What Amherst College is like

What it's like

Amherst is an intensely academic liberal arts college of roughly 1,900 undergraduates with a reputation for rigor and intellectual freedom. The open curriculum gives students unusual autonomy over their education—no distribution requirements, no core, complete freedom to design interdisciplinary majors. The college competes as part of the Little Three (Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan) and benefits from the Five College Consortium, which extends access to courses at Mount Holyoke, Smith, Hampshire, and UMass Amherst. Admissions are highly selective; the vast majority of enrollees scored in the top decile of their high school class. The social scene reflects the college's position in Western Massachusetts and its historical transition from religious conservatism to secularism—fraternities were abolished in 1984 and converted to residential spaces, with residential life now organized around themed houses (Arts, Russian, French). First-year students must live on campus; upperclassmen may live off-campus.

Academic feel

Amherst's defining academic feature is its open curriculum—students choose from 42 major programs and 850+ courses with no required core distribution. Forty-five percent of the class of 2019 were double majors. The college pioneered several interdisciplinary fields: it was the first to establish undergraduate departments in American Studies, Law and Jurisprudence and Social Thought, and Neuroscience. The student-faculty ratio is 7:1, with 84% of classes under 30 students. Popular majors span quantitative fields (Mathematics, Econometrics, Psychology) and humanities (Political Science, History, American Studies). Faculty include Pulitzer Prize winners, translators, and specialists across sciences, humanities, and social thought. The library bears the name of poet Robert Frost, a long-time faculty member.

Strengths

• Open curriculum with no distribution requirements or core courses, allowing students to design their own academic path and interdisciplinary majors.[1]
• First college to establish undergraduate departments in American Studies, Law and Jurisprudence and Social Thought, and Neuroscience.[2]
• Small class sizes with 84% of classes having fewer than 30 students and a 7:1 student-faculty ratio.[2]
• Access to Five College Consortium, allowing students to take classes at Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[2]
• Highly selective admissions with 93% of enrolled first-year students in the top tenth of their high school graduating class and 99% in the top quarter.[3]

Traditions

• Rivalry with Williams College and Wesleyan University as part of the Little Three colleges, a historic grouping of New England liberal arts institutions.[1]
• Academic hoods lined with purple (Williams' official color) with a white stripe or chevron, signifying that Amherst was born of Williams.[2]