Image

“It was exactly what I was looking for even though I didn't know what I was looking for,” says freshman Natalie when asked about the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Although she was initially looking for a city school, in tours Natalie discovered that “In a way, UMass is a city in itself.” She found that the density of the campus and its diverse population provide the feeling of being in a big city along with being “a lively campus and a place where I could meet a lot of people.”

Natalie admitted that she was nervous about the transition between high school and college, and moving to a new place after living in Salem, Massachusetts, for her entire life. However, once she got to campus she “had a much easier time than I expected to have.” Natalie credits the ease of this transition to the fact that “UMass made it really easy because, right off the bat, I was able to find my group of people that I am still friends with now.” 

Image

With these friends Natalie finds herself enjoying multiple spin classes at the campus recreation center. She also enjoyed times when “me and my friends spent the entire weekend in downtown Amherst” and enjoyed its cafes as a place to hang out and do homework together. She is also a part of various extracurricular organizations, most notably the Young Athletes program, a part of the Special Olympics. With this program, Natalie plays sports with local children with disabilities. She finds it to be very important work as “a lot of them don’t get that opportunity a lot—to run around and play soccer or play with other people because they're kind of isolated.”

Natalie is not only engaged in social activities, but she is also deeply engaged in her own unique set of classes. Currently, she is a psychology major with a concentration in neuroscience and is also in the process of obtaining a second major as a part of the Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration Program. She wants this second major to be based on criminal behavior and is excited by the prospect of taking “classes from psychology, political science, law, sociology, and anthropology. Anything I want” to fulfill it. Out of the existing classes she has taken,  Natalie “really enjoyed biology last semester … I just loved learning about the cells and how our bodies work.”