Accepted, Computer Science, Honors College, 2K Scholarship
In State
4.0 uw
1570 SAT
8 AP classes thru junior year (All 5s)
3 AP classes this year and 2 DE classes (Linear Algebra & Multivariable Calculus)
Mostly music (all state musician) and stem ECs
Strong awards - one international and several national
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Freshman get a housing preference survey over the summer. You rank the campus locations you want to live in by order of preference (not specific dorms but areas: southwest, northeast, sylvan etc). You can try and find your own roommate or āgo randomā. If you go ārandomā there is a lengthy survey about your living presences etc. that you fill out. Housing is somewhat the luck of the draw for freshman - a lot end up in Southeast as it is the biggest location. S22 lived in Northeast as a freshman - the dorms are old but centrally located (and pretty quiet).
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Thanks for the very thorough and helpful information!
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I think the housing stuff comes early summer, it was almost two years ago now so I donāt recall the exact date!
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OOS
D24 accepted to English in College of Humanities and Fine Arts
UW: 3.67
W: 4.08
ACT: 33 (36 Reading, 35 English, 31 Math, 30 Science)
High rigor courses, 7 APs (only reported 5 and 4 scores for AP Lang and APUSH), 6 or 7 dual enrolled college courses.
Youth and Government, choir/theater, 4 year varisty sport, team captain were main extracurriculars - international honors with summer music camp selection, and state choir membership.
No honors program.
16K Chancellorsā Award
Feeling very relieved over here. Not sure where weāll end up - weāre waiting on an ED2 decision - but love that this wonderful school is an option.
Congrats to all.
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Daughter accepted -In state, College of Engineering Mechanical Engineering, no honors/merit except Abigail Adams scholarship. 4.24 GPA unweighted, 6 APās but TO, lots of leadership/clubs, 2 varsity sports, HS engineering track, outside job and club sport.
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S24 accepted to Computer Engineering with $10k Chancellorās award. OOS, 3.75 weighted, test optional, one AP
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hey i got in for biology and honors college (somehow) with $2k deans award!
my stats:
- in-state from medium-sized public school
- at least top 15% of class (estimated), no class rank
- test optional
- 4.22 W | ~3.7 UW GPA (estimated uw)
- 9 APs, 1 Dual Enrollment, 12 Honors (as of senior year)
- good awards but not amazing (rit book award, national latin exam cum laude, honor roll, ap scholar)
- strong essays that revolved around somewhat strong extracurriculars with leadership/some volunteer hours (founder/pres of red cross club, co-captain scioly, member of nhs, library volunteering, brief harvard shadowing, etc)
- no sports or work experience
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Biomedical Engineering, OOS, $16k Chancellor scholarship. Honors invite, 1480 SAT, strong and diverse ECās. Will likely visit for an engineering specific admitted student event.
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Congratulations to all that were accepted! For others, you may have another better place.
I have a question to all in-state people. As Ahmrest is a college town and far from the city, how do students manage extracurricular activities especially if they are interested in government, political science etc? Where do they get internships? How easy itās to commute to the city?
I greatly appreciate your input on the location, feasibility of managing extracurricular activities, safety, social life etc. How are their dorms? I am not at concerned about their dining and very happy about it.
We have not visited yet. Weāre planning to once we get all decisions.
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Ahh, interesting tidbit. That is bad if they really expect everyone to show up - I agree inequitable!
It depends on the activity. There is a free local bus service that runs in the area that some kids use. Others have cars. Typically only sophomores and freshmen live on campus. Most of the dorms are older. Iād consider them a little shabby but not that different than what you see at most colleges. As to internships, the various departments have a lot of resources. You could reach out to the school to learn more. Amherst is a nice college town and there are a fair number of outdoor activities in the region. Itās about 2 hours from Boston. An easy drive.
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There were a lot of upsets and surprises among CS applicants last night, here are my thoughts:
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UC Berkeley reduced the freshman CS intake from 900+ in 2021 to 100+ in 2023, all those high stats kids flooded the other UCs, Calc States, and OOS CS schools. I think this is the biggest factor.
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Many schools started limiting CS transfer, which means you have to be directly admitted to be able to claim major. This caused kids to apply to more schools than they had to, if they want to major in CS.
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UMass CS is a very strong program. UMass CS ranks #24 among US colleges, #57 worldwide. It ranked right below Purdue and above schools like Duke, UCSB, UCI, Northwestern, Northeastern, Rice, Brown, etcā¦
Please donāt be discouraged, itās NOT your fault if you got waitlisted. You donāt need a CS degree to be a software engineer. There are free online resources (Cousera, Leetcode, FreeCodeCamp, etcā¦) that could help you get into software industry.
Learn math, learn econ, learn business, and minor CS on the side with above online resources. You will have a fulfilling career!
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Of course, UMassā AI/ML ranking is even more impressive! The point is, when it comes to CS, donāt take anything for granted, even the CS admit rate! Most likely it has quotas too based on many factors, and you might not fit into the quotas that meet their āinstitutional needā.
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I can attest to the fact that UMass has a fair number of CS students from OOS. Last year S22 lived in a dorm that was primarily filled with Engineering/CS kids - many were out of state including quite a few from CA. The CA kids (uniformly really, really strong) told him they were shut out at home (too many high performers and not enough spots in CS). Ironically (we are in state) S22 has several friends (also very, very strong) that were shut out of UMass CS and are now at Wisconsin. So, it goes all ways.
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Can freshmen have cars on campus?
Yes, any student can have a car. Most of the parking is fairly distant from the dorms, however, so it is a bit of a walk. And you need to pay for the parking (I think there is annual pass you buy).
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@Thorsmom66 , thank you! Do you think it would be good to have a car there?
DS admitted. Out of state. Honors. 16k scholarship. College of Natural Sciences (Geography). NMSF/1540, unweighted gpa about 3.9. High rigor (8 APs - canāt take until Junior year), science research, good activities and leadership - nothing earth shattering but solid. Super excited.
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