U Mass Amherst has been suggested multiple times by multiple people, here and in real life, for my rising junior who wants an engineering program with flexibility to switch between engineering programs, and generous financial or merit aid. He has a preference for more hands on curriculum, for urban environments, and for liberal states.
He is going to be in that area, and plans to go check it out. I am curious what are some things that might make it a good fit. I know nothing about the school, and I am not really sure why that is.
I’d suggest trying the dining hall food. If it makes an impact then that might help set priorities. Apparently locals go on the weekend for Sunday brunch - it’s that good!
We visited. To me it seems like an attractive campus and we did like the food.
However, to me the thing that stands out is the high quality of the U.Mass graduates who I have worked with over the years. I do not know how a person would measure this.
We know more than a handful of UMass engineering graduates who are very successful. DH worked with engineers from UMass and said they were well prepared for the field.
The campus is very nice. Lots of activities and things to do. Great place for anyone who likes outdoor activities as well…year round.
This is my city mouse kid, his twin, the country mouse, is the one who wants the outdoorsy school. Not that this guy wouldn’t happily do outdoor activities, but it’s not on his must have list.
Unfortunately, I think it’s way too big for country mouse.
UMass has something for everyone. If this city mouse doesn’t like outdoorsy activities, there are plenty of other things to do at UMass. I just mentioned the outdoors things because they are there. And maybe when the country mouse visits, they could venture out.
Really, I think it’s a terrific university. Neither of my kids applied there but that’s because it didn’t check off any of their boxes. My engineering kid wanted “pleasing weather” meaning…no snow. So UMass was not considered.
Probably not. I have worked with multiple Rutgers graduates who were excellent. One of the very best software engineers I have worked with is a U.Michigan graduate. I have known great coworkers from UMD, UVA, UNC, and so many other schools that I cannot recall them all (a CCNY graduate I once worked with briefly recently came up on another thread, and he was excellent). Most of the people I have worked with I never knew where they had gotten their bachelor’s degree.
To me the two things that come to mind is that the best U.Mass graduates who I have worked with made the school look very good, and the best coworkers who I have worked with (in high tech) came from a huge range of universities. “All over the place” might be a way to describe it.
I have also worked with a lot of very good coworkers who graduated from universities outside the US.
UMass has mostly very nice dorms, and the food is great. Visiting family eats for free. Their STEM dep’ts are strong, so are Comp Sci and Linguistics, plus with the resources of a huge flagship state U and then 3 other schools in the now 4 college consortium (Smith, Holyoke, and Amherst), it’s virtually impossible to not be able to find the class that you want.
If you guys don’t qualify for fin aid, he might get awarded up to 18K/yr in merit money. If they let him into their honors program, he gets to live in an honors dorm on the honors campus-within-a-campus. Those dorms are relatively new, and very nice, but there are plenty of other dorms that are very nice, too. And the campus is lovely - green, open space, plus proximity to hiking and not far from skiing.
As others mentioned UMass campus is impressive, just not in the traditional scenic ivy laden quads and iron gates. The school is a city within small/medium sized town. The school has a legitimate Skyline! UMass Amherst does have a satellite campus offering courses and residence halls just outside of Boston, convenient for area internships. Totally agree on the food, amazing and a highly organized operation. When we visited my Daughter who graduated a few years back my wife and I both compared it to a buffet on a luxury cruise ship. Engineering is well funded, as is the university overall. Best of luck!
Current UMASS Amherst parent here. It would help to know your budget at OOS merit may not bring the cost down to where you want to be. Chancellor award is renewable but maxes out at 18k.
It’s not an urban environment, but there is plenty to do and the student body is diverse. The university is HUGE, but my kid has developed relationships with professors and accessed research opportunities and TA opportunities. The university runs like a well-oiled machine. And when my kid and 200 other students lost everything in a fire at an off-campus housing complex, the University’s crisis communication and coordination of services, clothing, food, etc was truly impressive. Lastly, there is an excellent parent Facebook group. And yes, the food is that good.
For strong engineering in different environment with great merit, you might want to look at UMASS-Lowell too.
Our in state school, UMD is $33K with no aid, and he really likes it. We could stretch up from there but I think for him to choose another school it would need to be in one of these situations:
He doesn’t get into UMD engineering
It costs the same or less as UMD
It stands out in some way, or has something that UMD doesn’t have.
So, given that I have heard from multiple people to check out UMass Amherst, that makes me think that it does have something special, and am trying to understand what that might be, so I can tell him what to look for since I won’t be visiting with him.
I would guess because it is very liberal school/town, very liberal state, and a very solid engineering program and solid state flagship (better in reputation than other New England states for engineering I would say…and Umass CS is really top-notch, which casts a warm glow over engineering).
That said I am not sure how hands-on it is vs. other schools. I would say UVM or UNH would be more hands-on, as it is smaller all around…. (I liked both better in our engineering tours, honestly in terms of “hands-on vibes”).. Though UMass has many engineering teams (ECs) that seem very good. It is NOT an urban environment though.. UNH is closer to Boston, and easier to get to (though NH is more purple as a state… but I think Durham/UNH is very liberal on the national barometer)…. I also suspect UVM/UNH would be easier to switch majors, but that is a guess. UNH has a cool “ocean engineering” program and ability to work at interoperability lab- https://www.iol.unh.edu/about/careers. UVM is near a big foundry, which is cool for the EE/CE kids… University of Vermont-GlobalFoundries Partnership |...
UMass Amherst is probably going to be 10-15K/yr more expensive than UMd for you.
You might want to look at RPI. They often award merit that brings your cost of attendance close to that of your in-state school. They’re very strong in engineering, but of course it is a very different experience from that a huge state flagship U.
First, I am apologizing in advance to my state school, UMASS.
I do not agree that is an ideal school for an OOS student with top grades and test scores. While it is fine, it is not as strong as UMD would be for the applicant and it will cost more money, too. I do not see the campus as beautiful. Rather, it looks very concrete IMO. The food is great and the parties are plentiful, but unique to many states MA has mostly decided that with the private school competition being fierce and the significant wealth that exists, they only need to do so much. It is no more than an average state flagship IMO. MA can do better and so can OP.
Same as many very large schools, UMass Amherst is really a conglomeration of many departments and majors, some stronger than others. It’s considered to be very strong in most STEM fields, also Linguistics, also Computer Science. Is it the best place in the nation to go for a history degree (barring consideration of cost)? Probably not - although the 4 college consortium widens options. Is it worth it to this family to pay 45K/yr (assuming merit award) for UMass for engineering, vs 33K/yr for engineering in-state at U Md? No. But the parent has already started that they’re making options for the possibility that he will not get accepted at U Md. Assuming that happens, he’s probably not going to MIT. Assuming that he doesn’t get into U Md, UMass Amherst is an excellent alternative, possibly at a very decent price.