UMass Amherst vs. Hampshire College

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Interested in the Amherst area... Currently a sophomore at Penn State, looking to transfer next year. I'm a journalism major and want to be an editor at a magazine, if it makes a difference.</p>

<p>Obviously I don't like Penn State so I'm wondering if UMass is too similar, so I've been trying to find a good LAC that offers journalism. Washington & Lee and University of Richmond both do, but I couldn't get in there. It's been really frustrating trying to find somewhere I would like that offers my major.</p>

<p>Do you think I could get into Hampshire? Is its reputation even that great? I've noticed it's quite a young school.</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>High school GPA: 3.8
College GPA: 2.81 (poor freshman year, but I am much more focused this year... Doing well, two As, one A- and two B+s)
SAT: M 530 R 580 W 670 (Low, I know)
White male... Diploma from Florida high school, current resident of Massachusetts</p>

<p>Any and all help would be very appreciated... What could I expect from these two schools? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>If you’re a soph transferring in as a junior, the schools to which you apply will care frm more about your college gpa than your SAT scores. I I don’t know whether UMass (ZooMass) is similar to Penn State - - but Hamp certainly is not (for one thing no sports culture at Hamp).</p>

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<p>What do you dislike about Penn State?</p>

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<p>It’s a social thing. I’m just not comfortable here. Everyone is really full of themselves, is obsessed with partying and hooking up, and I just don’t feel like I fit in. Is that just kind of how it is at a state flagship?</p>

5

<p>Hampshire College
Academics:
Undergrads come to Hampshire College “seduced by the prospect of designing [their] own program of study.” The school offers students “a self-designed curriculum” facilitated by “close relationships with professors, small classes, and the great combination of communal living and individualism that a true Hampshire student embodies.” A “divisional system,” with a student’s academic career consisting of three divisions, imposes some sense of order. Division I “is first-year requirements and such,” while “Divisions II and III constitute the core of your time. That’s when you focus down upon the areas that interest you more than the rest of the school.” Undergrads explain that “in class, students learn as a group in discussions or hands-on activities (few lectures, no tests), while outside of class one focuses on independent projects (research, reading, writing, art-making).” The experience culminates in a ‘Division III,’ an all-consuming year-long senior thesis project “that allows students to become excited and completely invested” while “producing a unique product at the end of the year.” Students “receive evaluations instead of grades, which we feel is a much more productive system.” While Hampshire “is very small,” which might limit students’ choices, “it belongs to the Five Colleges consortium,” a group that includes the massive University of Massachusetts-Amherst. With the course offerings of 5 colleges available to them, Hampshire students can “take any course we could dream of.”</p>

<p>Student Body:
“Picture all the various groups of misfits in high school” and you’ll have a picture of the students at Hampshire, a place where “Nonconformity is so normal it’s almost conformist to be nonconformist. You can’t say ‘the kid with the dreadlocks’ because the person would reply with ‘Which one?’” Undergrads assure us that “Hampshire is really open to any type of student. There may be some discrimination against the preppiest of individuals, and they will have to endure the occasional ‘Shouldn’t you be going to Amherst?’ comment, but that is really as bad as it gets.” The common threads among students: “They are all interesting. They all have talents, stories, and are just plain interesting to be around. They are full of creativity and life and seem to really enjoy where they are.” They also tend to be “socially conscious, left-wing, and artistic. We are fond of do-it-yourself philosophies, from [magazines] to music and film production to designing ecologically sustainable communities.” One student warns, "this is not a good school for fundamentalist Christians.</p>

<p>Campus Life:
“Life at Hampshire seems extremely spontaneous,” so “while one minute we may be complaining of boredom, the next we may start doing something fun and exciting. We are normally very good at entertaining ourselves.” “Usually what people do is just hang out with a small group of friends,” and “there is partying on the weekends,” although “parties here consist generally of 50 people or less, never the roaring, dangerously wild parties that are often found at colleges.” Parties often take place in the “mods,” apartment-style housing favored by upperclassmen, where students “throw a lot of sweaty dance parties where hippies, scenesters, and geeks all grind up against each other.” Also, “live music is very common” on and around campus, “drum circles and random games of Frisbee are unavoidable,” and “going to the nearby towns of Amherst or Northampton isn’t bad.” Students can also choose from “tons of clubs, from Spinsters Unite! to the Red Scare Ultimate Frisbee Team, [or] Students for a Free Tibet to Excalibur, which is the sci-fi and fantasy club. You can even take yoga, karate, or tai chi classes. There are parties all the time for those who like that kind of thing, and movies, video games, clubs, and playing in the forest or on the farm for those who don’t.” There are also "five colleges in the area to hang out at. Enough said.</p>

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<p>University Of Massachusetts - Amherst
Academics:
It’s all about “finding out where you fit in” at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where students say the experience is “all what you make of it. If you want to party, there is one available to you almost every night,” but a pre-law student warns that “academics are challenging,” and other students agree, especially in the engineering program, the hard sciences, the sports management program (“one of the oldest and best in the country”), and at the Isenberg School of Management. As at many big schools, “It is easy to not go to class because they are so large, although many teachers now use the PRS [a handheld wireless interactive remote unit], which quizzes you and is a method of [taking] attendance during each class.” You will also have the opportunity to get a degree with an “individual concentration” that allows you to design your own interdisciplinary majors. Students can also enroll-at no extra charge-in courses at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges through the Five College Consortium. The consortium includes open library borrowing, a meal exchange, and a free bus system connecting the campuses. Unlike many major research institutions, UMass Amherst has a surprising number of professors who “show a passion for teaching. I have yet to see a professor who just teaches for money,” a sports management major reports. By all accounts, “More than half of the professors are awesome.” Students agree that "UMass Amherst has countless opportunities for one to get involved and improve his or her leadership and responsibilities.</p>

<p>Student Body:
There is no such thing as a typical student at UMass Amherst. An undergraduate population of over 20,000 makes that impossible; however, students do seem to fall into a few readily identified groups. There are “plenty of students who are here strictly for academics,” people who are here for the party scene," and a “lot of people who came here for academics but fell into the party scene.” Most learn to balance fun and work; those who don’t exit long before graduation. Students also “tend to fit the mold of their residence,” undergrads tell us. one student writes, “Southwest houses students of mainstream culture. Students there can be seen wearing everything from UMass-Amherst sweats to couture. Students in Central (especially Upper Central) tend to be the ‘hippie’ or scene type kid[s]. Northeast houses
the more reserved types.reserved types. Orchard Hill typically houses the more quiet types as well.”</p>

<p>Campus Life:
There is so much to do on campus here that you rarely have to leave the school to find something, students report, pointing out that, in addition to attending one of the school’s ubiquitous sporting events, “You can go ice skating on campus, go to a play, see bands play, see a movie, etc.” Are you sitting down? “Most of these things are also free of charge, or available for a reduced fee.” When the weather permits, “Numerous people are outside doing some sort of activity, whether it’s playing catch, playing a sport with a bunch of people, or just laying out in the sun. In the Southwest Residential area, there is a horseshoe that people call Southwest Beach because on nice days it is packed with hundreds of people.” If you’re into socializing, “There is something going on every night of the week somewhere.” One student says, “Drinking is big here but not totally out of control like some say.” And another student assures us that, “It is more than possible to stay in on a Friday night, do your laundry, and watch a movie with friends. Parties are available, but not required.” More students seem to want to live on campus now, lured perhaps by the new apartment style residence halls and dining services. Hometown Amherst provides “great restaurants and shows.” Northampton and Holyoke, both close by, are "good places to go shopping</p>

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<p>Could I get into either of these? Which institution is better/has a better reputation?</p>

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<p>You could definitely get into both, UMass-Amherst has a better reputation definitely and in my opinion, I would go to UMass-Amherst since it would be cheaper (being in-state) plus you can take classes at Hampshire College if you choose so it’s a win-win situation in my opinion. Plus there is a bus system that takes you between all 5 colleges in the area so you can be involved on each college if you want to.</p>

1 Like
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<p>These schools are incredibly different. Hampshire is an extremely laid-back, progressive, loose, small college with a hippie reputation. The campus has a rural feel. UMass Amherst, a few miles down the road, is a large state school with a party reputation. I’m sure that UMass is more similar to Penn State than Hampshire is, but I have no idea if either school would be a good fit for you.</p>

<p>Please be aware that journalism is a very difficult degree to have in today’s job market. Newspapers are closing left and right, and journalists with 25 years’ experience are sitting at home, trying to get a job after being laid off, without much hope. Sorry to be a downer – just wanted to make sure you know what you may be getting into.</p>

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<p>My understanding is that acceptance at Hampshire has more to do with the “right fit” than with your GPA. Supposedly, there are students who get into Harvard that don’t get into Hampshire. On the other hand, I know a student who got in last year with a 2.5 GPA but a wonderful talent for writing. Hampshire has a reputation for being full of hippies, but I have visited the school 3 times now with my son (who has applied for 2010) and I have to say the students were much more “mainstream” than I expected. He also spent the day at Hampshire last week, attending classes for the entire day, and he also was struck that the kids weren’t as “out there” as he expected them to be – he was so impressed by the instructors and how “really, really smart” the students were.
You definitely should visit both schools because they are very, very different. Either way, Amherst seems like a terrific place to spend four years!</p>

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<p>Wait a minute. Hampshire has a sports team. They have a circus team and those clowns are real athletes.</p>

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<p>Hampshire has a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT way of doing college–which is amazing and can be fantastic for the right people–but you should look into it closely before heading there. And in the world of film and other communications fields it has a fantastic reputation (think Ken Burns). As for UMASS–it’s a good school, has some really terrific programs and profs, but it IS a “state flagship” school, and there’s a reason that it’s known locally as “ZOOmass”.</p>

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<p>I agree 100%. You should really read up on Hampshire – once you get a sense of what it is about, you’ll know if it’s something that would interest you, far better than we can. If it is, than it will almost certainly suit you better than UMass Amherst, but if it’s not, than you should stick to the more conventional school.</p>

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<p>Hampshire does actually have legitimate sports teams nowadays. Soccer, Basketball, and Cross-Country. We are members of the Yankee Small College Conference and the USCAA. As a member of the Women’s Soccer Team, I am pleased to say that we made it to the USCAA National Tournament in Asheville, NC. We were seeded 7th in the nation, and this was only our first year in the league. The clowns aren’t the only athletes on campus anymore.</p>

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<p>I’m applying to both but I think UMass is stronger academically, especially if you want to go to a grad program. I admire Hampshire’s approach to things but I’ve heard concerning things about acceptance rates and learning being too specialized after a particular level. It is quirky if that’s what you’re looking for above all else.</p>

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<p>Most journalists were not journalism majors. </p>

<p>Can you afford both without loans? Given your career goal and the low pay involved with magazine work if you can find it, not haing debt will be important.</p>