The University of Massachusetts - Lowell

Date: Sep 24 2012
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
Ok, where do I begin. This is a 100% honest answer by a typical student. UMASS Lowell was not my top school, like a lot of people here. Most of the people here wanted to go elsewhere, mostly UMASS Amherst. There are a lot of things I do and don't like this school, I'll start with the do's.

The education here is great, all of my professors are great except for one. But the one that is bad, isn't mean or sets you up for failure. All the professors here that I have experienced, are caring yet firm. This isn't high school where you can turn homework in a month late. If you want to do well here, you need to organize your time, professors aren't going to remind you when the homework is due, there is a syllabus, follow it. All of my professors have office hours for extra help and there is a program here that gets you individual tutoring. UMASS Lowell without a doubt gives you the tools you need to be successful. For my major, the class sizes are relatively small to medium with my microeconomics class being at the most with 48 students. I have heard the engineering classes to be 100+ students though, in case for those that don't like large classes. The dorms are pretty decent, especially if you live in Fox or Concordia, avoid Leitch, that isn't so nice, but still decent. I also like this school because it really shows you how to be on your own, some people may not like this. This isn't like one of those small private schools of 1,000 kids total that hold your hand just like high school. Living here teaches you how to live in the real world, and yes, sometimes being here is frustrating and they will have you going around in circles until finally you find the right person to talk to. Frustrating, but life.

The people here are OK, after being here for a month I don't have many friends. Not because I'm weird or anything but because I'm shy and in a relationship. If you want to make friends, you have to be extremely outgoing and really put yourself out there, people don't come to you. I have maybe four actual friends here, which is OK, it's been hard adjusting and shyness doesn't help. I know it can only get better from here though. I also realized that certain floors are friendlier then others, for a couple weeks I lived in Leitch, on the Athletes floor. I found them to be really cold…but then I moved to Concordia 5th floor all english and music majors. Complete opposite, everyone is friendly, doors are always open, etc.

ADVICE: Find a roommate over the summer, I was unlucky and got a psycho. Literally, unless your comfortable with your roommate telling you about how her friends pulled guns out on each other last night outside Lowell, oh and if you don't mind finding strangers sleeping in your bed or taking your stuff! Find. A. Good. Roommate.

The food here, is not great. They have improved, from what I heard from others. Fox hall dining hall was renovated and they added a milkshake/smoothie machine which is delicious. Fox Hall, consists of a salad bar, sandwich/wrap area, pizza, handburgers/hotdogs, a pasta area, a dessert pastry area, icecream machines and the special of the day which is like chicken, pork, ribs with mash potatoes, rice, gritz(gross), vegetable dishes, stuffing, etc typical sides. It sounds good, but it isn't, its mediocre. Rice has no flavor, chicken bleeds blood sometimes, chicken is too dry or plain. A lot of food looks good but isn't. The pasta sauce is bland, worse then Rague. But what is good here is some of the desserts, sandwiches are good, pizza is good especially in SOUTH CAMPUS it is is delicious! Salad bar tastes kind of funny. Handburgers are just handburgers. Sometimes the special of the day is good don't get me wrong, it just depends on the day at Fox Hall. Sometimes they have burritos and quesidillas which is very good too! As for South Campus, I think the food is better, they have stir fry, pasta, sandwiches, amazing pizza and hard ice cream. North Campus has pretty good food too, but the problem with them is that they serve the same thing every day, but still it is good, especially the milkshakes<3.

The social life here…sucks. I enjoying partying, but there isn't enough here unless you have a ton of friends and know the right people. I will admittedly say I don't know the right people. But the people I do see get ready for parties I know for the most part go to clubs. I went to one of them once and it sucks. There was also a thirsty thursday on my floor, that was fun. But again there isn't just regular parties. But I do know the frats do host them, one of them is called Fresh Fridays, but those are dry. The only good frat party I heard there was so far this year, got busted. But I should not say the social lie sucks, you just really have to put yourself out there, if your not shy, then you will do better then me.

The campus, is okay. It sucks how East and South you have to take a stupid shuttle. I can't imagine it in the winter since the shuttle can't go over the bridge because of its weight so they take like the 15-20minutes way to get to South. Thank God I live on South now. <3 But I do wish the campus wasn't spread apart and felt more like a community.

Overall I am happy here, I have a decent dorm and my new roommate and I get along. I'm doing well in my classes and I at least have some friends to go to dinner with and to keep me occupied a long with a dozen aquaintences which will hopefully become friends lol. Food here…so far is livable. Bottom line, this is a good place to go to for a year or two…but I will transfer by my second year.