UConn Storrs vs Umass Amherst
My daughter is a freshman at UMASS Amherst and is having an amazing experience. She would have gone to UCONN if she got in to the Storrs campus but she didn’t. I have to believe things have worked out for the best for her and she is where she belongs!
Thanks! My S got into finance at UConn Storrs He really wanted to get into Isenberg at Umass Amherst. He was accepted into UMass Amherst as undecided. Trying to decide whether to go into UConn as a finance major or go to UMass Amherst and try to transfer into Isenberg.
Oh…tough decision! Are you a resident in either state? My daughter is a nutrition major so I don’t know anything about the Isenberg business school or how easy it would to transfer into it. Good luck making a decision!
We are out of state for both.
@Mom!!! According to the latest US News and World Report (i have online access), the Undergraduate Business Schools are equally ranked at #50. Neither school ranks in the top 30 for Finance. If you want to go by the USNWR Rankings, from an overall College perspective, UCONN overall ranks higher than UMASS - just another input to the overall decision…good luck!
Thank you!
Our situation is sightly different since we are instate for MA. My daughter got into both schools for finance last year. At UCONN she got a $12k per year scholarship and no need based aid which brought UCONN to about $35k per year for her freshman year. At UMass we get instate tuition plus she got into the Honors college, got $2k per year scholarship plus she gets another $1800 per year based on her MCAS and SAT scores from high school and we actually got some need based aid. This brought her 1st year cost down to about $20k. It was really no contest.
As the mother of a junior in mechanical engineering at UCONN (he did not get into engineering at UMass, got in undecided), my feeling has been through this whole process is that overall UCONN is a better ranked school, however if you are looking at either Business or Engineering, it seems like those particular programs at UMass are tougher to get into.
When we were looking for her a couple of years ago this was the most recent undergrad business school ranking: Umass is 36, UCONN is 65.
She has had a great 1st year at UMass! Has made a great group of friends, is taking advantage of what UMass has to offer: the town of Amherst, has gotten involved in various clubs (Women of Isenberg, The Isenberg Honors council, etc).
I think UMass has some better facilities in some cases (new Honors dorms, new rec center, ) that UCONN is playing catch up with (they have plans for new honors dorms and new rec center in the works).
It is a tough decision! Good luck!
The Amherst area is 10x more interesting than the Storrs area. Also, UMASS is stronger in computer science. That said, not worth an extra $20k+ per year for OOS students.
I got accepted to engineering at UMass and UConn. I asked my sister and her friends who attend Cornell engineering which one I should choose and they all said to pick UConn because they seem to get more of a draw from corporate recruiters and have a more renowned engineering program with their peers. Yes it is harder to get accepted into UMass honors for engineering but there are alot of factors that go into that. I’m sure others may have different opinions but UConn just seems to have a big cool factor and a base of loyal alumni who help you out.
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What does Comp Sci have to do with this thread? The OP was asking about Business and Finance…
@Mom!!! If you don’t mind, which did your son choose and why?
@mom…yes which did he choose?
This is an interesting one since I recently graduated from UMass-Amherst with a BA and Master’s degree from UConn. I currently travel a great deal for business all over the US and in Europe. Both schools are similar in many ways. I felt as though I had a top notch education at both schools…professor’s are smart, attentive and environment for learning is second to none on both campuses. Both schools have excellent and serious students and some students partying, wasting space and their parents $. But slackers don’t last long at either school. I can tell you that the party scene at UMass is no better or worse than UConn. In fact, there is more to and more cultural events in Amherst to avoid the party scene if one wants to avoid. The 5 college exchange was one of the reasons that I went to UMass. I found my classes at UMass just as challenging as the classes that I took at Amherst College and Smith. Most of the past party rep comes from friends of students coming to visit for the weekend more so than the students themselves. It boils down to what you want to make out of your 4 years. You’ll find parties at any school. Based on my experience, UConn is maybe more highly regarded in Massachusetts for some odd reason, but UMass-A has the edge in NYC, on the west coast and internationally. UMass is very highly regarded in Europe based on it’s it’s rep for research. It’s a tough choice. I would say follow your gut feeling after visiting a couple of times and take into consideration the money after financial aid. Based on my experiences, you can’t go wrong at either place if you make the best out of all the opportunities presented on both campuses. Don’t worry too much about the rankings, they are extremely subjective and often biased.