When you picture what business school classes might be like on a college campus, you might picture a large lecture hall with a professor at the front droning on about corporate finance and maybe scribbling a few numbers on the board. What I love about UMass, and specifically the Isenberg School of Management, is that is certainly not the case! To help show you what I mean, here are some examples of some interactive and interesting assignments that I've had this semester:

As part of the many free events that University Programming Council (UPC) puts on each year for University of Massachusetts students, UMass and UPC hosted Camille Kostek as the Spring Speaker for 2019. Kostek is best known for her work as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, as well as famously dating New England Patriots football player Rob "Gronk" Gronkowski. 

UMass is lucky to be one of the colleges included in the Five College Consortium, which also includes Smith, Hampshire, Amherst, and Mount Holyoke Colleges. Involvement in the consortium means students can take classes at any of the five colleges, regardless of where they are enrolled. This also means that we have access to events and resources at all five colleges!

Located in the Pioneer Valley, UMass is lucky to be surrounded by many beautiful hiking spots for students to enjoy in their free time. This weekend, my boyfriend and I took advantage of the extremely nice weather (65 degrees!) and hiked at two spots only about 15-20 minutes away from campus. 

If you haven't heard of Rate My Professors yet, you will definitely want to familiarize yourself with it soon. Rate My Professors is a website that allows students to publish reviews of professors they've had, enabling others to see how positive or negative their experience was. Users can search for UMass or a specific professor and read the reviews to determine whether or not you'd like to take that professor's class. This site has been extremely beneficial for me when I am choosing classes outside of my major, because I am much less familiar with professors from other departments. 

One of the many great opportunities that clubs at UMass can offer is going on field trips. As an Isenberg student, this usually means visiting interesting companies throughout Massachusetts. This past Friday, I was fortunate enough to visit Arnold Worldwide with the Isenberg Marketing Club at its Boston headquarters in Downtown Crossing.

After months of complaining about being a broke college student, many students still end up lounging on the beach in Florida or Mexico come mid-March, leaving me to ask what gives!? It can certainly put a damper on your spring break excitment when you're sitting at home with nothing to do but vicariously live the tropical life through social media posts. Friends of mine were posting vacation stories of the weather being 80 degrees, meanwhile I got excited about it hitting 50 the other day. 

As part of the management department's Ethics Speaker Series, Isenberg recently hosted Roger McNamee, author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. It was hosted in the newly-opened Business Innovation Hub and was open to students, faculty, and the general public at no cost. McNamee spoke for about an hour then answered several questions from the audience. The event ended with a reception that included light refreshments and gave attendees the ability to mingle and purchase a signed copy of the book. 

As wonderful as UMass dining halls are, sometimes you cannot help but get to a point where it feels a bit monotonous. UMass does a fantastic job with a variety of options, but it can be easy to fall into the trap of eating the same few meals over and over nonetheless. 

Did you know that all UMass students can access the New York Times for free? Thanks to the Libraries purchasing institutional access, all UMass Amherst students can read NYT articles without paying the usual subscription fees. This saves you a minimum of $3.75/week

UMass Amherst has started to require two supplemental essays as part of its application, which is submitted through the Common App. Like many universities, UMass holistically reviews the applications it receives to judge the applicant on more than just GPA and test scores. This means that, while supplemental essays are certainly not the primary factor in your admissions decision, strong essays can definitely help boost your chances, especially if your application is slightly lacking in another area.

In the past six months, the lesson I've learned that's stuck with me the most is this: even if you don't exactly qualify for everything a job description asks for, apply anyway.

Marketing Career Networking Night is an annual networking event organized and hosted by the Isenberg Marketing Club. While it is hosted by IMC, you do not need to be a member of the club or even a marketing major to attend. MCNN has a more casual, cocktail party feel compared to most other networking events you may attend as a result of not requiring resumes. Instead, only business cards are allowed, and resumes are sent to all of the recruiters in attendance prior to the event in the form of a giant resume book. This takes a lot of the pressure off and allows for more natural conversation between students and recruiters during the event.

Like many in-state students whose parents grew up in Massachusetts, I am a UMass legacy! The photo above is me posing in front of John Quincy Adams (JQA) 1614, the exact room my mom lived in during her first year at UMass! She graduated in 1993 with a degree in English and is extremely proud to be a UMass alumna. 

UMass offers an interdisciplinary Information Technology minor that is open to all majors on campus. Graduating with the IT minor degree requires the successful completion of six courses out of a current set of 106 options to choose from (though I will warn that not all 106 are offered each semester). The requirements for the minor are as follows: (1) foundation course, (2) technical courses, (1) broadened Inquiry course, and (2) elective courses. Overall, this minor does not take up that much time and is a very feasible addition to any degree at UMass!

With such a big campus, UMass is home to hundreds of student clubs and organizations for you to get involved with! Officially referred to as Registered Student Organizations — RSOs for short — there is bound to be at least one that sparks your interest. I recommend attending the annual Club Fair in the early fall to check out all of the opportunities available to you!

Like most incoming freshman, I was on the unlimited meal plan for my first semester on campus. Second semester, however, I decided to go with the cheaper option: the DC basic meal plan. In short summary, the DC basic plan gives you 224 swipes per semester and is currently $288 cheaper than the Unlimited. This is largely due to the fact that it does not include the $250 dining dollars that the unlimited plan comes with. This is obviously not a huge price difference, but it never hurts to save where you can! 

During your first semester at UMass, you will be expected to fulfill the College Writing (CW) gen-ed requirement by taking one of the many sections of ENGLWRIT 112 offered in the fall. However, as I accidentally learned during the summer before freshman year, you can actually earn exemption from this requirement!

If you're a non-STEM major looking for a physical science gen-ed that isn't miserable, try Geology 103! This class is an introduction to the oceanography field that covers topics on oceanic chemistry, biology, and physics so you learn about a little bit of everything in regards to how our ocean systems work. 

"The Family" is a 4-credit class that meets the College of Social & Behavioral Science (SBS) and United States Diversity (U/DU) requirements. While it is a 200-level class, there are no pre-requisites so you do not need to have taken a previous sociology class to enroll. Don't let the 200-level scare you, though! It is actually a significantly less demanding course than the 100-level sociology class I took to meet my requirements last year. There are only three non-cumulative exams, and they are strictly in multiple choice and true/false format. To make it even easier, the professor provides a detailed study guide so you know exactly what to expect on the exam! The other portion of your grade is made up by six one-page reading reflections. Eight are assigned, but only the top six grades are input into your final score, so you can choose to do only six or you have two buffer assignments to help make up for a grade you were'nt happy with. 

Baseball might be called "America's favorite pastime," but we all know that the United States is really a football country.

As a first-semester freshman at UMass, chances are high that you will be enrolled in multiple gen-ed classes. Gen-ed's are introductory courses that introduce you to the range of subjects UMass has to offer!

Like any true New Englander, I love apple cider donuts. I mean, who doesn't?

At UMass, you have two options when figuring out who you will be spending your first year with. You can fill out a short questionnaire about your living habits and be matched with a roommate — often referred to as "going random" — or you may search for and request a roommate on your own.