With a student body made up of about 80% in-state students, being from somewhere other than Massachusetts can be a little overwhelming at UMass. There aren’t that many people who totally understand. However, if you’re one of the 4,500 out-of-state students, you’ll know that…
1. Home is not just an hour’s drive away.
For most of us, we can’t just hop in our cars and drive home. A lot of us don’t even have cars to drive home with. That means if we’re homesick we can’t get back to our safe bubble, complete with mom’s home-cooked meals. Nope. We have to deal with the lovely dining hall food. Every. Single. Day.
We also have to deal with staying on campus the weekends everyone else goes home; Columbus and Veterans Day weekends are filled with homework, homework, and more homework. While everyone at home is relaxing with their families and watching Sunday night football, we are sitting in our dorms writing the essay that’s not due for two weeks.
2. We have to pay for plane tickets, just to go home for a week (or less).
A lot of out-of-state students are not even residents of the bordering states. We come from all over the United States.
We are not allowed to stay in the dorms during the five day Thanksgiving break. That means we have to buy a plane ticket to go across the entire country…just for five days. As a result, we have to worry more about saving money and working during the school year.
3. Some of us go to another state to start fresh.
High school isn’t always the best four years. If you’re like me, you might have grown up in a really small town (of, let’s be honest, mostly white people). Looking for some diversity, or just something new, we come to a different state for a new experience.
When you go to a different state, you may be looking to meet new people and start fresh. You may also be more likely to get involved since you no longer fear people from high school judging you.
4. It’s hard to make friends when people hangout with high school classmates.
A lot of out-of-staters come to college not knowing a single person in the entire school. Although this can be the first step in starting fresh, it can sometimes turn out to be disappointing. Out-of-state students have these huge expectations, including that they will make a ton of new friends because it’s college.
The “clique-y” high school scene is totally behind us…well, not quite. When I first moved into my dorm freshman year, people were rooming with their best friends from high school and going to parties with only hometown friends.
This makes it difficult for those of us who are new to the state to form a friend group.
5. We pay more for school…which means we really have to care about it.
Unfortunately, being an out-of-state student means paying more. Not just a couple hundred either…it can cost as much as double what an in-state student pays.
This means a lot of us have to make up for it by having academic scholarships and grants; we need to maintain a certain GPA to even afford to go to school. As a result, we have to go to class (crazy, right?).