Freshman year is an exciting time to meet new people on all parts of campus. An easy way to do this specifically at UMass is by joining a Residential Academic Program (a RAP). A RAP is an exclusively first-year student privilege that allows you to take small classes — held in your residence hall with your floormates — in a discussion-based environment. You have to sign up to be in one through Spire, but the residential life staff will ensure your entire floor will all live and take the class together. 

Entering my freshman year, I enrolled in the Poli-Sci 101 RAP in Wheeler Hall, located in Central. Being a part of this RAP guaranteed my housing in Central. It’s common for people to ensure living in a specific area by choosing a RAP, as there are RAPs available in five residential areas on campus. However, ensuring housing where you would like is only a small fraction of why being in a RAP is beneficial. Joining a RAP gives you the opportunity to take a class that is usually a 100+ person lecture, and instead have it in a small classroom setting of 30 or fewer people (these people being your floormates). You can literally roll out of bed and walk to a few steps to your classroom! You can be in a RAP that isn’t in your building if you prefer just the smaller class size setting. RAP class topics can be as specific or broad to your interests, ranging from your basic Political Science 101 to Resource Econ 121: Hunger in the Global Economy. You can take a RAP class regarding your major — like pre-vet, business, design, etc. — or you can do what I did and just fulfil a gen-ed credit in the comfort of your own residence hall. In addition to why RAPs are great, there are no extra fees to join one.

My experience in a RAP allowed me to become close with the people I lived with and take a small-sized class. I strongly recommend joining a RAP for the social and academic benefits, as I prefer a 30-person class to a 100-person class (of course, it all depends on the person taking it.) Above all, it’s a really great way to befriend the people you live around. A RAP is something unique to our UMass campus, and I would for sure recommend taking advantage of it!