Hi,
I am a prospective student for both UMASS and Rutgers. I was admitted to both of their honors colleges. I have narrowed my college decision list to these two schools. Both of these schools are great and I am having a hard time choosing between them. UMASS did offer me $4,000 more in scholarship, which gives it a slight advantage over Rutgers but I also like the comfort of being an hour away from home if I decided to go to Rutgers, although both are out of state. I would be majoring in Biochemistry at both schools. Please share any information about these schools and their honors colleges that would be helpful to consider! Thank you.
My DS was accepted to both as well, though not honors. I can speak to the campus situation, having visited both multiple times. We were also fortunate enough to go to an accepted students event in February at UMass before all of the shutdowns, so I’ll share his decision making process.
DS20 loves them both for different reasons. He loves the energy of Rutgers, and is not put off at all by the multiple campuses, bus system, etc. We both feel like it has reasonable cultural diversity, and like that it pulls from many surrounding states, giving him an opportunity to meet kids from several other places outside of New England (we’re in CT). He didn’t have a chance to eat in the cafeteria, so no comment on the food. The dorm we visited was pretty typical and nothing special. I think it was on Busch. It’s about 3.5 hours for us to get there, so not a big deal. All of that said, they gave us zero merit aid and UMass gave him a significant scholarship, making Rutgers our most expensive option. DS finally eliminated it this past weekend, primarily for that reason.
However, even If that were not the case, I do think he would pick Umass over Rutgers in the end. Why? The self-contained campus gets a slight edge over the multi-campus situation for him. Also, he liked the vibe on College Ave campus best, but would have been going to RBS so would likely live most of his life on Livingston. UMass is just prettier in general. Despite the more modern, concrete buildings, there’s enough more traditional college architecture to keep it interesting. Ditto for the adorable town of Amherst as compared to New Brunswick. In terms of culture, I think they seem relatively similar in terms of diversity, openness to a variety of political views, and both pull from lots of states. Neither is super fratty, etc. Size-wise, Umass, is slightly smaller and he likes that. In terms of food, we got to eat in the dining hall at Umass, and it’s all it’s cracked up to be, not hype. Finally, they are fairly comparable academically.
So overall, the self-contained, slightly smaller campus with great food, a strong academic reputation, and a lower price tag puts UMass ahead for our ds20. Now he’s going through the same thing as you with Umass and UConn, lol. Good luck. I really don’t think you can go wrong.