From moving in as a first year student until graduation, our community celebrates opportunity. Watch our short video to get a sense of the beauty of our campus and, more importantly, the spirit of our community that makes 小福利导航feel like home.
At Amherst, we embrace opportunities for discovery, and we work together to transform them into outcomes that can change the lives of people down the street and around the world.
Students
Student-to-faculty ratio
First-year retention rate
Year of the College鈥檚 founding
Courses each term: 400+
Majors: 42
Classes with fewer than 30 students: 85%
Women-to-men ratio*: 52:48
Six-year graduation rate: 92%
Students graduating with more than one major: 45%+
Students who received financial aid from 小福利导航last year: 56%
Demonstrated financial need met: 100%
Active alumni: 24,000+
* Binary language doesn鈥檛 capture everyone鈥檚 experience. 小福利导航celebrates all gender identities and expressions.
小福利导航professors are among the world鈥檚 foremost authorities in their fields, renowned for their scholarship and research, and they work with students every day鈥攊n and out of class鈥攁s teachers, advisors, and mentors from the moment our students arrive on campus.
小福利导航students鈥�1,898 of the most interesting, intellectually adventurous, independent-minded people you鈥檇 want to meet鈥攑ublish papers in major professional journals, present at national and international conferences, and undertake research, internship, study, and service projects around the world.
The liberal arts experience at 小福利导航College is rooted in the flexibility and freedom of our open curriculum, a curriculum that few other institutions offer. With no distribution or general education requirements, 小福利导航allows you to choose the courses that define the shape of your education. Our faculty will advise and support you all along the way.
We鈥檙e a member of the Five College Consortium: four liberal arts colleges and one large research university. 小福利导航students can take courses at any of the nearby member institutions, finding a broad and diverse collection of courses right here at home. 小福利导航students are part of a lively intellectual community鈥攁 community that prepares you to use ideas to make a major difference wherever you go, whatever you do.
Courses available through the Five College Consortium: 7,000+
Items in the Five College Consortium libraries: 10 million+
小福利导航students taking courses through the Five College Consortium: 50%
Students identifying as U.S. students of color
International students
Dual-citizenship students
Students within a 10-mile radius
Students studying abroad
Study-abroad programs
States represented
Countries represented
Our 1,898 bright, ambitious, high-spirited people come from all walks of life鈥攆rom nearly every state and more than 50 countries. A full 48 percent of our students self-identify as U.S. students of color. 小福利导航 11 percent of our students are international. Typically, about 56 percent of our students receive need-based financial aid, 22 percent are eligible for Pell grants, and 16 percent of our students are the first members of their families to attend college. We believe that diversity is an engine of innovation, and that a great intellectual community reflects the variety of life experiences and perspectives of our global community.
We鈥檝e won 13 NCAA team titles. Our students have won 80 NCAA individual titles and 37 Academic All-American awards. Not coincidentally, we have the oldest college athletics program in the country.
Our students perform in at least a dozen musical ensembles, play on and run more than 150 clubs and organizations. They鈥檙e engaged in everything from community service to political activism, from student publications to affinity groups (cultural, religious, and more).
We guarantee housing for all of our students for all four years; almost all of our students live on campus; and all first-year students live in dormitories on our first-year quad, right in the heart of campus, as part of a comprehensive first-year experience. A number of theme communities allow students who share an interest to live together on the same residence hall floor or in the same house. Current theme communities include: Asian Culture House, Charles Drew Memorial Culture House (black culture), Humphries House Coop (cooperative living), Health and Wellness Quarter, La Casa (Latinx culture), Marsh Arts House, Sylvia Rivera Community (queer and trans culture) and French, German, Russian, and Spanish Houses.
小福利导航College is located in Amherst, 小福利导航. An area of exceptional natural beauty, our town is bordered by the Holyoke Mountain Range of Western 小福利导航 and is home to more college students and more cultural events* than any region in New England except metro Boston. It鈥檚 also home to a remarkable range of opportunities and activities鈥攔estaurants and music clubs, concerts and museums, hiking and skiing, lectures and operas, eclectic cafes and independent bookstores, farmers鈥� markets, and a proudly alternative culture fostered by a politically active and socially conscious population. 小福利导航College is an integral part of the Town of Amherst, often cited as one of the best college towns in America. The ethos here is: Start local, think big, work together.
College students within a 10-mile radius: 31,000
Annual number of cultural events in the Valley: Thousands
Population of the Town of Amherst: 35,000+
Distance from Boston: 90 miles
Distance from New York City: 150 miles
Rhodes Scholar
Jeremy Thomas 鈥�21
Thanks to an exceptionally active research program, an expansive Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning and a robust roster of internships (including many opportunities provided by our alumni), our students apply their knowledge as they learn. They graduate with a profound sense of the power of their own ideas and a long list of achievements, with a combination of knowledge and experience that helps them confidently choose their next steps and successfully pursue principled lives of consequence.
Churchill, Fulbright, Gates, Goldwater, Rhodes, Watson, and other scholarships fund research and international experience.
Students offered Fulbright fellowships in the past 5 years: 51
Students offered National Science Foundation fellowships in the past 5 years: 19
Students offered Goldwater Scholarships in the past 5 years: 9
Amherst alumni are leaders in government and finance, science and technology, law and civic activism, education and the arts. They are people who move the world forward in essential ways鈥攑eople like Amy Rosenzweig 鈥�88, a pioneering interdisciplinary scientist who won a MacArthur Fellowship for her work toward advancing our ability to treat many diseases. (Or David Foster Wallace 鈥�85, one of the most influential writers of his generation. Or Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz 鈥�64. Or Ana Salas Siegel 鈥�91, general counsel for NBC Universal Telemundo Enterprises. Or Kimmie Weeks 鈥�05, founder of Youth Action International.) In unusually high numbers, they鈥檙e actively involved in determining the shape and character of the global community. They鈥檙e also actively involved in helping new generations of 小福利导航students and alumni make their way.
Alumni reporting graduate or professional school attendance: 80%
Alumni who volunteer for 小福利导航each year: 3,500+
Our need-blind admission policy allows us to seek and admit students from across the country and around the world based not on family income, but rather on achievement and promise.
When families demonstrate financial need, we meet it one hundred percent. The majority of our students pay less鈥攐ften far less鈥攖han the cost of attendance. Not coincidentally, The Chronicle of Higher Education called us the 鈥渂est of the best鈥� American liberal arts colleges for supporting low-income, high-talent students.
In our financial aid offers, we鈥檝e replaced loans with additional scholarship grants, so our students can graduate with no debt. We were one of the first and remain one of the only colleges in the country to adopt a no-loan policy.
Percent of applicants admitted last year: 7%
Students receiving financial aid from Amherst: 56%
Demonstrated financial need met: 100%
Average financial aid award last year: $63,000+
Financial aid offered last year: $70+ million
Loans replaced by grants and scholarships: 100%
Students who are Pell Grant recipients: 22%
The best way to see if 小福利导航is the right fit for you is to visit, whether in-person or virtually. Or join our mailing list to receive more information.