My kid did a pre-application overnight at Haverford, during a midterms week, and was extremely impressed by how tclose and extremely down to earth and friendly the sense of community felt socially, even among freshmen who have only been there 2 months so far, and at how chill the students were particularly despite that it was a midterms week. Prior to this visit, Amherst was the clear first choice. My kid is not an athlete. But the open curriculum at Amherst is a huge plus due to somewhat lopsided academic abilities and interests. Haverford has somewhat flexible curriculum but overall a significant amount of distribution requirements that would cause at least slight, if not moderate, academic irritation or discomfort for some courses that woukd need to be taken that otherwise my kid woukd never want if they were not required. There is no opportunity to do an overnight at Amherst to make sure the social feel is fitting enough. The plan had been to apply Early Decision to Amherst and the feeling is that ED is necessary for whatever little edge it might give for admission. All other issues such as location etc are non issues at this point, the only question is the possible difference in “feel” socially. For a non-athlete with a somewhat introverted and reserved ( but not shy) personality, will it still be easy to make close friends and feel a very connected part of the social community at Amherst, the way it seemed at Haverford?
On paper, the differences between these schools manifests partially in the extent of their respective sports programs. Amherst fields football, hockey and swimming/diving teams, which I believe Haverford does not. NESCAC colleges in general may seem somewhat more sports oriented than that which will be found at Haverford – though non-varsity athletes will comprise at least 60% of the students in either case.
I can say the feeling your son felt at Haverford is pretty spot on.
I would be hesitant to apply ED to a school without an overnight visit to kick the tires a little. Is there no way you can squeeze one in?
they don’t offer them pre-admission at most schools and amherst doesnt offer them. we wish we could find an amherst student to do it informally, but we dont know any…
I imagine he will be able to find friends at either school. Every school has students with a range of personalities and interests. Though there are slight differences in campus cultures, Amherst and Haverford are very similar in many respects. That said, if he feels a stronger pull toward one than the other, that will signal him where to apply ED.