Why I chose to attend UMass: Mahi's perspective

Content

College applications were a STRESSFUL time. What if I didn’t get into any of the colleges I applied to? What if I don’t get enough aid? These were the questions that kept running through my head. I applied to a couple of schools, UMass being one of them of course, so I just kept waiting anxiously to see what the outcome was. 

Well, comfortingly enough, UMass was the first school I got an acceptance from (and with a generous amount of aid), so after much deliberation and discussions, I chose to go here! 

Now, what did it take for me to choose UMass? Here are the factors I considered when making my decision:

Location

I’m a big city person. I’ve only ever lived in big cities my whole life, so the transition from that to living in Amherst—let’s just say it wasn’t the easiest. 

Despite this change, Amherst is still in Massachusetts, which is a huge hub for a variety of industries, so looking from that perspective, UMass seemed to have the best job prospects for me. I knew for sure that I wanted to work in a city after graduation and was strongly interested in the biopharmaceutical industry -so putting two and two together - Boston seemed to be my best option as that was the nearest industry to UMass.

Also, my sister lives in Boston! It’d be nice to be near family so that was a big factor too.

Finances 

I went to high school in India, so I was an out-of-state student when applying. Finances were a big consideration when I made my decision, I had quite a large amount that I'd have to pay, so I was heavily dependent on a good financial aid package, which is where UMass took the lead.

As an incoming student, I received numerous scholarships and other types of aid that made UMass really affordable, and after doing some more research, I saw that there was still various options for me to maximize my aid through all four years.

I hope to go to graduate school later on, most likely law school or business school, both of which are quite expensive. I wanted to save as much money as I could, so I could use it later to pay for graduate school. Thinking from that perspective, UMass seemed to be the most viable option.

After talking to a lot of other out-of-state students, I found out that almost all of us received a good amount of merit-based aid, so definitely factor that in if you’re an out-of-state student and are worried about aid—UMass was really good with it (for my friends and I at least)! I also received various amounts of more aid each year, so consider that as well!

The Chemical Engineering Curriculum and Department 

I knew going into UMass that I wanted to do chemical engineering, so when it came down to making my decision, I went through a lot of the classes and options offered at UMass, and compared them to the other schools I was considering. 

UMass’ chemical engineering curriculum has a lot of space to take technical electives and other courses of interest, and that really sold me as I was interested in completing coursework in other subject areas as well, which is why I chose to pursue the engineering management minor.

The technical electives were also quite interesting to me. There were a lot of classes that were based on topics I wanted to learn more about, like tissue engineering and nanostructured biomaterials.

These were higher level courses intended for graduate students, but the chemical engineering department at UMass allows undergraduates to take them as well, so I was really stoked about potentially taking those. I’m pursuing the departmental honors track, so these types of upper-level courses count for those requirements as well.

I also liked the department in general. All the faculty I talked to were kind and approachable, and communicated well about how the curriculum operates and what my experience as a chemical engineering student at UMass would be like. 

Seeing how well-structured the program was and how it tailored to my experiences specifically, I felt that it would be a good fit for me and ultimately chose to enroll here!

And that’s how I made my decision to become a Minuteman. I’ve had a great time in Amherst so far, and now with only a semester left, I can’t wait to see what the future holds.