Amherst College — Attraction in Amherst

@Daniel Clark (and also @ CC B) -- Thank you for validating something I experienced many years ago when I took classes for three years at Amherst as a Five-College student. Let me just start off by saying: I found Yale WAY LESS arrogant (and pretentious) than Amherst when I started grad school there after attending Hampshire College. YALE, ok? My father was a Columbia alum, and Columbia was also less pretentious and elitist than Amherst as well. I really did enjoy being able to take classes at all the other consortium schools when I was an undergrad @ Hampshire; BUT, Amherst College students were the WORST snobs I've ever met at ALL of the schools combined. Self-entitled, stuck up, pretentious, wanky, preppy, and literally for me, kind of nightmarish. I had the best off-campus course experiences at UMass/Amherst and Smith, & Mt. Holyoke ended up being ok too when I took a class there during my fourth year at Hampshire.

That being said, the six classes I took at Amherst were EXCELLENT academically speaking. Amherst does deserve it's ranking for it's academic rigor (I worked hard to even get B's in my Amherst classes & I knew grad schools would DEFINITELY be paying attention to my 'Little Ivies" GPA), however, I was always happy to go to back to Hampshire after class. The best class that I took at Amherst was a multimedia performance art class called "Scripts & Scores" taught by a WONDERFUL visiting professor at Amherst from NYU. He was very experimental and allowed us to create a multi-media performance piece combining film video/dance/spoken word/music. I collaborated with another Amherst student and another Hampshire student to each create our own individual material within the piece. I was even able to get the dance studio where we usually held class at Amherst as a venue to present the piece.

The piece was so well-received after our two performances at Amherst, we were invited to perform it at Hampshire next (I had planned on performing it there anyway), then UMass asked us to perform, followed by Mt. Holyoke and Smith. I have to say: as only a second-year Hampshire student, I was honored to be asked to perform a piece at all five campuses. That was when I truly learned how great a resource the Five College consortium is. And I knew it was mainly due to the professor (who remained one of my favorite faculty contacts during the rest of my college career) because he was VISITING faculty. I ended up having a VERY positive experience come out of taking that class at Amherst. Later, when I was in my fourth year at Hampshire casting for my Senior Theater production, I cast a couple of Amherst students in my show, and to their credit they were decent actors.

In the end, Amherst College was an experience I guess I needed to have (and the grades I earned there helped me get into Yale for grad school), but do I EVER understand WHY you would have taken a year of leave to go breathe less "blue-blooded" air. Amherst was pretty "upper crusty." And Amherst students were the way they were because in their circles Amherst is where you go if you get waitlisted or denied acceptance to the Ivies (I only discovered later on that Amherst is considered a "little Ivy") so that made sense. I visited Williams also, and it's VERY similar to Amherst (yes, I know their collective history) and the fact that they're "sister" schools.

In fact, I found Williams to be a bit more funky and eccentric than Amherst and maybe a bit more creative and artistic as well. Amherst has a much better location (I found Willamstown somewhat isolated, but it IS beautiful in the Berkshires) right next to Amherst Town Center, which I found enviable, since Hampshire's campus was a bit isolated also, being 4.5 miles away from the town of Amherst itself. Except for the convenience of where Amherst's campus was located, I preferred Hampshire in pretty much EVERY other way to Amherst. Although, in certain aspects, Amherst surprised me. It's NOT the kind of college I would have EVER applied to on my own though; Hampshire was MUCH more my...

Some things you should know about Amherst. I just attended my 50th reunion and spoke with lots of students still on campus. No students whom I spoke with thought the College was blatantly sexist. Students of all sexual orientations are highly focused on bridging divisions among them. Sure there are issues here, as there are at just about every other place, but the College is not shy about addressing them. Furthermore, I found consistent opinions among staff and students that the recent "Amherst Uprising", was quite different in reality from how it was reported in the media. No surprise there!

Amherst has a remarkably diverse student body, a fierce dedication to excellence in teaching, and exceptionally high expectations of both its faculty and students. The biggest challenge now is achieving the same level of diversity among the faculty that the College has been able to achieve among its students. Amherst is determined to fix this, but it may be difficult until a few more generations of college graduates from campuses with diversified student bodies such as at Amherst are out in the world and can be recruited back to college faculties.

An endowment of $2.1 billion when adjusted for per student capita, puts Amherst among the top 10 wealthiest institutions of higher learning and it uses those resources well. The College ranks at the top of colleges for recruitment of students of talent from economically under-privileged communities, in recognition of which Amherst received the Cooke Award for 2016. It is one of only 5 institutions that still admits students without respect to financial need (the others are Harvard, Yale, Princeton and MIT) and it has done so since 1965.

Despite the progressive rise in full tuition (now over $60,000 per year), the actual tuition paid by students has risen only slightly because of the extensive financial aid that is available. Amherst estimates that it spends about $1.2 million on each student over the four years of college.

It was a magical place 50 years ago. Although there have been many changes, It...

It has been an amazing experience, so far. And my child loves it! All a parent can ask for!

Last review was eight years ago. Now both of my sons have graduated from Amherst College and I can’t say enough about that school! They chose wisely majoring in disciplines they enjoyed but are using to pursue careers. They took classes at the other sister schools and were easily transported there by a shuttle bus. They made good Lifelong friends. Became involved in many student organizations and were elected to leadership positions. We lived in California, so there were holidays they didn’t come home. But they were able to spend Thanksgiving with some of the professors, many of the International students and their new East Coast friends. The career center and Amherst professors have assisted them both to initiate their careers, even after matriculating. The campus is lovely and welcoming. Amherst, the town, is a great college community that they share with UMass Amherst. There’s a fabulous farmers market on Saturday mornings that is well attended and has a variety of goods! I only wish I had another child to...