UMass Lowell - What’s it like NOW

I’ve been reading on these discussions about UMass Lowell and seeing some varying perspectives, some posts suggest a big change in school recently. Can anyone tell me what UMass Lowell is like now - in 2019 - Is it mostly commuters with residents lacking a college experience? Is it safe? Do separate campuses pose a problem? Is it well recognized for civil engineering?

I like what I’ve seen and read, except here.

Thank you!!

It’s well recognized for engineering in general, as well as for civil. It’s not as highly regarded for engineering as UMass Amherst, for example, but it is seen as a good engineering school both inside and outside of Mass. For the rest, I can’t comment, but hopefully, someone else can.

I have a friend who’s son is a freshman. I can’t speak to all of your questions, but I can say he doesn’t love it, and he doesn’t find the campus to feel particularly safe. His dorm is locked at 7pm nightly and the students living there don’t have the autonomy of a key or swipe card to go in/out past that time. I found that particularly strange as my D is out and about on campus to after midnight on weekends and not close to alone.

Agree with @RoaringMice engineering seems strong. Personally we did not like the split campus, nor the general geographic area. It’s great as far as affordability. I have a niece who’s in the honors program (nursing major) and that program seems to have a lot of benefits.

We toured during the summer and did the North campus tour which is more science focus. Some of the academic bldgs looked modernized but many looked rather dated. Not much green space either. I guess no cafe included in the meal plan on this part of the campus. Off of a very busy street with a lot of passing traffic. The East part of the campus where the students live seemed nice enough. We saw the freshman high rise dorm that I thought seemed nice, kind of different. Rooms were spacious compared to other schools. Didnt look at South campus. The walk seemed manageable between east and north campus but not sure about south. They do have a shuttle bus. Then we went to the downtown area for dinner. Parts of downtown they are really trying to clean up and looked great. But still on other streets lots of boarded up buildings and looked dismal. If your kid is ok with an urban kind of setting it’s probably fine but not a good fit at all for my daughter unfortunately. We’ll be looking at UMass Dartmouth instead. She loved Amherst but I think we need Plan B in case she doesnt get into Amherst.

@peachpie9 we looked at both. We all preferred Dartmouth, but it is a sea of concrete, certainly not what one would call a pretty campus.

Thanks @taverngirl … It’s on our list to check out.