This forum has been so helpful for me to guide my DD22 for majors and colleges. She got accepted for Applied Math/Stats at U of Arizona, CU Boulder and UMass Amherst. We are based in CA. We have a scholarship from UMass and full pay at the other two (but we have saved for this so can afford to pay).
Can anyone shed light on which one of these programs you’d pick? They’re all really good STEM schools, so we are frozen with indecision 
Thank you for any insights you can share!
if they were equal in price I would go with CU or UA, just based on the campus and location and weather, but they aren’t worth much more $ than UMass. I know you said you have saved, but still- how much of a price difference are we talking?
also- we don’t know your kid. what’s she into? outdoorsy stuff? skiing? sports?
Are any of the options in the honors programs?
Thank you, she’s very intellectual and athletic. She likes nature and loves libraries!
Hi, no. We didn’t apply to the honors programs .
UMass Amherst has the tallest academic research library in the world. Also plenty of nature and hiking in the Amherst area.
Wow, that is something! She may just pick the school for the library lol
She sounds like she will be happy anywhere. I would look at the characteristics beside majors…so climate, location, maybe proximity to home and ease of travel, the college towns themselves, etc.
Did her GPA creep up at all from the 3.0 you reported when crafting her list? And her SAT? I only ask because merit aid. @tsbna44 what are the guidelines for Arizona.
Congrats on 3 great acceptances! Boulder and UArizona would be more convenient travel wise, but really it’s just a matter of which one appeals to her, all 3 are terrific schools. One advantage of UMass is that it belongs to NSE (National Student Exchange) which is a group of 200+ schools in North America, mainly in the U.S. but a few in Canada and the Caribbean too. NSE allows you to do up to 1 year of exchange at any of the participating schools and the bast parts are 1) your credits transfer automatically and 2) you typically only have to pay in-state tuition. There are some really fun schools!
Thanks @thumper1! GPA went up slightly actually, not dramatically though…and didn’t retake the SAT after her 1450 score.
My son goes to UMass - business major though not STEM. Have you visited the school? It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, and getting to campus from the airport can be challenging. Every kid I know that goes there loves it though - all types seem to find their peeps.
UMASS is not in the middle of nowhere. It’s 50 minutes from Bradley International Airport in CT. I would imagine shuttles run to and from the airport…you need to check.
UMass Amherst is a member of the Five College Consortium with Amherst College (Amherst), Hampshire College (Amherst), Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley), and Smith College (Northampton)…so plenty of other colleges in the area. Plus UMASS is not exactly tiny and really has its own college town.
Well, we are from just outside Boston so all of western MA seems like the middle of nowhere to us :). Also, I only comment on the challenge of traveling from the airport since so many posts on the parents Facebook page seem to be about how to get kids back and forth. There is a bus (Peter Pan I think) and car services but the school definitely doesn’t offer any shuttle services. Help is easily found on the parent’s page though - great group of people always willing to help others out. Don’t get me wrong - my son loves UMass, but its a big school in a small town, at least in my view.
Thanks, super helpful!
I don’t think there’s a bad choice here.
Job recruiting/placement is often very regional with campuses, although self-motivated individuals can and do find jobs in other parts of the country, but it probably won’t be as easy.
Are there particular clubs that she finds interesting at each of the colleges? Has she mapped out what 8 semesters of college would look like, seeing if there are distribution requirements she would find interesting or a drudgery to fulfill? Are there particular living learning centers or other special opportunities that would sway her towards one campus or another? And what structures does each set up to help first year students acclimate and form social bonds? Some colleges are better at this than others.
You might look and see what the honors program requirements are at each campus and if your daughter might qualify or be allowed to apply. That can confer some nice perks like nicer dorms, smaller classes, priority registration, etc. If the scales are so close between the universities, that could help tip it in one school’s favor.
Apparently U. Mass has some of the best college food in the country, and I think the dorms are also supposed to be nice. I’m not sure how CU and U of A. compare, but Boulder is a gorgeous area.
I know UMass and CU very well. I know nothing about UA. I think UMass and CU have a lot in common. Both attract very high quality faculty. Your D will get an excellent excellent education at either. That being said, I would look closely at the math departments at each and see what the differences are there.
I will PM you with some more thoughts.
UMass Math/Stat is likely to place your daughter into Boston finance jobs. I am not sure about the other two universities. They are not in a comparable urban center.
UMass food is as good as they say - they even get a steak and lobster dinner once a year! But except for the honors dorms and one set of upper-class apartments - which are very nice and have AC - dorms are old and tightly packed with kids (before covid at least). That said - my son loved living on campus. If you’re in a high-rise in Southwest, you will understand the true meaning of ZooMass. It was an unforgettable experience for him 
Also, there’s plenty of affordable off campus housing close by.
We have visiting UMass 3 times now in the admissions process, and it’s one of my daughter’s top 2 choices. The food is fantastic—we’ve eaten in one of the cafeterias on each visit. I agree that the dorms are typical—with the exceptions noted above of the honors dorms and upperclassmen apartments. I will add that the recreation center was very impressive. When we visited on a wintery Saturday, students were fully enjoying the various areas of the 4 floors: playing basketball and badminton, performing dances to K-pop music, taking part in a spin class, doing yoga, etc. I’m not very sports oriented myself, but it looked like so much fun I wanted to join in.
In terms of the local area, Amherst itself has a cute downtown and nearby Northampton is larger with loads of shops and restaurants and a significant live music venue. There is a free bus that loops around the 5 colleges and takes you to the main drags of Amherst and Northampton.
There is also a bus depot on campus with daily busses to Boston or New York, among other places, so it’s pretty well connected.
In short, UMass is very appealing to my daughter, and she’s giving it serious consideration even though her other option has a higher ranked program in her major.
Visit each and let her pick. Part of figuring it out is if she likes how easy/hard it is to get to each. See if she can sit in on a class or two at each as well.