Massachusetts College Of Liberal Arts — Local services in North Adams

I applied to MCLA, (back when I applied in the Fall of 1992 it was still named North Adams State College) but I chose to go to Hampshire College over in the Amherst/Northampton Five Colleges area instead, because it was a bit less isolated there with more academic resources than North Adams itself was.

Although North Adams and MCLA's campus is fairly close to Williamstown, and the academic resources of Williams College & the Clark Art Institute, it still couldn't offer the same level of academia that the combined Five College consortium did. I was coming to college up in New England from NYC, so I wanted to choose a college that wasn't "too" isolated.

That aside, I genuinely liked MCLA, I enjoyed visiting the campus and sitting in on classes, and spent one weekend in Berkshire Towers (in a suite with all first-year students to get a sense of an entering students experience) and then another weekend staying in Flagg Townhouses with a group of upper-class students, to get a feel for being a returning student.

That gave me an in-depth feel for MCLA's residence life (which was VERY similar to Hampshire's actually because I'd done the EXACT same kind of "residential life" visits there in the dorms and the mods) and the campus is VERY "cliquey" because of it's small size and how you are housed, but that's typical of most small LAC's whether they are public or private colleges. Although MCLA ended up in my "safety school" category, it was my #1 safety school.

MCLA's location in the Berkshires however, is STUNNINGLY beautiful. For a public institution, the campus is INCREDIBLY safe, modern and...

Hokey as it sounds, I truly became the person I am today at MCLA. The school is really a village within the city of North Adams, and everything you'd expect of a village - good, bad, and ugly - is never far from hand. If this sort of tight-knit ecosystem is your bag, MCLA rocked. I thrived in small classes that allowed students the ability to have challenging discussions, and the professors by and large recognized when to lead and when to assist. I never would have gone on to pursue a graduate degree in history had my profs at MCLA simply spoon-fed me facts; they seemed to love their jobs and they clearly loved interacting with students. Socially, the quiet town necessitates making friends on campus; rather than finding this limiting, I met amazing people, many of whom I still see regularly a decade later. Last but not least, MCLA is located smack in the middle of the Berkshires, a landscape of rolling hills, valleys, and moss-draped waterfalls that probably inspired the first nature postcard. Seriously - Google...

The other reviews can be very critical of this place.

Here's the experience that I had:

I have graduated twice from MCLA. First with my bachelor's degree in mathematics. Second was my master's degree in education.

Both times I learned a considerable amount and the professors prepared me for my profession.

Aside from my education, I met a beautiful woman that is now my wife!

Lastly, I graduated the school with only $18,000 in debt. I would like to see other colleges be able to do that and still provide the education I received.

I'm a firm believer education is what you make out of it. What you put in is what you get.

With that stated Massachusetts College of liberal arts has given me everything I could have...