Hi everyone,
I never thought about applying to Amherst in the fall until now, but I don’t really know a lot about it besides what they say on their website and brief info session.
How is Amherst’s CS program? I plan on majoring on CS in college. What makes Amherst unique from other schools? How is the social life there? Are the classes small or large? Is the campus in a nice area?
If there’s anything else I’m missing please let me know.
The department at Amherst is small and young (though growing) – definitely not one of the “top” CS programs, which as you know would include Stanford, MIT, Mudd, etc. However, a computer science major and an Amherst education in and of themselves are both so desirable to employers that CS majors at Amherst do very well for themselves as far as finding gainful employment. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and startups are all very doable, and probably easier to get from Amherst in some ways than at a bigger school with a more competitive culture. And of course someone with CS skills will always be welcome in the world of finance, which Amherst kids have an incredibly smooth time getting into.
I will also add that the sciences in general at Amherst are actually very strong, something that rankings focused on Ph.D. productivity doesn’t really capture. We are also in the midst of building a very impressive new science center that will be up and running by your sophomore fall (assuming you would be a Class of 2021). Professors are extremely accessible and willing to hook you up with great opportunities.
Class of 2014 computer science majors from Amherst are going to grad school at Columbia and Carnegie Mellon, and working at Boston Consulting Group, IBM, Palantir, Sunergix (mobile publishing), Extron Electronics (AV equipment manufacturer), Accenture, and Epic Systems. This is not a selection but AFAIK everybody (see .pdf above).
So the package is hard to beat. You’ve got an environment where instead of being siloed with other quantitatively oriented kids in an engineering department (or at some schools, like Michigan, even an engineering campus), you have an open curriculum and one of the best small-classroom liberal arts experiences in the world. On top of that, reputation within the CS world aside, you have very, very strong postgraduate outcomes.
Amherst is a unique place, and it’s not for everybody. People there have gotten into all sorts of other schools that their neighbors back home have actually heard of, and come to Amherst instead, often sort of mysteriously, for reasons they can’t quite articulate. That said, it is every inch an elite institution and “the people who matter” (as they’re called on these boards) will be impressed, don’t worry. It’s a special place in a beautiful part of the country, and you certainly wouldn’t go wrong by attending.
@hwysevenman thanks so much for your response!