If you have a car to bring, and if you want to be able to easily get home, or to a city, it’s a good idea to bring it, I think. You can have a perfectly fine time without a car - the food on campus is great, no need to go to a store for any food items. It’s an easy walk into Amherst, with lots of shops and restaurants. There is the shuttle that goes around the 5 colleges, so easy to get to Northampton, with more shops and restaurants. But if you want the freedom to go anywhere else without extensive planning, and it taking tons of time, great to have a car.
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FYI, there is a lot of good, newer housing for upperclassmen that is not only for honors (although all the honors campus housing is new, and good). Junior year, my kid had an apt with a kitchen, 4 single bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen/living area, in a relatively newish building. As on campus housing goes, I thought it was pretty decent.
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It really depends on the student and their needs. Most of S22’s friends didn’t have a car first semester freshman year, but a couple brought a car for second semester. If you have a kid who skis, they might want a car - there a couple of nearby places and Mt. Snow in VT is about 1 1/2 hours away.
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There is also a really nice new apartment building that just opened - it is right next to the Southwest dorms (so essentially on campus). It is very pricey, though. The complex does have a climbing wall that is free for students (not just apartment residents).
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Agree. My D is from Oregon, good but not great stats, and every east coast flagship that she has applied to has accepted her with good merit. It’s good to be a unicorn.
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Waitlisted for CS. Was one of my top choices. I knew CS was competitive but still disappointing. Hopefully better luck with some others.
In state. 3.98 UW GPA. Top 5% of class. 1510 SAT.
ECs: VP of class. President of computer programming club, 2 sport athlete, drama. Several certifications. Tech Support for school during year and for small local company during summer.
Seems all admitted or WL. Did UMass reject any EA applicants as of right now?
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Found this post on Facebook yesterday. Looks like a very competitive application cycle for the flagship, as EA acceptance rate has recently hovered around 70-75 percent:
Congratulations to all our newly accepted Early Action students for your hard work #UMass2028 
!
This evening UMass Admissions released all Early Action Decisions for first-year domestic and international students to the Class of 2028.
We had over 30,000 applications and an accept rate of 61%.
Keep checking your email for updates and exclusive event invites from UMass Admissions.
Follow @umaclassof2028 on Instagram to connect with other accepted students and for first-year updates!
Congratulations again and we’re looking forward to helping you through the college decision process.
Anyone here accepted for animal science? Would love to hear any insights into the program, comparing against Wisconsin.
BACKGROUND
- Applied to Psychology program (College of Natural Sciences)
- OOS
- Competitive public HS, graduating class of 500+
- NMSF
- Full Pay
- Strong ECs (4-year varsity sport + state championship, research programs in specific area of interest at local university, a few school clubs, paid job, and several volunteer projects)
- Essays are pretty good, but probably not “outstanding”
- Completely uncertain how favorable / unfavorable LORs are - at a large public HS, students don’t easily develop meaningful relationships with their counselor and teachers
STATS (projected below at time of graduation)
- 3.78 / 4.24 (but 4.96 across 14 AP courses)
- 14 AP courses (Score of 5 on all AP tests), 6 honors courses (no DE)
- 36 ACT (comprehensive and each section, only attempt)
OUTCOME
- Acceptance
- Commonwealth Honors College
- $16K Chancellor’s Award
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I looked at stats for our local school ~ 25% more apps to Umass Amherst this year than last and almost 60% increase from a couple years ago. (and we are in state so the absolute numbers are big increases too!).
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Yup, son was rejected. But he knew it was uphill and was already in to UML, which I think effects admissions, even if they say it doesn’t. 3.3 weighted GPA, 4 year athlete, job, community involvement. I figured he would be deferred, but I think the pool is just so strong that they are diverting kids like this to the other UMass options.
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deleted
How soon we receive official snail mail?
I’m pretty sure it says on their website that they don’t send a physical admission letter
also does anyone else get an error when creating a SPIRE id
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Waitlists exist for other majors too. D24 is in-state and waitlisted for animal science. It’s tough that this major is only typically offered at the state flagships, so that gives a student just one school to apply to in their home state, and then as an OOS student, we know all the other flagships have been super competitive too. I WISH she wanted to do a different major that was more readily found; then we wouldn’t be dealing with this waiting game (3 deferred to regular decision, 1 waitlist, etc.). Meanwhile twin brother is getting in everywhere with good merit.
@collegeapplyingfan, interesting to know. So they don’t send anything in physical mail even the scholarship?
His best choice is Purdue as of now.
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I get it! My D24 is Nursing and the acceptance rates across the country are very low. In California only 2 UCs even offer a BSN and there are 40 seats at UCLA and 40 seats at UCI…80 seats (UCLA 40/6500!!) I think UMass has around 150 (she was WL). It’s frustrating… but I stay optimistic because she may not have as many choices for college BUT when she graduates she’ll have an immediate job with decent pay and at the end of the day that’s REALLY winning. 
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