200 more students - impact on housing and dining?

shawbridge
Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:08:30 +0000

Interesting. I was on that phone call and do not have a transcript, but it did not give me the impression that they were only hiring three professors or were planning a significant drop in the student-teacher ratio that interesteddad describes. Indeed, they described an expansion in hiring. That could be relative to a shrinking base as interesteddad supposes. But, but I don’t have the data that interesteddad is drawing upon so I can’t really say.

wtidad, my son is a freshman at Amherst. He’s not likely to major in science. He’ll probably take organic chemistry because he likes it. Since he’s likely to study math and social science, the budget issues may not be noticeable. Each kid is different, but so far it is very good for his needs. Several good teachers (one so-so). Nice social environment. He likes sports but does not want to play on a varsity team . He’s found several of the clubs very welcoming. He’s found the teachers to be willing to meet. And, as a kid with learning disabilities, he’s found the school so far to be accommodating enthusiastically, as opposed to grudgingly. The dean of disabilities services has been proactive – reminding him to contact her and reminding me, over the summer, to make sure we had the software in place and coordinated with the school IT folks. His advisor actually suggested he take an easier first semester schedule than he had planned to learn how to be successful at Amherst (so far mid-term grades are good). His dorm is, by college standards, nearly palatial – more luxury hotel than college dorm.

I think his only complaints were that the food is not terrific and that he wasn’t finding like-minded cerebral kids in his dorms but he’s found like-minded kids in other dorms. We’ll wait to see how the budget issues affect the school.