Amherst College Top Questions

That everyone's white and rich.

Jocks, WASPy, generally good looking

awkward. preppy/rich.

There's the idea that the "old Amherst" is still alive and kicking- the white, wealthy, male and conservative people/ideals. The other idea (quite the opposite from the first) is that everyone here is uberly liberal.

The school is stereotyped to be very cliquey, preppy, wealthy, snobby, arrogant, and liberal.

Amherst College: rigorous academics, strong athletics, liberal student-body, small Amherst Students: smart, liberal, athletic, white/preppy

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.

We are generally seen as really preppy and cocky, and politically very liberal.

That they're preppy, rich, and act entitled to everything they've gotten in life.

They are workaholics who do nothing but study all the time.

Amherst is academically rigorous. Amherst students are very focused on academics.

Well, a lot of people seem to think everyone on campus is a genius, and in some cases that's true, but really we're just a campus of people who are willing to work and study. Another stereotype is that we're really bad at relationships.

Preppy. Nerdy

Students are said to be pretentious, rich, ugly, awkward, really hard working, mostly white, unfriendly. There are stereotypes about athletes and various other catagories of people that pretty much fit the common conception.

the smart jock and the nerd (and they don't interact)

They are rich and preppy, and they are not intellectually motivated.

People think that we are all elitist and upper-class white kids, that we all got in here because of old money.

Rich, spoiled

People generalize students as "rich white kids", with polo shirts and popped collars and parents who pay for vacations in Europe.

Smart, cocky, sense of entitlement

We believe we are better than everybody else, and routinely look down on people at other institutions, particularly the ones around us, such as umass, smith and mount holyoke. Also, we are liberal to a fault, and are not entirely accepting of other, less informed viewpoints.

People say they are pretentious, very intellectual, rich white kids.

Amherst is seen as really rich, preppy, elitist, etc. Most students are from the east coast, and a lot of people are from private schools. I think the college itself is seen as a little stodgy and conservative.

I came to Amherst thinking the student body would be dichotomized between (1) rich, preppy and stuck up kids and (2) hippies. I was also nervous that Amherst students would all be smart in a forward and intentionally intimidating way.

Amherst students are stereotyped as very liberal, intelligent, preppy, rich and white.

That we're awkward. Seriously, I you think something has gone rather awkwardly it was probably as much your fault as anyone else's.

Either that they are really preppy or really dorky; that they are intellectual and at times pretentious; that they are the kids that couldn't get into Harvard and Princeton

Amherst students are all WASPs who are jerks.

Preppy, rich kids all over

We are seen by the other Five College students as being pretentious, preppy, and liberal; basically your quintessential New England private college.

stuck up, rich, white, smart

Amherst students are highly studious over-achievers without a sense of fun, stuck in a town where there's little to do and nowhere to go.

elitist? wealthy?

They're preppy, rich, snobby and teach people the valuable lesson that the corrupting materialism of our society reaches all races and religions.

Stereotypes: Smart Jocks, Girls arent that pretty, girls go on the fro-yo diet(freshman 15), professors are cool

Amherst college is seen as an aloof elite institution with a very challenging academic life. The students are all supposedly exceedingly wealthy, high achieving, exceedingly intellectual, and driven. While the president works hard to spread a new image of social and economic diversity, we are seen as a very preppy homogeneous group.

Preppy, rich, up-scale, whiny, pampered...you get the idea there. Aside from that (being the majority of the stereotypes) there is also the image of bookish, unsocial, pencil-pusher that Amherst has.

Academic

Stereotypes of Amherst students generally say the students are socially awkward, preppy, rich, cliquy, and over achievers.

that they're all rich preppy kids trying to seem intellectual and laid back.

The school is for preppy and snobby rich kids.

Given how stereotypes can be both positive and negative, I'll give a couple of both. Generally, amherst students are thought to be dedicated to their work, to the point of unhealthy obsession. They are a tightly knit community, which can be a good and healthy trait or the exact opposite. They are quite smart. Often, people think that they can be stuck up or pretentious.

Amherst students are high-achieving academically but less competitive than students at Ivy League schools. They are wealthy and preppy, the children of doctors, lawyers, and i-bankers.

Amherst students are considered smart and maybe even stuck up about their own intellect, preppy, high strung, well-to-do.

Sports teams replace the fraternity scene, There are a lot of preppy kids, there is a lot of partying, people arty hard but get their work done.

preppy

A popular stereotype is that Amherst students are white, rich, elite kids who don't care about anything but their future careers.

Amherst students are pretty smart.

They're nerdy, solitary, antisocial, boring, ugly and too smart.

The stereotypic Amherst student is a high-strung over-achiever, extremely liberal, over-intellectual, slightly elitist, and probably a bit awkward. There are brilliant students who seem to have been good at just about everything in high school, and look with disdain at recruited athletes who may have had a break with impossible admissions standards. The campus is incredibly diverse and attracts students from all over the world, bringing with them many radically different life experiences.