PURCH Student Life

UMass Chan-Baystate Campus

Address
3601 Main Street
Springfield, MA
(Map and directions on Google Maps)

Parking

There is free parking for PURCH students in "N Lot" in the section nearest the building.

Brightwood House, PURCH instructional space, and campus administrative offices are all located in this building.

Brightwood House Learning Community

Brightwood House community space has a comfortable lounge area and kitchen facilities equipped with a refrigerator, microwave, Keurig coffee brewers, sink, dining tables and chairs.

Learn More

PURCH Students' First Day at UMass Chan-Baystate AY2021-2022

Instructional Space

Most of your time at the Baystate campus for the Early Clinical Learning course is spent in its large instructional space. There are several classrooms with teleconferencing capabilities, interview rooms, restrooms, lockers, and showers.

baystate medical center main entrance 759 chestnut street springfield ma

Clinical Sites at Baystate Health

You complete all of your clerkships during the Exploration Phase at clinical sites within Baystate Health—one of New England’s largest academic health systems.

You'll train in a variety of urban and rural inpatient and outpatient clinical settings.

Learn More About the Clinical Sites

This is a big advantage of being in PURCH—you can focus more on your clinical learning experiences rather than moving and learning new health systems every four weeks. That's been one of the best parts of PURCH for many of us.

—Molly Ingemi, Class of 2022

Travel Between Campuses

The VISTA curriculum currently has PURCH students traveling from the main campus in Worcester to the UMass Chan-Baystate campus in Springfield, a distance of about 50 miles, an average of 3 times a month during the Discovery phase.

Ridesharing with fellow PURCH students is a common option. PURCH students say they enjoy carpooling when possible and find it an excellent opportunity to bond with their peers. In the second year, ridesharing may be less practical due to individual placements at Longitudinal Preceptor and rotation sites.

By the end of March of the second year, students move to the Springfield area for Explorations. While living here, you will travel to Worcester ~6 times for clinical exams and will travel to other western Massachusetts clinical sites for the Family Medicine rotation.

Student Housing

Planning For the Move

When you arrange housing in Worcester, we recommend that you negotiate a lease with your landlords/roommates that allows you to move to Springfield in March going into your 3rd year, Explorations.

You can also consider subletting your room/apartment to incoming nursing or medical students or residents.

If you are considering moving back to Worcester for your final year, try to negotiate flexible lease arrangements for your Springfield housing as well.

Finding Housing

Like the main campus, the Baystate campus does not provide housing for PURCH medical students. Finding affordable, safe housing near Baystate Medical Center has not been a problem for the hundreds of medical students who have done their clerkships or electives here over the years.

There are houses and apartments for almost any budget. If you prefer a more bucolic setting, nearby small towns and rural areas in western Massachusetts offer many alternatives.

We provide the resources below for your convenience. Neither Baystate Health nor UMass Chan Medical School endorse these websites.

City of Springfield

Realtor.com: Homes and apartments for rent in Springfield
Apartments.com: Apartments for rent in Springfield

Greater Western Massachusetts Area

Craigslist
MassLive