AMHERST — For A.J. Uppal, move-in day at the University of Massachusetts is the beginning of a journey that has taken him over 3,000 miles from home.
The 18-year-old California native spent Friday morning hauling his belongings up to the top of Kennedy tower in the Southwest residential area of UMass, one of several thousand freshman who began settling into their new adopted home.
“It’s interesting coming from across the U.S., it’s always daunting to move away,” Uppal said, who said he wanted a change of scenery and to experience the four seasons. “It’s super exciting meeting everybody. Of course, I’m sad and homesick, but at the same time I am really excited.”
He has declared astronomy as a major and is hoping to be accepted into the computer science program as well.
First-year enrollment continues to grow at the UMass flagship campus, with numbers rising from 4,714 in 2017 to 5,050 this year, according to a UMass press release. The 2018 freshman class has an average high school grade point average of 3.90 and an average SAT score of 1294/1600.
The university also said this year’s incoming class is more diverse than in the past, with a 2 percent increase in the population of African-American, Latino, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Native American students.
More than 13,000 students who live in 52 residence halls will move in over the weekend.
On the day that Prerna Uppal helped move her son, A.J., into his dorm, she was reminded of her own long-distance move for school. She moved from India for graduate school in Virginia, but that did not make it any easier for her to say good-bye to A.J.
“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” Prerna said in Kennedy tower’s bustling hallway. Volunteer movers in neon-green shirts pushed carts along, filled to the brim with shoes, coat hangers, bags and boxes.
Throughout the hallways, roommates greeted each other with high-fives and hugs, and parents helped shuffle wooden furniture around to help set up each room to perfection.
“I’ve been crying for days,” Prerna said. “I flew out and came across continents so that gives me strength. I’m thinking I got on a plane and I left the country for the U.S. He is still in the country, so not too bad.”
On the floor above, Emily Johnson, 18, of Shelton, Connecticut, and her roommate Phoebe Father, 17, of San Francisco, California, met on Facebook and decided to room together in the Southwest area because they wanted to live near a lot of other first-year students.
Johnson, a biology major, decided she wanted to enroll at UMass when she toured the campus over the winter. She wanted to go to a big school, she felt comfortable with the “nice” people she met on the tour, and liked the “vibe” on campus.
Father wanted to join the civil engineering program at UMass, especially after visiting the campus in February. She found “everything overall was what I was looking for in a college.”
Over at the Central residential area, the halls of Van Meter, a dorm reserved for first-year students, were abuzz with families moving in eager faced students.
Kirsten Crowe, 18, of Peabody, had the help of her mother, Nancy Cranney, and her sister, Kate Murray, in getting her belongings into her first floor room.
The Five College Consortium, the dual degree program and the university’s diversity drew Crowe to UMass, she said.
“At Smith they have cool, interesting gender studies, and at Hampshire College they offer ASL (American Sign Language), and I heard that is the place to go,” Crowe said.
Speaking in Crowe’s new dorm room, Murray said, “It’s a very proud moment. I think she is going to absolutely thrive here.”
In March, Crowe was instrumental in organizing her high school’s Walkout for Our Lives, a student-led demonstration in response to the shooting in Parkland, Fla. She planned the walkout in coordination with her high school’s administration. Over 200 students participated.
“She’s a very determined young woman,” Cranney said.
Rosa Velazquez, mother of an incoming freshman and senior at UMass, found the moving in process to be “very organized,” a sentiment expressed by nearly every parent.
“This is very, very clean, and the student helpers show you where the rooms are and it’s so easy,” Velazquez said in Van Meter’s parking lot.
She felt excited and proud that both her daughters will be attending UMass this year, she said, but a tinge of sadness that they have now both left their home in Haverhill.
Andrea, a psychology and Spanish double-major returning for her fourth year, and Stacy, an anthropology first-year student, worked together to raise Stacy’s bed in her Van Meter dorm room, which she chose to so she could be close to her classes.
“My sister already went here so I knew what it looked like, she’s brought me around campus before,” Stacy said.
Andrea said, “It’s exciting to go to school with my sister, we are both first-generation college students, and it’s definitively nice for her to have someone that has gone through college life in general.”
On Saturday, from noon to 2 p.m., students will have the opportunity to become familiar with the downtown area during “Adventure into Amherst,” where special deals will be offered. Students will gather in their residential areas for a stroll about town.
On Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m., UFest, a campus festival, will take place on Goodell Lawn. The festival will feature student performances, NSO Open Mic, interactive displays, games, carnival activities, sidewalk chalk and UMass Dining food tents.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com