Amherst Tour
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Anonymous
Luckily, that's what Amherst is currently right in the middle of! |
Anonymous
Renovating a single building that has asbestos issues isn't going to transform a meh campus. |
Anonymous
| Everyone is allowed to have their opinions of course, but having toured recently I (along with many others) think the Amherst campus is very nice. That there was a lot of additional space to walk, hike, chill, or to be by yourself enjoying the Holyoke Mtn range esp in the fall, etc. makes it even nicer. I think there is a total of 1000 acres which is quite large for a SLAC. The new building going up would likely be a focal point of res life as it’s the new student center and dining commons. Having toured many large and small campuses with our kids, everyone has their own opinion and that’s fine. For us, we liked the campus a lot. |
Anonymous
There’s nothing there in that town by comparison |
Anonymous
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"Renovation" is an understatement: https://ibb.co/Vtc6nqf It seems like half this thread is desperately searching for ways to hate this school, only to completely fall flat when the only thing they can muster is "pretty but not stunning campus." Get a life. |
Anonymous
I'm in the middle of this take. As a student, you notice the lack of facilities very quickly, and, while it is amazing we are getting a new student center (really just a 4 story play place, doesn't do much for students), we desperately need more academic buildings. Math/Stats should have more lab space and be upgraded and most of the humanities have terrible cramped spaces that the college has abandoned working on since the 19th century. It is completely fair to assess that Amherst "looks" beautiful if you've not been in New England for long and don't care at all about the type of buildings you walk into, but the gap between the science center and every other campus building is wide. |
Anonymous
True in the sense that the science center is a typical soulless glass and concrete box, whereas every other campus building is human. |
Anonymous
PP here, also an Amherst student. Again, this is a really uncharitable description of the new student center: a new dining hall with significantly more capacity will help finally solve Val's overcrowding issues, and on top of that, the plans feature many different lounges that can be used as study spaces—if you've ever been to Smith or Williams, for instance, you'll see how a good student center can actually make a campus feel alive. I agree that most academic buildings are in need of renovation—and guess what, the college does too! See the campus framework plan: https://www.amherst.edu/offices/facilities/campus-framework-plan. At the very least, Barrett and Chapin will eventually get improvements. On top of that, you're totally ignoring the recent Lyceum construction, which was literally intended to help mitigate that exact problem with the humanities. You're also conveniently ignoring that our housing stock is significantly higher quality than literally any other elite college I've been to (I've heard WashU is better, but have not personally seen the place). Every dorm I've been in at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Penn has been markedly worse than anywhere at Amherst with the exceptions of Moore and Cohan (The Quad and KCHECH at Penn's bathrooms give Moore a run for its money, though), the former of which is slated for a future renovation, and the latter of which is intended to eventually return to being all singles. Places like Jearns, the Greenways, and Lipton are borderline luxury housing. I do think that Amherst's campus needs improvements—Frost is a hellhole (again, slated for a future renovation), the Mead is the most lacking art museum I've ever been to, and Keefe is a total dud of a student center—but even though most current students won't be seeing much change, the college does have plans for improvements and is meaningfully investing in them. The geothermal heating construction, for instance, is incredibly annoying, but I honestly think that it's a far more important thing to spend money on than any shiny new building, and so I deal with its presence. Again, I recommend reading the campus framework plan. Pretty much everything is slated to get an upgrade. https://www.amherst.edu/offices/facilities/campus-framework-plan |
Anonymous
My DD just graduated from Amherst and majored in both science and humanities so got to use most of the academic buildings. Like any other campus, there are nice and not as nice buildings such as the library which is slated for renovation and Val dining which will be in new dining commons currently being built. She had nice dorms all 4 years and liked the campus overall and particularly the additional non academic spaces such as Book and Plow Farm, Rail Trail, etc. as well as the short walk to town for food, etc. Interestingly, my 2 nephews at Harvard has many of the same complaints of many of the above posters. |
Anonymous
Most LACs (other than Williams) have similar or better housing than Amherst. |
Anonymous
Exactly. Not sure why commenters are writing as if modern dorms are something only Amherst has. The campus is fine. |
Anonymous
I was merely reporting my own personal experiences having stayed in friends' dorms elsewhere; I have come under the impression that even the bad dorms at Amherst would be considered midrange elsewhere. |
Anonymous
| As a Williams grad, I'm certainly enjoying Amherst getting dumped on here, but as a practical matter I think the campus is likely perfectly fine. |
Anonymous
| My kid really liked their Amherst tour. I do find that my kid seems to prefer tours where they click with the guide but not sure that should be determinative. I also thought the town of Amherst was cute. We had a nice dinner in town. |
Anonymous
Yes, my daughter is the same way. It’s kind of frustrating. Our Amherst tour guide turned her off on the school and just this week she was going to eliminate Tufts from her list but kept coming back to how much she liked the tour guide… Maybe we need to start doing the self guided tours 😂 |