<p>Hi, I am already a college student but my friend wanted me to chance him for these two schools, and to get some feedback on personalities of the two, and how the overall academic and social experience compare. Also, how do the colleges do in job placement in general, but also specifically in NYC and Washington DC.</p>
<p>Profile:
GPA: 5.2 (weighted out of 5)
Honors Math for 3 years
Honors English 2 years
AP Chemistry (sophomore) 4 on AP
AP Biology (junior) 3 on AP
AP Latin - Virgil (junior) 5 on AP
Academic Excellence award junior year</p>
<p>ACT: 30 composite (32 32 31 then 25 on science brought whole score down)</p>
<p>ECs:
Jazz guitarist:
(would play in college Jazz ensemble)
All county jazz band
A+ and A's on NYSSMA level 5 and 6
In high school Jazz band and attends Jazz music school twice a week</p>
<p>Plays competitive soccer:
Club Soccer (won and placed in several major tournaments)
Varsity Soccer for 3 years (captain senior year)</p>
<p>Class Officer:
Elected 1 of 5 in whole grade
Planned Prom
Planned fundraisers and succeeded </p>
<p>Peer Leader:
Led groups of younger high school kids to discuss social, familial, or school related issues. groups met twice a month. </p>
<p>Science Independent Research:
Interned at NYSPI in NYC working with Schizophrenia doctors and doing general research (sophomore year summer)
Interned at Cornell Weill Medical Center and created a database for prostate cancer testing, which would result in him writing a full research paper, which was submitted to national competitions (junior year summer)
Won 3rd place in a county competition</p>
<p>Great letters of recommendation from Latin and English teachers</p>
<p>I am far from being an expert, but for Amherst the area of concern would be the ACT. If your friend applies ED, I would say that Hamilton offers the best chance. An ACT of 30 falls squarely in the middle at Hamilton where it is in the 25% at Amherst. I would encourage a retake after some hard preparation, so if your friend is rejected or deferred the RD applications would be ready to go. The rest of the application looks competitive.</p>
<p>Have your friend re-take the SAT. Amherst superscores the ACT. A 31 on the science would bring the ACT score up to 32 fro a decent shot at Amherst.</p>
<p>Since your friend is very interested in participating in jazz at college and is very talented, I have to comment on the jazz programs at both Amherst and Hamilton. We have heard both Amherst and Hamilton in rehearsals. Both schools have great groups and extremely friendly musicians - really! The jazz director at Hamilton gave S2 an intro/talk that lasted 1.5 hours! We sat in and learned a lot. He was contagious and inspiring and has his own style. You need to listen to his compositions to determine if you like his style. The Amherst jazz band has a totally different style and you may have some other playing opportunities at UMASS which is also strong in jazz. I highly recommend visiting and listening to both groups since your friend will spend a significant time in the jazz area. The two colleges are both great but appeared very different when we visited. S1 visited Amherst only and liked Amherst and S2 visited Hamilton only and liked Hamilton. So maybe you can be adaptable but it is good to scope it out for yourself.</p>