wk15

Some Great, Some Need Work

Overall, Amherst looks like what a small, old, prestigious New England college ought to look like. The vistas of the Holyoke Range you get when looking out over the War Memorial are unparalleled. Most buildings, particularly those on the freshman quad, are very quaint and charming. As a rule, the facilities here are great, but I'll mention a few exceptions:

Keefe, the campus center is poorly designed--no one really uses it, other than to check their mail. When I visited friends at schools, their student centers seemed much more vibrant and vital (Columbia really stuck out in this regard).

The library is pretty bad 1950s architecture, as is the current science center, though it's about to be replaced by something a lot better.

All the athletic facilities are nice and well-maintained, though the weight room is really too small for a school with so many athletes. It gets really crowded at around 5 p.m.

Val (short for Valentine), our dining hall, has improved recently, but still gets really crowded at certain times of day, and has odd hours (dinner is served from 4:30-7:30; doesn't really make sense for college students).

Lots of Options

Amherst is an awesome place to be a straight dude. If you're into intelligent, classically pretty, articulate, ambitious, well-bred, athletic, somewhat preppy, down-to-earth girls, you'll certainly be able to find some here. The best of them will make you work a bit, but I'd say it's worth it. (Of course, not all girls here fit that mold, for better or for worse). There's a pretty good scene for random hookups here, though some kids seem to get into more serious relationships once they've settled down, after their first semester or two.

Mt. Holyoke (an all-girls school in our consortium) is a solid option, if you're looking for an easier hookup. Smith is also a possibility, but tread lightly there: a significant number of the girls there are lesbians, and some can be openly abrasive to guys who show up on campus.

UMass definitely has its share of hot girls (most easily found at frat and sorority parties), though generally of a different variety than the Amherst girls I described above. They tend to look and act more like, well, what you'd expect hot girls from a state school to be like. In my mind, not really as classy or as purely good-looking, but definitely have more raw sex appeal.

I haven't really met any Hampshire girls, but one of my friends dated one, who was pretty cool. Very worldly, ridiculously smart girl--not to mention quite attractive. Definitely didn't fit the stereotype of Hampshire kids all being lazy druggies.

Despite the perceived 'competition' from girls at other colleges, most girls at Amherst seem to be doing okay for themselves. None of my female friends really complain about a lack of sociable, athletic, good-looking guys to hook up with. I'd guess that some girls probably would like it there more of a robust dating scene here, though...

I don't know as much about the gay scene here, although there's certainly a smaller (or at least less visible) dating/hookup pool for gay students than straight ones at Amherst.

Drinking Is Big, but Low-Key and Safe

The overwhelming majority of campus drinks, but there's very little peer pressure to drink, and kids are always good about looking out to make sure their friends don't get too drunk (or that they get the help they need, if they are in fact too drunk). Most of the drinking is confined to the social dorms and the triangle, so it'd be easy to avoid the drinking scene altogether, if you so chose. Police only really bust on-campus parties if they're on weeknights. They won't get you in trouble if you're simply being drunk and stupid on campus, though that changes if you bring an open container outside of a party, or if your drunken exploits lead you off campus (where the town police are less forgiving).

As to drugs, there's really not a big scene here. Some kids smoke weed, but there's no real 'stoner culture' accompanying that. Harder drugs are very rare.