<p>Amherst really promotes this consortium… mentions it a thousand times around their website… I want to know how important is it? As in does it really make the environment better? Is taking courses in the other colleges easy? or people frequently come up with timing problems? Also, they never say… Is it possible to do a major that Amherst does not offer but is offered at one of the other colleges? Or will it have to be a called a self-designed major?</p>
<p>What about social activities? I am sure it would help if the students from the 5 places mix a lot. But do they mix?</p>
<p>The consortium is one of my favorite things about Amherst. Taking courses at the other schools is pretty easy, especially since the PVTA buses are free and run frequently between the various colleges. You obviously have a little more coordination to do than you would if you took an Amherst class instead, but it's not that big of a deal. I'm not sure if you can major in something that Amherst doesn't have.</p>
<p>Students mix quite a bit. Significant numbers of students from Smith and Mount Holyoke come to parties at Amherst on weekends and vice versa. For concerts and other major events 5 college students pay a lower price than the general public.</p>
<p>Taking a class at another school is only really viable if you have a car. Even then, it's not all that appealing. The only real benefit I see from the "consortium" is that there are more girls/guys to choose from.
Don't let it bother you, though. The school has so much to offer that the consortium's role should be irrelevant. It's only really advertised as a counterpoint to the "isn't it too small?" question. The answer is no, it is not. There's a whole lot of great stuff packed into the 1,000 acres at Amherst College.</p>
<p>zspot, I disagree that you need a car to take a class at another school. A friend of mine took Arabic at UMass and another friend from Smith took two classes at Amherst this past semester and neither of them had a car. It's definitely possible, it's just a bit more work logistically than taking a class on campus.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, UMass is easy, at least in the fall/spring if you have a bike. You won't really be walking much farther than the average UMass student from their dorms anyway.</p>
<p>Hampshire is a pretty short bus ride away. No worries there. That being said, Smith and MoHo are a huge pain, mainly because MoHo is just plain far and the bus takes a long detour through UMass on the way to Smith.</p>
<p>I know one person who's taken a class at UMass, and he doesn't really think all that highly of it anyway.</p>
<p>I just finished my first year at Hampshire, and I also disagree about the need for a car to take advantage of the consortium. I don't have one and have come to rely on the bus. I am taking a class at Amherst in the Fall and it will only be a 5 to 10 minute ride. Hell, it's only 2 miles, I could walk it in nice weather. I know many people who have taken classes at Amherst, UMass and Smith and have had no problems. Truthfully, Mount Holyoke does seem kind of far away, though there are always MoHo's on the bus too, so they do get around on it.</p>
<p>Also, let's not be snobbish, there are some good, and great, classes and professors at each of the colleges (as well as bad ones I am sure). I had a former Harvard professor at Hampshire this past Fall and he was EXCELLENT! I have heard that there are some incredibly strong music classes at UMass.</p>
<p>I once took the bus to Smith. By car, it takes maybe 15 minutes tops to get there. Between waiting for the bus, riding the bus through downtown, then through UMass, then stopping off at the mall, then through Northampton downtown, it took me about an hour and a half.</p>
<p>The distance between Hampshire and Amherst is more manageable since the bus goes direct, but try to walk it and you'll find it's a good deal farther than you expected. Plus, the entire distance is pretty much isolated countryside, so you might get jumped by an axe murderer or something.</p>
<p>TianXia-do you actually go to school in Amherst? Neither of the things you just said fit with my experience AT ALL. In no way does it take an hour and a half to go from Amherst to Northampton on the bus, and the walk, or bike ride, from Hampshire to Amherst is not isolated at all. It is a road of many houses and stores along the way (not to mention the fact that Amherst is not exactly a place one has to fear axe murderers).</p>
<p>Well, between waiting at the bus stop, stopping four times downtown, stopping at three traffic lights along the way, then stopping at the Haigis Mall for ten minutes, then another traffic light, then three more stops on University Drive, then another traffic light, then a stop at the supermarket, then another traffic light, then stopping at the mall, it takes about 45 minutes, and you're less than halfway there. You must have gotten on the bus at the time where passenger traffic was less than average. That's all I can say. At the very least, it takes an hour to get from Amherst to Northampton via bus.</p>
<p>I'm also wondering how you consider a golf course, one brewery, an elementary school, and a small residential neighborhood (trust me, I know the area, I grew up there) "many houses and stores along the way." No offense, but I suspect you're the one who hasn't spent enough time off-campus.</p>
<p>the busses are serviceable, but i wouldn't want to be stuck on them one two or three times a week unless there happens to be a class you are deadset on taking at another school. like i said, it's a possibility, but it's not nearly as prevalent as they make you think.</p>
<p>I agree with raiderfan4eva, I don't think women appreciate being referred to as "hos" in any context...</p>
<p>When I drove to Northampton from Amherst with my parents, it was a twenty minute trip. It's a very nice town, lots of tres chic boutiques and bars.</p>
<p>MoHo is a term for the place, not the people. You wouldn't refer to a student as a MoHo any more than you would call someone an Amherst or a Harvard. Northampton is often shortened to NoHo as well. I'm not sure what's up with these New Englanders and their crazy abbreviations, but I would guess the abbreviations predate the popularization of the term 'ho' outside of Santa.</p>
<p><i>When I drove to Northampton from Amherst with my parents, it was a twenty minute trip. It's a very nice town, lots of tres chic boutiques and bars.</i>
<i>When I drove to Northampton from Amherst with my parents</i>
<i>drove</i></p>
<p>This is what needs to be made clear. By car, you can go straight through Hadley, then turn before entering Northampton downtown and take a back road, thus avoiding all the traffic. On the other hand, by bus, rather than going straight down the hill from Amherst into Hadley, you instead go through Amherst downtown (which is pretty much the exact opposite direction), then make an extended stop at the Haigis Mall in UMass, then back down University Drive to Hadley. It takes a good twenty or more minutes by bus to cover a distance you could cover in a minute by car. Then it's mostly straight until you get Northampton, at which point it's straight through downtown, which is generally traffic hell.</p>
<p>I can pretty much guarantee that if you have to commute there (and back) by bus three or four times a week, you'll be pretty damn sick of it within the month. I'm also not quite sure, but I think Smith and MoHo have different break schedules than Amherst, which is an added hassle.</p>