The University of Massachusetts - Lowell

Date: Feb 18 2012
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
My experience at UMass Lowell has been very poor. I started as a Biology major - I'm in the process of changing to Computer Science, but they won't let you officially change until you take a certain class. The Biology and Calculus professors I've had have been very friendly and easy to talk to outside of class, but my other classes I didn't feel very engaged (particularly chemistry).

All the technical classes (math, science, engineering, etc.) take place on north campus which is very ugly unless you like the atmosphere of run-down city with sirens and gunshots. South campus is much prettier, which is where the music and social science majors have their classes. I've also noticed that the students you encounter on south campus are much friendlier and easier to approach where the north campus students walk around with their heads down looking at their cell phones and not acknowledging passerby. The most interesting part of going to north campus is walking across the bridge, which is an interesting view the first few times but becomes a frigid death march during the winter. Also, a couple weeks ago after the Super Bowl the path on the bridge was splattered with vomit which was fairly difficult to maneuver with the cramped size of the sidewalk (there are fences on both sides).

Living in Fox Hall is like living in a slum. The rooms are technically doubles which have had an extra desk, wardrobe, dresser, and bed crammed inside to convert it into a triple. During orientation we slept in the triples across the street in Leitch or Bourgeois which were twice as big, but almost all freshmen end up in Fox so I felt a little cheated. People of the same major are all placed on the same floor, which seemed like a good idea at first, but Biology majors are placed on the 9th floor right below the music majors so I get to listen to drums going day and night.

I've never had a problem with the food in Fox, though many of the freshman who eat there complain about it. There are virtually no vegetarian options aside from their questionable salad (though I did see them trying to serve fish as a "vegetarian" meal). Definitely get a meal plan which has enough River Hawk dollars to eat at Southwick Hall on north campus where the food is quite good. For reference when picking out a meal plan, the price of a ham & cheese with 3 toppings is $5.19.

The people in Fox can sometimes be very discourteous. The bathroom gets toilet papered about three times a week and sometimes the corridor gets mysteriously littered with smashed fruits. I do respect the very resilient cleaning crew, who manage to have the building back in respectable shape every single morning. The moral of the story is to shower, shave, and brush your teeth in the morning before the bathroom gets defaced.

I sometimes find myself wishing I could simply leave my dorm and go for a walk or anything really to get out of Fox Hall. It can be very inconvenient to get up or down the 9 floors between me and fresh air with the two slow elevators being shared between all 18 floors. I usually just use the stairs, as the elevator has been known to drop down a few floors at random. Even if it was easier to get outside, Lowell is just a really awful city. I sometimes stick around on north campus for a few hours after class just to avoid going back to my room. The library is a pretty nice area, as is the cafeteria in Southwick Hall.

Needless to say, I'm transferring out next year. If anything good can be said about my UML experience, it's that I know nothing I encounter at my next school can be as bad as this.