On UMass’ twitter - one day left to get your apps in for Regular Decision. Joke
I totally get the frustration on the part of those of you who are in-state whose high stats kids were waitlisted or rejected. DS is a very strong candidate and is 7 for 7 on EA acceptances so far, along with receiving several generous merit scholarships. We know he’s super lucky. But come March 1, we are fairly certain that he has high chance of being rejected at our state flagship (UConn), and I’m guessing there will be just as many parents upset with the system over on the UConn threads.
That said, we knew that this could be a possibility when we started this process, which is why we insisted that he apply to schools like UMass and URI, knowing that potential merit could bring costs at least close to in-state for us. With more and more families unable to afford private schools, or unwilling to saddle themselves with that level of debt, state flagships are becoming more and more competitive. It doesn’t make it right, but we didn’t want to find ourselves wondering why we gambled. I hope those of you who were waitlisted ultimately gain admittance, and I hope this thread helps rising seniors and their families in MA next year, so they don’t find themselves shut out without having a plan b in place.
@Theunknown28 my son’s second major was math. He got 5 in Calc BC, 800 SAT, 800 Math 2. He opted for waitlist and hoped to get in as undecided and transfer to CS. I can’t figure out this broken system!
UConn is harder to get into than UMass, right?
@1234dcba I’m not sure about out of state, but it’s pretty hard for in-state kids. DS’s HS is really strong and has a decent acceptance rate, but except for the top 25% of his class, I don’t think it’s a safety for anyone else at his school.
Theoretically, I suppose the idea is that there will be some sort of trickle-down effect that moves kids with strongish stats who don’t get into flagships into other home state schools, but that’s not how it is in our community at this point. At DSs HS, the other state schools tend to be safeties for kids who have decent stats but aren’t a sure thing at UConn, and many end up going to UMass, UVM, URI, Rutgers, etc. rather than attend one of them if it’s an option.
@CTCape My son is also applying to UConn RD, we will see how it turns out in March!
In-state, white, male, son Rejected (I mean “waitlisted”) for CS
ACT 35
GPA 4.2
Adams Scholarship winner
Tons of ECs
Great recommendations
Top 20 Public HS
UMass, says … sorry not good enough [because you are from MA]
I think they are using their top programs to show that they are not merely a Massachusetts university. The problem is that the in-state-kids who did everything right to qualify for a coveted spot get a stick in the eye.
Other highly ranked publics go the other way, giving in-state students a huge leg up (See GaTech, UNC, UCs…)
I think some Public Record Requests are in order to quantitatively expose the mission-violating shenanigan’s.
I saw on Reddit someone got into college of engineering today - RD, international. The RD decisions have started already!
Hi guys
I have been reading the post on the last 3 pages. I see a lot of frusturated posts. Please understand that this will be temporary. All of you guys with High GPA and SAT scores will definitely get in. You guys have been delayed, that’s all. Once Umass Amherst sees the RD applications, they will start accepting the Waitlisted ones. Please be patient and I am sure you all will be smiling in April.
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@CollegeSearch2020 I hope you’re right. I’m pretty sure that my daughter is more ok with her waitlist decision than I am. Parents just want their kids to be happy, so sometimes we take things harder. I’ll hold onto what you said and keep my fingers crossed!! Thank you. ??
CollegeSearch2020, Not sure how you can call it simply a DELAY.
a) Notification of a waitlist-acceptance would not come until after deposits are due at colleges who actually want my student. I suppose we could eat the $500 we might make at Tufts, RPI, Lehigh, Northeastern, etc. to flee to a college who “rejected” him.
b) It is my understanding that students placed on the waitlist are NOT eligible to be accepted in the major/college to which they originally applied. So, even if we were willing to eat a $500 deposit made to an outstanding college, I would certainly discourage my son from accepted this ridiculous process and outcome.
This college is funded by the fine people of Massachusetts, but UMass then spits in the face of our qualified son or daughter. It is simply shameful, because they are playing wannabe-games based on demographics, and/or revenue maximization.
Are there different categories of waitlist? My son applied for CS and Math but was offered waitlist for other non-competative majors. My understanding is that even if he get accepted from waitlist, he will not be able to major in CS unless he does an internal transfer/application after enrollment.
Be careful if you are accepted or waitlisted as undeclared or another major and hope to transfer into CS. Make sure that is truly an option and you are not locked out of CS due to it being full.
Guys, I can talk about CS students who have gotten into Amherst. These same kids will have a choice between WPI, RPI, NorthEastern, ivy leagues, etc. So a lot of kids will be bailing out. Some of the non-ivy’s would be giving out money to come close to Public schools. Also, a lot of parents won’t mind 10-15K extra in fees.
Now, this is what happened when UMass Amherst admission counselor visited our school. They told the students that they had made 2 changes in their admission policy this year. Earlier they were accpting mid-term senior year scores ( Nov), now they are not. Also, all EA waiting list moves to the RD waiting list. Earlier EA waiting list was considered in RD.
This means a lot of kids in EA waiting list will get called. I believe so. And I hope it happens.
@swampyankee - did your son already get into Tufts, RPI, and Lehigh?? That is great!
My son was rejected last night. He had applied for computer science, in-state. He has a 4.3 weighted GPA and 1370 SAT. He is not upset as he got into WPI last month and plans to go there. Now he doesn’t have to worry about it costing more than UMass since UMass is not an option for him!
My daughter, in state, was accepted in December. I see that she is very lucky to be accepted when so many other well-deserving kids were not. Unfortunately, she’s hell-bent on attending a tiny private school with no prestige and doesn’t even have half the activities she enjoys. Don’t ask me why. But if I couldn’t pass her spot on to someone else, would I could! Best of luck to all those waiting and waitlisted.
I mean, you kind of can, if she withdraws her application once she deposits to the other school. Just sayin’. 
@iParentMass
Since your aim was to get into CS, I am not pretty sure why you had opted for second choice major as maths. One of my friends got rejected from CS, but got into his second choice major, which is Informatics. Informatics major is in CICS and most of the syllabus is quite same I suppose and cover data science, one of the hot topics right now. In addition, transferring from an major within CICS should be extremely easy in comparison to transferring from any engineering or outside of CICS major.