virginiaman

My son is very interested in Amherst, having visited in March. One social question for you Amherst students: isn't an advantage of Amherst the social possibilities of the 5 colleges? If there is a thriving social scene exposing Amherst kids to students at the other colleges in the network (e.g., Smith and Mt. Holyoke girls for my son) it seems to me that would be an advantage (and would help make up for the relatively small number of students just at Amherst itself). Frankly, I'm not sure that my son would be too interesting in taking the bus to take a class at one of the other colleges, but it seems potentially very nice to have around for parties, etc. girls from the other colleges. Comments? Thanks!

unregistered

Yes, they come to our school for parties...often.

virginiaman

Thanks, Unregistered -- that's nice to hear.

Catfish

I'll just second what unregistered said. It's one of the major benefits of the consortium.

johnwesley

the lopsided gender mix in amherst (men')s favor has been a major draw for lo these many generations. OTOH, it's not so great for for amherst women who may also happen to get cabin fever.

unregistered

No, it's great for us. I've made some wonderful friends at Smith and Mt. Holyoke, and for Amherst girls really interested in expanding their dating options, there are ten thousand males to choose amongst, and I know that both UMass and Hampshire have some gems...sure, we don't have dozens of scantily clad males coming to our campus every weekend, but we can bond over joking about the females who do so. It is a fun place to go to school.

Mapi

Isn't there some crazy 4:1 ratio of girls to guys in the five colleges area? That would be a definite plus.

Catfish

It's 4:1 if you only include Amherst, Smith, and MHC, which doesn't really reflect the actual situation. It is greater than 1:1 though.

unregistered

Yeah...it isn't the 3-college consortium.

Nadash

I vaguely remember someone mentioned it was 15000 to 8000. Can't for the hell of me remember who.

Corbett

Based on current US News figures for full-time undergraduate enrollment, the numbers look
approximately like this:

Amherst M: 825
Amherst W: 825
Mt. Holyoke W: 2,100
Smith W: 2,600
----------
UMass M: 9,400
UMass W: 9,050
Hampshire M: 600
Hampshire W: 850

So for the 5 Colleges combined, the W:M ratio is about 1.4 to 1.

For the three top LACs alone, the W:M ratio is about 6.7 to 1.

In general, the top New England LACs are noted for high rates of marriages between alumni. In particular, the alumni intermarriage rates at Middlebury and Williams are often named as the highest in the country. Amherst College, though similar to M & W in many other respects, does not have this same reputation.

noojoo

"It does not matter how many fish swim in your sea, if you do not know how to catch one."

-Sun Tzu

Ha ha.. just kidding