Pioneer Valley Colleges: Day 3 Amherst College

The final day of the college tours led me to Amherst College where I would be transitioning over to my role as College Coach at College Summit for the second weekend in a row. We were very lucky that my College Summit schedule meant that we would need to go to the 9 am info session and 10 am tour because it was seriously hot.

My impression of Amherst is first influenced by the campus itself. Despite being just a few blocks from the town, there is a very tranquil feeling with large brick buildings and lots of grass. The mountain views don't hurt either, I can only imagine what it looks like in the Fall with the trees changing color. The details about Amherst are similar to other highly selective small colleges - holistic application review, a variety of very strong liberal arts majors to choose from, and a small residential student body. With less than 2,000 students this is a school that often falls off the list of many ElRo students because of the small size. But I would urge students to really think about how a school of this size may not be as small as they think. Yes, there is only one dining hall, but coming from a high school of 500 may make 1700 feel like just the right size. Amherst has no core curriculum, so students are allowed (and encouraged) to explore whatever they want without feeling obligated to study subjects they are not interested in.

My only complaint? No air conditioning in my dorm room for the College Summit workshop ;) I will say, on the upside, the dorm itself is very well maintained. It was the former gym from the turn of the century and they have framed photographs of the space from that time hanging in the hallways.

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