<p>i'm a freshman, so one year.</p>
<p>as far as social life is concerned...
There's a lot Amherst has to offer in terms of intimate social settings with people, since we ARE a small school and we tend to see the same people. I know I can at least recognize the faces, if not names of a good percentage of the school when I see them in the dining hall. There's always new people to meet, I'm sure. I think one of the best ways to do that is to really take advantage of the lack of core requirements and take an interesting array of courses. That way you'd get to meet people interesting in all sorts of quirky and new things. Since we are self-proclaimed as a very diverse school, you'd be able to meet a lot of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>I myself am not that much of a "meet everyone there is" person, so I've found a comfortable niche of a few people on campus whose company I enjoy.</p>
<p>There are a LOT of opportunities to meet people from the other colleges in the area. Some people take full advantage of these, but most don't. There is a free bus system, PVTA, that goes to all 5 colleges, all you have to do is flash your amherst ID. Amherst is the best academic school of the 5, so you'll find most 5 college mingling to be done academically here, rather than us going there. But the social scene, especially parties, is pretty active in the 5 colleges, there's events like Hampshire Halloween and various semi-formals dances, and groups in other schools. I know some people are in a UMass orchestra that we don't offer here.</p>
<p>So I'm sure this isn't exactly what you want to hear, but if you want to be active, meet people, go to the 5 colleges, you can. I'd say most are comfortable at Amherst, and most people are generally outgoing and like to meet everyone here. You can make the small college system not stale if you try at it.</p>