Curriculum and Research at UMass- Amherst

Greenman57
Thu, 29 Jan 2015 00:15:13 +0000

To add to what Winter Said, there are three things that I can see at UMass that you will probably like.

-One, you will have access to the 5 college consortium, in addition to all the valuable resources at UMass itself. (Amherst college is the closest LAC to UMass and also the highest ranked)

-Secondly, the campus is on the up and up academically so I wouldn’t be surprises to see a good section of the CHC to have upwards of 2200/2300+ SAT’s. (Some of them turned down schools like Carnegie Mellon and MIT for financial reasons)

-Lastly, it’s a great value so you can save money for a graduate degree later. (Anywhere you can get accepted at least)

Additionally, to try answering your questions, I would take a good look at the student handbook for Physics majors. (https://www.physics.umass.edu/sites/physics/files/2012-2013_physics_majors_handbook.pdf)
It says that “For special circumstances, your advisor can authorize an alternate introductory sequence.” so I am guessing that as long as you took several math/physics AP’s in HS and got grades on them, as well as solid AP test scores, you should be able to skip a lot of the basic stuff in the curriculum and jump ahead.

Several of the Jr/Sr year courses on the professional/graduate school track look like they are up to scruff in my eyes.

E.G

PHYSICS 556 Nuclei and Elementary Particles

PHYSICS 558 Solid State Physics

PHYSICS 562 Advanced Electricity and Magnetism

PHYSICS 564 Advanced Introductory QM

PHYSICS 568 General Relativity

Additionally, here is a list of some of the advanced undergraduate/graduate courses offered.
(http://■■■■■■■.com/khjj443)

Lastly, UMass is not MIT, but it is what you make of it. I am sure that you should be able to find some chanllege at UMass, and if not then transferring to a top tier STEM school after saving money at UMass is another option. (Though most people end up loving UMass) To cap things off, every professor I have met so far in my department has obliged any request I have made to learn more or to take a more advanced class. As long as you have the motivation and the grades you can move mountains and wave requirements if you ask sometimes.

Best of Luck.