<p>exactly, I think the Open Curriculum at Amherst is a great idea~ if you really wanna take the variety of classes similar to that of a college with distribution requirements, you can certainly do that! The only difference here is that at places like Amherst and Smith, you get to CHOOSE whether you want to do this or not, say if you hate maths/science/quantitative reasoning, you can forget about all these and just pick the classes that interest you! it's entirely your own pick, so grab the opportunity and don't feel lost!!</p>
<p>When I meant the people were genuinely nice and helpful, even to some lost prefrosh who lost his luggage and needed to go to town to buy some clothes.</p>
<p>They even offered to let me use their clothes but I had no underwear haha.</p>
<p>The people are great.</p>
<p>The comments here have made me feel a lot better about Amherst. I've heard from some students and even teachers that it has somewhat of reputation of having preppy, snooty kids... </p>
<p>So I'm wondering is the atmosphere at Amherst similar to that of Haverford or Swarthmore? They seem to embrace their "friendly nerds" image. Is Amherst like that, or are there a lot of jocks and kids who love to party here?</p>
<p>TxTx87, my D was at Diversity weekend, and the visit could not have been more positive. She found the kids there to be the opposite, not snooty at all! She has many of them on facebook now, and speaks very highly of them. My D is a jock, and she roomed with students in her sport. When I asked her on her return if she was sad to leave, she replied "When I left Amherst, I felt like I was going on vacation, as if this was my home." She found her fit! Mom is happy! Oh, and she does "embrace her nerdiness."</p>
<p>Thanks for the prompt response GA2012MOM. I'm glad to hear that Amherst suited your D well.
It's not so much that I'm nerdish as it is that I'm painfully unathletic. So I'm also wondering if there are a decent number of students here who do not play a sport (even an IM) but still manage to fit in. When I visited the campus, I didn't find anyone to be snooty, but I'm glad that you confirmed this.</p>
<p>I completely disagree that Amherst is warmer than Dartmouth. Both are incredibly warm, tightknit, schools.</p>
<p>TxTx87, I'm not sure about the "jock" factor. She asked on her DIVOH application to be mateched with someone from her sport, so she could have something in common, but definately was NOT the reason or highlight of her stay. While passionate about her sport, she would be on the fringe of making the Amherst team. Her enthusiasm for Amherst came from the entire package, not just one thing.</p>
<p>My daughter is a first year student at Amherst. She also attended the Diversity Open House last year and was instantly sold on Amherst. She is not an athlete. While some of her friends are athletes, most are not. She's into writing and is involved with the college's newspaper and a literary group. Amherst is a place for students of all types of interest and I don't have any sense that athletes dominate on campus.</p>
<p>D is now a jr. doing Study Abroad and the least athletic person I know! We tried everything when she was a child, and finally bowling worked for her for awhile. She won't touch it anymore. She loves Amherst and many of her friends are overseas this year, as well, and they are visiting each other and havinga terrific experience. One of her friends is into journalism, another into volunteerism, D is into Quiz Bowl, so there are many, many, opportunities there for everyone. As for snobs. Yes, there are some - aren't there everywhere? I went to a small college in a farming community, and we had our snobs, too, even though 99.9% of us were poor. Some people will always think they are better than others. Do they affect D's experience? No. Her friends are a mix of rich, middle class and poor, and no one cares. They care about the person - period. I have visited often, and met the nicest kids around there. Everyone was helpful.</p>
<p>i want to know how to open curriculum promotes learning...
much freedom but lacks the environment to spur you work hard??</p>
<p>^ Seriously? People don't go to Amherst SIMPLY to get the open curriculum so they can take 'chemistry in society'-like classes all 4 years. Amherst kids (and most kids at top colleges/universities) don't really need extra incentive to work as most of them are working because 1) they love it or 2) they hope to get a really great job which will not come by taking slacker classes (which I'm not even sure exist on the whole).</p>
<p>It promotes learning. Everyone is in your class because they are interested in it, which makes everything ten times better.</p>
<p>My freshman advisor encouraged me to take a wider variety of classes and I listened, though. It's a nurturing environment. You won't **** up so horribly.</p>
<p>so do you have to make a hard decision on what to learn every year?
there are so many interesting classes but limited time to learn, right?</p>
<p>There are still requirements in the major content area. However, what D found was that she could take classes that interested her, that she would never have had a chance to take otherwise. She has dabbled in many areas and has found things that really interest her so she pklans on expanding her knowledge int hose areas.</p>
<p>There's a shopping period to make it easier, so no, it's not so bad.</p>
<p>I'd tell you, but I can't afford to give you information that could potentially be used to usurp my position at Amherst.</p>
<p>If you really want to go to a quality college like Amherst it is important to chose the words you use with care. In the above quote, the word forestall would be more appropriate to use than the word usurp.</p>
<p>Re: open curriculum, My S graduated Amherst in 2005 and said the academic advisers gently encourage you to balance out your program, take some areas you'd never tried before and so on. It's just not required, but he took classes in every area of interest. He also discovered new interests and fit in a double major comfortably. Students I met from his friendship circles were all kind, smart, thoughtful, kind, fun, not snobby, kind. There was an authenticity I enjoyed, and a chill kind of wry humor but that might have just been his particular friends as that describes him. Very open an friendly. </p>
<p>My impression when I visited was that the athletes are noisy but don't rule the school. They are just a very identifiable crowd. S and his friends did not play any sports, but did a lot of courses and Ec's related to theater and music.</p>
<p>I often hear about how warm and friendly students are at various liberal arts schools and can't help but wonder if minority students would comment on the same. I don't know that I come across many on college message boards, but then again, I can't see anyone's faces so, yeah. I'm considering Amherst as well, I'm a black female from Los Angeles and one of my major concerns is the attitude of mostly mainstream students (middle to upper middle class whites) towards low income minorities like myself. I'm currently at a community college and my grades are probably just okay.</p>
<p>When D was considering Amherst (after being accepted) I was thrilled, then reality set in - I was concerned that even though white, that being poor and from an underrepresented state she would not be accepted there. I posted my query on this site, and a black female who was an RA responded (we met her later - she was D's RA her freshman year) that if she could fit in anyone could! Her words calmed my fears - and D has made many friends from diverse backgrounds. BTW, last year the newspaper printed articles written by a black male while at Study Abroad in Japan. Obviously no one thought he didn't fit in. The response to his articles led me to believe that he was very popular. My understanding was that he was a Financial Aid student, and no one cared.</p>
<p>This is about Williams, but I think it would be true at Amherst, too. S has met some very rich kids with household names. I asked him if this made him uncomfortable, and he said that no one really spends money so he can't really tell, and the divisions are much less pronounced in high school where he could see who was rich and who wasn't. D has had same experience at Barnard if she ignores the Marc Jacobs bags, haha. They all socialize and get along.</p>