Outstanding Options
More and more students want to attend UMass Amherst. Between 2003 and 2011, applications for undergraduate admission almost doubled. Better news yet, the average SAT scores and GPAs of matriculated students is the highest ever and the campus recently enrolled the most diverse class in its history.
What attracts students from around the state, the U.S., and the world? The fact is: a UMass Amherst education offers tremendous value for money. For the third consecutive year, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine lists the university among the “100 Best Values in Public Colleges,” a rating based on a combination of affordability and academic quality encompassing SAT and ACT scores, admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratios, and four- and six-year graduation rates.
Students also embrace variety, choosing from nearly 90 majors on a campus renowned for the strength of its academic programs. Many undergraduates combine their interests in double majors, design their own course of study through the Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration program, or supplement their majors with related minors or certificate programs. And opportunities abound for undergraduates to engage in research that dovetails with their course work or to study abroad all over the world.
Commonwealth Honors College provides an academically enriched education for 3,000 talented students eager to develop their intellectual curiosity, capacity for interdisciplinary work, and chances for eye-opening practical experiences. Honors colloquia, community service learning, and carefully guided research projects add to the invigorating mix.
The rigor and focus pay off for honors students, often in the form of prestigious national scholarships. Some recent awardees are: Tara Mahendrarajah ’12 Microbiology and Matthew Stevens ’12 Chemistry, Goldwater Scholarships, Joseph Sklut ’10, History, winner of a Truman scholarship for graduate preparation for a career in government or public service; Gregory Su ’10, Chemical Engineering, a 2009 Goldman Scholar; Renu Singh ’09, Microbiology and Political Science, recipient of a DAAD German Academic Exchange Service scholarship for study at a German university; and class of ’11 Fulbright scholarship winners Alina Lindblom, Political Science, Vincent Hyland History,and Alexandra Sprague Anthropology, and graduate students Jason Doerre and William Helmcke.
Students who enroll at UMass Amherst never exhaust the possibilities for sustaining all kinds of personal interests and developing new ones. One young woman was recently looking for a strong business and liberal arts education but also wanted to preserve her skills as an advanced equestrienne. The simple solution: she enrolled in the Isenberg School of Management and signed up for equine studies courses and regular extracurricular activities at the university's horse farm. A young man with IT ambitions enrolled in the highly regarded computer science department and kept up his keen musicianship by joining the Minuteman Marching Band. A physics major with a yen for theory discovered a talent for stand-up comedy that he honed in venues all over campus. After a year's study abroad pursuing both interests, he enrolled in graduate school in Chicago and yes, still doing physics and improv.