Image

The idea of a big school can seem daunting to a high school student, but many have found that once they get there, it does not seem so big at all. This is how Tern Pierre Rene, a student in the class of 2027, felt about UMass Amherst. 

Tern’s college selection process was unique. She was more focused on smaller liberal arts colleges and “didn't actually tour UMass until I had already committed, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.” But her eventual selection of the University of Massachusetts was not a sudden change of heart; it was a calculated decision pertaining to her future. The more Tern researched, the more she realized that “all the other schools were much smaller. And just going to such a big school, there's so many different resources. There's so many different avenues you can go through. So I think that's what really drew me to UMass.”

Once she arrived in Amherst, Tern wasted no time taking advantage of all the different resources available to help her achieve her dream of being a lawyer. She is a political science and legal studies double major here, along with being a member of the “pre-law club, the undergraduate Law Review. So most of my classes are more geared toward post-graduate initiatives.” She is even a founding member of the UMass chapter of Kappa Alpha Pi, a co-ed pre-law fraternity that has allowed her to network and develop with other future lawyers on campus. Tern even found the time to pick up an environmental science minor, because that is the type of law she wants to go into.  

Outside of law, Tern has a ton of fun in Amherst. She decided to pick up a new hobby, ice skating, which she practices weekly right on campus. She also enjoys visiting nearby towns like Hadley and Holyoke. She also likes to reward all her hard work with UMass Dining, specifically Berkshire Dining Commons, where she enjoys the “chicken congee curry, and then the crab Rangoon."

Ironically, after not touring UMass before committing, Tern now works as a tour guide. She makes it her mission “to highlight some things that people usually haven't heard of, or just little-known facts that have really helped me succeed during my time here at UMass, that I know I would have loved to know when I was making that decision of where I was going to commit.” Tern knows now that UMass is a big school but she also understands that with that size, comes opportunities around every corner.