Lack of Amherst College Consortium

[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.

However, the editorial provides no reliable information regarding the flow of students across the consortium.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Everyone had their own standard, it looked rundown when I visited with DD.

[Anonymous]

The truth is that there’s not much reason for a kid from Amherst to take classes at smith or MH. They aren’t that close and they offer basically the same type of classes in the same type of setting.

Umass makes more sense — it is closer plus offers a lot of classes that just aren’t offered at a SLAC. So if you have a kid that would like to go to a SLAC but is nervous about maybe missing out on the non liberal arts type classes, the consortium solves that problem. And I think kids do use umass for that. If you’re an Anthro major who wants to take an archeology class, a Econ major that wants to take an accounting class, a bio major who wants to take a kinestheology class — umass is perfect for that kind of thing. And umass is also pretty close — basically just the other side of the small town so you could walk if it’s a nice day or it’s a shorter bus ride.

In general I think consortia are hyped to HS kids because HS kids always want to feel like they are not shutting doors or losing options but once you get to a school, there are usually plenty of options right at your school.

I don’t know if it’s still a thing but it used to be that students from the women’s schools would also sometimes take classes at Amherst just or maybe meet some guy in a scene that was not just a party. But even that wasn’t very common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Everyone had their own standard, it looked rundown when I visited with DD.

This sort of reminds me of Trump saying that the WH is run down. It is true that people have different tastes and some people prefer a more manufactured look as opposed to a more historic look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The truth is that there’s not much reason for a kid from Amherst to take classes at smith or MH. They aren’t that close and they offer basically the same type of classes in the same type of setting.

Umass makes more sense — it is closer plus offers a lot of classes that just aren’t offered at a SLAC. So if you have a kid that would like to go to a SLAC but is nervous about maybe missing out on the non liberal arts type classes, the consortium solves that problem. And I think kids do use umass for that. If you’re an Anthro major who wants to take an archeology class, a Econ major that wants to take an accounting class, a bio major who wants to take a kinestheology class — umass is perfect for that kind of thing. And umass is also pretty close — basically just the other side of the small town so you could walk if it’s a nice day or it’s a shorter bus ride.

In general I think consortia are hyped to HS kids because HS kids always want to feel like they are not shutting doors or losing options but once you get to a school, there are usually plenty of options right at your school.

I don’t know if it’s still a thing but it used to be that students from the women’s schools would also sometimes take classes at Amherst just or maybe meet some guy in a scene that was not just a party. But even that wasn’t very common.

Yes, this all makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The truth is that there’s not much reason for a kid from Amherst to take classes at smith or MH. They aren’t that close and they offer basically the same type of classes in the same type of setting.

Umass makes more sense — it is closer plus offers a lot of classes that just aren’t offered at a SLAC. So if you have a kid that would like to go to a SLAC but is nervous about maybe missing out on the non liberal arts type classes, the consortium solves that problem. And I think kids do use umass for that. If you’re an Anthro major who wants to take an archeology class, a Econ major that wants to take an accounting class, a bio major who wants to take a kinestheology class — umass is perfect for that kind of thing. And umass is also pretty close — basically just the other side of the small town so you could walk if it’s a nice day or it’s a shorter bus ride.

In general I think consortia are hyped to HS kids because HS kids always want to feel like they are not shutting doors or losing options but once you get to a school, there are usually plenty of options right at your school.

I don’t know if it’s still a thing but it used to be that students from the women’s schools would also sometimes take classes at Amherst just or maybe meet some guy in a scene that was not just a party. But even that wasn’t very common.

Except you cannot get credit for non liberal arts courses, meaning most of what you’d use Umass for is now defunct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Everyone had their own standard, it looked rundown when I visited with DD.

This sort of reminds me of Trump saying that the WH is run down. It is true that people have different tastes and some people prefer a more manufactured look as opposed to a more historic look.

This is so spot on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is that there’s not much reason for a kid from Amherst to take classes at smith or MH. They aren’t that close and they offer basically the same type of classes in the same type of setting.

Umass makes more sense — it is closer plus offers a lot of classes that just aren’t offered at a SLAC. So if you have a kid that would like to go to a SLAC but is nervous about maybe missing out on the non liberal arts type classes, the consortium solves that problem. And I think kids do use umass for that. If you’re an Anthro major who wants to take an archeology class, a Econ major that wants to take an accounting class, a bio major who wants to take a kinestheology class — umass is perfect for that kind of thing. And umass is also pretty close — basically just the other side of the small town so you could walk if it’s a nice day or it’s a shorter bus ride.

In general I think consortia are hyped to HS kids because HS kids always want to feel like they are not shutting doors or losing options but once you get to a school, there are usually plenty of options right at your school.

I don’t know if it’s still a thing but it used to be that students from the women’s schools would also sometimes take classes at Amherst just or maybe meet some guy in a scene that was not just a party. But even that wasn’t very common.

Except you cannot get credit for non liberal arts courses, meaning most of what you’d use Umass for is now defunct.

That’s not true at all. The UMass math and CS departments stretch well beyond what is offered at Amherst and all courses are available for Amherst credit as long as it makes sense within major progression. I say this from first hand experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is that there’s not much reason for a kid from Amherst to take classes at smith or MH. They aren’t that close and they offer basically the same type of classes in the same type of setting.

Umass makes more sense — it is closer plus offers a lot of classes that just aren’t offered at a SLAC. So if you have a kid that would like to go to a SLAC but is nervous about maybe missing out on the non liberal arts type classes, the consortium solves that problem. And I think kids do use umass for that. If you’re an Anthro major who wants to take an archeology class, a Econ major that wants to take an accounting class, a bio major who wants to take a kinestheology class — umass is perfect for that kind of thing. And umass is also pretty close — basically just the other side of the small town so you could walk if it’s a nice day or it’s a shorter bus ride.

In general I think consortia are hyped to HS kids because HS kids always want to feel like they are not shutting doors or losing options but once you get to a school, there are usually plenty of options right at your school.

I don’t know if it’s still a thing but it used to be that students from the women’s schools would also sometimes take classes at Amherst just or maybe meet some guy in a scene that was not just a party. But even that wasn’t very common.

Except you cannot get credit for non liberal arts courses, meaning most of what you’d use Umass for is now defunct.

While you can't get credit for, say, accounting, you can for any advanced STEM courses or courses in liberal arts subjects that AC doesn't offer, like linguistics (for which UMass has an excellent department). The Five Colleges Language Center is also great; I know of someone taking Norwegian through it.