<p>i've been looking at colleges and i kind of love the description
of amherst as a whole, campus, facilities, curric,etc
im only a sophomore but i was wondering if people have
any suggestions in what ecs to do because i really don't know
what would be different and stand out to people who are
looking at apps since there are so many. does anyone know
what the criteria for getting into amherst is like? (avg because
it probably does depend a lot on the person)</p>
<p>For ecs just do what you have a passion for and show that you are committed. You'll be fine. In apps I clearly stated that I was an existential Taoist. That might have helped.</p>
<p>During an info session, we were told that those applying should have SAT's in the 700's. If you could play football, 600's; hockey, 500's.</p>
<p>Each class is only 300 students, lots of ED's and legacies make it very difficult to get accepted.</p>
<p>MADad, I believe some of what you said is incorrect. Amherst enrolls over 400 each year, not 300. Also, ED admissions are capped 30% of the incoming class. Last year they had 28%. That's a significantly smaller percentage than many other institutions of comparable quality. For example, Williams had 40%.</p>
<p>You are correct however, that admission is difficult. Hopefully, I will be one of the lucky ones with a thick envelope tomorrow.</p>
<p>Catfish--just going with what Amherst's people told us.
Isn't 1200 students divided by 4 = 300 per class?
I submit that 30% ED is high. Data on # of legacies is not something they would release. Read the book Price of Admission by Daniel Golden. Will open your eyes, and hopefully not make you too cynical.</p>
<p>We have over 1,600 students..</p>
<p>Accepted Harvard, waitlisted Amherst. Very nice!</p>
<p>MADad, you are correct. I know of no college which releases the number of legacies or their stats. It would probably be very interesting.</p>
<p>However, 28% ED is much lower than Amherst's peer institutions. I computed the following based off the common data sets for last year (linked to here:">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=76444)):</a></p>
<p>School - percent of enrolled students admitted ED
Williams - 40%
Amherst - 28%
Swarthmore - 42%
Middlebury - 49%
Bowdoin - 38%
Princeton - 48%
Dartmouth - 37%</p>
<p>The first five are the highest rated LAC's (USNews) for which I could find data. Clearly, Amherst is significantly below its peers.</p>
<p>I will check out that book when i get the chance. It looks very interesting.</p>