In California, is a UC like a UMass in Massachusetts? Or is UMass more like a CSU? I’m just curious.
My friend is going to a UMass and I noticed that their acceptance rates are much higher than most UC’s, but they have really good rankings.
The difference between UCs and CSUs are that UCs offer PhD programs and have more of a research focus while the CSUs are more of a teaching focus. I’m not familiar enough with UMass to say how it compares, but if it offers PhD programs, it’s more like a UC.
Academically the UMass campuses are comparable to the UCs, although the subjective ranking may differ depending on the specific campus. Most likely the difference in acceptance rate between the UC campuses and the UMass campuses is explained by the number of available undergraduate places in each State system relative to the state’s population. Most students at these universities are instate. The population of California is about 6 times that of Massachusetts. There are approximately 190,000 undergraduate seats in the 9 UCs compared to 53,000 undergraduate seats in the 4 UMass campuses so the expected acceptance rate for UMass (all campuses) is 60+% higher than that for UCs (all campuses).
There are also likely far more seats in regional non-profit private schools per MA college-bound student than there are per CA college-bound student.
In Mass. and in surrounding states, there are dozens of elite colleges, all of which are private, so when u grow up in Mass. , you usually end up equating “state school” with “ok but not great school.”. When I graduated from high school in Mass a long time ago, UMass was a last resort for most people. Even the Uuniversities of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island , and Vermont had much more cachet. There is nothing particularly wrong with UMass, but it suffers from its proximity to so many great private colleges.
UMass has changed a lot since I graduated from high school in the late 70’s. Yes, UMass does suffer from having so many elite private schools in the area but it’s academic standing has improved greatly. I am sure that my husband and I could not get in now but did when we graduated high school.
I don’t think URI, UMaine, UNH and UVT have better overall academics than UMass these days. They may have certain programs that are better or there may be other reasons to attend ( near skiing, near ocean, etc)
Full disclosure I have a son at UCONN studying mechanical engineering and a daughter just accepted to the Isenberg School of Management (Bloomberg rated #36 in country) Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Amherst.
Good luck!