College admissions is competitive,

Just like any school if you go to Amherst you will probably love it and hate it. Something you should definitely be prepared for is the fact that it is a really small school and almost everyone knows everyone else. So, you will definitely see the same few people at parties every weekend doing the same things. The only thing I would change is I think that the administration needs to work harder to make sure that everyone is participating in college life, and it is not just the same hundred people doing everything.

If you talk in class the professors will get to know you, and they are definitely accessible if you take the time to go to them. When I was really stressed out about my thesis and only sleeping never, one of my professors actually asked me to come see her because she had noticed I seemed a little out of it. She just wanted to make sure that everything was going ok, and once I told her I was a thesis writer, she understood and told me if I was ever really buried in my work just let her know, and she would help out.

The student body is not really hard to describe. Of course there is some slight diversity, but most of the kids look the same. Most of the kids are white, middle/upper-middle class, smart, and dress is the same kind of casual style. A lot of the kids are from the East and West coasts, but overall I found everyone pretty accepting. Yet, I was aware that others felt there was some racial tension on campus. I am a minority, and I never really felt the tension, but the black kids did tend to stick to themselves a little.

Freshman year everyone leaves their doors open and talks to everyone on their hall. Often the kids in your hall freshman year will be some of your closest friends for the next four years. After Freshman year people are certainly social, and you definitely make more friends, but things are a little less open. There are always parties going on on the weekends and often during the week, but I would hardly say that Amherst is a big party school. Most kids go out may two or three times a week and the level of drinking varies from student to student.

I have heard a range of stereotypes. Some people think it is all super rich kids. Others think that it is a bunch of crazy hippies. I have also heard that Amherst is a huge party school and that it is a bunch of super brainy nerds.

Any generalization about Amherst is untrue. There are some rich kids, a few hippies, some brainy nerds, and people who think they are huge partiers, but the parties at Amherst are nothing like those at a bigger school.

You will love it or hate it. I spent my first two years miserable, and I hardly left my room or branched out much beyond my group of friends. I really regret that. Amherst is what you make it just put yourself out there a little.