Amherst College Top Questions

Amherst is a little small, but it is nice being able to walk across campus and know many of the people you see. The town of Amherst is small, but has many great restaurants, and if you ever need the big school feel UMASS is only 5 minutes away.

The best things about Amherst is that people are very intelligent and interesting and you can never get intellectually lazy. It is too small. Those that know Amherst will usually say that you must be very smart to go there. I spend most of my time in study rooms/common rooms with friends. The college town is pretty small, but there are cafes, restaurants and bars to go to, but might feel a little too small for people seeking a metropolitan experience. Administration is very good, very very little bureaucracy. There is definitely a lot of school pride. I can't point out to a particular experience, but I will always remember Amherst for the many friends I had, the many sleepless nights (and weeks), the intellectual conversations, the fast-pace life, the overwhelming feeling of security and care taken of you, my beautiful room & dorm, the very, very interesting classes, and insanely smart and interesting professors. Americans complain of the cliques; in the international community, though, this problem is non-existent.

Um, you better be a really energetic person if you want to come to Amherst. I'm not saying you won't like Amherst if you aren't energetic (I'm certainly not!), but there is always something going on. Concerts, discussions, plays, sports, clubs (not to mention all the homework you'll always have), will keep you busy!

If I could change one thing I would make the athletes and regular students more similar. All the athletes are normal kids, but the other difference between the athletes and non-athletes is huge. They are two totally different types of people. Amherst is so liberal and it is really laid back which is nice.

The best thing about Amherst: accessibility, both of professors and other students. Professors are personable and easy to contact, and rarely seem detached in classes. The size of classes helps too. As for other students, the college is small and everyone lives on campus so if you meet someone once you are bound to run into them again so it is easy to maintain friendships with people outside your social circle. School pride: if there is one thing I would change about Amherst it is school pride. You can definitely see some of it, particularly at homecoming and at some basketball games, but on the other hand it is usually the same group of people really leading the school spirit and it is not a regular thing. Apathy is prevalent and there is even detectable animosity. I feel like some people come here just on the academic reputation, size, location, etc. and not only don't care but actively reject a lot of the traditions. Obviously sports at a division III school will not be the revenue generating spectacles they are at major conference powerhouse, but it really saddens me when I hear people say (and I've heard this personally) "who cares how [insert name of team here] does, its just DIII." I am definitely over playing the negative here, but students spend a lot more time complaining about Amherst than they do talking about how much they love it or getting excited for some campus-wide event or game.

Amherst is great!

Amherst is small and caters very carefully to its students. You can almost literally do anything here. Professors are here to teach and for their students, so there is as much one-on-one time with them as you need; the region is great because of the five colleges and tens of thousands of students--many bands come through, there are hundreds of good restaurants, and plenty of socialization between schools; there is also a huge class selection because of the proximity of the other four schools. The administration goes out of its way to deal personally with students. The college president is always at athletic events, responds quickly to emails from anyone about anything, and has greatly improved relations with the town and with students. Amherst has a lot of money, and makes it abundantly available to students. You can invite speakers to campus, put on a show, buy t-shirts to attract students to fundraisers, or get research grants. The school is very generous to its students; the student just needs to learn how to go about getting the money, and then the sky's the limit. (This said, it is not frivolous with the money; there is close oversight, and money is given mostly to projects that will benefit the entire student body.) My biggest criticism of the school is the lack of school pride. Attendance at athletic events is generally low, except for a few big ones (Homecoming, matches with Williams, basketball games). There could be more school pride in this regard.

Amherst is a wonderful place. The cliche that we talk about classes and have energetic discussions outside of the classroom is 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} true. Friends will fight over some disputed topic, such as abortion or the death penalty, and then five-minutes later be talking about something trivial or going to play ping-pong at the campus center together. The school is very small, which has its advantages and disadvantages. Everyone recognizes everyone, and even knows somthign about them. Gossip is rife, do noit expect to escape the classic high school drama here. However, its size brings a sense of coziness and comfort, one can talk to anyone about anything; noone on campus is seperated by more than two degrees. The college town is small, but has a few good restraunts. Antonio's Pizza is the best slice you will have, coming in all sorts of weird and fantastic flavors (my personnal favorite is the Steak and Bacon), there are a few good chinesse restraunts within walking distance too. The PVTA is a free bus that takes students to the other five colleges, including North Hampton, which has all sorts of upscale shops and restraunts. Nobody complains about the campus administration, who try to make themselves as visible as possible. It is not uncommon to see the president eating at Valentine or working out in the gym. There is tons of school pride. If you come, do not ever mention the fact that you also applyed to Williams...huge rivalry.

Great education, Wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Great community, Unbelievable professors.

Amherst is great! Even though Amherst itself is a small college, it shares some resources with four other colleges: UMass, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith, and students can take classes at any of the colleges. Since it is so close to UMass, the town really caters to college students, with lots of pizza places and relatively cheap dining out options. My sole complaint about Amherst is the soy sauce--they use this brown liquid that looks and smells like soy sauce on all the walkways in the winter to melt the snow and ice instead of salt. I guess it is more environmentally friendly, but it smells bad and gets on the bottom of jeans. That's a pretty minor complaint, though.