Amherst vs. Williams vs. Dartmouth

jennieling
Mon, 01 Apr 2013 22:20:32 +0000

Of course, they are all excellent schools. Everyone has their own biases, but I’ll tell you what my son and I thought. Dartmouth is larger than the other two, which has its pros, but it does not have that small liberal arts college feel, where you can really get to know your professors well and work with them closely. Also, it has a fairly high percentage of students in Greek life, a pro for some but a strong con for my son. My son adored Williams but adored Amherst even more. Both are fantastic liberal arts colleges. It came down to environment. Amherst has nearby mountains, a huge arboretum (or nature area) nearby for hiking, and much of the nature that Williams has. However, he felt that Williams was a bit too isolated. It is really “out there” with very little in Williamstown, just a couple of main streets,and it would be hard to get to a store to buy jeans, etc without driving. Many students don’t bring cars; my son certainly doesn’t plan to, coming from Missouri. On the other hand, Amherst is in a vibrant small college town. The students are all given a free city bus pass (I believe it was called the Pioneer Valley Authority bus). With this they can go to a nearby town where Smith is located; that town is even a bit bigger and has plenty of stores, restaurants, concert venues, etc. They also have quick access to nearby malls, eg in Hadley. My son barely ever shops, but he liked this environment (with many nearby stores, movie theaters, restaurants, concert venues, etc) more than Williamstown. Also, Amherst is in the Five College Consortium, so one can take classes at the 4 other colleges (Smith, Mt Holyoke, U Mass-Amherst, and Hampshire), join their clubs, borrow books from their libraries, etc. Also, he had the feeling that Amherst values diversity a bit more than Williams. He has attended a public school in the Midwest and, while he would love to make friends with new students who have attended boarding schools and private prep schools, he also wants to attend a college with public school students, international students, and students of all socioeconomic backgrounds. I think that Williams and Amherst have such students, but he felt (and the data supports this) that Amherst has more diversity. Science is great at both schools. He was quite impressed with Amherst’s Howard Hughes summer internships, where kids can work directly with science professors, do research (maybe even get published) and earn money.