Man, I love College

After four years of living on campus at UMass Amherst, I know exactly what campus living is all about. I successfully bonded with my University. I went to concerts on campus, I tailgated my way through football games, and my friends and I were always ready for “Spring Week.” If that Asher Roth song “I love College” came out a few years earlier, it would have undoubtedly been blaring from my roommate and my speakers for all of Southwest campus to hear. Man, I did love college.

But I didn’t graduate.

I only took the minimum amount of credits each semester because I had to balance my social life with my academic career, naturally. This put me about a year and some odd classes behind. Instead of being a 5th year senior at Amherst, I decided to take some time off and finish up here at [UMass] Lowell.

Since the Lowell campus is known as a commuter as well as a transfer school, it wasn’t hard for me to get back into the swing of things. In fact, it was almost easier and a lot less stressful. The UML website shows that out of the 2,000 incoming freshman, 825 of them are transfer students. That is a lot of people in the same boat as me.

Brenda Woonton, of the Continuing Education Studies program, helped me transition from full time party animal at Amherst to a hard working student at Lowell. 

"I tell everyone that comes to see me that it's a fresh slate," Woonton said. "I try to explain that when you transfer here, you leave all of the baggage from your previous school at your previous school." said Woonton. 

Woonton was spot on. Since I’m a little older, a little wiser and less likely to pull an all-nighter at the Lowell bars and off campus parties, I find myself having the best GPA I’ve ever had in my college career. I come to campus when I have class, and I leave when I’m done. It’s a pretty simple schedule that makes me get out of bed and come to class instead of strolling into class 20 minutes late in my UMass sweatpants – which was a normal reoccurrence and one of (I thought at the time) added benefits of living on campus.

Woonton sees more focus from everyone who checks in with her throughout their time at Lowell. 

"I can't say that I'm disappointed that students aren't more involved with Campus life and partying because I've seen some of the most amazing turn-arounds from students," said Woonton. "I've had kids come to me who want to graduate so bad but feel it's impossible, and I've seen that it's always possible." said Woonton. 

Even though I’ll be graduating Magna Cum Laude, I find myself reminiscing about the bond I had with Amherst and it got me to thinking: just how much time do transfers/commuters spend on campus and are they missing out on a huge part of college life?

Dave Catanzano, a fellow classmate and transfer student, rarely participates with on campus activities when asked about how much time he spends here. 

“Usually, none,” Catanzano said. “I leave right after my last class. I just want to be home. I have to go to work and stuff. I eat in the dining hall maybe once a week when I have a break in between my Wednesday class.” Catanzano said.

I will go on the record and say that [while] dining hall food is disgusting, but it was sort of a hangover ritual my friends and I had. There was nothing like waking up at noon after a hard night of partying, gathering up all the girls to walk across campus to the dining hall, and dish about the events that took place prior over some yellow PowerAde and a makeshift pizza bagel. Some of the conversations that took place at our local dining hall I'll remember for the rest of my life. 

Kacie Bonin, another classmate and transfer student, feels the same way Catanzano does.

“I probably spend about two hours a week on campus that aren’t class related,” Bonin said. “I go to tutoring but I don’t really get involved in any on campus activities. I used to be a member of the Campus Activities board but I gave that up.” Bonin said.

Campus activities were a key component to having a fun year at Amherst. Spring Week was the most notoriously fun week of all year. The entire campus came together and celebrated the good weather by hosting bbq’s outside of dorms and booking music acts to play outdoor concerts. Everyone was involved and everyone participated. If I never went to Spring Week, I would never be able to tell my children one day how I got on stage at the Naughty by Nature concert for about 1,000 on-looking classmates to see.

I understand that it’s a little different for me because I got to experience both UMass worlds. It just makes me wonder if these students who don’t care to participate in all these activities are missing out on all the fun.