It is safe to say that many students who attend UMass Lowell receive mixed responses when they tell people where they go to school.

“My aunt was extremely concerned for my safety when I told her I was going to attend UMass Lowell. She didn’t think I should go there,” said sophomore Lily Finn, an English major at UML.

But why do students get this reaction? In the past 20 years, UMass Lowell has made drastic changes, and many students can attest to the fact that they feel extremely safe at their school. Maybe it has something to do with the surrounding community that makes students and parents hesitant to take the journey to visit the school.

Do perceptions of Lowell affect their feelings about the university itself? Is the school still stuck in the stigma created by the town it rests in? Or maybe the school is still highly underestimated and underrated.

In 2003, UMass Lowell was ranked 158 on the U.S. News and World Report when they released their 2014 Best Colleges and National Universities poll. The university has moved up this same list 25 spots in last three years, making it the fastest moving university in terms of ranking.

So why are prospective students and their families still skeptical to give the university a chance?

“My mom was tentative to send me to Lowell for school,” said sophomore sociology major Veronica Cashman.“I live in Massachusetts and my mom has always been very protective of me. When I told her I was applying she said we had to visit the school before I could apply. She was shocked by how much it had changed, but still sent me to school with mini hairspray to keep in my bag.”

It seems as though students’ impressions of the school at first are questioning, yet tend to change once they visit the school in person.

According to the News and World Report ranking, the university has seen its enrollment grow by 40 percent since 2007. It can be found on the university’s news webpage that, as of 2013, the school hit an all-time high of student capacity when it became home to over 16,000 students while also representing over 50 countries.

With such outstanding ratings, it is surprising that students are still reluctant to consider UMass Lowell a serious institution. The city of Lowell itself may seem to some as though it should be thriving, as it is home to a prosperous and booming university, not holding it back.

“I transferred to Lowell from a community college in California,” said junior transfer student and criminal justice major, Daisy Ruiz. I didn’t know much about the school or the city before I came to visit. At first it seemed all right to me, but then I came to notice there were a few places that I definitely did not want to travel to at certain hours of the day.”

“I’m also a criminal justice major and am well educated in ways that I can keep myself safe. There has never been a point where I was on campus and I didn’t feel safe. It just takes some getting used to.”

“I feel like our generation of students is where the school’s demeanor will become un-clouded by the city of Lowell,” said sophomore psychology major, Annie Walsh.

“I feel that as it gets more praise in terms of the education that it offers to students the perception of the city will be over-looked.

Maybe this is the case. Maybe within a few years the stigma behind Lowell will dissipate, as the university takes over in a positive light.

“Only time will tell, but I am glad that I chose UMass Lowell as my school,” Walsh said. “Sure, it has its kinks, but doesn’t a little danger add to the excitement of college?”