Amherst
offers an extraordinary opportunity for a first rate, very rigorous
education of the sort that actually change a person and
the way they do things. It is a very tough
,serious school with a lot of work and high competition.
For people who like challenges it's terrific, if not, it
can be discouraging. The access to faculty and the detailed,
personal nature of the criticism you get from them is
remarkably effective and helpful, much more so than at Ivy
League schools, replete as they are with teaching assistants and
faculty more interested in personal advancement. Amherst professors like to
teach and do a terrific job of it.
The primary
criticisms is characteristic of all hyper-competitive prestige schools: narrow minded
faculty, heavily liberal and doctrinaire, but that isn't unique to
this school.
Amherst is also an excellent stepping stone to
first rate grad schools, all of whom respect it, and
know how difficult it is. If you do well at
Amherst you'll go on to excellent grad/professional schools.
Criticisms you'll
see here from “minority students” reflects the somewhat lower standards
in the admission processs, as at many upper end schools,
and the resulting diffiulty of some of the students admitted
under those preference systems.
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