<p>@abdad: I’m from a local HS in MA that sends about 20 kids to umass amherst annually. I would like to point out the average GPA accepted from my HS is a 2.8 unweighted, and the average SAT is around a 1700. uMass admits ~67% of all applicants, which is not very competitive relatively (considered selective, not more or most selective). </p>
<p>uMass is a decent school (much better than a lot of state universities in the country), but not comparable to Mich, UNC, Cal, or UVA. The honors program is very strong and I know plenty of people who ended up at med schools/phd programs in the Ivies and MIT, but it’s what you make it of it.</p>