<p>If you’re interested in this aspect of Amherst, there’s a very informative new post that discusses it on the Swarthmore board. Go to the Swarthmore/Williams/Amherst thread, post #52 (by Mini).</p>
<p>You mean between UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke? If you are going to Amherst, you might as well just take all of your classes there.</p>
<p>There are good and valid reasons to take courses among the Five Colleges. Some courses aren't offered at one campus, other times there's a hot professor in a particular subject elsewhere. Smith has the biggest net in-migration of students taking classes; my D has had Amherst students in her Math classes and in Orchestra. Otoh, there are a couple of Amherst classes that she may take...which is the point of the consortium, giving students a wider base of classes to choose from.</p>
<p>Please don't come off like an ignorant buffoon by suggesting that the world not only begins but also ends with Amherst.</p>
<p>I have also learned that the 5 college consortium offers certifications in specialty field that go on your transcript - ie, the international relations certificate. You take 7 classes and receive your certification. I believe it is offered through Mt. Holyoke and is overseen by Vincent Ferrarro formerly of the Clinton administration, so there is name recognition. This is true of other programs offered. Amherst does not offer an IR major, but through the 5 college consortium, you can augment what they have. Amherst, Smith, etc., are small, and albeit wonderful, can't offer everything. This is the means of doing thisl.</p>
<p>Wouldn't there be a lot of scheduling conflicts in trying to take advantage of the 5-college consortium? Like overlapping times, or Amherst students being locked out of certain classes on other campuses?</p>
<p>It's fairly rare for a class to be "locked out" to members of the other Five Colleges. Host college students normally have priority...which is reasonable. The biggest problem isn't the class schedule itself, it's the before & after transit time that also knocks out other classes.</p>
<p>All I'm saying is that I live right in the middle of these schools, and they aren't all exactly "close" (except for Amherst and UMass). And no, the world does not begin or end with Amherst. I was just stating my opinion. Don't post here if you want to be like that.</p>
<p>Your opinion--that one might as well take all one's classes at Amherst--was ill founded and ill considered. If you don't like getting your knuckles rapped, then don't do things like that.</p>
<p>That may be so, but it isn't just an assumption. My father is a UMass professor and has taken classes at Amherst before (as well as others in the Five College Consortium). From first-hand experience, he said that Amherst has better, smaller classes. Let me reiterate; if you are planning to go to Amherst, go to Amherst (unless, that is, you love sitting in auditoriums filled with hundreds of people). If you were accepted to another (Hampshire, UMass), take some classes at Amherst. It's not that they are bad schools, but they don't exactly match Amherst. Sorry if I threw your day off (some people, you just don't know). My "ill considered" opinion isn't that at all, and if you hadn't jumped to that right away, you would have seen. When I think of the Five College Consortium, I think of Smith and Mt. Holyoke as good colleges, but only if you're female. UMass is also good, but a big party school and classes are very large. As for Hampshire, I don't know very much about. I am going to make the assumption that when you stated my opinion was "ill considered," that I didn't take Hampshire into consideration. My mistake. The rest though, you can take into consideration yourself, or maybe you just want to blow it off.</p>
<p>To the person who created the thread: sorry about hijacking it, but some people just need to be put in their place.</p>
<p>"TheDad," you are in no position to "rap" anyone's knuckles. That is the job of the moderators; it is known as deleting posts.</p>
<p>Good day :)</p>
<p>One flaw in your logic: Amherst guys can take classes at Smith and MHC.</p>
<p>and any college in the consortium could have a particularly unique professor that Amherst kids would want to take a class from.</p>
<p>also, if you disapprove of other posters confronting you, you shouldn't counter their actions with your own confrontations.</p>
<p>Sure, they can. But would they want to? I mean, think about that. I have a friend who does dual-enrollment who took a few classes at Smith last fall. He said that the instructors were really feminist. Why would a male want to take a class at Smith or Mt. Holyoke? When you get here, you will see why that is (or maybe you are open to biased teachers). Either way, your last statement is backwards. If you are going to post here, answer the kid's question because I'm not reading this thread anymore.</p>
<p>There are particularly unique professors. You can even take their class if you want. Just make sure to register early, enrollment is limited to 500 people.</p>
<p>The Moderators have enough things to do without correcting erroneous posts. Thank goodness that the board functions in a way that many parents and informed students do that for us.</p>
<p>--Moderator Obiwan</p>
<p>are you a troll or something? notice the thread didn't START with a question.</p>
<p>and i'm pro women's rights... and I'm heterosexual... I see no reason for not taking a class or two at Smith and MHC.</p>
<p>Hey, I got into Amherst and want to take Arabic and Linguistics classes. How in the world could I do that at Amherst??? On the other hand, the arabic program at UMass is reported as very good. Moreover, as a heterosexual male myself, I see no reason why I should not take classes at either Smith or Mt.Holyoke, but I do see some reasons why I actually should ;)</p>
<p>Try taking Italian at Amherst....</p>
<p>Che infame!</p>
<p>Che fail! Che fail! Ferma! Ferma! Gesummaria!</p>
<p>La Commedia e finita!</p>
<p>Che commedia e quella de tu parli?</p>
<p>Mini, you get a side order of egg roll with that.</p>
<p>Che commedia e quella de tu parli?</p>
<p>I Pagliacci.</p>
<p>E voi, piuttosto che le nostre povere
Gabbane distrioni, le nostranime
Considerae, poiché siam unomini
Di carne e dossa, e che di questorfano
Mondo al pari di voi spiriamo laere!</p>