Univ. Of Mass./Boston

UMass Boston is a work in progress in any way you can imagine. After being here for two years, one can suffice to say it is an inadequate place to receive the best college experience. Although it has a nice ocean view, it is impossible to walk through this campus without hearing a self proclaimed "p.c." person making prejudiced comments toward white people. I'm transferring this year to hopefully find a better college experience.

I'm currently a Sophomore at UMB and want to try and provide a completely honest, unbiased review of the school. nnI'll start off with pro's - most of the services staff seem to really care about their students. Everyone I've ever dealt with for any services I've needed has been incredibly helpful. My parents are retired so expendable income isn't rolling in, but UMass gave me a financial aid package that covered the year for me, on top of that, a $750 voucher to the bookstore. nnThat's about where the pro's end. A lot of the teachers are underpaid, meaning staff is either upset or inexperienced. My computer science professor this year is literally a student instructor, teaching a major course. He's incredibly unclear and never responds to emails. Maybe this is due to the size of classes, but responding to emails seems to be a thing that just doesn't happen. Teachers encourage seeing them during their office hours, probably because they're so bored at their jobs otherwise. That seems to be the only way to reach out to them, but only because it's convenient for them. nnOn top of that, there really isn't any effort to get to know the students. I am a sophomore, and only two teachers so far in my time here have bothered to learn our names. This is understandable if you're at a lecture, but even the small classes don't really have any sense of one-to-one with your professor. nnNot helping this is the students who attend the school; for some reason, everyone here is incredibly awkward, sometimes rude, or just outright not worth spending your time with. Students here are either (understandably) shy international students, students who attend because they need to (not because they want to), and students who work full time on top of going to school. This creates an environment where kids show up, go to class, then immediately go home without talking to anyone. Even most of the upperclassmen travel around on their own. I consider myself a pretty social person, and haven't made one friend here. It's not that making friends is difficult, it's damn near impossible. nnParking is bad and expensive to boot, the construction on campus is awful, the atmosphere is depressing especially in the winter, it's freezing most of the time considering it's on the water, the school was originally designed to be a prison so there are no windows in classrooms and the politics based around money and the UMass system's neglect of the Boston campus means I can't recommend this school to anyone. I'm anxiously awaiting December break so that I can transfer and never look back. nnUMass Boston has the competence and composure of a community college, but expects a workload out of its students that reflects a high-ranking university. I'd stay away - you're better off going to a community college and transferring from there. I made the mistake of thinking this was an affordable college experience - there is no college experience, and the experience it's given me has been awful and disheartening.

Amazing university, makes you feel welcome no matter what's your color, background, or beliefs. They make you feel valued and warmly welcomed, such a happy comfortable environment and have exceptional professors!

cafeteria located in campus center is good , but all the products are over priced if you go on perk hours you may find it very crowded.

I work here as staff and find the working environment pretty good. My bosses have been good, my coworkers are dependable, and the students seem well behaved and conscientious (most of the time). The new buildings are nice, and the harbor walk is kind of amazing, and the beach is very chill. Good luck finding a place as tranquil anywhere else near the city. There is however one small con and one big con.. the small con is that there aren't that many places to eat and Sodexo runs all the food on campus, and their attempts at ethnic foods are sad. And the aforementioned big con is that there is no less than 3 buildings being built on this tight peninsula right now, and one huge building that was taken down over the year I've been here.. the construction is a mess. Though the new, finished buildings, like the science complex, are great. But if you can take the T somehow, as I do, this place is fantastic.