UMass Dartmouth Student Celebrates with Two Semesters of A+ Grades

[BicycleTree]

On Friday:
--I found out my grades for semester 2 at UMass Dartmouth: 4 A+'s (Four!) one A. These are the same grades I got in semester 1. Yes, I am a god. :tongue:
--I found out I got accepted to UMass Amherst (Fall 05) to my major of choice, computer science
Today:
--While here around Mount Holyoke for my sister's graduation events, I checked out UMass Amherst. It's huge and sprawling... but nice, with trees everywhere.

I think I'm probably going to go there.

 

[arildno]

Congratulations, Bicycletree!

 

[Evo]

On Friday:
--I found out my grades for semester 2 at UMass Dartmouth: 4 A+'s (Four!) one A. These are the same grades I got in semester 1. Yes, I am a god. :tongue:
--I found out I got accepted to UMass Amherst (Fall 05) to my major of choice, computer science
Today:
--While here around Mount Holyoke for my sister's graduation events, I checked out UMass Amherst. It's huge and sprawling... but nice, with trees everywhere.

I think I'm probably going to go there.

Way to go BT!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Congratulations BT!

Great job.. Of course now we will be expecting this sort of report every quarter. :tongue2:

 

[brewnog]

Good effort!

 

[DocToxyn]

BT, Nice job on the grades! I have been to UMass Amherst and it is indeed a very pretty campus, as well as one with some good research going on. Best of luck wherever you end up.

 

[Moonbear]

I haven't been to Amherst, but know a number of folks currently or previously there, and they all have really good things to say about the town. You'll definitely enjoy riding your bike around there. Congrats on the grades...keep up the good work!

 

[Gale]

YAY UMASS AMHERST! i'll be seeing you around eh?!? It is really nice here. The atmosphere is totally cool. Its like, half small town, half city like... its really great. you'll have to let me know where you'll be living and stuff.

Awesome grades btw! go you! my grades were ****ty... but meh... good for you though!

 

[BicycleTree]

Yes, it does look like good bike territory.

Yep, probably, Gale. I don't know if we'll bump into each other on a 25,000 student campus, but it could happen. I'm hoping to get a single room on campus, but if I can't do that I'll rent somewhere.

 

[Gale]

Well, I'm sure if you hang out on the sciency side of campus, that increases the likelyhood of a happenchance meeting. And you'd be surprised how small the campus seems when you're on it for a while.

Singles are hard to get unless you have seniority in the residence hall. which you won't. Also, you have to be a junior to live off campus. I don't know if you are... i like having roommates though... to an extent... they can be annoying if you don't get along... but they give you a reason to get out of your room and do things. i'd say live on campus and deal with a roommate if you have to... even off campus you might have a roommate.

Anyways, good luck with stuff! as of now, i'll be living in northeast, so ya... i dunno... we'll see how things pan out eh?

 

[BicycleTree]

Hmmm...

I might be a junior, depending on how much credit they give me. I'd be a junior at UMD but UMA's guidelines for AP score credit might be stricter. Not being able to get a single room or rent one would be a reason not to go to UMA. I better check it out soon.

 

[BicycleTree]

I'm looking on the site... it doesn't say anything about required residency (that I see). Seems like a relief if it's true. Who told you that you had to be a junior to live off-campus?

By the way, I was looking at the map for UMA and I noticed a little strip in the northeast area labeled "motorcycle parking." That you?

 

[Gale]

I'm looking on the site... it doesn't say anything about required residency (that I see). Seems like a relief if it's true. Who told you that you had to be a junior to live off-campus?

By the way, I was looking at the map for UMA and I noticed a little strip in the northeast area labeled "motorcycle parking." That you?

i'm positive about the residency thing. so don't get your hopes up. Though again, i really would encourage you not to base your entire decision on that. Roommates really aren't so bad. i believe to be considered a junoir you have to have 50ish credits. if you'd like, i can look it up for you.

And no, i don't ride my bike to school. It'd be entirely unpractical. plus, I'm always kinda weary leaving my bike out in public places.

 

[BicycleTree]

Well, I have heard from my Dad that there is a requirement for on-campus housing at UMD too but nobody ever bothered me about living in Fall River and commuting.

I really don't think I could stand a roommate. I need a place to retreat to and relax.

It's a junior at 60 credits. At UMD I would have exactly 60 credits starting this semester. So if UMA gives me as much credit for AP's as UMD did, then I'll be a junior, but UMD seemed a little free-handed on the AP credits to me. They gave me 8 courses of credit--26 credits--for 4 tests, even the American History test that I only got a 3 on. All I can do is hope, I guess. T'would be a tragedy if I had to live in a triple because I only had 57 credits...

I'm almost positive I can live off-campus: http://www.umass.edu/sareo/PP_F95_Commuter.html shows that they polled off-campus respondents who were sophomores and even a few first-years.

 

[Huckleberry]

Great Job BT! Don't be distracted by all the people throwing around freebees in the park. I had a friend that went to school there about 12 years ago. I spent a Halloween there. It can be a pretty wild place. At least it was then. Nice place for riding a bicycle too. Glad to hear that you are doing well.

 

[BicycleTree]

Damn, here we go:
http://www.umass.edu/admissions/application_process/Transfer_Students/
And the little gray text in the right margin.

You're right, they do allegedly require on-campus housing for freshmen and sophomores. I wonder what would happen if I just ignored that.

 

[Gale]

Damn, here we go:
http://www.umass.edu/admissions/application_process/Transfer_Students/
And the little gray text in the right margin.

You're right, they do allegedly require on-campus housing for freshmen and sophomores. I wonder what would happen if I just ignored that.

there's an off campus request form you can fill out if you have a good reason to live off campus. you can try for a single, but its not very likely. you can move in, then pay your roommate to move out, and then pay to keep it a single... other than that, you'd have to be really really lucky.

But really... everyone deals with roommates... its not so bad. How many credits do you have? maybe you'd only need one semester on campus, that wouldn't be too bad.

 

[Bladibla]

Good work. But make sure this doesn't deterr you from working hard in the future.

 

[BicycleTree]

I said I'll have either 60 credits or just a course or two under 60.

Here is the requirement page: http://www.housing.umass.edu/hao/resreq.html

I'm thinking I have three options if I don't have 60. One, talk my way out of the requirement. After all, I lived off-campus at UMD with no problem, and with the grades and SAT scores I have they might make an exception for the residency requirement or get me a single so I don't go somewhere else. Two, take some courses at UMass Boston this summer (I can commute from home). It might be too late to register for those, but definitely worth a try if I don't have 60 credits. Three, be a part-time student at UMA with less than 12 credits for the first semester, then be full-time. Part-time students are exempt from the residency requirement. I don't like this option.

Actually, there is a fourth option, namely, stay at UMD another semester.

I'm not going to risk living with a roommate. I depend a lot on being able to lie down for three hours and meditate undisturbed, and to sleep whenever I'm tired without people walking around. It's not acceptable to make poor grades even for one semester because of a roommate.

 

[moose]

namely, stay at UMD another semester.

I'm not going to risk living with a roommate. I depend a lot on being able to lie down for three hours and meditate undisturbed, and to sleep whenever I'm tired without people walking around. It's not acceptable to make poor grades even for one semester because of a roommate.

Getting a B won't kill you . Who knows, you might have some fun. You could always find other ways of relaxing, like talking to your roomy. You might think that meditating is the only way of relaxation but talking with a friend sure is a good way too

 

[BicycleTree]

Listen...
Ah, never mind.

No roommate. In Fall River I was sooo tired all the time because the noise of traffic going past meant I always slept lightly. How much worse would it be with a roommate? I think, much worse.

 

[Moonbear]

Listen...
Ah, never mind.

No roommate. In Fall River I was sooo tired all the time because the noise of traffic going past meant I always slept lightly. How much worse would it be with a roommate? I think, much worse.

{Disclaimer: BT, the following is not advice. Just food for thought.}

Depends if they snore or not , and whether they even spend much time in the room. You would just have to work it out with your roommate that you need quiet time and quiet places to study. If they want to watch TV or chat, they can go to their friends' rooms or to the lounge, that's what they're there for. My favorite roommate in college was one I barely knew when we agreed to room together (she was a senior and I was a junior and we both had other roommate arrangements fall through, so decided to room together rather than get stuck with a freshman roommate). We got to be decent friends, but pretty much each had our own friends and our own things to do, so from the time we got up in the morning until after dinner, we didn't even see each other, and some nights we'd sit and talk a bit, but most of the time, if we were in the room, it was to study or sleep. The year before that, my roommate was always at her boyfriend's apartment, so it was almost like having a single...it wouldn't have been bad except I couldn't stand her boyfriend when he came over with her, but they didn't spend much time around, so I just made that my time to do other things when they were both there. My freshman roommate was only annoying because of her hairspray fumes! :yuck: Oh, and because she could NOT walk quietly in the morning, so as soon as she woke up for the shower, I was awake too. But then I could hit the shower when she started doing her hair and avoid the hairspray before it choked me. I eventually gained assertiveness over the course of that year and asked her to do the hairspray in the bathroom. Then everyone else complained she was choking them in the bathroom in the morning, but it wasn't my problem anymore.

I think it would be silly to give up going to the school you really want to attend just because you need to have a roommate for a semester or year. If you can, try to request being roomed with another transfer student or upperclassman so you have a more mature roommate. It can be tough being a junior rooming with a freshman who doesn't yet have the maturity to buckle down and study and respect a roommate.

If you do wind up with a roommate whose activities interfere with your ability to study, there are residence life staff at every university, and they can help you resolve the problems, possibly even by reassigning you to a new roommate who is more compatible. I used to work in residence life while in grad school, and it wasn't too uncommon to have a couple sets of roommates come in complaining they were incompatible and couldn't work things out, so we'd take the two studious ones and put them together and the two party animals, and stick them together, and everyone was happy.

If they send you a questionnaire about your living preferences, be completely honest on it (if you must have the window open or closed while sleeping, tell them, if you must have absolute silence when studying, tell them, if you want to listen to classical music while studying, tell them, if you are a morning person and then need to be asleep by 10 pm, tell them, if it would really piss you off to have your roommate inviting his girlfriend into your room, tell them, etc.). All of this helps them match you with someone who will be best suited to share a room with you.

Could you at least tough it out one semester until you have the minimum credits required to meet the residency requirement? It would seem a shame to give up attending the school that best meets your academic needs over needing a roommate.

 

[BicycleTree]

Moonbear, neither you nor anyone else is going to convince me that having a roommate is a good idea.


Okay, I checked their AP credit guidelines. At UMass Amherst I will have 52 credits if I do nothing this summer (a 3 in European History counts for @#$% and they only gave me 1 course of credit for English). But a few summer courses at UMB and I'm over the top. I'm doing it.

Gale, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you brought this point up. Otherwise I'd have gotten a nasty surprise when it's too late.

 

[Gale]

well, you're welcome...

but i think by avoiding a roommate, you're sort of avoiding a problem that may bother you later on anyways... i mean, everyone has to get used to dealing with people... but, its your issue...

anyways, i don't know where you got the 60 credit number... but i think i read it was only like 45... At any rate, i'd still say live on campus. that's where the fun is. umass is such a nice campus. i'd risk a roommate just to stay on campus. but that's me.

anyways, i had a really really horrible roommate when i first got here. she was loud, and obnoxious... friendly... but demanding and rude and i couldn't stand her! so i transferred rooms, and things were great. my new roomie was tons of fun... but mostly she wasn't even around, so it was cool. she hated studying when i was in the room, (she liked silence) so she went to the library... but there are TONS of places on campus to go for some quiet. the libraries... the reading room, i know there's a few more...

anyways, i hope you still go to Umass... its really a great school. i haven't met one person who hasn't loved it!