The University of Massachusetts - Amherst

UMass is a great school overall. There is something for everyone. There are many different places to live on campus, and each living area has different types of people (generally). People say that this campus is very ugly, and there is concrete everywhere, but I think that the campus is very beautiful. Of course, there are ugly parts, especially when there is construction, or when it has been winter for a while, but there are so many "spots" around campus that are really nice to hang out in. When spring comes, the trees and other stuff make the campus nice.

Anyway, many things like how good the professors are, and class sizes, and other details, depend for each different class, or person. It is such a big campus with so much in it, that it is hard to classify things like that. For me, I liked most of my professors, but some I did not like their teaching style.

They have a really good Engineering program.
Social life here is what you make of it. There are many many things going on all the time. I am out of state, and I feel that the instate people are very welcoming and they don't go home that often. In many schools, the weekends suck because everyone goes home. At UMass, I wouldn't be surprised if the population went up on the weekends. We get concerts of many types. THis year, we had bands like phish, bob, 3oh3, and pretty lights.There are many house parties and frats as well. Sometimes, people just party in the dorms too. If you don't drink or smoke, I bet you could easily find people to have fun with. Hottest girls live in Southwest. That is the party area. potheads live in Central. Orchard Hill is a quieter area Thats where i live, but my floor was great this year. We had a lot of fun. Northeast is where many skaters, Asians, ALOT OF GUYS lol, and engineers live.

1st Year Male -- Class 2014

Social Life: A+, Collaboration/Competitive: B-

I am a Senior here at Umass, currently in the Nursing Program, two weeks away from graduation. I'll try to keep this short. Coming into this program I knew it would be challenging as they only accept about 60 out of every 1000 applicants. I lived on a nursing floor my Freshmen year. I've found that most people who meet freshmen year are friends for the rest of their college years so I would not recommend transferring in unless you already have friends that go here. For the most part the social life was pretty fun, there are always going to be boring weekends but I have my share of good stories. The food isn't half bad and as long as your willing to go up and introduce yourself you'll have a good time here. A lot of people will write reviews talking about how they hate all the preppy kids that go here, but they don't tell you that they've never made an attempt to make friends. Ya there's douchebags but then again what did you expect, there's 25,000 people who go here, they're not all gonna be scholars. I think the school gets a bad rap because the classes are so big but that is only for the first two years, for the last two all of my classes were very close knit and personal. The campus is huge and it can be daunting as first but there are a million different clubs you can join to meet new people. The nursing program needless to say has been absolute hell. I had heard as a freshmen that the last two years were daunting and they weren't kidding. The assignments are insane, requiring endless hours of researching databases, and reading texts, it really is crazy. A good majority of the work in later years is just busy work and you grow to despise it rather quickly. For your last two years you do clinical, however we only ever had one skills workshop before they threw us into the hospital. For your last semester you do an internship one on one with a nurse in a setting you choose. Be warned that this program IS going to impede on your weekends. For my internship I had overnight (7p-7a) weekends clinicals. In all honestly it forces you to grow up, it's what separates the nursing majors from the management majors. However, This school focuses too much on the theory behind nursing and not enough on the actual job skill. I always tell people to avoid this nursing school unless you want to get an advanced degree in nursing. Otherwise just go with an associate degree program at a community college, they actually teach you hands on skill and when you get out, you might not have a bachelor's degree but you'll be making the same amount of money as someone who does guaranteed. However if you really enjoy a good challenge go for it, or you could take the easy road and be an art major here but I suppose it depends on how badly you want a job. Overall, the nursing program is very extensive. The professors are almost all PHD's and one of the professors writes NCLEX questions, as a result her NCLEX review course is astonishingly helpful. The assignments such but now that its done I can say I'm happy I made it through, it's been a very long four years and the hard work is paying off.

4th Year Male -- Class 2011

Extracurricular Activities: A+, Useful Schoolwork: F

I love UMass. It was far from by first choice school-I really had wanted a small, private, liberal arts school. But I ended up here and I love it! The campus can be made as small as you want. You can make the campus much smaller by living in Orchard Hill or Central as opposed to Southwest. Some of the professors are boring but I got some great instructors for my gen ed science classes. UMass has taught me to be more outgoing, work harder, meet new people and stand up for myself like I never though I'd have too. This is a great school if you are willing to go outside your comfort zone, change, grow, talk to new people, approach faculty that may seem unfriendly, figure out hgousing and classes by yourself and get involved without anyone asking you to. I love it here and I can't believe that it's already been almost an entire year. There are great iopportunities here, you just have to be open to them and be independent and willing to grow.

1st Year Female -- Class 2014

Campus Maintenance: A+, Individual Value: C+