I agree with @3girls3cats that sharing these opinions is valuable. I wished to provide a different opinion on some of it that so all points can be considered by future applicants/students.
This “athlete social divide” has been discussed here quite a lot, some students post here that they eliminated Amherst from consideration for this reason, and I applaud the administration’s efforts to deal with it insofar as it exists.
That could mean the large suite dorm (I believe there is now only one) will be filled with all kinds of friend groups, not just athletes, or that the football (insert team here) team lives in several dorms not just one, is that a bad thing? It’s certainly not a violation of any constitutional right to assembly.
My D says this “divide” doesn’t affect her social experience at all, but clearly it does affect some critical number of students because it comes up over and over, there are threads here about that going back years.
It’s interesting. My D is an athlete at Amherst, and doesn’t feel any of the concerns expressed in the OP. It just goes to show how personal to a specific individual the idea of “good fit” really is.
Was Amherst a big party school in your day?
My daughter loves Amherst but she is the first to admit that parties are small affairs and it’s hard to find a good gathering space for large groups. She has also said that she is looking forward to a semester abroad junior year because the school can get small if you allow it. However, she goes to Northampton and her friends take courses at UMass. They could attend parties and events there too so that helps the environment feel larger but frankly she is often too busy.
Interested to know if your child considered transferring out? Where did he/she spend junior year? and lastly, your remarks about your child having less “rights”. Could you explain? Was your child negatively impacted by something? are you speaking about the housing draw; it’s not entirely clear to me.
Sounds to me like its an issue of students who are NOT on athletic teams don’t get the benefit of upperclassmen in their ‘living group’ and so don’t get the benefit of lower housing lottery numbers (or however Amherst does their housing), and therefore are shut out of the most desirable living arrangements. While those on the teams always have access to the top choices because they always have some upperclassmen in their group to ‘pull’ them in.
I have no skin in this game, but I can certainly see how that might be frustrating to students who are not members of athletic teams, and who see the athletes (in their class and younger) always getting the better choices of living arrangements. The althlete/non-athlete divide at small schools can be brutal.
Yes that is a source of frustration. There are non-athlete multi-year groups but the vast majority are athletes. They can put one or two junior/seniors in a sophomore group and go right to the top of the list. Most non-athlete first years have friends, and form housing groups, with other first years.
A residential college system bypasses this drama completely, but I’m not sure Amherst is set up for that if the majority of students even wanted it. Amherst could probably make housing lottery truly random by removing the seniority advantage to mixed year groups (but leaving it in place for single year groups). Maybe that is the direction they are going in that OP is objecting to.
That’s for her to say, I thought you were responding to me
My D isn’t a varsity athlete and doesn’t feel outside of things at all. She has a close friend group that was mainly formed in her first year dorm. They are a mix of artists and writers and club athletes and a couple of varsity athletes (though I won’t lie, the latter appear to be strongly encouraged to room with, eat with and hang out with their teammates.).
Apparently this athletic review/report predates the cross country team’s actions, but I am sure it gives the suggested changes some sense of urgency.
I thought that the OP was complaining that his conservative-leaning recruited athlete didn’t have enough big blowout parties to go to, that everyone studies too much, that the administration controls everything, and that everyone no fun. He is complaining that he should have gone somewhere with lots of frats and parties.
The post talks about getting “party permits” (i.e. giving people notice that you are going to be making a lot of noise) and about how athletes should be encouraged to segregate themselves from the rest of the student body in their own quasi-frat dorms, and how Amherst might even broaden its sports recruiting from its current fixation on New England prep schools so that there are more people of color on sports teams - gasp - can you even imagine!?!?!
At least that’s how I read it. I reviewed the report on Amherst Athletics that came out yesterday and that undoubtedly led to OP writing his post. A lot of the things he is complaining about come from there. Everyone should read the report, then re-read the OP to see what they thing then.
I was interested to hear your response, @ThankYouforHelp , since i know your child is a varsity athlete. Does/did she plan to room with her team next year?
…but I think OP has some more points than those summarized above.
Interesting position. I guess some would say giving recruited athletes preference in admissions is a problem, some would say it’s necessary in order to field winning teams, which seems to be a point of pride for most students.
My own D played varsity athletics in HS but didn’t even try in college, didn’t feel there was any way she’d make the team for her HS sports and was a little sad that there wasn’t a club option (school simply too small I think, for that). So I do see how having teams with only walk-ons could be a good thing. They do exist, in club or intramural form, of course, but not for most sports.
My daughter is a Varsity Athlete. As a sophomore, she chose to room with a non-athlete, however I think she hopes to get a quad (or something similar) next year with some of her teammates.
She tried to get a 4 person suite with 2 athletes and two non-athletes this year (all from her floor in her freshman dorm), but like your sophomore child, was almost last in room draw and didn’t get assigned until the summer.
She does not plan to room exclusively with the team (and would never have lived in the no-so-dearly departed socials where the team used to congregate). But a couple of her teammates are among her best friends so there will be a mix. She hopes to live in the Greenway (like almost everyone else lol ).
The demographics of athletes vs non-athletes is interesting, and the report talks about grad rates, the old social dorms (85% athletes, mostly male - who knew? And my D said they were gross and she’d never want to live there lol), athlete alumni support rates, what they major in (hello Econ, no thanks to the senior thesis), and a lot on how missing classes is handled, concussions, lots of stuff.
Well, we only have one openly conservative professor - Hadley Arkes - and he is about to retire. Jeb Bush’s talk was great; he played it smart, and focused on the need for our country to educate our children differently and celebrating bipartisanship. The only time when Jeb received boos was when he mentioned some of Trump’s cabinet picks (namely, Betsy DeVos). I would also add, be cautious about comparing conservative guest speakers to a community that is open to conservatism. They do not correlate! Of course Amherst wants to put on the appearance of being politically diverse/open to different political views, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into the student body’s perception of conservatism.
OP is right that conservatives are not appreciated on campus. In fact, our campus is so liberal, that even Biddy has been receiving heat because she is too moderate (really?). The College Republicans are widely hated; a couple members got their rooms vandalized on the night of the election.
Amherst has, in my opinion, fostered a community where conservatism has become repressed. My guess is that there are more conservatives campus than one might believe, but that they don’t vocalize their opinions.
With the destruction of the socials, the party culture has taken a big hit. Most are now put on by sports teams (mixers). I would agree with the OP that if someone wants a good party culture, that isn’t an athlete, Amherst is likely not the place for them. There are events are campus, as others have said, but those are not to be confused with a party scene.
May I add, @doschicos comment seems oddly representative of the students here at Amherst – if you’re anything but a (likely radical) liberal, you might as well leave. A naive viewpoint that has resulted in Amherst being a liberal bubble: where anything not liberal is either racist, xenophobic, sexist, or, simply, stupid.
@OHMomof2 I should’ve clarified – there are now less places to party, regardless of whether one is an athlete or not. Less space = athletes taking over previous party areas for non-athletes. Non-athletes have it much worse than athletes now. With less space, no one is better off, but athletes have the upper hand in terms of what groups of campus get priority for hosting parties.
My experience in college was always that the professors view was right and that was the end of it. Because of this I leaned towards STEM which is more black and white. The math problem is either right or wrong. Not so with those fuzzy classes where the teacher is God and what they say is law. Some people do enjoy the endless debate because you yourself cannot be proven wrong. It is all opinion and interpretation. It allows for some cover.
The reality is this is how life is. Your boss will tell you what to do and is right all the time. The customer is right all the time.
This is what the letter says will change this year, as a result of the sports report. Lots of guesses as to what that will mean but it seems athletes won’t be able to take over all of, say, Jenkins, or the Triangle.
Whoops - misread your post, thought you meant hosting dorm parties.
Can you elaborate on the advantage athletes have in hosting not-dorm parties? What would you like to see done differently?
