University Of Massachusetts Amherst

Location and Contact Information

The campus is in a town not far from a more urbanized area.

Overview

The University of Massachusetts Amherst, or UMass, was established in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College, a land-grant agricultural institution. The university was initially renamed Massachusetts State College in 1931 and adopted its current name in 1947.

The university is the flagship campus of the state's five-campus university, with an enrollment of nearly 24,000 students.

Since the 1970s UMass has emerged as a major research facility, with the construction of the Lederie Graduate Research Center and the Conte National Polymer Research Center. The library system is the largest at a state-supported institution in New England, with more than 6.1 million items.

The Fine Arts Center brings nationally known theater, music and dance to campus year-round and offers six visual arts galleries.

The main campus covers nearly 1,450 acres in Amherst, in Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.

The campus based graduate programs in computer science education, nursing, engineering and speech-language pathology have earned national rankings from U.S News & World Report for 2009.

The graduate program in computer science ranked 20th, while its artificial intelligence speciality ranked 10th and systems specialty ranked 18th.

The graduate program in engineering ranked 49th, education ranked 45th, nursing ranked 54th and speech-language pathology ranked at No. 30, nationally.

UMass is organized into the following academic units:

• College of Engineering
• College of Humanities and Fine Arts
• College of Natural Resources and the Environment
• College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Commonwealth College
• Isenberg School of Management
• School of Education
• School of Nursing
• School of Public Health and Health Sciences
• Stockbridge School of Agriculture
• The Graduate School

UMass officially recognizes a number of fraternities and sororities, organized under the Interfraternity Conference, National Pan-Hellenic Council, National Multicultural Greek Council, and Panhellenic Conference. The Greek community organizes the annual Greek Week and UDance and the Relay for Life.

Twenty-one athletic teams compete at the NCAA Division I level.

Among UMass's noted alumni are William Monahan, screenwriter; singers Buffy St.-Marie and Natalie Cole; actors Bill Pullman and Jeffrey Donovan, the latter star of the TV original series "Burn Notice"; Joanne Weir, the James Beard Award-winning host of her own cooking show on public television; composer-singer Taj Mahal; Paul Theroux, travel writer; Jack Canfield, best-selling author; Doug Clark, Atlanta Braves baseball player; Danielle Henderson, Olympic Gold medalist in softball; and Jeff Taylor, founder of monster.com. Actor Richard Gere attended but did not graduate.

Highlights (vs. Other Schools)

• Many students concentrating in landscaping and horticulture, conservation and resource management, therapy and counseling, media, religion and philosophy, science, drama and performing arts, liberal arts, and hospitality.
• Large number of programs of study offered.
• Large number of students.
• High faculty salary.
• Number of dorm rooms for students.
• High male/female ratio.
• High SAT scores (combined Verbal and Math).

School characteristics:

• The school is public.
• Academic calender: Semester.
• Carnegie classification: Doctoral/Research Universities, Extensive.

Features of note:

• The school offers a faculty tenure system.
• There are one or more libraries on-campus.
• Campus housing is available.
• Students may study abroad.
• Distance learning is available.
• Part-time classes are available.
• ROTC.
• Athlete financial aid is awarded.

Tuition and Financial Aid (2009-2010)

Financial Aid

University Of Massachusetts participates in US Title IV financial assistance programs.

In 2009-2010, 84% of students received financial aid of some sort.

(Please refer to BrainTrack's financial aid articles section for background information.)

Similar Schools

Based on proprietary BrainTrack computer comparisons against all other US colleges, these schools appear to be most similar to University Of Massachusetts Amherst:

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Degrees Awarded (in 2009-2010)

Faculty

Tenure (2009-2010):

Students

Student enrollment was 26,359 in 2009-2010 (25,203 full-time equivalent).

About 48% of the freshmen class in 2009-2010 was male and women were 52% of the class.

Undergrads are 77% of enrolled students and graduate students are 23%.

Students under 25 years old represent 75% of the student body. About 6% of the school is at least 40 years of age.

Among freshmen students, 100% are full-time and 0% are part-time.

Admissions Summary (2009-2010)

SAT Test Scores:

Room and Board

University Of Massachusetts provides on-campus housing for 11,982 of its 25,203 (full-time) students (as of 2009-2010). The school requires freshmen to live on campus.

Athletics

School sports include football, basketball, baseball, and track. The school is in the Atlantic 10 Conference for major sports.

The school offers financial aid for athletes. Of students receiving athletic financial aid, 212 male students received the aid (men were 60% of those receiving aid) and 139 women were awarded financial aid based on athletics (representing 40% of students receiving such aid) .

Graduate School Focus

University Of Massachusetts offers graduate (post-Bachelor) studies. The highest degree offered is the Doctorate (Research/Scholarship).

Graduate offerings include continuing professional education.The school's Graduate School Carnegie Classification is Comprehensive Doctoral (No Medical/Veterinary).

Programs of Study

(Number of degrees in 2009-2010 in parentheses)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT (99 awarded)

• Agricultural Economics
• Crop Production
• Food Science

ANIMAL SCIENCE AND CARE (58 awarded)

• Animal Sciences
• Equestrian/Equine Studies

ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING (98 awarded)

• Architecture (BArch, BA/BS, MArch, MA/MS, PhD)
• City/Urban, Community and Regional Planning
• Environmental Design/Architecture
• Interior Architecture
• Landscape Architecture (BS, BSLA, BLA, MSLA, MLA, PhD)

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT (990 awarded)

• Accounting
• Apparel and Accessories Marketing Operations
• Business Administration and Management
• Finance
• Labor and Industrial Relations
• Marketing/Marketing Management

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (143 awarded)

• Computer Engineering
• Computer Science

CONSERVATION AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (124 awarded)

• Environmental Science
• Forestry
• Natural Resources Management and Policy
• Wildlife and Wildlands Science and Management
• Wood Science and Wood Products/Pulp and Paper Technology

DESIGN (2 awarded)

• Interior Design

DRAMA AND PERFORMING ARTS (59 awarded)

• Dance
• Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts

EDUCATION AND TEACHING (303 awarded)

• Education
• Music Teacher Education

ENGINEERING (302 awarded)

• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
• Industrial Engineering
• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering

FAMILY AND SOCIAL WORK (29 awarded)

• Public Policy Analysis

FINE ARTS (73 awarded)

• Art History, Criticism and Conservation
• Fine/Studio Arts

HOSPITALITY (215 awarded)

• Hospitality Administration/Management

LANDSCAPING AND HORTICULTURE (124 awarded)

• Applied Horticulture/Horticultural Business Services
• Applied Horticulture/Horticulture Operations
• Landscaping and Groundskeeping
• Plant Sciences
• Turf and Turfgrass Management

LAW (86 awarded)

• Legal Studies

LIBERAL ARTS (1,388 awarded)

• African-American/Black Studies
• Anthropology
• Chinese Language and Literature
• Classics/Classical Languages, Lit & Linguistics
• Comparative Literature
• Creative Writing
• East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics
• Economics
• English Language and Literature
• French Language and Literature
• General Studies
• Geography
• German Language and Literature
• History
• International Relations and Affairs
• Italian Language and Literature
• Japanese Language and Literature
• Latin American Studies
• Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities
• Linguistics
• Medieval and Renaissance Studies
• Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies
• Near and Middle Eastern Studies
• Political Science and Government
• Russian Studies
• Social Sciences
• Sociology
• Spanish Language and Literature
• Women's Studies

MATHEMATICS (72 awarded)

• Applied Mathematics
• Mathematics

MEDIA (379 awarded)

• Communication Studies/Speech Communication and Rhetoric
• Journalism

MEDICAL SUPPORT AND TECHNOLOGY (1 awarded)

• Audiology/Audiologist and Hearing Sciences

MEDICINE (128 awarded)

• Neuroscience
• Pre-Veterinary Studies
• Public Health, General (MPH, DPH)

MUSIC (44 awarded)

• Music Performance
• Music

NURSING AND EMERGENCY MEDICINE (218 awarded)

• Nursing
• Nursing/Registered Nurse (RN, ASN, BSN, MSN)

NUTRITION AND EXERCISE THERAPY (154 awarded)

• Nutrition Sciences
• Sport and Fitness Administration/Management

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY (48 awarded)

• Jewish/Judaic Studies
• Philosophy
• Religion/Religious Studies

SCIENCE (518 awarded)

• Astronomy
• Biochemistry/Biophysics and Molecular Biology
• Biological and Physical Sciences
• Biology/Biological Sciences
• Botany/Plant Biology
• Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology
• Chemistry
• Entomology
• Evolutionary Biology
• Exercise Physiology
• Geology/Earth Science
• Marine Biology and Biological Oceanography
• Microbiology
• Physics

SECURITY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT (39 awarded)

• Criminal Justice/Safety Studies

THERAPY AND COUNSELING (526 awarded)

• Communication Disorders
• Psychology
• School Psychology