Amherst, MA: I had been narrowing down my choices of colleges for a while when I decided to visit the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and doing so has placed it near the top of my list. I had read a lot about the university, but I learned a lot more

by visiting the campus.

UMass-Amherst is located in a rural area, but its large size gives it a cosmopolitan feel. When we arrived I was overwhelmed by the size of the beautiful campus, but because everyone there was so friendly and helpful, we found the meeting place quite easily for the tour we were going to take.

Our tour guides, a sophomore and a junior, were also very friendly. Not only did they explain about the main things on campus, they answered our many questions about the Honors Program, internships, study abroad, athletics, extracurricular activities, and the Five College program. The five colleges let UMass students take classes for no extra cost at four private colleges near by: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith,. While our tour guides answered our questions, they showed us around the campus, bringing us inside their impressive library, which is twenty-eight stories high, and showing us a model dorm room, which was okay; they told us that most of the dorm rooms were much nicer.

After the tour, my family and I ate lunch at a restaurant on campus. The food was great, and our waitress, a student at UMass, was very friendly and told us about how she was going to spend a semester in Switzerland!

My advice to anyone who is having trouble deciding which college to go to is to visit the campuses of those colleges they are considering. What is read from a book can give a pretty good picture of what a college is like, but visiting the campus, as I have found, can tell you a lot more.f




Reviewed in 1995