About UMass Boston...

preamble1776
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:34:42 +0000

Hi!
I know how you feel - I’m going to UMB this fall and I turned down offers to more “well regarded” schools in Boston because UMass Boston gave me a full ride; I’ll be commuting from home. I too was a bit startled at the negative connotations that UMB seems to raise when you do a few searches about it on College Confidential and similar sites. I tried to not let it bother me a terrible amount - while UMB may not be as traditional in its aesthetic or particularly notorious for its academic challenge, it is a university nonetheless. Education is what you make of it at the end of the day - very few jobs outside of Wall Street place significant emphasis on the prestige or reputation of your undergraduate institution, so long as it is accredited and well established (read: not-for-profit). You will get out of UMass Boston exactly what you put into it - if you reach out for help and make a conscious effort to make the best of your experience at UMass, it’ll be just that. UMB’s inaugural Honors College begins this fall - so that right there is a pretty solid opportunity to maximize your academic horizons. If you didn’t get into the Honors College this semester, you can try again for the Spring Semester. There is also a program available at UMB called “CLA First!” if you are a student in the College of Liberal Arts which offers students academic advising and the privilege of small class sizes to get students on a running start with academic achievement. A lot of UMB’s buildings are under renovation like you said - I believe the new Integrated Sciences Facilities will be up and running by the start of the Fall term this year, so that’s something to look forward to.

My decision to attend UMass was largely financial - I’m very debt averse and while I’d qualify for the loans necessary to attend Boston University, Northeastern, Brandeis, UMA CHC, etc (and in reality, those loans would be relatively small compared to the debt shouldered by a lot of recent grads from those schools) - I found that in the context of my plans for the future, specifically in terms of graduate school, it’d be best for me to take advantage of an opportunity to get my Bachelor’s free of charge. Being able to attend UMass Boston on a full ride means that I can work to save money for study abroad - something I probably wouldn’t be able to do at BU or NEU without incurring more debt - and one of my dreams have always been to visit Pompeii in Italy. Also, as for my major, (Political Science w/ Intl Relations) - I found being in Boston proper would provide better access to internships and other sorts of politically geared programs available in Boston.

Congratulations on your acceptance and good luck!