Come to UMass Amherst for the summer of a lifetime!

The cost of attending college is no small amount and the last thing you’d want is to find that your personal expenses are getting out of hand. Here are some tips and tricks to minimize your spending.

One of the amazing things about going to college is moving out and learning to be independent and self-sufficient. For housing, we have many options for students to choose from. Here at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, we have 7 residential areas, each with its own unique dynamic and vibe. All dorm rooms are equipped with a bed, dresser, desk, and chair.

NEW PROGRAMS FOR SUMMER 2018

Our new pre-college programs for Summer 2018 range from lab research to the arts to social thought and community engagement. Check out what's new!

You can probably imagine how difficult it can be to find a quiet place to study with about 30,000 students around who are also trying to find a study spot. Here is some insider information on the best study spots on and off campus at UMass Amherst. I usually pick places that have easy access to food because it's more convenient, especially if you're planning on studying for hours. There are a lot of great options for a study space on campus, but in the end, we all have different preferences and it's important that you find what works best for you.

Every day is a little different with different classes and deadlines to keep up with so it is very important to plan ahead. One way to plan ahead is to keep a planner to jot down all the major deadlines and assigning yourself a reasonable amount of work to do each day to finish on time. Personally, I like to keep 3 planners, which may seem a bit excessive but it works well for me; I have one planner that includes the tasks I need to accomplish each day, one for planning my day hour by hour, and my monthly planner is for keeping track of important dates and deadlines. For others, using the calendar app on their phone may be just enough to stay on schedule. Everyone has their own preference and I would encourage everyone to find what works best for them. 

Today we are introducing a new staff member here at UMass Summer Programs, Winnie Ching. Winnie is working on all things summer, and will be writing a series of new blog posts about student life at UMass Amherst. Below she answers our pressing questions about studying at UMass.

Hello friends! My name is Winnie and I am a senior at UMass Amherst majoring in Psychology with a concentration in neuroscience. Throughout my years at UMass, my increasing interest in the relationship between brain and behavior and passion for helping others made me realize that I want to pursue medical school in the near future. I am also a member of the Commonwealth Honors College, which allowed me to work more closely with my professors and to conduct my honors thesis.

Within psychology, I am conducting my own research project in visual cognition to answer questions on the effects of verbal encoding on visual search tasks. In order to answer these questions, I track eye movements to better understand how often participants fixate on particular search items.

During the school year, I also peer advise in the Psychological and Brain Sciences advising office and have the wonderful opportunity to get to know my peers and talk about our goals and aspirations. I am also the Treasurer for Nu Rho Psi, a national neuroscience society where we educate students more on the brain and also building connections with people who share the similar interests.

We are excited to announce that UMass Amherst has been selected as a host institution for the Friends of Fulbright Argentina Exchange Program, to take place January - February, 2018. Sponsored by the Fulbright Commission and the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, the partnership aims to fulfill former President Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative by providing academic and cultural programming designed to enhance the understanding of higher education at the graduate and undergraduate levels in the United States, with the goal of welcoming more Argentinian students to the U.S. for graduate studies.

Have you ever watched popular crime shows like Bones or Crime Scene Investigation, maybe even Dexter, and wondered what was really going on behind the scenes? During the two-week summer pre-college program with Professor Stacey Matarazzo-Rine running from July 9-July 22, 2017, you will have the opportunity to work in a university laboratory and explore the fields of forensic anthropology and science with hands-on experiments with human skeletons! Have more questions about what that will entail? We had a conversation with Professor Matarazzo, exploring the program, her current research, and what it takes to be a successful forensic anthropologist. The transcription of that conversation is below.

Pre-college summer programs are becoming more and more popular. Students learn about different majors, make lifetime friends, experience what college is like, and improve their credentials for college acceptance. Here are 8 things to think about when selecting a program for yourself or your son or daughter.

Dr. David Boutt is an Associate Professor of Hydrology in the department of Geosciences here at UMass. He grew up in Michigan and spent much of his time as a child fishing and spending time on the Great Lakes. Dr. Boutt attended Michigan State University and was always interested in environmental issues. He started out as a Microbiology major but he realized that he didn't want to spend all his time in a lab, instead he wanted to be out in the field and in nature, collecting data. Dr. Boutt began studying bio remediation and geosciences and went on to get his PhD in Hydrology at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.