<p>for engineering got accepted to both but don't know which one im going to, one of my friends said that Amherst is good for sience while Lowell is good for engineering/computers and mathematics. i want to major in electrical engineering or computer engineering</p>
<p>S also accepted to both. Engineering at Amherst is also very good I hear.</p>
<p>Lowell offered a little more money and is a couple thousand cheaper.</p>
<p>However, Amherst is a very cool college town, and Lowell, not so much.</p>
<p>We haven’t visited UML yet, but it looks like an urban campus, while UMA is an actual campus in a beautiful area.</p>
<p>My daughter has been accepted to UMass Lowell for Chemistry. I work at an engineering school and always here good things about UMass Lowell. I especially like their honors college. And they were doing lecture capturing before we were and that’s saying something. But I think what you should do is visit both and see which is better for you. Amherst was just too overwhelming for my daughter. Lowell was manageable.</p>
<p>Lincoel–</p>
<p>When you say Lowell was manageable, what do you mean? We haven’ visited Lowell yet, but having 3 campus areas on opposite sides of the river looks like it could be a problem.</p>
<p>We’ve also heard things about crime in Lowell that is disturbing.</p>
<p>umass amherst has the better name, plus the engineering program is amazing over here. They are constructing brand new engineering buildingdd which will make the facilities even better, and the advising office is very helpful. Plus, there are options to live with fellow engineers in your dorms, so you can always have homework help easily whenever you need it.</p>
<p>Just looked at the crime stats for both campuses. Umass Amherst has more criminal incidences on every measure (except, neither has had a student homicide in 3 years of reporting). For example Umass Amherst had 20 forcible rapes reported by students in 2008, Umass Lowell had 8. Amherst had 101 burglaries reported by students and Lowell had 37. </p>
<p>When campus size is a considered (Amherst has 27K students, Lowell has 15K) I think they are equally safe/unsafe. </p>
<p>I went to Umass Amherst and never walked around campus/the town by myself at night. I locked my car and my room when I left. I didn’t get falling down drunk. I guess I practiced some basic safety rules. I did my grad work at Clark in Worcester and never felt unsafe (same safety precautions).</p>
<p>About the three campuses at Lowell: two are separated by just a bridge and the third is accessible by the shuttle (which runs continuously). Amherst is MUCH more spread out and a shuttle is needed to get from one end to the other.</p>
<p>That said, Amherst is a prettier campus…and has more of a party culture (which leads to more crime 
</p>
<p>One needs to visit both to figure out fit!!</p>
<br>
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<p>If you have the option, go to UMA unless you really want to have an
urban experience.</p>
<p>I have an apartment on North Campus at UML. There was a home invasion
and double-homicide within the last two years two blocks away. I was
once driving to the apartment and there were a ton of police vehicles
and a SWAT vehicle heading away from North Campus. They raided an
apartment with drugs, guns and cash. Here’s a bit from Wikipedia:</p>
<p>In 2008, the Violent crime Rate for Lowell was 1,126.3 per 100,000 of
the population, ranking it the 7th most violent city in Massachusetts
right ahead of Boston with 1,104 per 100,000.[26]</p>
<p>Since 1990, Lowell has averaged about 5 homicides per year with the
highest being 13 homicides in 2006. As of 2008, the crime index rating
was 446.8. The national average was 320.9. Lowell has been locally
notorious over the years for being a place of high drug trafficking
and gang activity. The Lowell Police Department has made positive
progress in bringing the crime rates down in recent years. In the
years from 1994 to 1999, crime dropped 50 percent, the highest rate of
decrease for any city in America with over 100,000 residents.[27] In
2009, Lowell was ranked as the 139th most dangerous city of over
75,000 residents in the United States, out of 393 communities. Out of
Massachusetts cities, nine are larger than 75,000 residents, and
Lowell was fifth most dangerous or safest.[28] For comparison Lowell
is rated safer than Boston (104 of 393), Providence RI (123),
Springfield (51), Lynn (120), Fall River (103), and New Bedford (85),
but rated more dangerous than Cambridge (303) , Newton (388), Quincy
(312), and Worcester (175).[28]</p>
<hr>
<p>Science and engineering is taught on the North Campus at the southern
edge of Pawtucketville which is one of the better areas in Lowell.
East Campus is across the Merrimack River and a little East and
provides a lot of housing in a tower building. There are also dorms on
the North and South campuses but the North Campus dorm doesn’t provide
near enough space. There are residences under construction at the
South Campus. South Campus has the arts and humanities. The typical
population is males in North Campus and females in the South Campus.
There are a fleet of buses and vans that shuttle students around and
you can walk from campus to campus - North to East and back being the
shortest walk. There were a lot of muggings on the bridge connecting
North campus to East campus but the addition of call boxes and
lighting on the bridge have greatly reduced crime on the bridge.</p>
<p>The physical plant (buildings) are in chronically poor condition. If
you want to study computer science, the CS building at UMA is really,
really nice compared to the one at UML.</p>
<hr>
<p>Positives of Lowell:</p>
<p>Lowell is in a major area with a lot of high-tech companies. There is
a lot of research that goes on within UML and R&D in the companies
in the Greater Lowell Area and it may be easier to get part-time jobs
and summer internships in the area as opposed to UMA. There’s plenty
of university research at UMA (and they run very nice REUs in the
summer) but I think that there are fewer companies in the area that
do R&D. Examples of local companies to UML are Mercury Computer, IBM,
Red Hat, Goodrich. You can get an excellent education at UML at a
very affordable cost but you could have a much better time at UMA.
UML is a quasi-commuter school and many students go home on the
weekends. The Amherst area, including downtown Holyoke are much,
much nicer in terms of things that you can do without worrying too
much about safety, and a much bigger variety of things to do.</p>
<p>UMA is the flagship too and I’d guess that the overall student body
has higher stats than at UML.</p>