@Surfbort thought I would update you. I’m sticking with amherst!
Have you changed your decision?
@Ahowooh that’s great! Send me a PM and I’ll try to find you at orientation after I’ve left Fort Gordon. Yale’s FA offer was pretty weak compared to Amherst, so my decision still stands. I’ll still write a very sincere thank you note to Patricia Wei and the rest of the folks in the Yale office because it really was a great honor.
Amherst alum here. I also chose Amherst over Yale a number of years ago. Had an excellent education that has shaped who I am and how I think. Amherst also enabled me to study at arguably the top professional school in my field. No regrets.
@Surfbort Cool. I’ll PM you once June 15 rolls around and I officially pass on Georgetown. (I’m attending Transfer day on the 11th just to see what I’m passing up). But I’m 90% sure on Amherst at this point.
I have a question for you though. Apparently it is required that students live on campus in order to become a part of the community. But what about us nontraditionals? You have a family, don’t you? I don’t imagine you want to live in a dorm. I’m 25 and not married, but I want to live off campus. I need to figure this out.
Amherst is clearly outstanding, a top-four LAC in anyone’s book.
I think when comparing elite LACs to elite universities – LACs vs. U’s in general – there are some fairly big differences:
- Class sizes, especially in the pre-major/intro courses.
- Number of courses and majors available
- Emphasis on undergrad vs. grad, relatively
- Anonymity vs. accountability
- LACs tend to be more rural, U's tend to be more civilized (hehe)
So regarding the question of U vs. LAC, I think the most meaningful considerations revolve around personal fit: what does the student want out of those four years?
Amherst is among my top quartet of LACs, at the same level as HYPSM and other top private U’s. Like I said, Amherst vs. (for instance) Penn is a question of individual fit, not quality of teaching/academics.
@Ahowooh you’re right, I’m a married 25 year married guy with a dog. I’ve already spoken with the housing folks and they’re more than ok with me being an off campus student. They’re really easy to deal with, I’m just not looking forward to house hunting in a college town -.-
I should probably call someone from housing too. Do you know if they at least have single rooms with private bathrooms? I’m too old to be sharing bathrooms lol. I spoke with a former transfer student and he said he prefers living off campus.
As a very top LAC, Amherst is certainly a peer of the Ivies.
Schools are really made up of students and professors. That’s the core.
The student stats at Amherst are squarely in the middle of the Ivies, a touch lower than HYP, a touch higher than Brown, Cornell, and right on the nose for the others.
It’s as difficult (or more difficult) to get into as most of the non HYP Ivies. This is particularly true for non-athletes.
And the professors are excellent. They have very high pay packages and attract professors who (generally) are primarily interested in teaching.
I agree with @prezbucky, for a student fortunate to have the choice, it comes down to individual fit.
My D told me something interesting the other day. We were talking about professors and tenure and she said “I’m glad my ___ prof got tenure, I wrote a recommendation for her”. I was like, what? She explained that when an Amherst prof is up for a tenure track position, previous students are invited to give feedback on how that teacher was for them. It’s considered in the decision.
I have never heard of that before. Is it unusual, I wonder?
If “turning down” includes transferring, there are many current students at Amherst College who have transferred in from prestigious institutions across the nation. UCSB, Trinity College, Brown, UPenn, many from Cornell, Wesleyan, Princeton, among many others (all I can think of off the top of my head).