(UMass-Amherst) Umass Amherst was a mixed bag for me

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Date: Sep 21 2011
Major: Civil Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
Umass Amherst was a mixed bag for me. There were many good aspects of this school but as always, with the good comes the bad. I took civil and environmental engineering so my review does not apply to the prospective students looking to major in communications or liberal arts. For those people I can say this: be prepared to have a lot of free time for extra-cirricular activites. My roomate of two years was a business major and he could skip classes left and right, never had assigned homework that was mandatory, and still graduated with a B average (he is not the most bright person either).

I on the other hand had hours of homework a night. Freshman and sophmore year sucked, plain and simple. The pre-requisites for my major consisted of physics and chemistry lectures and labs that were near impossible to get into. Gen. Ed. requirements sucked ass. I wanted to be an engineer, why oh why did I have to take Chinese Mythology? When people say to register for classes the day you are able to, they are not lying. Be prepared to skip classes if you are scheduled to register during the middle of the day. If you are even fifteen minutes late from your opening time, all classes WILL be filled.

This school is rather large, both in the student numbers as well as the campus size. By the end of your freshmen year your student ID will be engraned in your head. Have a problem and need to talk to administrations? They could care less about your name, it is always

OK, what is your student ID?

Maybe not the worst but to me that shows a weakness in the school. I lived in southwest freshmen and sophmore year and my engineering classes were at the far other end of the campus. I like walking so this was not a downfall but I had to load up and prepare for a minimum 15 minute walk to get there on time. To each their own….

The engineering classes are tough. Theory driven with lab reports that can make the stongest man crumble. Do not think that just because it is a party school that you can just cake walk through a tough major. I turned down countless invitations to party because I had homework and lab reports due in over a week. If you do not manage your time well and keep on top of assignments, either learn to adapt or be prepared to fail.

Another big downfall of this school would be the students and some professors themselves. My engineering professors were strictly business but some Gen. Ed. professors are quite left leaning. If you are against the current president or do not have a liberal agenda under your belt, you better keep that to yourself. Otherwise everyone will try and jam their ideas down your throat. Even the professors have been known to not teach anything and just preach about socialism and how capitalism is an evil. Just a forewarning.

The majority of students are good people. But with the large school population comes a few bad eggs. Jocks and frat boys who get drunk and puke all over everything, break stuff, get into fights, and unfortunately rape women attend there too. Either accept this or move on. The food is pretty decent, library is useless for studying unless you travel to the higher up floors and find a quiet corner.

Responses

Amazing. I thought I was listening to myself 30 years ago! I graduated ChE 1980 and lived in SW (John Adams), and humped to the other end of campus a couple times a day. Then fled the noisy dorm to the central library, and one of the nooks in an upper floor to get homework done. The ChE courses were a killer and I was busting my rear while parties were going on back at SW. Same comments on the profs.: All business in engineering, leftist in the electives, history / poli-sci type courses. And the admin. bureaucracy and treatment of students was the same back then. I'm from that area originally and if you take the time to explore the rural surroundings you'll find it's worth it. Get a bike and explore on weekends, there's lots to see within a 10 mile radius. The engineering school is tough, and I was an average student who worked ~10 hours a week (at the UMASS power plant!), but it set me up for a good career that I've done well in. It sounds like that hasn't changed in all these years.

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