I Want a refund

Introduction
Social Scene: Lots of parties, you can find a dorm parties every night around campus, on weekends usually Fridays and and Saturdays you will find massive frat parties where people will drink to get completely drunk and pass out.

If you are quiet, studious, and well..not a big partier DO NOT under ANY circumstance live in Southwest residential area. Just don't. I almost failed out due to lack of sleep and stress. I really wish I could get a refund for first semester, it was a living hell and a waste.

Roomates are a big thing, there is no matching system at Umass. You get what you are given. Seriously, you may feel like a jerk for doing this but be upfront and straightforward with your roomate when you first start talking to them. Tell them what you will and will not tolerate. My first roomate I did not talk to and when I was gone visiting my boyfriend, she would have her and her druggie/drunk friends sleep in my bed and she was anal enough to make my bed and make it so I didn't know! Luckily everyone on my floor told me. One particular night, I came back to my dorm early from Worcester and it was a mess. There was mud all over my bedsheets, a condom on my desk, a pair of some skank's earrings, and a cigar under my desk. That was the last straw. She HAD to go. She was just the worst roomate ever. There is more but, I am not here to rat on her.

There is one thing you have to come to terms with. Your clothes WILL smell like pot. No matter what. They will, and you aren't even the one smoking it. Don't be surprised if you are living in a freshman floor that when you open the door to your cooridor and the air is hazy, and the second the door is opened the smell of pot just slaps you in the face and forces you to run to the nearest window for some fresh air.

Campus Life and Social Life
Social Scene: TONS of parties, you can find a dorm parties every night around campus, on weekends usually Fridays and and Saturdays you will find massive frat parties where people will drink to get completely drunk and pass out. Police officers will just stand around and watch everyone party until they get bored and go balistic.

The campus is vary "clicky" most of the people went to highschool together and stick with their own groups. Mostly you will see different ethnic groups stick mainly with each other, and you will see people who are of "alternative" sexual orientations stick together as well. If you are an out of state student who doesn't like to party at all, you will have a tough time making friends, I know this from personal experiance. It is hard to find people who live a more straight edge lifestyle at UMass.

UMass has no team spirit really, it is a huge issue that is trying to get rectified throughout campus. Besides everyone wearing UMass clothing and logos, that is the extent of our school spirit. Hardly anyone shows up to any games, and to tell you the truth...homecoming is a joke.

Clubs are called RSO's (registered student organizations) on campus, they are generally underfunded and get tossed around like nothing. Take ballroom dance team for example: They were kicked out of their former practice area and then left out in the cold, and now is forced to meet in the lobby of the Fine Arts Center (FAC).

On the weekends it is massively loud and high/drunk. Don't expect to study or sleep for that matter. Unless you do what my 2d roomate did, and sleep in the library which is open 24 hours and surprisingly a lot of people do it. Weekends are disgusting. Throw-up on your walls, door and floor, people peeing everywhere from the walls to the trash room. Many MANY people go away on the weekends, the partying is just TOO much to handle. There is Peter Pan busses which cart people off campus to pretty much anywhere they want to go. The three most popular places being Hartford, Boston, and Worcester. Academics
Academics are really rather easy at UMass. The math department is generally said to be the worst. The best departments would be the English, psych, soc, business, and computer science departments from what I gather. Most to almost all of your classes will be run by a professor. Just the lecture part. They will sit you in a 500 person room that is over enrolled and has people sitting on the floor while a teacher drones on and on doing a slide show on powerpoint. Most tests are multiple choice due to the size of classes, and no matter what TA's will be grading your work. NOT the professor. If you have questions you go to the TA's not the professor. Last semester ALONE I took three exams on the floor. No chair, no desk, or hard surface to write on. Just lying on your stomach on a dirty auditorium floor taking an exam. I took one mid-term and two finals like that. For huge classes like Biology 100 and Math courses you will take your exam in a gymnasium that is the size of four basketball courts with all the other bio 100 classes. I believe that last fall there was three bio 100 classes and in each class was about 500 people. So, picture a room with about 1500 people in it...and tons upon tons of desks lined up in neat rows as far as the eye can see. I have never seen such a sight in my life like that. I was in awe. Those exams were the best because it was air conditioned, you had room and you know that nobody is cheating off of you, as well as the fact you can leave easily when you want.

When choosing a class seriously go to ratemyprofessors.com. It will be the biggest help. Read all the reviews of a teacher and then pick that class based on the reviews. They are really a huge help.

Student Body
A typical Umass student is like well...a glorified high schooler: Popularity, who wears the best clothes, and who can drink the most w/out passing out are some of the traits you find in a sterotypical UMass student. Someone who wants to party it up, not study hard, and just buy some time before joining the real world on mommy and daddy's dime. Students mainly wear brands like Hollister, Abercrombie, Gap, stores like that. You have your mix of ghetto as well. I have only honestly seen very few, "grungy", "Punk", or "goth" people. UMass is just NOT an ideal place for them, the "pretty people" this 'lovely' pioneer valley school are not the most warm and inviting towards "outsiders" from what I have seen and my experiances.

Most of the students are from massachusetts, new york, and new jersey. Mostly New Englanders. You will of course find international students and students from all over our country.

FYI: My second and best roomate anyone could EVER ask from was an international student from South Korea.

In Closing...
I would just like to say I wish I could get a refund for my first semester. Sub-par classes, sub-par teachers to boot, terrible living situations, and the massive amounts of partying just did me in. I guess you could say I am bitter. I have my reasons and rightly so. It was a HUGE mistake for me to choose UMass to waste $28,000 on. OH YEAH if you want ANY financial aid which everyone does. DON'T go to UMass. Just don't you won't get it. I am poor, smart, and from out of state, to boot an athlete, and I didn't get a SINGLE dime from them. NOTHING. Even when you talk to a financial counselor it is just fruitless. There is just too many people, many well qualified, and just not enough endowment *money* to give. It's unfortunate.