Umass Amherst accepted into Biomedical Engineering program, no honors collage no merit … so disappointed in Umass Amherst, what’s up with that we were really hoping for this one but without merit or honors collage it’s not worth it. Could it be that DD didn’t send her SAT score just ACT score? She got a 1450 SAT score. We are just shocked because we were counting on this for affordability.
Do they ever reconsider?
Any advice appreciated.
Stats: 34 ACT, 3rd in class (of 250), 3.95 uw GPA 4.65 w, 8 AP classes, very involved in music program, captain of Tennis varsity team, etc.
WPI Presidential Scholarship $31,000 for each academic year of your undergraduate program. Umass Dartmouth accepted and 15 k a year merit. DD accepted into Chemical / Biomedical Engineering and Northeastern scholarships 27 k a year merit and Honors collage. All Still expensive for us though she only qualifies for 5500 loan …
I think they only can only take so many kids from in state for Honors College, and only so many from each major. Too maybe her major had some kids with 35-36 ACT/SAT 1500 with lots of good ECs and volunteer/leader stuff.
We have a friend that has a kid with similar stats that got in last year in state honors college. He did not have stem EC’s but was involved with other clubs and activities as a leader and volunteered a lot. Maybe that helped? He got into engineering and I’m pretty sure they received stronger applicants in regards to stats, but maybe he had the total package they were looking for.
Your D got into some good schools and got some $$ too. I say send her to the schools that really want her.
Thanks @RightCoaster you are right. That’s just the thing in previous years kids with lower stats / ECs, APs, etc have gotten into the Honors College, maybe it’s the competition this year or her major but it didn’t work out for her. Poor thing, I think there was some type of baby boom when she was born with exceptionally bright kids lol because I even had a hard time finding her daycare! Ugh what can you do right …
@leapyearG, I think you are right, I too had hard time finding daycare, and sports teams were overfilled also. I would say to you I wound send the SAT but I don’t think it would have made a difference because ACT score they convert it into SAT score, plus I think it is better to send ACT score anyways because they test the student in to more dept of other subjects then just English and Math.
My son got into Honors College CS, instate, but I am going in person to go over the merit award and financial aid…so see what happens.
Thank you @twobugs but at that point no honors housing unless she moves after her first semester … Just getting a bad all around vibe. @MomNama so weird with that everything filling up glad I’m not the only one that noticed it . My son never had any issues he 2 years behind her. Good luck to your son, hopefully things will work out.
Can’t wait for regular decisions and the mystery of honors / merit. wish I can afford to send her anywhere but with son going to college 2 years after her we have to be fair to both.
My child got into honors in state and 2K merit scholarship with only submitting ACT score (34). The max merit scholarship instate is $2K so I personally don’t view it as a deal maker or breaker either way. We too have seen merit all over the place. Only got 10K from WPI Presidential and 20K from NEU with no honors. Go figure. Too bad we can’t barter and trade with each other for offers/merit $$ and honors offers… Your daughter has lots of great choices. UMass Amherst is relatively affordable compared to the others at about 29K. I’m assuming your daughter qualified for the John & Abigail Adams Scholarship for MCAS scores which knocks off about $1,725 per year at UMass.
I was accepted into UMass last month with the 14k per year Chancellor’s Award, but was not invited to the Honors College.
I was accepted to the College of Engineering, out of state. 34 ACT, 8 APs (1 self-studied), 4.21 W GPA (my school offered very few honors or AP courses, I maxed out), graduated 2nd of 588. Plenty of leadership and involvement in music, Student Council, NHS, and sports. I am currently on a gap year and spent 2 months in Malaysia working with Rohingyan refugees.
I have pretty solid stats and I’ve been admitted to every honors college at all the other Universities I applied to. Is UMass just super selective with who they admit to Commonwealth?
So far she’s been accepted into every honors college accept umass a. ugh oh well. We couldn’t even bring ourselves too go to accepted student day, the agenda depressed me with all the honors info sessions.
Fingers crossed for something better on the horizon.
It’s true, she didn’t get the in-state scholarship, but that’s only 2K/yr anyway. The honors campus is VERY nice for housing, and much quieter than the non-honors student housing. But if she gets good grades, she can transfer into it. My kid says some kids are having to transfer out of honors housing because their grades weren’t good enough. She also says that some of her nerdy friends from her nerdy major who didn’t get into honors, are still very bright people, so there are smart kids everywhere at UMass Amherst.
If UMass amherst is right for her in every other way, I think that she should still go ahead with it, since from her stats, she would surely be able to transfer into honors college, and the money difference is not that big.
@parentologist Thank you so much for the advise. She is leaning to a smaller school and seriously considering Umass d. which she got a full scholarship to and WPI. I didn’t realize the merit would have only been 2K . We are waiting till the end of the month to make our decision as we are revisiting the schools she got accepted in.
@leapyearG I am a WPI grad (EE '86). Its an excellent school and did very well by me, I didn’t necessarily want my son to go there because I wanted him to have a more broad, rounded college experience vs. the small, hardcore (almost) all engineering school. He wasn’t even going to apply to WPI or RPI, but I wanted him to just to see if he’d get in (he did). He selected UMass Amherst (Comp Eng, but quickly changed to Comp Sci) and had an excellent experience. He interned every summer with a large, well known social media company and had a full time job confirmed with them at the start of his senior year. He graduates in May.
He is. Not sure he saw much of a benefit. Hard to say. You don’t get the benefit of registering for classes earlier than non-honors students. Freshman year he did see his peers applying for internships in Nov / Dec so that prompted him to do the same.
@leapyearG I hear it depends on the major. My son was accepted to Umass Amherst with a 1490 and 750 math 2 subject test… no honors college either. We were very upset about this as well, I guess they can apply after 12 credits, but the dorm will be filled. He is a math major, I guess they don’t accept as many math majors because the classes are already small in the math department. At least that was what we were told
. My son never had any issues he 2 years behind her. Good luck to your son, hopefully things will work out.