On Amherst Students, Spirit, and Competitiveness

mooseinmass
Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:57:51 +0000

I completely disagree with point 1 and believe your impression regarding the 2nd point is still pretty far off reality.

I’m a 1st year at Amherst right now and I have yet to see any kind of snobby competitiveness or egotism. We’re all here to succeed, but not at the cost of our classmate’s success. We help one another with homework, we discuss whatever is going on, we support one another. Some of my classes this semester will be curved, yet no one really seems to be concerned. We’ll work through it and get to where we need to be.

As for the athlete divide.
There are definitely some teams that keep more to themselves in terms of the social scene, but there is definitely not a clear cut line between the two sides. Of course athletes will associate more with athletes, but I’ve noticed that the only people who don’t really end up getting to know the students who happen to be athletes, are the ones that continue to perputate this idea of a great divide. Drop these assumptions and get to know the interesting, intelligent, studious people that make up this community. Because the first thing I learned here is that stereotypes need to be left at home.