U Mass Amherst questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Massachusetts - Amherst
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@3mamagirls-

The “ZooMass” reputation dates back to the previous century. I haven’t heard that term for over a decade.

In the previous century, the Massachusetts public school system was overshadowed by the private sector. The primary land grant university (MIT) is private and there are a crazy number of private colleges and research universities.

UMass Amherst was also designated a land grant college, but it was focused more on the agricultural portion of the land grant mission because it was located in the rural part of the state.

Around the turn of the century, sentiments started to change. Counter to national trends, Massachusetts started increasing its funding to the public system. UMass also started raising it’s own funds more aggressively. It executed a billion dollar capital initiative early in this century and now has a $300M endowment (a little bigger than UCSB). It has lots of new infrastructure, including a new life sciences center and an Honors College “campus within a campus”. A new integrated design building is nearing completion.

Admissions standards have been rising steadily for a couple of decades bolstered by more aggressive out-of-state recruiting and increased appeal to in-state students. In our academically snooty town in the suburbs of Boston, some of the kids who once attended Ivies and NESCAC schools are now attending UMass Honors. Typically they sit above the financial aid threshold, but cannot afford to pay full price.

An attempt to raise the profile of the school by moving up a level in football has been largely unsuccessful to date. Hockey is really big at the college level in the Northeast. In general, the professional sports scene is bigger than the college sports scene in Massachusetts, so school spirit tends to manifest itself in other ways.

The town of Amherst has been rated a top college town and there is a cluster of colleges (including Amherst) in the area called the “Five College Consortium”. It has a “rural New England” feel. Cross enrollment is possible among the schools, but I don’t know how often students take advantage of it. After a visit, my son asked “why do people pay Amherst College prices to take courses at UMass, when they can pay UMass prices to take courses at Amherst College?” The UMass students did say that Amherst College has a yoga class that is popular with UMass students and that Amherst College students do take some science courses at UMass.

The food is amazing and may be the best in the country. It would make it worth the trip if you were closer.

If you do come visit allow some time to see Boston. It is a small, walkable city with lots of history. Closest match on the West Coast would be San Francisco. Amherst is couple hours drive from Boston.

Good Luck!

22

@Mastadon Thank you for that great summary.

I have heard about the town of Amherst itself,so looking forward to seeing it, even if it is in February. My daughter was the one who wanted all the snow - not me :). Last year during the storms, my husband would send my daughter pictures of everyone digging out their cars/houses/whatever else they had. That didn’t seem to bother her too much.

From looking through this site and any other site I could find, it does seem like a good fit. Of course we will visit, but good to know other opinions who live much closer to the school than we do to hear the day-to-day sort of chatter.

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@3mamagirls I’ve been trying to find out about OOS merit scholarships at U Mass. All I can find is one for $10,000. Is this what you’re talking about?

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In a similar situation. Accepted but never visited. Will likely go to accepted students day because of the relatively generous scholarship for OOS student. We are from NY so it’s no big deal for us.

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@nwmom2boys It was hard to find on the website as it is not very specific. It’s called the Chancellor scholarship, and she received $8k per year. But the website is vague on the amounts. I “think” others on this same site have received $6k and $10k. Honestly, I didn’t even know it existed, so was pleasantly surprised.

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@3mamagirls Thanks for the info. That’s a nice merit award!

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@3mamagirls My D thinks there is a lot of school spirit. She felt that her high school class did not have much (they were too cool!) so she wanted to go to a college with sports and school spirit. She has been happy with UMass’ so far.

As far as going into Boston or NYC, no, not at this point. She has only been there 1 semester so far. She is closer to Boston when she is at home (she is in Boston right now as a matter of fact! She is at the Museum of Fine Arts). Boston is about 90 minutes from UMass and I would guess that NYC is maybe 3 hours away.

Amherst is small town with cute shops and restaurants. Nice town green (where Amherst college is). She walks to town. At first she thought it was far but with all the walking she does around campus to classes, etc. now she doesn’t blink at walking into town. In the other direction is a strip of busy road with Target and the Mall, fast food restaurants, etc. They can take a bus (free with student ID ) over to the mall shopping area.

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@3mamagirls, did anyone mentioned dining halls? Food is the best here. My son is chem major and he loves the campus and people. Proffesors are very nice here, help is always there if you need it. And yes, winters are cold and snowy here, but you can ski, skate, whatever you want. Ski resorts are near by. I am very happy with my son’s choice. and other thing that school is investing in academics more (always building something, science labs and etc) than in sports.

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@MHMDAD - I actually remember reading that somewhere. How are the dorms?

We are visiting MSU this weekend to check that out and delve into the Poli Sci program a bit more. We need to do that for UMass also and then compare the two programs. So school is #1 followed by social life, etc. because you need to be happy to do well in school! I just hope she won’t feel too left out since she is not from the New England area.

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Can anyone comment on the footprint of the campus? How long does it take to walk from end to end? Is it do-able? Does it seem to big? I realize about dorm options and being close to classes, etc, but sometimes that may not be do-able.

I took my D to Michigan State last week, and that was a small city! About two miles from end to end with a lot of buses, etc. She did not like the feel of the size (not necessarily the amount of students) as it didn’t “feel” like a campus to her. So - just curious about the UMass campus before we come to visit ourselves.

31

I graduated a long time ago, but the party scene depended greatly by where you lived. Southwest was a zoo, but they have change how and where they put you. When I lived in Central it was reasonable. It is still big and the party scene seems less than back in the day. We visited all five schools Mount Holyoke, Smith, Amherst, Hampshire ( next to Eric Carle museum) and U-Mass with my daughter this past Summer. You can see all five in a day easy, but not their tour times necessarily. Compared to private schools, the campus in not impressive, but the Honors school and housing for it is pretty nice. The PVTA, local bus paid partially by the 5 schools is free and takes you everywhere, especially the other schools. You can walk to downtown Amherst and Amherst college. Downtown Northampton, where Smith is, is about 2-3 times bigger than Amherst and is worth driving to if you have time, maybe 6 miles from U-Mass) ) As far as academics, most of my friends are killing it in the real world, most of them started at expensive private schools but could not afford to stay so transferred. Because it is far from Boston, most alumni do not continue to attend Basketball or Hockey ( the arena for Basketball and Hockey is pretty nice ) and the Football situation is awkward, it does not quite has the school spirt of other schools. ( When John Calapari was here we were #1 in hoops, but we cheated) I met my wife there, and enjoyed my time there. We live in Massachusetts and 20% of my daughters high school class applies there and many want to go. My daughter is more interested in a small liberal arts school. Oh, there is almost no snow here now, a lot different than last year. (The recent storm that hit D.C. & New York missed Western Mass.) We visited New York schools over Christmas break and actually saw some people golfing, it was a very warm Fall. We are visiting a school in Vermont and upstate New York February vacation that we thought we would wait until April. They are calling for even warmer weather next week, you may not see snow, but don’t blame me if it does. Go, Go U, Go U-mass, Go U-mass, O.K. not the best fight song.

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Thank you. Yes, I hear it isn’t a very good looking school - but is it so ugly that it is sort of depressing? Mt D will not be in the Honors school.

How long does it take to walk end to end on campus itself? Can you walk? Or must a student take a bus to be realistic about getting around? It’s nice there is a bus to town and the other campuses, but just trying to see what day to day on UMass campus will be like. As she didn’t like to footprint of MSU, I hope this won’t be the same issue.

33

Yes it is Big, but if you are an engineer major for example, and live in the dorms near the engineering department, everything is walkable. I believe they put all the Freshman in Southwest ( except honors ). and you may choose to take a bus to get to one end of campus to the other. Southwest is a small city, make no bones about it. It has 5 towers some 20 stories high. Plus 16 or so other 4 story dorms. The bus system is really a big plus for the 5 schools although we used them more to go to the girls colleges for parties more than to take classes at the other schools that they all promote. The bus system on campus is the same as the 5 college system, just some routes only for U-mass campus. The campus is isolated, in so much at the edge of campus is just apartments for students, and only boarders the town of Amherst ( think very safe college town) on one corner of campus. My daughter did not like the size of the school. I could only see her going there if she was in the honors school, my son however would love it. Since I was not in the honors college I’m not being a snob saying you could almost look at the honors college as it’s own small campus. I don’t think the honors college students have to take a bus to their classes, they planned the location that way. So in short, I think Freshman do have to walk a lot, but I don’t she will feel left out not being from here, just give her a Tom Brady jersey for her first day and she will fit right in, half joking.

34

Check out St Anselms for political science

35

As I stated earlier, my D is in the Honors college and is majoring in Finance in Isenberg. Yes, she does love the location of the honors dorms; not too far from her classes, not far to the library, next door to the rec center, across the street from the Mullins center for hockey and basketball games). Not all of her classes are in Isenberg though. She does have Gen Ed requirements in other areas of the campus so she does do quite a bit of walking around. You can probably walk from one end of the main campus to the other in 15-20 min, I would guess.

The Honors dorms don’t have a dining common right there (they do have a cafe called Roots, that she loves.) so she usually eats over in one of the two dining commons at Southwest. It is probably a 5-7 min walk from her dorm to the dining commons in Southwest.

Originally my D was looking at smaller LAC type schools, with business schools, too (Villanova, Lehigh, etc) but once she visited UMass and started looking into all the advantages and opportunities that a larger school could offer, it won her over.

36

Not true about all freshmen in Southwest. Freshman year son was in Northeast, and had friends in Orchard Hill, Central, as well as SW.

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Yes - I actually found that out. I think for my D, either the SW shorter floors (not towers) or Central would work out for her. There are RAP’s in both of those in her area.

38

Daughter was admitted to Honors college with a nice scholarship. Other than living in a nice newer dorm, taking a few seminars and saying you are part of the Honors College - what are the other benefits?(smaller class sizes?) Can anyone elaborate? She was also admitted to UMaryland Scholars program and their website is much clearer on what one can expect from the program.

39

Can anyone recommend a hotel when we come for accepted students day end of February. Need to get on that. Thanks.

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Well I don’t know much, but we are staying at the hotel right on campus as I thought it would be easier for us to start the day. http://www.hotelumass.com/