Amherst vs. Georgetown SFS

collegiate08
Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:47:31 +0000

My daughter faced this identical decision over a year ago --and, with the same interest and passion for IR. She also thought she would likely go to grad school – and, for primarily that reason, chose Amherst for arguably the finest undergraduate education in the nation rather than the highly regarded pre-professional experience at G-Town SFS. The access to professors at Amherst is unparalleled. And, while a smaller institution may not give the breadth of course offerings, nearly every class since her very first semester has had fewer than 20 students. (Some with fewer than 10.) Additionally, since there are no general ed. requirements, she has complete control over course choices – and won’t spend the first 2-3 years of college (or in the case of SFS, basically all 4 years) meeting prescribed requirements. She can design her own major, take courses at other fine colleges (in fact, scheduled for a class at Smith in the fall,) has been invited to breakfast, lunch, dinner, lectures with professors and as a freshman, asked to work on research with a prominent faculty member. Admittedly, Amherst is not DC (and that can be a bit of a bummer, particularly in an election year, but she goes to Boston occasionally – i.e., yesterday – and traveled with friends for weekends in NYC by bus.) However, Amherst is the quintessential college town. Freshman Quad is fabulous – she says it’s what college is supposed to feel like. Plus, winter session in DC is always an option. In short, she figures she’ll get the “pre-professional” experience in Grad School – and maybe that will mean G-Town – but, for the college years, she chose a fine (perhaps the finest) undergraduate college experience – and, has no regrets.