On Amherst Students, Spirit, and Competitiveness

krasnayazvezda
Sun, 21 Sep 2014 18:32:24 +0000

In my research – both online and through conversations with current Amherst students –, I’ve found that Amherst students are repeatedly characterized in two ways. I turn to College Confidential to find out whether these accounts/generalizations of Amherst’s student body are accurate; it should go without saying that my aim is not to disparage the Amherst community but rather to determine whether I would enjoy being in such an environment as an undergrad.


More often than not I see descriptions of Amherst students as obsessed with competitiveness; not the kind that constructively drives students to do their best, but the kind that manifests in the form of comparison, egotism, all that jazz. This complements the even more demeaning epithet of “Ivy rejects” that I’ve also come across, and as a senior now finishing his twelfth year of study at a high school that’s full of these types, I’m very reluctant to attend an institution with a similar social atmosphere.
I’ve also heard a great deal about the social divide that exists between athletic students and non-athletic students: that it effectively segregates the student body in two.


That I’ve written far more on the first of the two points should indicate how important is to me; I’m fond of Amherst, and would love to attend, but I can’t help but be disconcerted by the things I’ve read and heard.

Prove me wrong, please.