This is the official discussion thread for Amherst College Class of 2028 RD applicants. Ask your questions and connect with fellow applicants.
Hi,
Our family is not as familiar with Amherst College, but our son has applied and is being recruited to play sports. He’s got solid stats and has been prioritizing schools based off academics first. We will ultimately take a visit, but I’m curious what the political temperature is at Amherst. A few of the Ivy Leagues have been in the news for the wrong reasons of late - where does Amherst fall on the spectrum of conservative to liberal. We’ve been told it may be one of the more liberal colleges in the country, but have received some mixed messages. We were hoping it might be more towards the middle. We don’t want extremes either way, which seems increasingly difficult in higher ed these days.
So Niche has a Politics on Campus poll that is included in college profiles. The response rate is really low, but my two cents is it often tracks pretty well with other information about these colleges.
In Amherst’s case, it worked out to be 9% Very Conservative, 45% Moderate, 9% Liberal, 27% Very Liberal, 9% I don’t care. Understanding those exact percentages are not going to be precisely accurate, I think this is probably indicative of a couple truths.
First, there are not going to be a lot of committed conservatives at Amherst, and they are going to be outnumbered significantly by the very liberal people at Amherst. And among other things, that means the latter may be a lot more visible presence.
But second, still the majority of students will actually fall somewhere in the moderate, to only mildly liberal, to really not that into politics at all, range. But even though they are a majority, they may not be so visible as such, because mostly they are just busy doing not political things.
I think all this–which is not at all unique to Amherst in US higher education–helps explain some of the contradictory impressions you sometimes will see. For some people, the very liberal/activist population may seem like it is a huge presence, but that is really because they are intentionally trying to be more visible. But other people realize that in truth most of their fellow students are not so much that, and for them that is fine. But then some people really want a robust conservative community, and then that is not so fine again.
OK, so on the one hand, I think your son would find most students at Amherst are in fact similarly not themselves “extreme” in any notable way. However, your son might want to assess how comfortable he would be with a visible very liberal activist minority (whether that is “extreme” being in the eye of the beholder). If that still sounds OK, though, then I would not be worried about him fitting in comfortably at Amherst.
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Great reply, thank you. I think the vocal Very Liberal category is increasingly common at most universities these days. I’ll take a look at the Niche poll as an additional data point, but I appreciate your perspective.
Yeah, I think if that sort of community being visible on campus was really a problem for you, it is going to be pretty limiting in terms of which US colleges you could consider. But the other side of that coin is I do not think Amherst in particular is going to stand out in this way.
Do all applicants who apply to Amherst get an email from finaid office asking for documents?
I don’t think my son received anything from them regarding financial aid yet.
Has he submitted all documents ?
If you mean financial aid documents, then yes. FAFSA shows as not received but those won’t be sent until February.
Since OP’s kid is an athlete: as others have said around these forums - the athlete cohort tends to hang out together, at NESCACs and elsewhere. This group runs a lot less “Very Liberal”.
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Son applied to Amherst as RD and today got the offer letter! 140 kids got offer letter early this year!
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We were impressed with the campus, although our son is a little uncertain about how small the student population is and how limiting it might be socially. I know the smaller size will have benefits in terms of student:faculty ratio and the ability to really connect with profs. Most people we speak with who are familiar with Amherst speak very highly about the education, but my son is very focused on graduation outcomes given the cost of attendance relative to other options available to him.
We’ve seen most of the ranking sites where starting salaries are often cited, although not sure how accurate or dependable they are. I tend to use such things as directional guides at best. Does an Amherst education (Econ most likely) unlock more lucrative internships and exposure to high profile corporations (say in Management Consulting, investment banking, etc). Is the brand appeal really most beneficial in the Northeast perhaps?
So if you look at things like this IB Feeders study, you will see Amherst ranking quite high per capita . . . #13, right after Williams at #12 and before Middlebury at #14.
The list is not all SLACs, Penn (Wharton) is #1, Harvard #2, and so on. This just reflects a reality that certain SLACs have long fed some kids to “white shoe” financial firms and such. I am sure the placement is biased toward the Northeast, but I doubt it is limited entirely.
Now, the thing is, this is not necessarily all causation, a lot of it could be correlation with things like individual attributes, individual interests, family networks, and so on. But the fact they do place well per capita implies they are at least among the colleges where such career paths are well-supported.
As a final thought, I note even at the best such feeders, really only a small percentage of people end up following this path. Many more go into business or finance, but not immediately to one of the most selective firms. So I tend to think some people put too much weight on this specific placement question.
Still, to the extent you do care, Amherst is among the top options.
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Congrats! What is an early offer letter? I didn’t realize that a portion of the stronger applicants would receive advance information! What a gift!
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Congrats! Are most results out in March?
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yes most result should come in March. Good luck!
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We didn’t know there is such thing either! Good luck to yours!!!
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Is there a specific date? Last year seemed to be Friday, March 17th. So perhaps a week from today?
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Yes, I would guess 3/15 at 6:21 PM. Amherst usually announces on a Friday and they love doing it at the time that’s the year of the college’s founding (1821).
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