<p>I’m currently deciding between Amherst and Vassar. Both great schools, but from the looks of it, Amherst is decidedly more academic. Even looking at the message board topics on the Amherst and Vassar forums, as well as on the Facebook groups for admitted students, the topics of interest for Amherst prospies seem to be mainly academic-related whereas those for Vassar seem to be more social life-oriented. </p>
<p>So, what I’m getting at…Is Amherst “overly” studious? I really don’t want to be on a campus where all that the kids talk about is work, work, work. Also, are the kids somewhat pretentious, like I’ve heard (as a whole, I mean…obviously there are certain pretentious cliques around at any school). And this whole Williams rivalry thing is really irritating me…it’s a bit elitist (like Harvard vs. Princeton/Yale…what a nightmare) and unnecessary, in my opinion. So, would you say I’ve hit the nail on the head on this one, or that I’m pretty far off?</p>
<p>I think you're closer to pretty far off than hitting the nail on the head. I'd say that we strike a pretty good balance of academics and social life. We do like to talk about academics, but we like to talk about normal social things as much, if not more so. Coming from a small midwestern city, I was also kind of worried about pretentiousness, but it's not really an issue. Most people are fairly laid back about the whole thing.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you're worried about with the Williams rivalry. It's not a vitriolic rivalry at all, mostly they serve as a convenient target for jokes. It's something that you can ignore if you want to.</p>
<p>I'd actually say that we're closer to being elitist preppies than not. The major topics of conversation that I'd say I typically run into are:</p>
<p>1) Academics
2) Politics
3) Sports</p>
<p>That being said, it's not too hard to avoid the people you don't like (I steer well clear of jocks) since people here are lazy and don't like to move around a lot, so it's fairly easy to guess where someone might be at any given time.</p>
<p>As a side note, the Amherst/Williams thing is basically overhyped and we pretty much just use it for teh lulz.</p>
<p>Maybe I'm just getting old, but for nearly $50,000 per, I would hope the major emphasis would be academics. I can find quite the social and cultural necessities for far less. (And have done so)</p>