@hedreq what was your major?
@hedreq I agree with wishfulmomma- you have great scores and you should apply to the schools she mentions, or similar schools, as well as privates. You may get a nice chunk of Merit money that basically erases any variance between UMASS cost and cost of going out of state or to a private. Not sure what the rest of your ‘holistic app’ looks like, but if it’s equally strong you may have a lot of great options. My son did not have as high a GPA or nearly the ACT score that you did and has received $15k-$18k in Merit from every school he’s applied to. Add that any financial aid you may get and it can possibly erase the cost variance, or at least get close to it. There’s a lot of subjectivity in which schools are better than the others, and US NEWS and Princeton Review are some of the more obvious sources to look at, but who cares?..it’s just a data point. If you can get to a pretty decent school with a ton of merit, why texplore a bit? They would love to have you, especially if you are out of state. Keep your costs down, and have a great experience. You will probably get in to UMASS in the regular pool, I just think they ran out of time and wanted to at least be polite and give everyone some sort of answer, so that may be why you were ‘saved for later decision’. They did not say no, but from kids I know from last year, it did take until mid-April to find out. I young woman I knew had a 35 ACT and 3.8 with lots of AP’s and got deferred by UMASS but got into McGill, John’s Hopkins, BU, UVM. She did not find out she got into UMASS until mid-April and had long moved on to deciding to go to UVM with nearly a full ride to their Honors College. She wants to study medicine and they have a hospital right on campus. She is very happy and UVM was very low on her list-( her mom had to drag her there kicking and screaming). With any major that requires a Master’s or Higher, you might as well consider going to a decent place that gives you the most money, because you can then perhaps have more money for whatever grad school you apply to. My friend went to Bridgewater State undergrad, and then was accepted to Harvard Law, and has had a very fruitful career with a huge organization. He saved a lot of $ keeping costs down in undergrad. There are sooo many options for everyone and no obvious ‘correct’ answer. Congrats on your great scores and keep going! As you said, all will work out fine no matter what you decide.
Sorry to hear people with such great scores are getting deferred/rejected. UMass doesn’t know what they will miss
My question is from the discussion about the FAFSA - I have received a scholarship amount of 8000$ per academic year. Do I still need to fill out the FAFSA form for financial aid? Thanks
Seeing my S got in to umass with much lower stats than kids who are being deferred, I would assume that umass just wants to take more time to fully go through their applications. Also, based on when my D applied to schools four years ago, her college counselors (all former admissions counselors at top tier schools) noted that some schools with large application pools will deny or defer based on likelihood of attendance. Students with near perfect ACT scores are more likely to attend a top tier private institution than a public school, so sometimes they defer to see if they are actually still interested in attending.
@hedreq, as others have pointed out, EA admissions have the strongest stats as well as ECs, team captains, honors distinctions, etc. You have a great ACT score, but it is Superscored. And a 3.8 weighted GPA is very nice but not exceptionally high so you have to look at the unweighted GPA and factor in rigor, such as having several APs on your transcript.
Many people don’t realize that UMass recalculates all GPAs to unweighted and then adds in scaled credit for Honors and AP courses. And of course It also matters to which program/major you are requesting since some are more competitive than others.
Just keep up good work in your final semester and get your third quarter grades in. It would appear that you are a strong candidate for regular admission so if you really want UMass it looks likely that you will get in. Good luck.
Yes whales567 Merit scholarship from a school is separate from Financial aid. Fill out the FASFA. That said, depending on household income and other factors, many times financial aid is really a loan @ 7%. If you need it, you need it, but 7% is high. You may get grants additionally, but just be aware that a lot depends on household income, how many siblings are dependents, etc.
Hey all, just an FYI. A college counselor I know, who has placed a lot of students w UMass Amherst for many years just told me they’ve had a complete changeover in the Admissions dept from last year. The new leadership may be doing things differently, or being new at the helm perhaps not as efficient as folks that had been in place for several years would be. We all know there is a learning and efficiency curve whenever we change to a new job, or get new leadership, so it makes sense. She said a lot of her great students were deferred that likely wouldn’t have been last year. Anyone still interested in going that was deferred should remain hopeful.
Does anyone know the general acceptance rate for EA?
Is there anyone who is still waiting on an EA decision? I still have not heard
Yes, I’m still waiting too.
I got denied with a 5.2 and 2400 SAT. It was one of my reaches so not too upset. Good luck bro beans
@Eddiem19 - haha how is Umass your reach with a 2400 SAT?
@vivini2020 - From collegedata.com It said that EA admit rate is around 73% with around 14000 applicants. But this year it seems that around 17000 people have applied to Umass so the admit rate may have decreased.
Good luck to everybody else!
Just got accepted through snail mail!!! 
Just got my letter of acceptance with a $6,000 scholarship!
OOS
GPA: 3.4
ACT: 30
Sorry! Forgot to mention that I got accepted into Nursing. In-state. UMASS Amherst was my top choice.
funny!
@njclass2016 were you deferred before you got accepted? I’m curious if UMass is keeping admissions rolling or if they’ll wait for March.
Just FYI, I received and admissions notification via snail mail Monday. I was accepted into the Commonwealth Honors College (I had not been deferred initially).
I’m in-state, and was surprised to receive $2,000 in merit.
Received my acceptance on Monday!! Didn’t get my first major (Computer Science), though… Worth it at the end because I got a $6,000 scholarship. I am in-state and was very surprised to see that I got the scholarship.
Major: Undeclared in Pre-Med program
SAT: 1740
GPA: 4.588 (weighted) 3.969 (unweighted)