Minority Life at Amherst and other Very White Liberal Art Colleges

Hello I am an Asian male who is determining colleges to apply to this fall. Good liberal colleges like Amherst and Bowdoin are on my radar but with racial tensions high in America and their history of white supremacist students is it too bad to be safe or is it safe enough. I am basically looking for responses from ethnic people who can give their experience.

White supremacists in Amherst? I think not.

There were many reports after Trump won of Amherst students puncturing tires of minorities and riding around shouting profanity. Look it up.

My daughter is Chinese and has never had any issues at the school she attends, which is in the south, or at any school she looked at,including the schools in the Amherst consortium.

You will have to decide how much you want to live in the northeast or if there is some place with less racism.

You need to understand that much of the racism you see in America is on the news and on T.V. The demonstration and violence you saw on t.v. last weekend was among the teeniest and tiniest percentage of American citizens. I have lived in the Northeast my entire life and it is a very peaceful and welcoming place to all people. I can’t imagine where you get the idea that Amherst would be a place where you would find racism. It is one of the most liberal schools around. The media talks a lot about racism but majority real American people in real life and not on the media are not racist.

@interested1945 were those reports of students in Amherst or Amherst College students? There are 5 colleges in/near Amherst and one of them has 25 thousand students.

Amherst is one of the most diverse lacs out there and has made minority recruitment a priority

This story about Trump supporters running amok at Amherst College screaming and slashing tires of minority students is completely unbelievable. The Amherst students I know say the campus was in mourning on election night. Amherst is now majority minority (54% identify as students of color or are international students) with a student body that swings firmly to the liberal camp. The Town of Amherst and neighboring Northampton are so liberal that they are half-jokingly called socialist republics.

I’m an Amherst student and I was on campus the night of the election. We were indeed in mourning. Maybe there were UMass students “puncturing tires of minorities and riding around shouting profanity”, but it DEFINITELY didn’t occur at our college @Interested1945. Those are bogus reports.

Is there racial tension and racism at Amherst? Yes, and there have been a few incidents. But I’d say you will find less racism here than at most any other place in America. Amherst is the most liberal place I’ve ever been (which I love!).

And as @lloyddobler85 notes, Amherst is one of the most diverse LACs around. The admissions office recruits heavily to try and make Amherst a racially and socioeconomically diverse school.

However, the surrounding area is pretty white-dominated. Your physical safety is assured; however, I will say that some people of color have expressed that they feel out of place or overwhelmed (especially if they’re from a place that is “majority-minority”).

!? Okay, I just graduated from Amherst, so I was actually there on election night. This did not happen, and even the notion that it could happen on a very liberal campus like Amherst, in a very liberal town like Amherst, is preposterous. Also, I’ll note that I’m a student of color myself.