AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) – It’s move-in weekend at UMass Amherst, bringing tens-of-thousands of undergraduate students back to campus for another academic year.
It’s controlled chaos on campus this weekend as first-year students made their way from around the world to Amherst Thursday with thousands-more returning students due over the next 48 hours. The class of 2027 was the University’s largest applicant pool ever, more than 50,000 considered. A total of 5,000 news students were admitted. The first round were moving in Thursday, up early to beat the crowds.
For students, a frenzy of fast friends and new-found freedom. For parents, the culmination thus-far of their child-rearing efforts.
“It’s exciting. Nerve wracking obviously but all good things. Once you get here and see that line of cars and start moving things in. It’s an exciting day,” said UMass Freshman Ava from Long Island, New York.
“A little different because she is my baby. Hard. But it’s all wonderful things, we are super excited she picked UMass,” said Ava’s mother Annie.
All those nerves and emotion alleviated slightly by a hyper-efficient attack plan here on campus. Hoards of minute movers and campus police assisted families as they arrive.
“We do it pretty efficiently here I think. I mean, I moved my brothers into their colleges and it was much more chaotic than this actually,” said UMass Sophomore Will Mulholland.
Calm by campus standards but Amherst residents will tell you otherwise… particularly on the roads and in the store aisles. Traffic hang-ups will continue on Route 9 and the target parking lot through Saturday night, which is the final day to get in on that hyper-efficient assisted move-in.
Classes officially begin on Tuesday.
Duncan MacLean is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2019. Follow Duncan on X @DMacLeanWWLP and view his bio to see more of his work.
