Is UMass still a huge party school?

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Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:29:16 +0000

I would say the “scene” where most of the good parties happen off-campus, has died down recently. In general most schools are cracking down, and since you haven’t been here yet you won’t know what you’re missing out on. You will still party and have fun.

In terms of the overall scene, I would say it is still fun, but hard as hell for a freshmen. You have to party in the dorms, the rules make it strict on how crazy it can get, upper-classmen aren’t just going to socialize with new people off the bat (unless you’re a female of course.)

Also, with off-campus parties, since so many people just up-and-go to whatever’s happening, the parties will be too big and uncomfortable, people might not let you in because they’re crowded or don’t like strangers, they get broken up pretty early if they are in the dense neighborhoods, and/or there may not even be a party close by.

What sucks coming into the school is unless you are a friend of people who are having parties, it isn’t as easy to get into them or go as a stranger. Plus, it gets cold within a month of the semester so you spend a lot of uncomfortable days walking in 40 degree weather to get to one. Best thing to do is to friend up with people off-campus. Sounds gimmicky, but joining groups, doing activities on-campus (athletics, student groups etc.), or working off-campus helps this out immensely. These cliques tend to have their own party scenes, and in general you meet cool people anyway.

The good news is Umass still does party. There are 18+ events at some places (like Diva’s in Northampton or Monkey Bar or Snowzees in Amherst) that are fun. There has been a huge flux of meat-headism that didn’t exist as much as a few years ago, but there are generally a lot of cool people in general to hang with.

Another great thing about the party scene is that it’s almost 5 days a week if you find the right people (ie: study and don’t get caught up in it). People will drink on a Tuesday if they only have a 1:25pm class the next day. Not neccesarily a good thing for academia, but it is there if you want it.

My view of how it is now vs. when I went is that more people now party just for the sake of partying and don’t really go about it the right way. They just drink and go out and yell at people. Fights break out for no reason, kids vandalize houses, especially near the campus like Fearing st. When I went (back in '07) there seem to be more people (and probably moreso before me) that REALLY partied hard, but they enjoyed the scene and kept it going more than just partying in general. Every week there use to be at least 2-3 parties with bands playing; now you’d be lucky to ever witness a band playing in a house past 12am).

Maybe the new town laws made it harder, but I would say overall the kids in the scene as well as the parties aren’t as quality. Dorm parties (especially in Sylvan or North apartments) are pretty sick, and since they are suites you can put up 15-20+ good friends and have a good time. The school is so big there are just a ton of options. If you find the right people, avoid becoming a bro or meathead and alienate yourself from upperclassmen, or even make your own mark (start a band, play at parties never fails) it won’t matter what type of scene Umass is when you get here. Hope that helps.