Make sure you are comparing year to year, and not semester to year
The food at UMass Amherst is amazing in terms of selection and quality. Better than the elite privates in New England. (Although some of the NESCACs come close in quality, but not selection).
UMass Amherst is known for having some of the best food in the country. I think their dining services are run by their hotel school.
The sushi and fresh squeezed orange juice stood out on our visit…
At some of the colleges we visited along the eastern seaboard, the food was barely edible and some schools did not cater to those with dietary restrictions.
UMass dorms are mixed (there is a brand new honors college complex) and do not compare with some of the luxury accommodations that are pooping up at some schools.
OK, now I need to make sure I see UMass Amherst soon…as of right now, the most amazing dining I’ve seen in my 50+ campus visits in the last two years was at UC Boulder. But it looks like UMass may be giving them a run for their money.
(I’m still not over the PERSIAN STATION at the Boulder Center for Community. Totally amazing Persian food. Not to mention the HOMEMADE sweet and sour sauce served warm with the samosas at the Asian station.)
Visit the UMass Amherst Hampshire dining area. The food was recently ranked second best in the country.
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-amherst-ranked-no-2-nationally-best
Here is the 2016 version of Princeton Reviews ranking. UMass is still ranked #2.
Apparently UMass Amherst hand wraps 3,500 sushi rolls daily! I wonder how many students they employ as sushi makers???
http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/best-colleges/campus-food-infographic
For U of Wisconsin - Madison, I believe the room and board cost for food only covers a 30% discount on food; otherwise you pay ala carte.
Is Mass quoted as for the year, while Wisconsin is for the semester?
that’s a full year for UW-La Crosse. See here: https://www.uwlax.edu/Admissions/Tuition-and-housing-costs/
UMass Amherst costs should be compared to UW-Madison—flagship vs. flagship. Doing it that way, the $$ comes out close, as an earlier poster indicated.
. UW-Lacrosse should be compared to Framingham State U, or UMass-Dartmouth, two examples of the MA versions of ‘directionals’.
OK, but room & board at Framingham State is $10,840/year and at UMass-Dartmouth $11,622/year, in both cases roughly double the cost at UW-La Crosse and higher than UW-Madison, the state flagship ($8,804).
I just think money is cheaper in the Northeast, in the sense that it buys less.
@MADad , agreed. And that business with free tuition in MA is a joke. My kids and their friends heard that their scores earned them free tuition at any MA school, but no one told them that tuition is a tiny part of the MA college cost. It was a bit of a let-down for them, ego-wise.
UMass is planning to fix the tuition/fee structure anomaly
Well, UMass is not. The state legislature and governor are.
I just was told that UW-Madison does not have any prepaid meal plans. This explains why my friend’s son is always hungry, but sheesh, it seems like falsehood in advertising to have “room and board” costs. Can anyone tell me more about this? The dorm where the son lives costs $8500 for the year; the school’s chart of attendance costs lists $8,800 for room and board. This is quite deceptive, I think.
http://www.housing.wisc.edu/dining-residents.htm