I am a straight low key guy likely going to attend UMass Amherst. Still so many questions. Totally undecided about major (but interested in Environmental/Music/Video-Film and more). I need to study as the academics don’t come easy to me. Prefer a quiet place to live, generally, and don’t want to be in middle of the party scene but don’t want to trek 30 minutes to each class. I realize the RAPs are based on areas of interest, but I am wondering if I should just choose one that will get a more quiet place to live…ANY help is really appreciated. I have also heard that OHill is “so hard to climb” every day… is this really true? And are there ANY quiet dorms around the Southwest area? And does anyone know of loud construction near any particular dorms scheduled for 2015-16 school year? And of course, what are the top 2 dining halls and what one should I avoid? Anything else you want to tell me is great too. Thanks in advance to all!
The quietest place is Northeast. And I hear Ohill is annoying to climb especially in the winters. I believe the dining halls rank like this: Berk, Hamp, Franklin, Worcestor. I don’t go to UMass this is just info I have gathered on this forum.
Thanks so much. I am still trying to figure out how to use this forum to get info. I will check out NE and the dining halls online right now!
Overall UMass has one of the top 10 food service programs in the country. The food is very good, and visiting parents always eat for free!
Per my UMASS student, Berkshire and Hampshire are the best dining halls. Northeast is a quieter living environment. Also, the low rises in Southwest are quieter than the high rises. If I’m recalling my tours correctly, the music and science areas are relatively close to Northeast.
For dining halls, in my opinion, berkshire and hampshire are the best, and those are in southwest. i also like frank in central. everyone agrees that worcester in northeast is the worst, but it’s definitely underrated. i mean i wouldn’t want to eat there every day but it isn’t eating dirt or anything. since umass food is rated so highly, nothing is going to be terrible. i heard a rumor that they are renovating worcester this summer anyway. im not sure if that is true, but that would definitely be nice, and would probably make worcester better.
Northeast and orchard hill are generally quieter. Central I think is in between. You will not find any quiet dorm in southwest, but the low rises are supposed to be quieter than the high rises. Even still, they are loud.
I lived in the honors college this year, so I’m not sure how terrible the hike is to orchard hill everyday. (but next year i’m living in upper central which is the same hike!! ahh!!).
I think that choosing a RAP based on housing is definitely a good choice. A lot of people do that (I lived in an honors RAP this year and almost everyone chose a RAP for the housing). The classes offered are general education classes anyway, so you might as well get them out of the way. Still, I would pick one that you have a vague interest in, so that you don’t hate the class and everyone on the floor haha. I think they do have vague RAPs so you should be okay.
let me know if you have any other questions!
Can I join an Isenberg Fellows RAP if I’m not an Isenberg student?
@b2val8 i think that RAP is reserved for isenberg students only, so no, i don’t think so
I am entering as undeclared, but I am interested in joining a Computer Science RAP, which is not offered to me, I can’t find it in the NSO registration. Is there any way that I can sign up for it, if there are still seats left?
The Connect And Majors RAPS are restricted to the students within the specific school/college or Major while the Exploratory RAPs are specific to assigned exploratory tracks. You say you are undeclared. If you are in the Computing & Informatics exploratory track I would follow up ASAP with the RAP program office to ask why it isn’t offered to you since it looks like there are only a couple seats left for the one at OHill. Otherwise your are probably out of luck and need to pick a RAP that is offered to you on the sign up page. Topic and Foundation RAPs are open to all students.
@Cloverly It’s not possible. The CS RAP is also one of the most popular RAPs, so it’s unlikely that there would be free spots. My friend who was in it said that he managed to snag the last available spot last year, and he signed up 45 min after registration opened.
However, I would recommend living in Dickinson (either by signing up for another RAP in the building or requesting to live on the Hill and pray that you get put in Dickinson). That way, you’d be close to the CS RAP and you could chill there. My friend is going to be the RA for the RAP, and she’ll def make it a nice place to be.
@Violet1996 I found one, Science & Society RAP; Dickinson Hall in Orchard Hill Area. I looked it up
Students will enroll together in:
Comparative Literature 133: Introduction to Science Fiction (Gen Ed ALU)
Is this class required? Will I be able to stay in the RAP if I don’t take it?
@Cloverly technically yes, the RAP class is required and if you are signed up for the RAP they will make you sign up for the class. However, I know a few people who signed up for RAPs and ended up dropping classes. Last year, I was in an honors RAP, and as soon as housing was posted in August, a guy on just went onto spire and switched out of the RAP classes. He still lived on our floor though. You could hypothetically do that.
Unless you are dead set against taking the science fiction class, i think it would still be fun to get a gen ed out of the way with people on your floor. But if you really don’t want to, there are loopholes.
@paws27 Are other people in the RAP ok with him not taking the class? And what happen if I take that class and fail?
btw, thank you all for helping @paws27 @Violet1996 @newengland2012
@Cloverly People should be chill with it. I lived on a RAP floor even though I was not a part of the RAP (my roommate was, and she eventually dropped out of the RAP class in a few days) and everyone was still very nice. If you take the class and fail, it will affect you academically, but it won’t do anything to your housing situation.
If the class hits any of your unfulfilled Gen Ed requirements, I’d recommend you go ahead and sign up for the RAP. It’ll help you make some friends and put you in proximity to the CS RAP.
@Cloverly they should be okay with that. the floors are usually bigger than the size of the RAP anyway, so there will be people on the floor who are not in the RAP regardless. Like Violet1996 said, it will affect your GPA, but not the housing. I think taking a class with your floor would actually put you at an advantage, since you can always just knock on other people’s doors if you are struggling with the assignments. My RAP class ended up being 100 times easier than any of us imagined, but we still would work together on the assignments. Sometimes we would be unclear on instructions and would ask each other. It was a really great environment on my floor and if you do need to fulfill that gen ed requirement I suggest you try to get it done with this class, so that you can get to know your floor well. Of course, it is ultimately up to you.
Dining Hall: My S preferred Worcester, but the food is good at all of them. And as someone else pointed out, visiting parents eat for free! (Though not really free I guess; think of it as a small rebate!)