Friends of mine who got emails (I didn’t) said that changes to Spire were promised “within 10 business days”. I’d wait a little bit.
Just wanted to let you guys know I got my physical packet and paid my enrollment fee, while Spire still has yet to officially update. It doesn’t sound that hard to change status on a website…
I am new here, it is May 18th and I was also waitlisted, should I just give up all hope now or should I call the admissions office?
You should call and let them know your situation and let them know you really want to attend umass in fall. It can’t hurt
i called the Admissions Office earlier this week, when i inquired about my son’s wait ist status i was simply told he would be notified within the next month if he was removed from the wait list…
Good luck to all. There is still wait list action at other schools. We had made our $500 deposit at UMASS and late last week my daughter got in to Brandeis off of their wait list. It was a very tough decision and she easily could have made the switch to a more prestigious university. In the end, she decided to stay with UMASS, but I could see how many others were or are in her current position and spots are opening up as this shell game continues to be played out.
Yeah guys, especially those of you in-state I would say, keep your hopes up, at my school we’re getting new calls every day. Hope to see some fresh faces.
@rayword45 Congrats on getting off the waitlist. Just out of curiosity, do you know why you were admitted to Isenberg if you stated a major in Math/Poli Sci? Shouldn’t you have been admitted to the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences instead (or as an undecided on a Poli Sci course)? I’ve actually never heard of Amherst putting people into a major they didn’t sign up for before.
P.S: Regarding what the other guy told you about staying away from Southwest, it’s not actually as bad as it sounds. Also, the Isenberg RAP is in southwest as well. But if you’re confident you don’t want to dorm in Southwest, I would recommend either O’Hill or Central as they’ll be closest to Isenberg. (Personally gonna go into O’Hill if I don’t get in the RAP).
Oh my, I hope no confusion was caused but after rechecking I seem to have put my first choice major as Accounting… I actually have no idea why this is not something that interests me for studying in the slightest. So no putting of people into unasked majors,
On that note though, it’s interesting that they stated waitlisted kids couldn’t get into certain majors but many of us were allowed in anyways,
One of my personal favorites right now is my friend who originally got waitlisted with his 2.88/2130 (with all Cs and Ds 9th and 10th grade but DRASTIC improvement later) but was unlisted a few days ago and even allowed into the CHC for Computer Science.
@BladeHunter it was my daughter who does not want to live in Southwest. Part is the reputation and part is that she just wants to live in Orchard Hill and found a roommate who also wants to live in Orchard Hill. Most of her classes will be in the ILC (new Integrative Learning Center for Journalism and Communication).
Ok, so my friend is going to UMASS. We checked with a family pal who just graduated from there in 2015. He is certainly no angel himself (trust me), but he said it is definitely pretty wild in Southwest. He lived in Northeast and was really glad he did. He said it’s fun, not 100% innocent, but not over the edge. He told her not to live in Southwest. He said the other nice thing about Northeast is that it has a decent share of math/engineering types, so if that’s not your sweet-spot there’s plenty of folks to help with math tutoring.
@rayword45 If you really have no interest in studying Accounting, I believe you can call up the admissions office and request them to transfer you to the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences instead for poli sci. As for the waitlist thing with the restricted majors, you’re actually the first one who got into one of them that I’ve seen. All my friends at school who were accepted off the waitlist were thrown into undecided if they had the restricted majors as their choices.
About your friend however, his situation sounds very similar to mine. I have a 2.9 UW GPA and a 3.5 W GPA with a 1930 SAT and 30 ACT. I had a couple of Ds and tons of Cs freshman and sophomore year. A couple of the Ds were in core classes as well (66 in Adv. Algebra lol), but I still got accepted into Isenberg (albeit no CHC). Junior year saw crazy improvements and my senior year was fairly good as well. However, I was initially accepted into Amherst, not waitlisted like your friend was.
@ljberkow Although I do agree about what’s said with the reputation, Southwest isn’t exactly as bad as it sounds. The reason being it’s where nearly 60-70% of the freshman lives, so probably most of her friends she’ll make will live there. (However, since you mentioned Journalism and Comm., Central might be where most of the people in her major are). As for O’Hill, it is probably the best mix of students from all majors on campus, since it so out of the way of classes, most who deliberately choose to move there will have had another reason to do so besides for class proximity. 2 quick questions though, what major did your daughter apply for and did she decide to join a RAP for freshman year as well?
Yeah I switched to PoliSci, and I’m going for Central myself. I like to party but at the core I’m pretty hippyish (love DIY music, had a job for the Public Schools district which was 50% political protests or lobbying) and I have friends who live in Southwest anyways so I can just hit them up on the weekends.
@BladeHunter My daughter will be majoring in Communication and probably doing a double major in another area. The RAP for her major is in a low rise in Southwest and I believe she would rather choose her roommate and her dorm than do the RAP. She wants to live at O’Hill and I don’t think it it is too far from the Integrative Learning Center.
I don’t know how many people caught the article in yesterday’s Globe about Meehan and UMASS and the criticism about the direction to make the university more competitive and the focus on admitting out of state students and to compete head on with the private universities in Boston. As student debt is now a national hot button topic, UMASS will be tougher and tougher to get into. I have no idea why some are criticizing Meehan for raising the stature at UMASS Amherst. It’s a good thing.
for those of you who are off the wait list and are going to go in the fall, how much money did you get in terms of financial aid.
Well I got about $13k in grants and work-study, but that could heavily based on the fact that I have one sister there and one sister at Pace University (and paying like mad for it).
@ljberkow Sorry for the slightly late reply (and not trying to come off harsh or anything), but your daughter does know that housing preference as well as roommate selection isn’t guaranteed right? I believe around ~70% of students who have a roommate preference gets it and only ~50% overall gets housing in their 1st choice (however, I would imagine that the numbers for housing preference in O’Hill is a bit higher since it’s not one of the “hot spots”.) As for distance from the ILC, if I remember correctly, is in the dead center of campus. With the exception of Central housing and the north apartments, walk times from all other housings should be roughly the same.
For the article, I actually haven’t heard anything about the criticism. However, I would have to agree that making UMass more competitive would be a good step in the right direction. Maybe one day, it’ll even be able to compete with the likes of the UCs in Cali.
Hi, thanks @BladeHunter , I think they’ll take their chances. As you say, it might be easier at Orchard Hill and they are going to get everything done early
For what it’s worth, there’s another article today in the Globe which again references the Pioneer Institute’s criticism of UMASS trying to attract out of state students. It doesn’t mention until late in the article that this goes with just about every state university. In fact, it was not an easy choice for my daughter between Maryland and UMASS (also got into Brandeis and Northeastern). If people think money does not drive so many decisions, they’re being dishonest.
I see this article today:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/05/28/majority-merit-scholarship-money-umass-amherst-goes-out-state-students/H4gnC393OU4WehYfEBcpVM/story.html
Most merit aid goes to out of state students-- but stey still pa more than in state students. Should there be a cap or mechanism to limit the aid or is this fair and understandable?
As long as college prices remain ridiculous, giving more merit aid to OOS state students is fine by me (although this is coming from someone who would qualify for NO merit) because their prices are jacked up.
I’ve seen some pretty generous FAFSA packages and jackshit in terms of merit aid around my school, but UMass is still ASSLOADS cheap compared to other popular colleges this year like Holy Cross and the like.
@BladeHunter I joined a RAP in Central but I have a roommate preference. What do?