My oldest went there for 4 years and he never heard anyone say Amherst with a silent h. Must be some Brit rule.
Have lived in MA for 30+ years. Never heard of anyone calling Amherst with a silent h, either. We do pronounce several names a bit âoddâ. I work in Woostah.
My parents, from the Boston area but lived in Amâerst when father went to UMass, never ever ever say âhurstâ. They have pretty think Bostonian accents. Amâerst.
We lived near Wissta for a while.
D1 wouldnât consider Seattle schools because everyone was wearing scruffy jeans and North Face jackets. Actually googled âdo people dress nicer in Chicago than Seattleâ while we were still there. Did score a raft of designer jeans at a consignment store. Freshman move in, and then switch to ratty.
I live in MA, never heard anyone say Amherst without pronouncing the h. However, I do live in Eastern MA so I canât speak for those in Western MA but my friends there say it with an h.
My MA born mother calls Worchester, Wister. Is that correct? I think people call it Wooster. Iâm confused. As for Amherst, I always pronounce the H, but I wasnât born in MA.
My D wonât visit let alone apply to Virginia Tech because of three neighbors who hang VT flags in their yards the entire college football season, and have those VT windshield flags sticking out of their cars on every game day.
Iâm from the eastern part of MA and we always have pronounced the H in Amherst. The letter R gets dropped and added depending on the situation though.
Regarding the Virginia Tech flags, I have one daughter who would agree with your d, and one who would apply for that very reason.
Pronunciations: âWuhstahâ and âAmerstâ
Maybe itâs a Mid-Atlantic thing on Amâerst. I 'm from Philly area and know multiple generations of alum, and no one pronounces it âAmHurst,â only âAm-erst.â
Similar to peculiarities of Swarthmore, which in our area is pronounced âSwathmoreâ, no ârâ in âSwarth.â
@bclintonk Everyone in Boston knows how to pronounce Bowdoin Square and the Bowdoin subway station.
@Midwestmomofboys - the fact youâre from the Philly area explains it. I lived there for a few years and they pronounce a ton of words weird, like âwooderâ instead of âwaterâ 
@Midwestmomofboys agree! Grew up near Swarthmore and have only heard the college admins say Swarthmore with an ârâ. People who live around there say it without the ârâ.
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Letâs get back to dumb reasons kids use not to look at colleges!
So my kid doesnât want to apply to Northeastern University because itâs too much like Northwestern, and he already wants to apply to Northwestern.
On the other hand, as a non-stupid reason, he was turned off of Harvard, because A, the guide was way to full of himself, and B, every time my kid asked about any programs (besides business, which interests him not), especially arts or writing, the guide would say a couple of words on the topic, and then go off on âbut our BUSINESS school, blah, blah, business, blah, blah, blahâŠâ
Similar to the âAmherst-Amerstâ thing, when D was applying to Mt. Holyoke, some pronounced it âHaul-yokeâ, as opposed to âHoly-oakâ. Different strokes, I guess.
DD took Hamilton off listâtoo many people with pink or purple hair.
From Amherst website:
Amherst faculty, staff, administrators, students, and alums universally pronounce it with a silent âh.â But definitely many people in Boston call it 'Am-hurst," but with that curiously disappearing Boston âr.â (Of course, everyoneâs heard of âPahk the cah in Hahvud Yahd,â but my favorite is a sign I once saw at a movie theater concession stand in Cambridge, mockingly advertising âHot budded puppcon.â)
My daughters had no use for Amherst with or without the âh,â partly because they thought the tour guides were a bit too full of themselves, and partly because the school is named after an 18th century British military commander, Lord Jeffrey Amherst, who openly advocated genocide of Native Americans, including poisoning them with smallpox-infested blankets. And at the time their sports teams were even called the âLord Jeffs,â a name they subsequently dropped. I donât think Iâd classify that as a âstupid reason.â Others might.
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It must be an Amherst College thingy then, as I donât think many people from UMass call their city with the silent h.