With the 5 colleges can you only attend one of the other colleges is there is a spot at that school, and your home school doesn’t have the course?
My daughter LOVES Holyoke, but she also LOVES Amherst and U MA Amherst… and she wants to know how easy it is to take classes between the 5 schools? ( Honestly, I don’t know the 4th and 5th school’s names ) But these are the 3 she really cares about.
Students don’t take tons of classes at the others because of logistics – getting back and forth sucks up quite a bit of time. Has she looked at other consortiums like Bryn Mawr-Haverford-Swat or the Claremont colleges?
The other two schools are Smith and Hampshire
D is a MHC grad and she took courses at UMass and at Hampshire. With the exception of Smith (across the river), the other 4 schools are all in a line along Rt 116. Free bus connects the schools. No restrictions that I know of in terms of only taking courses your school doesn’t offer. MHC to Hampshire is about 10 minutes, and another 10 minutes to Amherst, and 5 minutes from there to UMass. MHC/UMass/Hampshire cross-attendance is common. With Smith it’s a transportation issue (further away, across the river). Amherst kids unfortunately tend to act snotty towards consortium students, sad to say.
Students at MHC regularly take advantage of the Consortium. When I attended there were often UMass, Hampshire and Amherst students in classes with me. Although I never took a class at any of the other schools, many of my friends did.
More generally, the abundance of social and extracurricular options available to students in the Pioneer Valley is unparalleled. Students from every school take full advantage of all sorts of activities within the five colleges: concerts, plays, lectures, clubs of all types and, for those interested, frat parties.
https://blog.mtholyoke.edu/thegates/five-colleges-redefining-opportunities
She loved the Bryn Mawr grounds, hated the classroom areas, and as I have mentioned in a different post, they seemed to not give a darn whether she attended there or not.
Well, honestly, that matched our Bryn Mawr visit as well. 
That matched my D1 visit to Bryn Mawr too! She is a 2nd year at Smith. She has not taken any classes at the other colleges but has had students from all the other colleges in her Smith classes. She regularly travels to Amherst to study (and socialize). She has not taken classes at any of the other colleges because she likes the class options at Smith. Maybe that will change as she advances. However, I don’t think it is too difficult to cross register at the other colleges.
The area really is great for college students. So much to do and so many college age students in a small area.
I echo that students take classes at any of the 5 colleges. I’ve know students who have taken classes at all five. One did a research project with a prof at another campus and published it, paving the way to a high Ivy grad school acceptance.
I will also add that my D went to a lecture with one of her Smith professors at Amherst. Afterwards, several of the Amherst professors took them out to dinner. The level of interaction and support at these colleges is amazing.
No, you can register for almost any course at any of them (some I’ve seen marked as for that college’s students only but very few). Lots of kids - something like half - take at least one course away from their home campus. There are also majors and certificates that span the colleges so actually require that you take classes at different campuses. Schedules are coordinated in terms of breaks and start/end dates each academic year.
Some colleges use the other campuses more than others - Hampshire students the most, I believe.
Rules about credit vary from school to school. This page has the links to each school’s policy: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/academics/courses/cross_registration