Amherst College Top Questions

Since it is a small school, but it still has a large number of varsity sports, a big percentage of the population is involved in athletics. Freshman year it is easy to get to know people because they leave there door open and stop to say hi all the time. If you want to party at Amherst, there are plenty of opportunities to party, but if you don't there are many other things to do.

Many people are engaged in singing groups, sports, theater & dance, and many others. No, students in dorms do not leave their doors open, but their is a "floor community", because of the common rooms, I guess. The dating scene is not very big, some people do date, but that's a rarity. The hook-up scene is pretty big. I met my closest friends in different ways - some through the international community, others through classes, through organizations, through summer work, through the job application process. If I'm awake at 2 am on Tuesday, I am studying or procrastinating with friends in the common room. People party on the weekend, although Fridays tend to be quiet. On a Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking you can go to a concert/theater play, watch a movie in a suit with friends, just hang out, go to a restaurant, or study with friends (although that never turns out to be productive). If you want to get off-campus, you can go to a restaurant or cafe, to the mall, or to Northampton.

Every dorm has different activies in which they enjoy participating. Walk into one dorm, and you might find people playing video games, another, and there'll be an intense board game going on. Others are known for partying, and in some you'll only hear people speaking in a foreign language!

Decent social life, campus police lets you do what you want, but that seems to be changing. There are bars or dorm parties to go to on the weekends. Wednesday Nights are also big at the bars

Popular groups: A large percentage of people play sports. This probably seems larger for some people because athletes tend to group together, even if they are in different sports. There are a lot of other groups and clubs with various purposes, but none that I would say stand out as being really popular, or well attended or who have a dominating presence on campus. Dating scene: people talk about how no one dates, and they do, and in fact at least this year it seems like people do more than I expected. That said, more casual relationships are common. Closest friends: Most of my best friends are people on my sports team or people I lived with freshman year. I also have some friends I've met through classes and other activities. The nice thing about the size of Amherst is that you can still wind up running into people who you don't normally hang out with.

People are ALWAYS doing something here! Everyone is so involved in so many activities, that many times it's difficult to schedule free time to hang out with friends!

Student publications thrive at Amherst. They are entirely student-produced and -run. There are political, scientific, art, literary and miscellaneous publications, each of which publishes from 2 to 10 times per semester. All the normal varsity sports, plus popular crew, frisbee and rugby teams. Most students leave their doors unlocked. It tends to depend where they come from more than where they live on campus (students from New York City lock their doors; students from Maine leave their doors wide open). There are no official frats/sororities at Amherst, but there are several off-campus ones. On weekends the options are generally partying around campus, or going to town for movies, bowling, dining, etc. There are free movies shown in the campus center every weekend and all sorts of events put on by student organizations (speakers, film screenings, theme dinners, ethnic foods, etc).

The social scene at Amherst is more laid back then at big state school. There is alot of drinking, but mainly jsut on Thursday or Saturday. Fraternities and sororities have been abolished, however there are four underground fraternities that throw open parties on campus. People go to football games and basketball games, but other than that not many people pa attention to the sports scene, unless its a Williams game.

Fairly legit party scene

For me, the social scene can be a slight negative about Amherst. People are friendly, but after freshman year, it is hard to make new friends. There are generally big parties a couple times a week, with more artsy/live band parties on Fridays and sports team oriented parties on Saturdays. People hook up after parties, but there isn't a lot of traditional dating. The dining hall serves as the best place to meet up with friends, probably, because there is only one on campus.