Best State College or University in Massachusetts? (Framingham, Westfield: law school, universities)

[ruready1st]

I think hands down the best large college is the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

I think the best smaller college is Westfield State University. I am somewhat biased on this one since I attended Framingham State and then graduated from Westfield.

UMass in Amherst really should be considered one of the top ten universities in the country given that you can attend classes at any of the five colleges: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Students from each campus may take classes at the other campuses without additional charge. So you can attend UMass, but take classes at some of the best private schools in the country with some famous professors.

Check out Five Colleges, Incorporated: Home (http://www.fivecolleges.edu/index.html - broken link)

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by ruready1st

I think hands down the best large college is the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

I think the best smaller college is Westfield State University.

UMass in Amherst really should be considered one of the top ten public universities in the country given that you can attend classes at any of the five colleges: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

I agree re: UMass. Not so sure about Westfield (I don't disagree, I just don't know enough to decide one way or another).

I added (in bold) a slight change to the other part of your post. I think you could make a case for UMass in here, but there's some stiff competition. UC Berkeley, UCLA, UNC, UVA, Maryland, Texas A&M, Michigan, Penn State, Clemson, Purdue, Temple, etc. would all give it a good run for its money.

I would also put UMass Dartmouth in there as one of the top state colleges in MA. It's not tiny, and it has some excellent programs (particularly Engineering) and a brand new law school.