Quality of Education at UMass Amherst?

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<p>So I recently started undergrad and I plan on eventually attending law school. Given how bad the legal job market is I only plan on doing so if I can attend a top 14 school, ideally top 6 (my dream school is Columbia). Based on all my current research law schools care about your undergrad, but only in a minor way, for example a 3.9 at a random state school will likely beat out a 3.8 at Harvard. That being said I still care very much about my education and I want to give myself every advantage possible.</p>

<p>At the moment I’m going to Westfield State, and I really like it there. But I want to do either a Political Science or a Philosophy major. Westfield only offers a minor in Philosophy, and kind of a poor Political Science program. I’m thinking of transferring to Umass, but I’ve heard it has a reputation as kind of a party school. Partying itself won’t effect me much since I’m going to be living at home to save money for Law School, but what I’m really worried about is that the school itself might be looked down on in the academic community.</p>

<p>I know it’s not a super high tier school, but what I need to know is, is it respected? How is the education quality?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance.</p>

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<p>I think you get out of UMass what you put into it. You can go and be an idiot, or you can make something of yourself.</p>

<p>Science and engineering is quite good–don’t really know about the social sciences.</p>

<p>Small schools like Westfield State offer some advantages, but big schools like UMass offer different kinds of advantages, like a very wide variety of majors and programs, for example.</p>

<p>It seems that UMass has a better reputation the further you get from Massachusetts. We in-staters tend to take it for granted, as compared to the excellent private schools in state.</p>