University of Massachusetts-Amherst Top Questions

While I now like the lage size of UMass, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to attend a smaller school. Because UMass is so large, students miss out on some of the perks of a small school such as getting to know professors, knowing most of the students on campus, and the feeling of a close-knit community.

The hardest thing about being a freshman in this school is finding your nitch. It is a very large school and sometimes students thier freshman year have troubale finding a group of people they feel comfortable with. The classes freshman year are also HUGE., and if you are not use to this or can't get use to this it will affect your grades.

At UMass you'll meet lifelong best friends, but you have to make the effort. It's a huge school, and very easy to hole yourself up in your dorm if you're not a social butterfly. If you're someone like I just mentioned, I'd highly recommend joining a RAP or TAP housing dorm your first year, as you'll ancoming freshman: Go to early summer new student orientations (you'll pick classes before other freshman) and see if you're eligible to transfer any high school AP credits or prior college/community college credits. it helps later with registration dates

Large classes.

Too big.

Heavy partying. Dorms are small and outdated.

Lack of political diversity; large class sizes

inability to transfer into buissness program eisenberg school of buissness

We have to do everything for ourselves. You are in charge of seeking out help, nobody comes to see you. If you do not look for opportunities and ask for help you do not get it. You have to make an effort to get individual attention.

People can get by without doing much work if they want to. Also, we have a reputation for being a party school.

When taking 100 level courses, the classes can be very large (some with 400+ people) and it may be hard to develop a relationship with your professors. this can be discouraging to some students. However, as you progress in your major, the classes become much smaller (around 20 people) and developing relationships with teachers and students is much easier. The professors are very accessible, even in large lectures, and always make time to meet with students during office hours or when scheduled.

There aren't very many people here that I consider to be really great, for lack of a better word. I wanted to find people who were like me, only better, so I could learn how they got that way, and instead I find no one I can look up to, no one that can really teach me among my fellow students, at least not yet.

It is way to liberal. Many people are so open minded that they loose focus on schoolwork and what is important.

I would say there is no worst thing about my school. Sometimes the distance between classes is a bit tiresome. I enjoy everything about this school and I think this will be one of the best times of my life.

Walking across campus to get to class.

The general apathy of the student body.

In short, the roads. The pavement is plagued by potholes.

There is a problem with riots at my school. In 2006, my freshmen year there was a huge riot after our school lost the NCAA football championship. Property was destroyed and at least 70 people were expelled. Sometimes the students at my school get way out of hand for no reason. Sometimes this is due to alcohol consumption, but alot of it relates to sporting events. Sometimes I don't always feel safe at my school. Not because of the location but because of the similarity in personalities among some of the students here.

the disciplinary administration; they are getting to be quite rediculous with their "new policies".

The worst thing about my school would be the size of the campus. It makes it very difficult to move from one class to another without being late and this create problems for making to exams, passing in papers, meeting with people, and generally just getting around. The transportation system helps but is sometimes difficult ot use.

Probably the weather. Im not orriginally from the region, so the weather is definatly messing with my head. It gets cold at the drop of a hat. sometimems im not exactly prepared for it.

The parties tend to get out of hand a lot of times. And riots tend to occur, which most of time are completely unnecessary.

the only thing i consider as the worst would be that we have occasional bomb threats, and therefore, have to cancell class for the day.

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The amount of time it takes for the school to finish construction on campus, and the amount of money students spend on books that are required for classes.

Some of the buildings are old and architecturally unattractive. I also wish there was more school spirit about the sport teams. Being so big, I feel that UMASS has great potential to have that great school spirited atmosphere but it isn't as prominent as I had initially expected. This isn't even a bad thing though, UMASS is great! I love it.

The administration does not adequately help the students in areas of finance, financial aid, and housing.

Too much emphasis on partying and drinking on the weekends with not enough school sponsored activities for those students that are NOT minorities.

The worst thing about my school is the class size, they are too large and the size of the campus getting from class to class takes a long period of time

There was no easing into college life for me. I was used to being told what I needed to do by high school teachers and guidance counselors. At UMass, if you are unclear as to what is expected of you, it is your own responsibility to find that out. That took me some time to figure out and I wished there were more resources available in that area.