Tell me about Amherst

[Anonymous]

Strict COVID policies make me like a college more, personally.

Does anyone know how real the five colleges consortium is? My son just got into UMass Amherst and I’m wondering how easy it would be for him to take classses at Amherst, hampshire, etc

[Anonymous]

DC’s final two was between Amherst and Northeastern. Ultimately went with Northeastern based on city vibe/energy of Boston and the strength of the coop program. Amherst was a close second and is a wonderful school with small classes and top liberal arts curriculum. Can’t go wrong with Amherst and my DC would have been very happy there in my opinion. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My daughter just graduated UMASS Amherst. Most of parties happen off campus and except for freshman most live off campus. Whole town is a college town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strict COVID policies make me like a college more, personally.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does your child like school socially? I worry it is too isolated. Seems like the fun would be at UMass Amherst and that would clearly not be a walk to get over there. Also what kind of internships did your child secure while there. We want to be open to other parts of the country but also want to make sure we don’t get an “I am bored” call a few months in when tbe fun seems to be large schools. Thoughts?

Lots to do at Amherst because it’s a great college town right next to campus and plenty of free buses connecting the colleges and Northampton, an even better town. Would not call UMass unwalkable because the walk is through a pleasant downtown and that extends tolerable walking times; could be 20-35 minutes depending on where you want to go (but at least one free bus will likely pass you on the way, so look behind if you are walking and be aware of the downtown stops if you don’t want to walk anymore). Is this a boy? He’ll have lots of opportunities to go to Smith and Mount Holyoke parties (free busing). A girl could go to UMass frat row (20 -25 minute walk) if that’s her thing.

Or, navigate between the woke students and the 35-40% athletes (more athletes, numerically, than U. of Alabama) and party on campus. A lot of the campus tension I suspect comes from the ridiculous number of (mostly white) recruited athletes and the schools “commitment” to a diverse racial class. This is a built in contradiction. If child is unhooked, be aware that every year admissions % decreases but number of URMs and athletes stay the same. By definition, then, the non-hooked rate is yearly decreasing faster than the overall admissions rate. The real admissions rate for non-hooked kids is therefore much, much lower than it appears (and that is already very low). (The Amherst no-legacy thing is a PR fake out: the athletes the real “white privilege” issue.)

[Anonymous]

Very few replies here from current or recent parents or current students or recent alums. I graduated from Amherst College 25 years ago so my experiences aren’t recent, but I did try to talk to a lot of the current students at my reunion earlier this year. FWIW I loved Amherst and made wonderful lifelong friends. I don’t recall being bored, but a lot of my social life did consist of sitting around a dorm room joking around with friends. If huge parties are what your student wants, it might not be an ideal environment. There used to be regular college sponsored dance parties with free beer for students old enough to drink (“Tap”), but I don’t think that exists anymore, and I think the move to singles and doubles limits the size is dorm room parties. There are also lots of concerts, movies, etc. at the college and in the surrounding communities, so there are always things to do. But the social circle is largely limited to the kids at the college.

Amherst has actually made more of an effort than most comparable colleges to diversify its student body socioeconomically, so I don’t know that that particular criticism is well merited. They’ve put their recruiting and their money where their ideals are.

And the current students that I met were fabulous - smart, thoughtful kids doing great things. I would love for my kids to go there although they’ll never get in in this day and age. No legacy preference any more!

[Anonymous]

Alum here. 10:44 is correct that Amherst has a very high percentage of students who are recruited athletes and URMs. But I’m not sure why these kids don’t get to be great kids too??? The athletes aren’t dumb jocks. They are great students who are also good at sports. I think the PPs use of “woke” to criticize students should tell you a lot about where they are coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alumni here. It’s an awesome school but yes small. You can be really academic and needy and will have plenty of friends just like you. There’s also a big athlete scene but they’re also all very good students. I always recommend Amherst to folks considering a SLAC but hesitate now because of how crazy they went over COVID. Maybe give it another couple years to see if they don’t revert to their insane policies.

You anti-vax people simply can’t help yourselves. It’s pathological.

She’s not referring to requiring a vaccine. People who think these level of restrictions were reasonable (nearly 2 years in to the pandemic and post widespread vaccine availability) for a population that is statically among the lowest risk are the ones who are pathological.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/....html?outputType=amp

PP alumni here. Yes it went way beyond vax mandates. I supported vax mandates when we believe they reduced transmission but think they’re pointless and divisive at this point. (My whole family is vaxxed btw). It was just crazy what the college did. They literally banned socializing for like an entire year. It was very much akin to the China approach for a long, long time. .

To say they banned socializing or they were akin to China's approach is just fearmongering and gaslighting. You may not agree with the policy, but Covid is still killing millions of people not to mention the huge wave of long Covid that is going to hit our society over the next few years. For those who don't believe in vaccines or masking, go elsewhere.

Found another coronabro!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alum here. 10:44 is correct that Amherst has a very high percentage of students who are recruited athletes and URMs. But I’m not sure why these kids don’t get to be great kids too??? The athletes aren’t dumb jocks. They are great students who are also good at sports. I think the PPs use of “woke” to criticize students should tell you a lot about where they are coming from.

Maybe the issue is whether this results in a small school becoming even smaller by the formation of exclusive cliques.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alumni here. It’s an awesome school but yes small. You can be really academic and needy and will have plenty of friends just like you. There’s also a big athlete scene but they’re also all very good students. I always recommend Amherst to folks considering a SLAC but hesitate now because of how crazy they went over COVID. Maybe give it another couple years to see if they don’t revert to their insane policies.

You anti-vax people simply can’t help yourselves. It’s pathological.

She’s not referring to requiring a vaccine. People who think these level of restrictions were reasonable (nearly 2 years in to the pandemic and post widespread vaccine availability) for a population that is statically among the lowest risk are the ones who are pathological.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/....html?outputType=amp

PP alumni here. Yes it went way beyond vax mandates. I supported vax mandates when we believe they reduced transmission but think they’re pointless and divisive at this point. (My whole family is vaxxed btw). It was just crazy what the college did. They literally banned socializing for like an entire year. It was very much akin to the China approach for a long, long time. .

Your complaint falls into the category of “get over it already.” You’ve attached a link dating back to August 2021. It’s a whole different world today. I just can’t understand why so many people harp endlessly about the past. Yes, mistakes were made. Many of them. But it was a 100 year pandemic. It was a scary time. Why can’t we all just be grateful that we’ve mostly gotten through it? I suspect that many families all over the world were a lot more dramatically affected by the pandemic than your typical rich and privileged Amherst family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alumni here. It’s an awesome school but yes small. You can be really academic and needy and will have plenty of friends just like you. There’s also a big athlete scene but they’re also all very good students. I always recommend Amherst to folks considering a SLAC but hesitate now because of how crazy they went over COVID. Maybe give it another couple years to see if they don’t revert to their insane policies.

You anti-vax people simply can’t help yourselves. It’s pathological.

She’s not referring to requiring a vaccine. People who think these level of restrictions were reasonable (nearly 2 years in to the pandemic and post widespread vaccine availability) for a population that is statically among the lowest risk are the ones who are pathological.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/....html?outputType=amp

PP alumni here. Yes it went way beyond vax mandates. I supported vax mandates when we believe they reduced transmission but think they’re pointless and divisive at this point. (My whole family is vaxxed btw). It was just crazy what the college did. They literally banned socializing for like an entire year. It was very much akin to the China approach for a long, long time. .

Your complaint falls into the category of “get over it already.” You’ve attached a link dating back to August 2021. It’s a whole different world today. I just can’t understand why so many people harp endlessly about the past. Yes, mistakes were made. Many of them. But it was a 100 year pandemic. It was a scary time. Why can’t we all just be grateful that we’ve mostly gotten through it? I suspect that many families all over the world were a lot more dramatically affected by the pandemic than your typical rich and privileged Amherst family.

I can't speak for the PP, but mistakes continue to be made. Amherst still mandates 3 doses of vax (primary series plus a booster).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alum here. 10:44 is correct that Amherst has a very high percentage of students who are recruited athletes and URMs. But I’m not sure why these kids don’t get to be great kids too??? The athletes aren’t dumb jocks. They are great students who are also good at sports. I think the PPs use of “woke” to criticize students should tell you a lot about where they are coming from.

Maybe the issue is whether this results in a small school becoming even smaller by the formation of exclusive cliques.

My son had exactly this complaint about Williams. Suspect Amherst would be similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alumni here. It’s an awesome school but yes small. You can be really academic and needy and will have plenty of friends just like you. There’s also a big athlete scene but they’re also all very good students. I always recommend Amherst to folks considering a SLAC but hesitate now because of how crazy they went over COVID. Maybe give it another couple years to see if they don’t revert to their insane policies.

You anti-vax people simply can’t help yourselves. It’s pathological.

She’s not referring to requiring a vaccine. People who think these level of restrictions were reasonable (nearly 2 years in to the pandemic and post widespread vaccine availability) for a population that is statically among the lowest risk are the ones who are pathological.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/....html?outputType=amp

PP alumni here. Yes it went way beyond vax mandates. I supported vax mandates when we believe they reduced transmission but think they’re pointless and divisive at this point. (My whole family is vaxxed btw). It was just crazy what the college did. They literally banned socializing for like an entire year. It was very much akin to the China approach for a long, long time. .

To say they banned socializing or they were akin to China's approach is just fearmongering and gaslighting. You may not agree with the policy, but Covid is still killing millions of people not to mention the huge wave of long Covid that is going to hit our society over the next few years. For those who don't believe in vaccines or masking, go elsewhere.

Found another coronabro!

As you have nothing intelligent to add, get off this forum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alumni here. It’s an awesome school but yes small. You can be really academic and needy and will have plenty of friends just like you. There’s also a big athlete scene but they’re also all very good students. I always recommend Amherst to folks considering a SLAC but hesitate now because of how crazy they went over COVID. Maybe give it another couple years to see if they don’t revert to their insane policies.

You anti-vax people simply can’t help yourselves. It’s pathological.

She’s not referring to requiring a vaccine. People who think these level of restrictions were reasonable (nearly 2 years in to the pandemic and post widespread vaccine availability) for a population that is statically among the lowest risk are the ones who are pathological.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/....html?outputType=amp

PP alumni here. Yes it went way beyond vax mandates. I supported vax mandates when we believe they reduced transmission but think they’re pointless and divisive at this point. (My whole family is vaxxed btw). It was just crazy what the college did. They literally banned socializing for like an entire year. It was very much akin to the China approach for a long, long time. .

Your complaint falls into the category of “get over it already.” You’ve attached a link dating back to August 2021. It’s a whole different world today. I just can’t understand why so many people harp endlessly about the past. Yes, mistakes were made. Many of them. But it was a 100 year pandemic. It was a scary time. Why can’t we all just be grateful that we’ve mostly gotten through it? I suspect that many families all over the world were a lot more dramatically affected by the pandemic than your typical rich and privileged Amherst family.

I can't speak for the PP, but mistakes continue to be made. Amherst still mandates 3 doses of vax (primary series plus a booster).

Yea, well, that’s not a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alumni here. It’s an awesome school but yes small. You can be really academic and needy and will have plenty of friends just like you. There’s also a big athlete scene but they’re also all very good students. I always recommend Amherst to folks considering a SLAC but hesitate now because of how crazy they went over COVID. Maybe give it another couple years to see if they don’t revert to their insane policies.

You anti-vax people simply can’t help yourselves. It’s pathological.

She’s not referring to requiring a vaccine. People who think these level of restrictions were reasonable (nearly 2 years in to the pandemic and post widespread vaccine availability) for a population that is statically among the lowest risk are the ones who are pathological.
https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/....html?outputType=amp

PP alumni here. Yes it went in no way beyond vax mandates. I supported vax mandates when we believe they reduced transmission but think they’re pointless and divisive at this point. (My whole family is vaxxed btw). It was just crazy what the college did. They literally banned socializing for like an entire year. It was very much akin to the China approach for a long, long time. .

Your complaint falls into the category of “get over it already.” You’ve attached a link dating back to August 2021. It’s a whole different world today. I just can’t understand why so many people harp endlessly about the past. Yes, mistakes were made. Many of them. But it was a 100 year pandemic. It was a scary time. Why can’t we all just be grateful that we’ve mostly gotten through it? I suspect that many families all over the world were a lot more dramatically affected by the pandemic than your typical rich and privileged Amherst family.

I can't speak for the PP, but mistakes continue to be made. Amherst still mandates 3 doses of vax (primary series plus a booster).

This is a good thing. Keeps the idiots away.