<p>If you have any questions about Amherst, I can (hopefully) answer them. I’m a student here if you are wondering.</p>
<p>Who was Jenny Kim?</p>
<p>Oh wow, that's really tragic :( I am sure she will be missed.</p>
<p>I'm interested in majoring in history and politics - do you think those departments are especially strong at Amherst? Thanks for taking the time to answer our question!</p>
<p>Oh, and just out of curiosity, who are some of the most interesting guest speakers/politicians/etc. that have spoken at Amherst in the past?</p>
<p>I haven't taken a lot of poli sci or history classes yet (That will change next year), but those I have taken have been excellent. There are a lot of great professors. One particularly excellent series of classes you might want to look into is the US diplomatic history series, a total of four classes co-taught by a history professor and poli sci professor. I have several friends in the current class and they all love it.</p>
<p>We've had some very interesting speakers this year. I can think of a few in your area of interest off the top of my head. Last week we had Tony Lake, former national security adviser to President Clinton and senior adviser on Obama's presidential campaign. The week before we had Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State and lead US negotiator in the 6 party talks with North Korea, who also came to the class on post-cold war diplomatic history. Last semester, John Bolton was here.</p>
<p>wow, the US diplomatic history series sounds great. John Bolton, wow, I would love to listen to what he has to say. I'm really into MUN (and the UN of course) so he is pretty much my ideal guest speaker - although it would be even cooler to hear Javad Zarif.</p>
<p>So are you doing a double major in Poli Sci/History or is there some major that combines the two? Oh, and is the Politics major called Political Science at Amherst? What is the difference between that and International Relations or Government Studies?</p>
<p>I haven't declared my major yet, although I'm considering majoring in Political Science. Poli Sci is functionally equivalent to a Politics or Government Studies major at other schools, although I think Political Science is the most common name. There isn't really a major that combines history and poli sci exactly, although LJST (Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought) contains elements of both. International Relations is a more interdisciplinary field, although there is substantial overlap with poli sci. Amherst doesn't have an IR major, although there is a certificate</a> program through the 5 college consortium. You might want to peruse the websites of the various academic</a> departments, the list of 5</a> college programs, and the course</a> catalog.</p>
<p>Boring parent-question alert:
What are the nearest banks to the campus? Especially banks with branches nationally (BofA, etc.) ?</p>
<p>I know there's a Bank of America on the main road a couple blocks from campus, and there is an ATM in the campus center. I'm not sure where the other banks are. Honestly, though, my bank doesn't have a branch anywhere outside the midwest and I've been able to function just fine with a debit card. If I ever need cash, I offer to pay on my debit card when a group of us are ordering food and have everyone pay me back their share.</p>
<p>Thank you, Catfish. You get the Helpful Amherst Student karma points for today! By the way, when my son and I visited Amherst last September, we found the students there to be so helpful and friendly. I told my son (he's an ED admit) when he's there I expect him to return the favor to other visitors.</p>
<p>He doesn't have a bank account. Last summer when he was working he just signed over his checks for me to cash at my bank. I figured since soon he has to open a new account somewhere anyway, it may as well be a bank that has a branch near campus.</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>Catfish seems to be in control of the situation, but I'll add my two cents.
Amherst is a small school so it doesn't really have the "International relations" or "Government studies" as they are all under polysci, although this shouldn't affect you that much. The history department is really good in my opinion. I think it is one of the strongest departments with great faculty and usually some good course offerings. Polysci is pretty good too with some really good faculty (Sarat, Arkes are both great professors-one is pretty liberal and one is pretty conservative), and is another of the strongest deparments here. I don't think you can go wrong with either department.
Bank of America is the only national bank I know of in walking distance.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great info. It sounds like Amherst has some great professors and my intended major has a strong department. Haha now all I have to do is get an acceptance letter :S</p>
<p>Hi! I'm an ED admit, and some questions about Amherst have come up since I began to research Amherst a bit more.
1) Does Amherst offer any journalism classes? If not, do you know of any at the other four colleges?
2) I've never had any experience with journalism before, but I've developed a little interest in that field this past year. Is there any way I could possibly get involved with The Student? (How strong is it, by the way?)
3) What are academics like at Amherst? Difficult/intense? Are students passionate about learning for learning's sake? Case in point: I come from a high school known for its high standard of academics and its bright student population. However, a lot of the times, I feel that many of my classmates go to school just to get into college, etc. We have interesting discussions during class, but only some of us take the initiative to continue the dicussions outside of class and explore the topics on our own. -- What're Amherst students like in that regard?
4) Is it difficult to get on the cross country team?
5) I've heard claims that Amherst is somewhat a party school and that students get easy access to alcohol and take advantage of that. Are the claims true?
6) How many classes is a student allowed to take?
7) Do you happen to know the dates of the Summer Science Program and if it is worth attending?
Sorry for asking so many questions!</p>
<p>Here is my take
1. I don’t think there are journalism classes, but there might be in the five college system and interterm. Interterm is a 3 week period in Amherst where there no credit classes and you can do anything you want (including staying home for 3 weeks and not even coming to campus).
2. You definitely can get involved in the Student. I would say it is pretty decent (very vague evaluation I know). I question why they put some stuff as front-page news and what makes news, but it is still pretty good and they have some good writers.
3. I would say the workload is intense but manageable. You are going to have a lot of work, but this place isn’t really that stressful. Unlike high school, you can choose when you want to do work and although there is stress, it is mainly at the end of the semester when you have tons of papers and exams around the same time. Don’t take this as this is easy, as it is far from it and there is much more work than high school, but you only have 4 classes too.
4. I don’t know if you are a girl or boy, but the women were D3 National Champions this year and the men are pretty good too. That doesn’t mean that you have to be a state champion to get on the team, but the athletics here are pretty good in general. E-mail the coach and ask.
5. It is incredibly easy to get alcohol and the campus police are pretty lenient in what they allow. I would say 75% of the kids drink and 25% don’t as a general rule. This is not much different than other similar schools, but I would say alcohol is easier to get here than most other places.
6. 4 (rare exceptions can take 5, but don’t do it as it there would be so much work)
7. I don’t know much about that sorry.</p>
<p>starshooter, I'm not at Amherst yet, but I will be next fall. I have heard from a lot of people that the cross country coach is really rude to prospies asking questions. I'm not into cross country myself, and I don't know anything about him first hand, but I've heard of at least 3 kids who didn't even apply to the school after talking to him because he was such a jerk. Someone else on CC said he was much better once you are on the team, but I'm just telling you because every person I've ever talked to or read posts from had a bad experience with him when they first contacted him. Since maybe he's better in practice and actually with the team, I wouldn't let his first impression take you by surprise in case he is as unfriendly at first as everyone says. Or maybe he'll not be as awful as I've heard, but at least you're warned. :)</p>
<p>CRD456 pretty much covered everything. I just have a couple more things to add:</p>
<p>A search on the 5</a> college course catalog turns up the journalism department at UMass and some scattered courses this semester at Hampshire and Moho. I'm not sure whether you can get credit for the UMass classes, because those aren't "liberal arts". The Hampshire and Moho classes should be no problem, since they are in a liberal arts discipline.</p>
<p>The workload is heavy but very doable. I think it strikes a good balance overall. The only time I was really stressed all semester was close to finals time.</p>
<p>If you want to drink, it's very easy to do so without getting punished, so long as you don't do anything phenomenally stupid like put yourself or others in danger. That said, there are plenty of people who have no desire to drink, and sub-free housing is available if you'd like to live in that setting.</p>
<p>The few people I know who have taken 5 classes a semester without working themselves to death are those who are a cut above everyone else, even at Amherst. They are literally some of the smartest people I've ever met. For us mere mortals, 4 classes is plenty of work.</p>
<p>B of A is not only the closest bank, but it offers special student accounts and credit cards, especially when parent(s) have an account as well.</p>
<p>CRD456, PhoebeCaufield, Catfish - much thanks for answering my questions! Definitely appreciate your responses!!</p>
<p>"I have heard from a lot of people that the cross country coach is really rude to prospies asking questions."</p>
<p>Are you referring to Erik Nedeau? If so, don't believe everything you hear ;)</p>