A Division I sports scene is fun for those who like to watch sports. The food is great–fresh, healthy, with a lot of variety and options. The state-of-the-art recreation center lets students stay active and healthy, especially in the winter. The free and excellent bus system takes students throughout the area for free, eliminating the need for a car. It’s a really vibrant scene, and I feel fortunate that we live in state and can take advantage of such an excellent resource. Go UMass! It’s a hidden gem.</p>
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