Amherst College Top Questions

Mostly.

Yes and no, people are often pretty intellectual, but rarely pretentious, we like to make fun of ourselves, and not everyone is rich and white, although there are a lot of people like that.

To a great extent, the stereotypes are accurate--they wouldn't last if they weren't somewhat true. There is a lot of money at Amherst, a lot of Lacoste and J. Crew. The only thing false about the preppy stereotype is that those people see themselves as better than other people at Amherst. There is a very strong sense of elitism, but it's directed at the people outside of Amherst College.

These stereotypes are completely false. Not only is the student body incredible diverse (socio-economically, ethnically, geographically, politically), Amherst students -although extremely intelligent- express their aptitude in an unpresumptuous way.

Most kids here don't really seem to fit that stereotype.

I don't think so, I just think you get tired of having to go through the everyday formalities with people you see everyday yet you don't really know well.

Like most stereotypes they have some base in reality but are by no means factual. We have all kinds of people here, some of whom may fit some stereotypes in some ways and some of whom do not at all. I think the preppy/Ivy reject stereotype especially is becoming less prevalent as the College continues with its initiative to create a more diverse student body.

there are certainly some kids that follow the stereotype, but for the most part, it is inaccurate.

yes, to an extent.

Not everybody here is preppy and stuck up but, coming from the Midwest, there are quite a bit of the population that fits into this box of being born into privelage, going to the best private high schools in the nation that feed them into schools like Amherst. But in part due to President Marx's and Admissions' goal to create more "socioeconomic diversity" (our new favorite phrase) there are a lot of really amazing, interesting, varied people here at Amherst that make up for the stereotypical students that we're known to have. And as for being liberal: people here are very in-tune with their way of life and while they may be voting for Obama, they aren't necessarily aware nor do they sympathize with many liberal ideals and aren't quite as accepting of diversity as they might seem.