I am a junior right now looking at colleges to apply to next year. Amherst caught my eye but I really know little to nothing about it. So what is Amherst like? Please just sell me the college, stats, culture, sports, anything about it really. Thanks in advance!
For starters, Amherst offers a full NESCAC sports program that engages many of the students. However, by the essential philosophy of the conference, academics will be given first priority.
By basic student profile, the typical Amherst student would be academically competitive nearly everywhere:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10
Consider as well Amherst’s purely undergraduate-focused approach to education and near perfect (for that purpose) size (~1800 students).
I love the size, that was the first thing that stood out to me. Thanks for the sports mention too. They are quite good at cross country it seems (my sport). They are only undergraduate? That’s interesting; I like that.
Your perspective as to whether Amherst would be right for you may ultimately be much the same as your perspective as to which colleges in general might be right for you. Do you want an academically excellent, undergraduate-focused school with a traditional, sylvan campus in a four-season climate and D3 sports, or one that may be comparably academically excellent but with an otherwise different set of attributes? Should it become clear to you that you would prefer the former, then your inclusion of Amherst among your potential choices might be natural, and the rest of your list could fall into place as well.
I have visited twice and did an overnight as a prospective student. Amherst is, in my opinion, a great school if you like the very small size and lack of urban setting. The town is great, but very simple and far from any cities. Lots of students tend to complain that these two factors make the school feel stifling at times. Dorms are great and the campus is stunning, especially with a great view of the mountains. Food is okay, but only one dining hall which can be a good or bad thing. My host said there are long lines often for food.
Huge emphasis on diversity in admissions, which was one of my favorite aspects, supposedly creates some rifts between students (I’m sure many don’t notice it though). The wealthy whites, blacks, etc. often clump together rather than mixing like the college originally hoped. I definitely did notice this on a small scale on my visits, however people are very friendly and it doesn’t seem to be hard to make friends. My host had a circle of African-American friends, but certainly had friends of other cultures/races. With the small size, it can be harder to find your niche/group, and some say that the social structure is very rigid in that friend groups never change from freshman year and cliques are common. I’ve heard there is a small social divide between athletes and nonathletes.
Also, parties tend to be dominated by the upper-class white male athletes held in the Socials, though this could change now that the socials have been torn down and replaced with branches. Lots of complaints that administration does nothing to help the social life and that it is definitely lacking. There isn’t much to the social life besides parties, it seems, but who knows what will happen with branches! It is easier for the athletes to have a good social life than nonathletes.
My main issue with the school (it was my first choice but the overnight pushed it down my list) was the preppy/athletic emphasis and stifling feel I got from it. I definitely felt the size, even though I have always wanted a very small school, and I didn’t love it. People were fairly preppy and athletic, and overall the social aspect was not very appealing. However, I still loved the academics (amazing classes, teachers, research opportunities, academics as a whole), and the people were very studious- maybe a bit too uptight about it?
Anyways, hope this helps!
By the way, I ended up replacing Amherst with Brown as my top, because I liked the larger size, more accepting/open and extremely friendly people, smaller athletic presence, and the relaxed, fun atmosphere. I did an overnight there too.