What @freetofall related is very concerning. For the people who went to the overnight stay, could you please share your experiences? I wasn’t able to go, unfortunately, but I would like to know if other people also experienced this “toxic culture.”
I will second that Amherst is a great town. Amherst college is located in the best place because it is basically across the street from the Amherst Common where there are always events happening.
As far as the school trying to construct social circles, it seems to me to be a fools errand. You can’t force kids to be friends. I am sure they do a wonderful job encouraging kids to interact but at the end of the day it is up to the individuals to get along.
@freetofall sorry for your kid’s experience. Hopefully it was a one off.
@purple2021, My kid is on his way back from the overnight. He is looking at UChicago, Amherst and Bowdoin. He has now visited all three for overnights. I only saw him for little bits of time yesterday at Amherst, but he told me that he found the kids at Amherst easier to approach and more friendly than the kids at the overnight at UChicago, which liked a lot too. I hope to learn more from him when he gets back this evening. As a parent, I found the parents at Amherst a little more laid back than at UChicago and the faculty at Amherst was a little more approachable too.
I visited overnight for 2 nights so I can add to this. I had a very friendly host, although most of the other admitted students (like me) were left alone by our hosts almost immediately and only saw them when we went back to the dorms for the night. I was surprised by this, expecting that Amherst would want the hosts to chat more with us to talk about the school, meet their friends, explore the campus, etc. Maybe they were specifically told to let us go on our own so that we could meet other admitted students though (and this is what ended up happening for almost everyone where eventually people would find a few friends to hang out with during the program). However, since I didn’t spend much time with current students I wasn’t able to judge the student body’s personality/social atmosphere. The kids like me that I did meet were incredibly friendly and very easy to make friends with.
The only other negative aspect of my visit was that I did note a strong athlete non-athlete divide. Athletes seemed to go around campus exclusively in groups with their teams and also in the dining hall, and they seemed notably less friendly and closed off. However, the other current students that I met were very nice and open. I also noticed and learned that there are quite a lot of Economics/Political Science majors and finance-oriented students at Amherst, which does create a certain culture that some like and others may not.
The culture was a bit hard for me to pin-point because of that social divide I noticed. While there was a strong athletic presence, there were plenty of other students who were more “hipster” and/or friendly. Most of the people at the program who I talked to said that the visit was great and definitely made Amherst a stronger contender in their decision, if that info helps you at all.
Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and definitely was impressed with how invested Amherst is in giving its students an incredible education and amazing professors, internships, research opportunities, etc. And the facilities are the best I have seen at any college, especially the dorms (brand new modern upperclassmen dorms and the freshman quad has beautiful housing as well. My host was lucky enough to live in a two room double!)
@freetofall Could you possibly elaborate more on your son’s experience? I’m choosing between Amherst and another school where I did get a more friendly and open vibe so that might be the selling point.
As the parent of a previous host I can say that they are told to provide a place to sleep and that’s it. Accepted students have so many activities/classes/whatever to attend that they’re pretty busy. She tried to do a bit more but her student was rarely around.
That said, my D was a little put off by her own host’s absence also. It was not a plus factor for her but it is just one person and they are actually now friends.
Overnights are a tricky experience. Having an unwelcoming host - or a host you don’t connect with - can really put you off of a school. When I visited for an overnight last year, I had a “planned” host (who was kinda creepy and weird, tbh), but I ended up staying with a different guy I met through other means. I had an overall pretty fun experience, but I can definitely tell why it isn’t so fun for others. That being said, I hope all of you who visited got a taste of what Amherst is. 
I agree with Economathematics ^ My daughter did not have an overnight at Amherst and she had an awful overnight at Bowdoin. The host was odd and ditched her for most of the night. One real reason she chose Amherst over Bowdoin.
@ricka8
I think one can look at the objective data, but ultimately it is a good idea to go with your instincts.
Based on what I heard, I would want to think about the “two Amhersts” and whether or not there is a place there in those two Amherst that you feel includes or even imagines you… the divide between the athletes and everyone else seemed pretty pronounced. (I recommend reading the Amherst Student online: it will give you a sense of the issues and/or emotions that are defining the campus at present.)
Also I was surprised to hear negative feedback about the classes themselves: my son attended three classes and said that it was all lecture, no discussion, even in the small classes. This should be Amherst’s biggest selling point, so that is an area of concern.
Finally, and going back to the athletics report, I would want to ask questions about career placement. (Amherst certainly continues to place very well in graduate and professional and medical schools.) I think that it may be that most interviews from big firms go to athletes but it is a bit hard to get that data. The internship rate is shockingly low: about 12 percent of students get internships that the school knows about before graduation. This is an unbelievably low number and schools with many many fewer resources do a much better job with this. Some students assuredly do get other internships through other means, but that may only reinforce the sense of a closed kind of system.
@freetofall would you mind sharing where you found the data about the percentage of students getting internships?
Office of career services
@freetofall I’m curious where you got that internship number too. I just looked through the Career Center report and they say that 164 students got internship stipends from Amherst - that’s 9% of the student population right there. I would think that many more students got salaried internships, but maybe not?
I also just looked up the 4 guys who placed in a Chicago trading contest - they’ve all had finance internships and none are varsity athletes.
I’m visiting Amherst next week. Any classes/professors I should seek out or avoid?
Interesting re: internships. D had one through Amherst Select program summer after her first year, with funding from Amherst, several of her friends were on campus doing research (does that count? The SURF program hosts a lot of students every year). This summer D is doing research elsewhere but with support from her professors for rec letters and the career center helped her with cover letters. She has friends doing everything from a public health internship with AIDS clinics (via Amherst Select) to earning $14K for a summer at Goldman and lots in between, and these are not even juniors. Anecdotes are not data, I know, but I cannot imagine only 12% of grads have done internships. I’d be surprised if only 12% of students did them their first summer alone.
Here is the annual report form the career center for those interested: https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/LoebCenter_AnnualReport_2015-16.pdf
Amherst select is not the only source for internships, and many students do not bother to go that route. Each of my sophomore daughter’s closest friends has a paid internship this summer (except one who I think will be spending the summer travelling). Most of them, including my daughter, had a paid internship after their freshman year as well.
The career center is very proactive and helpful in this process, and Amherst alumni basically jump through hoops to find summer spots for Amherst students. Internships are ridiculously easy to find, at least in science and business areas. It may be a bit harder for a history major - I can’t speak to that.
@freetofall I would be very cautious to define the views of the Amherst Student to be the views of the entire student body. Also, sounds like your son didn’t choose the classes he should visit very wisely. Many of our classes are based around discussion, even if not labeled as such. Also, I wholeheartedly disagree with the assumption that most interviews/spots at the ‘big firms’ go to athletes. That’s incredibly narrow-minded, and very likely inaccurate.
And wherever that internship number came from, it is most definitely wrong. I’d say at least half of the student body has some sort of internship before Junior summer, and probably 75-90% of people have an internship before they graduate. Amherst opens lots of doors.
@ricka8 My kid has done 3 overnights (at different colleges) to date and it is quite uncommon for a host to hang out with a prospective. That said, my kid stayed overnight at Amherst for 2 nights and found his host to be helpful and they got a chance to chat, too. For us, the overnight was also a chance to get a sense of who your peers will be and spending time with them can be helpful in deciding where to go school. Most likely if you are looking at Amherst, you are looking at other comparable schools and all of them likely have great faculty and programs. Knowing who you will spend the next 4 years can be helpful in decisionmaking.
@freetofall My kid attended 2 classes - one lecture format and one discussion based. He thought both were great with interesting material and good instructors.
@freetofall: “about 12 percent of students get internships that the school knows about before graduation. This is an unbelievably low number and schools with many many fewer resources do a much better job with this.”
Huh, I just saw this. While the point has already been hammered home in this thread, I’ll reiterate that the 12% figure given by the career center here is a bit misleading. As a point of clarification, it most likely refers to the percentage of Amherst students who specifically got funding from the college administration for their summer internships (aka internships that are unpaid, and usually in academic/public service fields). Paid private-sector internships aren’t incorporated into this number; for instance, I had paid sophomore and junior internships at two different investment banks when I was at Amherst, so I wasn’t included in that 12% figure. The actual figure is probably more like 50-80%, especially for junior summers.
Basically, if you get a volunteer job, you can apply so that Amherst will pay you so that it is like a paid internship. That’s all that 12% represents. Almost every student my daughter knows has an internship this summer (after sophomore year) that is directly related to their major or area of study. She doesn’t know a single person who is just working at Starbucks for the summer.
there are many schools out there that cost less, are “top notch” not sure what makes Amherst or any school better than any other… like…harvard is the best…why??? ummm it just is…I would argue that people should cast a wider net and find a school with perhaps less students and faculty who are close minded,self absorbed and intolerant. many schools are inhospitable these days. save money and go to a better fit school that is more tolerant school. I can think of a few. …and save money too
Wow, @zobroward , what do you have against Amherst?