The UMass Amherst campus sits just north of the town centre and is on a completely different scale from Amherst College — 30,000 students, modernist concrete towers, and a sprawling collegiate gothic and 20th-century mix. The campus pond, the Fine Arts Center (a remarkable Brutalist building by Kevin Roche), and the Du Bois Library are the architectural highlights.
The Fine Arts Center hosts a year-round programme of music, dance, and theatre, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art is free and small enough to absorb in half an hour. The campus is best visited mid-morning on a class day for the full energy of the place.