Lack of Amherst College Consortium

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s little serious reason to choose Amherst over its peers. It’s a depressing school with an emphasis on the humanities (no job for you unless you wanna obsess over law school or consulting applications!), the campus is nearly entirely rundown(Keefe, Frost library, Fayerweather, Cohan, the Octagon) or a building is excessively cramped (the church hosting multiple academic departments, the science center is stuffed to the max and classrooms are starting to operate outside it, because there’s simply not enough space for all the departments, various humanities departments in tiny homes bursting with faculty).

If you want to attend, by all means do, but we found Amherst did nothing to improve itself.

+1, this has been our experience after two tours. The math building looked like it had been hollowed out during world war 2 and no one decided to do anything about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not surprised OP and PP. I think the Quaker consortium with Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swat and Penn is totally overhyped, and knowing the terrain around Amherst, I'm sure the same is true there as well. It's nice to have but with a few exceptions (shared departments between Haverford & BM) it's a logistical hassle. A really motivated kid will take occasional advantage of the option, but it's largely marketing.

My DS graduated from Swarthmore and never took a class at any other school. I would understand if you had a specialized interest in a particular subject. My DS was bio and chem major —no time to sit on a bus.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is at Pomona, but she toured and applied to Smith. I thought the Five College Consortium was a cool feature, particularly for heterosexual girls at a school like Smith (or MHC). I could see students taking advantage of it every other semester, but not much more due to the logistics. On the other hand, it isn't the same as the Claremont Consortium or BiCo (Haverford and Bryn Mawr). The TriCo (BiCo + Swarthmore) seems rarely used and, while I'm aware that TriCo students can take classes at Penn, that option seemed even more rarely used. TLDR: Consortiums come in different shapes and sizes, but it's still a cool option.

[Anonymous]

My kids loved the school - the open curriculum, beautiful campus, the culture and the professors they met. The consortium wasn’t even given a second thought

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids loved the school - the open curriculum, beautiful campus, the culture and the professors they met. The consortium wasn’t even given a second thought

+1 There is a reason the editorial mentions other students taking classes at Amherst not the reverse. My kid is beyond happy and academically fulfilled there. She'll do junior year at Oxford to expand her horizons a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids loved the school - the open curriculum, beautiful campus, the culture and the professors they met. The consortium wasn’t even given a second thought

+1 There is a reason the editorial mentions other students taking classes at Amherst not the reverse. My kid is beyond happy and academically fulfilled there. She'll do junior year at Oxford to expand her horizons a bit.

Look, the strongest school in the consortium is likely to be the one most in demand. But it's a shame there isn't better logistical support for all students to explore the consortium. I told my son he should at least go study at the MHC library because it's such a wonderful space. He said he'd like to but with two lab classes doesn't have time to waste with the shuttle. He wanted to take a freshman seminar that utilized the Smith archives but when he tried to figure out the logistics, said there was just no way. I don't know what the consortium could do other than run the shuttles more often, but that doesn't change the distance and time needed.

[Anonymous]

Shame that there seems to be a lack of vision among the individual consortium presidents. They really should seek to collaborate and make cross-consortium opportunities more vibrant and accessible. From co-teaching to special shared clubs to programming, the possibilities are endless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shame that there seems to be a lack of vision among the individual consortium presidents. They really should seek to collaborate and make cross-consortium opportunities more vibrant and accessible. From co-teaching to special shared clubs to programming, the possibilities are endless.

I agree with this. Even with the constraints, there could and should be great opportunities for cross-pollination. Consortium students should form an advisory committee and present concrete, actionable proposals to the college administrations. An op-ed will accomplish nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I've appreciated about the consortium is living in a real college town with bars, late night restaurants, and easy accessibility to pretty much any chain store you can think of, as opposed to being in a backwater like Williamstown.

Amherst is a poor shadow of a real college town, shockingly small and run down.

It has everything that I want. And I don't see what you mean by "run down."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I've appreciated about the consortium is living in a real college town with bars, late night restaurants, and easy accessibility to pretty much any chain store you can think of, as opposed to being in a backwater like Williamstown.

Amherst is a poor shadow of a real college town, shockingly small and run down.

It has everything that I want. And I don't see what you mean by "run down."

They mean it's not fancy, as if college students care about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I've appreciated about the consortium is living in a real college town with bars, late night restaurants, and easy accessibility to pretty much any chain store you can think of, as opposed to being in a backwater like Williamstown.

Amherst is a poor shadow of a real college town, shockingly small and run down.

It has everything that I want. And I don't see what you mean by "run down."

They mean it's not fancy, as if college students care about that.

I grew up not too far from Princeton, NJ. I'm very glad that downtown Amherst is the way it is, and not ultra-fancified like Princeton. You have to shell out at least $30 to do anything there.

[Anonymous]

As someone who works in higher ed, I can say there are some real constraints. For example, colleges are highly motivated to protect course enrollments. They are not incentivized to encourage enrollments at other colleges. But I'm sure there is a way to have more thoughtfully structured cooperation between schools that could be a win-win. Agree with PP that a student advisory board is a terrific idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I've appreciated about the consortium is living in a real college town with bars, late night restaurants, and easy accessibility to pretty much any chain store you can think of, as opposed to being in a backwater like Williamstown.

Amherst is a poor shadow of a real college town, shockingly small and run down.

It has everything that I want. And I don't see what you mean by "run down."

They mean it's not fancy, as if college students care about that.

I grew up not too far from Princeton, NJ. I'm very glad that downtown Amherst is the way it is, and not ultra-fancified like Princeton. You have to shell out at least $30 to do anything there.

Same with Harvard Square. It used to be so fun and accessible for students, but is so corporate and expensive now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I've appreciated about the consortium is living in a real college town with bars, late night restaurants, and easy accessibility to pretty much any chain store you can think of, as opposed to being in a backwater like Williamstown.

Amherst is a poor shadow of a real college town, shockingly small and run down.

It has everything that I want. And I don't see what you mean by "run down."

They mean it's not fancy, as if college students care about that.

I grew up not too far from Princeton, NJ. I'm very glad that downtown Amherst is the way it is, and not ultra-fancified like Princeton. You have to shell out at least $30 to do anything there.

Same with Harvard Square. It used to be so fun and accessible for students, but is so corporate and expensive now.

There are so many cheap shops in Harvard square that I have to think you’re just judging a book by its cover at this point.

There’s really no need for a place to look run down in order for college students to enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I've appreciated about the consortium is living in a real college town with bars, late night restaurants, and easy accessibility to pretty much any chain store you can think of, as opposed to being in a backwater like Williamstown.

Amherst is a poor shadow of a real college town, shockingly small and run down.

It has everything that I want. And I don't see what you mean by "run down."

They mean it's not fancy, as if college students care about that.

I grew up not too far from Princeton, NJ. I'm very glad that downtown Amherst is the way it is, and not ultra-fancified like Princeton. You have to shell out at least $30 to do anything there.

Same with Harvard Square. It used to be so fun and accessible for students, but is so corporate and expensive now.

There are so many cheap shops in Harvard square that I have to think you’re just judging a book by its cover at this point.

There’s really no need for a place to look run down in order for college students to enjoy it.

It's not run down, though.