<p>Could you tell me about the advantages/disadvantages of the residential academic programs at UMass. </p>
<p>Is it better to go to the Honors RAP or the Departmental RAP or to no RAP at all and just live in Southwest or Central, for example.</p>
<p>Yes, I am also interested in this. Since I came in undeclared (thought I came in as a business major) I might want to take the Focus Enterprise RAP. I am debating if I should or not because it seems like it would delay my studies and credits. However, it is a RAP for undeclared students who ARE interested in business so it’s a 50/50 option on my part. I was planning to not join a RAP, get good grades in predictor courses, apply to the ISOM, and work my way from there.</p>
<p>I feel that the RAPs can provide you with the niche people can easily settle into but I don’t know how much they interfere with my predicted courseload.</p>
<p>Do RAPs require extra coursework? I hear that for the computer science RAP, you need to take an extra seminar that is just for students there.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read on the RAPs, they only require you to take a seminar specific to the RAP. Taking a 1 or 2 credit seminar isn’t going to delay your studies at all. The benefit of the RAP is that it groups you with like-minded students, and in the case of engineering and other academic RAPs, you pretty much have a built-in study group since many of your freshman courses are taken together as a group.</p>