<p>So I am 99.9% sure I will be attending UMASS Amherst next year. I can't afford anywhere else (attending UMASS isn't going to cost me really anything) and I have been accepted into the School of Engineering as well as the Commonwealth Honors College. </p>
<p>But to be completely honest, I really don't know if I want to go. </p>
<p>The school and education itself will be fine. I think I am planning on going into Chemical Engineering and the school seems fabulous in that sense. </p>
<p>However, I attending the Engineering open house and the school seemed too big for me. I don't like big, unfamiliar environments. (I avoid cities whenever possible) I don't like the party scene. I like people, but I am social with small groups of people, not hundreds.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone had similar concerns to begin with and found that the school didn't seem so big, especially being a part of the School of Engineering and Commonwealth Honors College.</p>
<p>Also, I think I am going to try to visit the school again while I'm on vacation. Does anyone know a way I could talk to students who could give me some honest, first hand answers and advice about the same problems.</p>
<p>The school can seem large when you walk the entire campus trying to take everything in.</p>
<p>It will naturally shrink down though, because you won’t go past every building every day, you won’t be in the same place as 20% of the freshman class (or however many show up at the open house). Your universe becomes the people in your dorm, the people in your classes, the buildings in the engineering school. Within a week, UMass will not feel like a big place.</p>
<p>My S is at UMass, he is a ChemE major, in ComCol, and doesn’t party. He had many of the same concerns as you. He had no trouble connecting with a group of kids that he felt at home with, and he id glad be chose to go there.</p>
<p>I would recommend you try to get into the NorthEast dorms, this is on the engineering side of campus and has the reputation of being a bit more studious and less partying.</p>
<p>My S is also in engineering (freshman). One of the aspects of UMass that I was impressed with is how they try to make a large university seem small with RAP’s (Residential Academic Programs) and themed floors in dorms. I second the recommendation to try to live in Northeast (there is an Engineering RAP). A lot of the CommCol students live in Orchard Hill also, I understand. The Engineering College is small–about 1700 students. My son likes big–so he lives in Southwest and will be doing so again next year. I can’t complain, he’s doing well. You’ll find your niche, don’t worry.</p>
<p>You will be spending most of your time in the northeast quadrant of the campus–living in Orchard Hill (honors engineering RAP) or Northeast (eng. RAP). Your chem and physics classes will just down the street from Northeast in the new Integrated Sciences Bldg. Engineering courses will be across the street.</p>
<p>You will mix with the general student body in your gen. ed courses.</p>
<p>You can make UMass as big or as small as you like. My son is a sophomore ECE student and basically doesn’t need to stray much beyond the northeast quadrant of the campus. It is very much like its own small college up there. For a change, he occasionally eats at the dining hall in Southwest (as opposed to the closer Worcester DC), or hits a concert or sporting event at the Mullins Center. You can dial up your own experience as you like.</p>