University of Massachusetts-Amherst Top Questions

Don't be afraid to try new activities, definitely get involved in a club or activity. Take your work seriously, but remember there's a lot more to you college experience than your GPA. Make friends with lots of people in your dorm, not just those on your floor. The library is an awesome place to study and our sports games are amazing so go to them!!

I wish I knew my freshman year roomie before I moved into the dorms.

I wish I knew the importance of saving money

Bring rain boots!

I wish I knew the real importance of school: its alumni. They are the ones who give money for better facilties, the ones who hire people from the school, and allow to make those connections. Getting a job is my biggest concern as a business major, and UMass provides decent job oppurtunities but being in the city would be even better.

don't take hard classes unless it's in your major. The only thing that will come of that is watching your gpa crash and burn.

I wish I had known that it is nothing like high school, but that with the right amount of studying you will do fine. The stakes are so high to get into graduate school i was scared I was going to fail out, but if i manage my time right here and put my mind to it the pressure drops significantly.

More about the majors.

I wish I knew more about the business program.

do not live in temp housing

1. Large number of classes with large class size, even in upper level political science classes. 2. Political environment on campus was overly liberal

I wish my high school prepared me for college courses.

I wish I had the confidence with women back in high school that I have now.

how elite the business program is

I wish that I had realized how huge it really is, because it was a little overwhelming at first. Going during orientation made it seem smaller than it really is because not all the upperclassmen were back on campus yet. The size of the campus is great once you're used to it, but at first it can be a little overwhelming, expecially for someone like me who came from a very small high school.

bad parking, expensive food

I wish I knew that the acdemics are a lot harder then you think, and if you want an A you have to earn it, they dont just hand them out.

How much there was to do in and around my campus beyond the usual tour of the school. A more thorough brocure about all the opportunities offered here would have been better.

can't think of anything

It would have been nice to have a listing and description of all the servicies on campus. There are so many ways to find help for academics and groups and orgainizations its hard to find out what is available.

i wish i had known about certain professors. There are some who are wonderful at what they do, and others who would probably prefer to take a nap rather than teach a lecture on a boring subject.

I wish i had know more about the campus and sports before i had gone, it took me a full year to build a network and then another to figure out what i wanted to do their. I had to try a little of everything because they have no guide or help. Also that I will probably be in debt for the rest of my natural born life.

More about the housing

The surrounding area

I wish I had known how much the campus life has changed compared to a timeframe of ten to fifteen years ago. I hear stories from friends of friends that used to go to UMass, and they described it as being much more of a lenient atmosphere on and around campus than it is today; the police presence in the dorms definitely takes away from the student experience. These students worked hard to get to this college, they should not be babysat by local authority. People someitmes need to make mistakes to figure things out for themselves.