We are now deciding between these schools for Computer Science. At UMASS Amherst, my son was placed in the exploratory track. Any experiences at UMASS and feedback will be helpful.
Net price?
If not directly admitted to the CS major, consider how difficult it will be to enter the CS major:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19262574/#Comment_19262574
So, Supermom2, did your son decide where to go for his CS studies? I ask because we got a wait list offer for my son to attend CS in VaTech Fall 2016 a few days ago. It is General Engineering studies first year altho’ I think he may be able to take some CS classes before declaring CS as his major after year one (assuming he keeps his GPA at least 3.0!).
My son considered UMass Amherst for CompSci. Looked like a good program; we went to the open house for admitted students and when the Computer Science building wasn’t covered on the regular tour we just walked over and asked in the office. A very nice staff member introduced my son to some of the graduate students and gave us a tour of the building. However, U Mass was out of state tuition for us and even with a partial scholarship it was significantly more expensive than in-state, so my son made the decision to go to an in-state school and graduate debt-free. Another nice thing about UMass was the 5 college consortium.
@Johanian, He decided to go to UMASS Amherst for Computer Science. He is on the exploratort track which means he must take two courses and pass them with a min GPA to get into the Comp Sci major. He also received the Chancellors Award for $12,000 for each year as scholarship.