<p>Hey guys, I’ve got a really tough decision to make. I’ve got a full ride to WashU and Amherst College and I’m torn between these two! I really like both, can you guys tell me what sealed the deal for you guys at Amherst? What is your favorite thing about Amherst? I’m posting this at WashU’s group as well to have both opinions.</p>
<p>I want to major in Economics and Political Science and might want to go to graduate school later for a PhD. in Economics at a really good institution in it(prob. Harvard, Princeton or Chicago). I know that academically they’re both great. I don’t like cold weather, but weather doesn’t really matter that much to me. I like small class sizes and want to be at a small to mid-sized university. I might want to study abroad. I play the guitar and the drums so I would seek the opportunity to play in musical ensembles and would love to continue playing soccer as well, at least recreationally. I love participating in community service activities and have lived all my life near cities, so I don’t how Amherst would be. I would want to have a nice social life at college, not dull. I’ve been to WashU and I really liked the dorms(the moderns). How are they at Amherst? Is it true that Amherst is considered more prestigious than Washu? Not that it’s going to matter much, but that’s what I’ve been told. I like schools with a sense of community is this present at both schools?</p>
<p>Why didn’t you go to the Amherst open house for admitted students last weekend? You were not invited??? We came back from the open house yesterday. The freshman dorm is definitely good, we didn’t see other dorms. They did wonderful jobs to host the open house.</p>
<p>Hi JudyLee, it’s because I’m an international student from Paraguay and I couldn’t make my family put that much money for just a college visit. I’ve been to WashU because I had an interview for a merit scholarship and they paid for the trip’s whole expenses. </p>
<p>rdgonzalez: Sorry not knowing you are potentially international student. If that is the case, you do have lot of research before making the decision. Two schools are both great, but they are definitely different. If your application truely reflects who you are, trust Amherst admission officers, you will be good fit to the school as far as I know. One thing is for sure, you wouldn’t regret going one way or the other. Either school will provide you wonderful college experience.</p>
<p>I might be able to offer some good insight. I go to Amherst and my best friend from high school goes to WashU. Amherst has a great Economics department and a strong alumni network with many grads working in financial services. If you want to go into banking or consulting Amherst would be better.
Amherst is considered more prestigious, and is much smaller than WashU.
My friend from WashU is actually trying to transfer. He likes the school, but doesn’t like living in the MidWest. St. Louis is no New York or Chicago, and East St. Louis is really sketchy. WashU has more opportunities for community service though.</p>
<p>adding to one*: we have intramural soccer at Amherst that is pretty relaxed but fun. The dorms are all pretty nice and you have a reasonable chance to get a single after the first year. We have a center for community engagement that hosts several community events. Music is a big deal at Amherst, you will find something that fits.</p>
<p>My D2s BFF goes to WashU too. She visited last year and went to class with BFF. She said the class was very impersonal, big and the professor was boring. It was a Chem class and she was taking the comparative one at Amherst at the time. She really liked the campus though. But she said that she made the right decision for her and her BFF made the right decision for her. She thought the vibe on the campus was very different from Amherst. WashU was more research oriented and “big” university feeling. </p>
<p>It’s too bad you can’t visit both and make your decision in person. I think it’s one of those decisions that has to “feel” right. Both are amazing, excellent schools. I don’t think there is a wrong decision.</p>
<p>Oh, thanks for the info ShesOnHerWay! Yeah, class sizes are going to be very different between WashU and Amherst, at least in freshman and sophomore years. Yeah, I feel that there’s not going to be a really wrong choice wherever I pick.</p>
<p>By this time you probably made the decision already and sent the check to any of those places… But in my opinion Amherst is a “very” small place and the student body tend to be more intellectual…(kind of boring for an international student looking to have some flavor of the US college life…). There is very little (or none) interaction with the other colleges in the area… and the grading is VERY tough!!!
While WashU is a big university, with plenty to do and programs to choose from… Being an international student WashU is a better choice!</p>
<p>Well, it all depends on what kind of person you are.</p>
<p>I’m always shocked when I come across these threads. I wonder what certain kids were thinking when they had been applying to colleges, and what on in admissions officers minds when they hedge their bets on these kids.</p>
<p>UChicago or Amherst? Fine. Brown or Amherst? Okay. Pomona or Amherst? Fair enough.</p>
<p>Amherst, you silly boy. Nobody wants to live in St. Louis except fans of the Cardinals(baseball team). Wash U markets like crazy. Amherst doesn’t have to.</p>
<p>Both excellent schools, but Wash U. has infinitely more resources than Amherst–libraries, research, larger peer group from which to choose. I know several students at Wash U. who have reported personalized attention at Wash U., not the experience of an impersonal, bureaucratic university. I also know Wash U. to have a fair amount of academic zealousness.</p>
<p>I think that you have to figure out if you are the sort to grow out of a school (Amherst is small) or do not mind the sometimes incestuous nature of a small LAC or will mostly embrace the intimate quality of a small LAC. Also, do you want a more rural campus or an urban one? Some kids don’t know that such a thing matters until they spend an isolating and freezing cold winter at Dartmouth or Cornell, for example. For some kids, the context is the kiss of death, so to speak.</p>
<p>Both schools are excellent, academically, although I would be more inclined, for example, to study physics or engineering or math at a major university with a vast faculty and some major research opportunities over a small LAC, no matter how elite or how exempt from marketing. I, myself, started at Wesleyan, and enjoyed it (although Middletown is no great shakes), and then transferred to CAL because one of my majors was Physics, and I had the opportunity to be involved in some very significant research in the area of particle physics, worked with more than one amazing Nobel laureate (who were indescribably interesting and eccentric and nurturing), and got to do some fun stuff at LBNL and did some collaboration with the Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva, Switzerland. I could have never had had such an exposure at Wesleyan (or Amherst).</p>
<p>Good luck choosing between two wonderful choices, although, given the date, you may have chosen by now.</p>
<p>It all depends. Large research universities have more resources for sure, but as an undergraduate student, you may not get it. Think about the resource per student. In terms of out grow, that’s true for certain case. If that’s the case, the faculty in LAC will help you find the best place for you just like what the post said above.</p>
<p>SW-students at Bates have worked at the large Hadron Collider, too. It’s all about connections, and Amherst is EXTREMELY well-connected for many fields, but esp as the OP says, Banking and Finance.</p>
<p>Interesting given the the LHC pretty much has exclusive contracts with the government and top 15 physics depts. in the country, but great that Bates is now a Physics powerhouse; it’s been a well kept secret, until now.</p>