Amherst College ( ) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

by its then-president

Zephaniah Swift Moore Zephaniah Swift Moore (November 20, 1770 – June 29, 1823) was an American Congregational clergyman and educator. He taught at Dartmouth College during the early 1810s and had a house built in Hanover, New Hampshire, that now serves as Dart ...

, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher education in

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. The institution was named after the town, which in turn had been named after Jeffery, Lord Amherst, Commander-in-Chief of British forces of North America during the French and Indian War. Originally established as a

men's college In higher education, a men's college is an undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institution whose students are exclusively men. Many are liberal arts colleges. Around the world In North America United States In the United States, co-ed ...

, Amherst became

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

in 1975. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution; 1,971 students were enrolled in fall 2021. Admissions is highly selective, and it frequently ranks at or near the top in most rankings of liberal arts schools. Students choose courses from 41 major programs in an open curriculum and are not required to study a core curriculum or fulfill any distribution requirements; students may also design their own interdisciplinary major. Amherst competes in the

New England Small College Athletic Conference The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal arts institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. ...

. Amherst has historically had close relationships and rivalries with

and Wesleyan University, which form the Little Three colleges. The college is also a member of the

Five College Consortium The Five College Consortium (often referred to as simply the Five Colleges) comprises four liberal arts colleges and one university in the Connecticut River Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts: Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Hol ...

, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

. Among its alumni and affiliates are six

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureates (with its five alumni giving it one of the highest proportions of Nobel laureates among graduates out of any undergraduate institution worldwide), 20 Rhodes Scholars, numerous Pulitzer Prize recipients, MacArthur Fellows, winners of the Academy, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Awards, a

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

( Coolidge), a Chief Justice of the United States ( Stone), three Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives, and notable writers, academics, politicians, entertainers, businesspeople, and activists.

History

Founding and 19th century

Amherst College Class of 1850 daguerreotypes

In 1812, funds were raised in Amherst for a secondary school, Amherst Academy; it opened December 1814. The academy incorporated in 1816, and eventually counted among its students Emily Dickinson,

Sylvester Graham Sylvester Graham (July 5, 1794 – September 11, 1851) was an American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer known for his emphasis on vegetarianism, the temperance movement, and eating whole-grain bread. His preaching inspired the grah ...

, and Mary Lyon (founder of Mount Holyoke College). The institution was named after the town, which in turn had been named after Jeffery, Lord Amherst, a veteran from the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

and later commanding general of the British forces in North America. On November 18, 1817, a project was adopted at the Academy to raise funds for the free instruction of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a desire to obtain a liberal education with a sole view to the Christian ministry". This required a substantial investment from benefactors. During the fundraising for the project, it became clear that without larger designs, it would be impossible to raise sufficient funds. This led the committee overseeing the project to conclude that a new institution should be created. On August 18, 1818, the Amherst Academy board of trustees accepted this conclusion and began building a new college. Founded in 1821, Amherst College developed from Amherst Academy, first established as a secondary school. The college was originally suggested as an alternative to

, which was struggling to stay open. Although Williams survived, Amherst was formed and developed as a distinct institution.

Establishment

Moore, then President of Williams College, however, still believed that Williamstown was an unsuitable location for a college. When Amherst College was established, he was elected its first president on May 8, 1821. At its opening, Amherst had forty-seven students. Fifteen of these had followed Moore from Williams College. Those fifteen represented about one-third of the total students at Amherst, and about one-fifth of the whole number in the three classes to which they belonged in Williams College. President Moore died on June 29, 1823, and was replaced with a Williams College trustee,

Heman Humphrey Heman Humphrey (March 26, 1779 – April 3, 1861) was a 19th-century American author and clergyman who served as a trustee of Williams College and afterward as the second president of Amherst College, a post he held for 22 years.Harry C. Payne declared the story false, but many still nurture the legend. Amherst grew quickly, and for two years in the mid-1830s, it was the second largest college in the United States, second only to Yale. In 1835, Amherst attempted to create a course of study parallel to the classical liberal arts education. This parallel course focused less on Greek and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, instead emphasizing contemporary English, French, and Spanish languages, chemistry, economics, etc. The parallel course did not take hold and replace the classical, however, until the next century. Amherst was founded as a non-sectarian institution "for the classical education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry" (Tyler, ''A History of Amherst College''). One of the hallmarks of the new college was its Charity Fund, an early form of financial aid that paid the tuition of poorer students. Although officially non-denominational, Amherst was considered a religiously conservative institution with a strong connection to

Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...

. As a result, there was considerable debate in the Massachusetts government over whether the new college should receive an official charter from the state. A charter was not granted until February 21, 1825, as reflected on the Amherst seal. Religious conservatism persisted at Amherst until the mid-nineteenth century: students who consumed alcohol or played cards were subject to expulsion. A number of religious revivals were held at Amherst, where mobs of righteous students would herd less religious students into the chapel and berate them for lack of piety. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, the college began a transition toward secularism. This movement was considered to culminate in the 1949 demolition of the college church.

Development and academic reform

Academic hoods in the United States are traditionally lined with the official colors of the school, in theory so watchers can tell where the hood wearer earned his or her degree. Amherst's hoods are purple (Williams' official color) with a white stripe or chevron, said to signify that Amherst was born of Williams. Amherst records one of the first uses of Latin honors of any American college, dating back to 1881. The college was an all-male school until the late 1960s, when a few female students from nearby schools in the Five-College Consortium attended on an experimental basis. In October 1974, the faculty voted in favor of coeducation and in November 1974 the board of trustees voted to admit female students starting in the 1975–1976 school year. This was done while John William Ward served as president. In 1975, nine women who were already attending classes as part of an inter-college exchange program were admitted as transfer students. In June 1976, they became the first female graduates of the college. The college established the Black Studies Department in 1969. In 1973, it launched the nation's first undergraduate neuroscience program. In 1983, it established a Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, which was later to become the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations. In 1984, on-campus fraternities were abolished. The former fraternity buildings, which were owned by the college, were converted into residence halls. The Department of Women's and Gender Studies, which later became the Department of Sexuality, Women's, and Gender Studies, was established in 1987 and the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought in 1993. In March 2013 the faculty adopted an open-access policy. Eight years later, the college ended its practice of legacy admissions and increased financial aid to increase access to low and middle-income students and diversify the college.

Presidents

, 1821–1823 #

William Augustus Stearns William Augustus Stearns (March 17, 1805 – June 8, 1876) was a 19th-century American Reformed church, Reformed minister (religion), minister and teacher who served as academic administration, president of Amherst College from 1854 to 1876. Biogr ...

, 1854–1876 # Julius Hawley Seelye, 1876–1890 # Merrill Edwards Gates, 1890–1899 # George Harris, 1899–1912 #

Alexander Meiklejohn Alexander Meiklejohn (; 3 February 1872 – 17 December 1964) was a philosopher, university administrator, educational reformer, and free-speech advocate, best known as president of Amherst College. Background Alexander Meiklejohn was born o ...

, 1912–1924 # George Daniel Olds, 1924–1927 # Arthur Stanley Pease, 1927–1932 # Stanley King, 1932–1946 # Charles Woolsey Cole, 1946–1960 # Calvin Hastings Plimpton, 1960–1971 # John William Ward, 1971–1979 # Julian Gibbs, 1979–1983 # G. Armour Craig, 1983–1984 (acting) #

Peter Pouncey Peter R. Pouncey (born October 1, 1937) is an English author, classicist, and former president of Amherst College. Biography The son of a British father and a French-British mother, he was born in Tsingtao (now Qingdao), China. At the end of Wo ...

, 1984–1994 #

Tom Gerety Tom Gerety, a lawyer, philosopher, is the former president of both Trinity College (Connecticut) (1989-1994) and Amherst College (1994–2003). Biography After leaving Amherst College, he became the executive director of the Brennan Center for J ...

, 1994–2003 #

Anthony Marx Anthony William "Tony" Marx (born February 28, 1959) is an American academic. He became the current president and CEO of the New York Public Library in July 2011, succeeding Paul LeClerc. Marx is the former president of Amherst College, in Amh ...

, 2003–2011 # Carolyn "Biddy" Martin, 2011–2022 # Michael A. Elliott, 2022–

Rankings

Since the inception of the '' U.S. News & World Report'' rankings in 1987, Amherst College has been ranked ten times as the first overall among 266 liberal arts colleges in the United States, and in 2022 ranked second, behind Williams. In 2022, Amherst was ranked as the best liberal arts college in the country by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''.. In 2021, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' ranked Amherst College as the 16th best college or university in the United States. '' Kiplinger's Personal Finance'' places Amherst 11th in its 2016 ranking of best value liberal arts colleges in the United States. Amherst ranked 6th in the 2021 ''

Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...

'' liberal arts college rankings, which focus on contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research, and promoting public service.

Admissions

Amherst has been dubbed one of the "most selective" liberal arts colleges in the United States; the Carnegie Foundation classifies Amherst as one of the "more selective" institutions whose first-year students' test scores places these institutions in roughly the top fifth of baccalaureate institutions. For the class first enrolled in Fall 2021, Amherst received 13,999 applications and accepted 1,224 (an 8.7% acceptance rate). 514 students ultimately enrolled; 91% were in the top 10% of their high school classes, and the middle 50% scored between 1440 and 1540 on the SAT and between 32 and 35 on the ACT. 38 states and 23 countries were reflected among the first-year class, 55% received financial aid and 11% were first-generation college students. In addition, 16 transfer students enrolled. Despite its high cost of attendance - comprehensive tuition, room, and board fee for the 2022–23 academic year was $80,250 - Amherst College meets the full demonstrated need of every admitted student. Sixty percent of current students receive scholarship aid, and the average financial aid package award amounts to $62,071; college expenditures are approximately $109,000 per student each year. In July 2007, Amherst announced that grants would replace loans in all financial aid packages beginning in the 2008–09 academic year. Amherst had already been the first school to eliminate loans for low-income students, and with this announcement it joined

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and Davidson College, then the only colleges to eliminate loans from need-based financial aid packages. Increased rates of admission of highly qualified lower income students has resulted in greater equality of opportunity at Amherst than is usual at elite American colleges. In the 2008–2009 academic year, Amherst College also extended its need-blind admission policy to international applicants. In 2021, it also eliminated preferences for students whose parents are alumni ("legacies").

Academics

Amherst College offers 41 fields of study (with 850+ courses) in the sciences, arts, humanities, mathematics and computer sciences, social sciences, foreign languages, classics, and several interdisciplinary fields (including premedical studies) and provides an unusually open curriculum. Students are not required to study a core curriculum or fulfill any distribution requirements and may even design their own unique interdisciplinary major.Areas of Study
", amherst.edu. Retrieved February 28, 2008. Freshmen may take advanced courses, and seniors may take introductory ones. Amherst College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. Forty-five percent of Amherst students in the class of 2019 were double majors. Amherst College has been the first college to have undergraduate departments in the interdisciplinary fields of American Studies; Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought; and

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...

and has helped to pioneer other interdisciplinary programs, including Asian Languages and Civilizations. The Amherst library is named for long-time faculty member, poet Robert Frost. Amherst College has been recognized for its commitment to quality teaching with professor-student interaction. The student-faculty ratio is 7:1 and 84% of classes have fewer than 30 students. Notable faculty members include, among others, modern literature and poetry critic William H. Pritchard, Beowulf translator Howell Chickering, Jewish and Latino studies scholar Ilan Stavans, novelist and legal scholar Lawrence Douglas, physicist Arthur Zajonc, Pulitzer Prize-winning

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

biographer William Taubman, African art specialist Rowland Abiodun, Natural Law expert

Hadley Arkes Hadley P. Arkes (born 1940) is an American political scientist and the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions ''emeritus'' at Amherst College, where he has taught since 1966. He is currently the founder and director of t ...

, Mathematician Daniel Velleman, Biblical scholar Susan Niditch, law and society expert

Austin Sarat Austin Sarat (born November 2, 1947) is an American political scientist who is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary P ...

, Asian American studies scholar and former Director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center Franklin Odo, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer

Lewis Spratlan M. Lewis Spratlan Jr. (born September 5, 1940) is an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Lewis Spratlan, recipient of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in music and the Charles Ives Opera Award (2016) from the Ame ...

, professor emeritus of the music faculty.

Academic freedom debate

The writings of Amherst College political science Professor

about

homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

led to a dispute in 2013 over whether a college seeking to create a diverse, respectful academic community should speak out when a faculty member disparages community members or should instead remain silent as a way to protect academic freedom. The issue arose when a group of alumni petitioned the college trustees and President

Biddy Martin Carolyn Arthur "Biddy" Martin (born 1951) is an American academic, author, and a former president of Amherst College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Before becoming president at Amherst, she was Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, ...

to "dissociate the institution" from Arkes's "divisive and destructive" views,Petition to the Amherst College board of trustees , Amherst Against Homophobia
. Terrasirradient.org (October 18, 2013). Retrieved on 2014-04-12. focusing particularly on his May 2013 comparison of homosexuality to bestiality, pedophilia and necrophilia. The alumni said, "Amherst College cannot credibly maintain its professed commitment to be an inclusive community as long as it chooses to remain silent while a sitting professor disparages members of its community in media of worldwide circulation and accessibility." Martin disagreed, citing past debates over the college's position on the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

in South Africa—issues on which the college initially remained silent but eventually took a public position. In such times, she said, colleges should "avoid taking institutional positions on controversial political matters, except in extraordinary circumstances" and should simultaneously both "protect their communities from discrimination and disrespect" and "cherish a diversity of viewpoints". Kirby amherst

Five College Consortium

Amherst is a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions. These include Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the

. In addition to the 850 courses available on campus, Amherst students have an additional 5,300 classes to consider through the Consortium (without paying additional tuition) and access to 8 million library volumes. The Five Colleges are geographically close to one another and are linked by buses that run between the campuses. The Five Colleges share resources and develop common academic programs. Museums10 is a consortium of local art, history and science museums. The Five College Dance Department is one of the largest in the nation. The joint Astronomy department shares use of the

Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory The Five College Radio Astronomical Observatory (FCRAO) was a radio astronomy observatory located on a peninsula in the Quabbin Reservoir. It was sited in the town of New Salem, Massachusetts on land that was originally part of Prescott, Massachu ...

, which contributed to work that won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Five College Coastal and Marine Sciences Program offers an interdisciplinary curriculum to undergraduates in the Five Colleges.

Campus

Amherst College is located in the town of

Amherst Amherst may refer to: People * Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name * Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst'' * Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...

in Western Massachusetts. Amherst College has a total of 34 residence halls, seven of which are strictly for first year students. Following their first year, sophomores, juniors, and seniors have the choice to live off campus and are offered options of Themed Houses including Arts House, Russian House, and French House, however this option is only available for two years of residence. First-year students are required to live on campus. The college also owns the

Dickinson Homestead The Emily Dickinson Museum is a historic house museum consisting of two houses: the Dickinson Homestead (also known as Emily Dickinson Home or Emily Dickinson House) and the Evergreens. The Dickinson Homestead was the birthplace and home from 1 ...

, operated as a museum about the life and history of poet Emily Dickinson, and the Lord Jeffery Inn (to be renamed), near to the main campus.

Sustainability

Amherst College is reducing its energy consumption through a computerized monitoring system for lighting and the use of an efficient cogeneration facility. The cogeneration facility features a gas turbine that generates electricity in addition to steam for heating the campus. Amherst also operates a composting program, in which a portion of the food waste from dining halls is sent to a farmer in Vermont.

Student life

Amherst's resources, faculty, and academic life allow the college to enroll students with a range of talents, interests, and commitments. Students represent 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and sixty-six countries. The median family income of Amherst students is $158,200, with 51% of students coming from the top 10% highest-earning families and 24% from the bottom 60%. Ninety-eight percent of students live on campus. Ninety-eight percent of Amherst freshmen enrolled in Fall 2020 returned for their sophomore year; ninety-two percent of the most recent cohort graduated within six years. There are more than 200 student groups at Amherst. More than a third of the student body are members of a varsity athletics team. Students pursue their interests through student-led organizations funded by a student fee and distributed by the student government, including a variety of cultural and religious groups, publications, fine and performing arts and political advocacy and service groups. Groups include a medieval sword-fighting club, a knitting club, and a club devoted to random acts of kindness, among others. Community service groups and opportunities (locally—through the Center for Community Engagement, nationally, and internationally) have been a priority at Amherst and for former President

, who helped start a secondary school for black students in apartheid South Africa. One of the longstanding traditions at the college involves the ''Sabrina'' statue. Even year and odd year classes battle for possession of the historic statue, often engaging in elaborate pranks in the process.

Sexual assault

In 2012, President Biddy Martin began a community-wide review of the sexual misconduct and disciplinary policies at the college. This review was sparked by several factors, including a fraternity's T-shirt design that critics alleged was misogynist and an essay by Angie Epifano published in ''The Amherst Student'', wherein she accused the college of inappropriate handling of a case of sexual assault. In January 2013, a college committee published a report noting Amherst's rate of sexual assault as similar to other colleges and universities, and making recommendations to address the problem. After a complaint was filed by Epifano and an anonymous former student in November 2013, the US Department of Education opened an investigation into the college's handling of sexual violence and potential violations of Title IX. In May 2014, the Department of Education announced a list of 55 colleges and universities (including Amherst) currently under investigation. A report from Amherst College stated that 2009 to 2011, Amherst reported 35 instances of "forcible sex offenses", a term that encompasses rape, attempted rape, and lesser forms of sexual contact.

Mascot

The original unofficial mascot of Amherst College, Lord Jeffery Amherst, was a cause of concern in the Amherst community. Many sought to separate the school from the problematic legacy of Lord Jeffery Amherst, in particular his advocacy of the use of biological warfare against Native Americans. In May 2014, after a wild moose found its way onto the Amherst College campus and into the backyard of the house of the college president, students organized a Facebook campaign to change the mascot of the school to a moose. The page grew rapidly in popularity, receiving over 900 "likes" in under two weeks, and inspiring both a Twitter and Tumblr account for the newly proposed mascot. At the Commencement ceremony for the class of 2014, the moose mascot was mentioned by Biddy Martin in her address, and the Dining Hall served Moose Tracks ice cream in front of an ice sculpture of a moose. In February 2015, discussion of a mascot change continued when the editorial board of the ''Amherst Student'', the college's official student-run newspaper, came out in favor of "the moose-scot". In November 2015 the student body and the faculty overwhelmingly voted to vacate the mascot; the decision to drop the mascot was made official on January 26, 2016, after student anti-racism protests on campus. In April 2017, Amherst announced that their official mascot would be the

Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

.Boswell, Thomas
Changing a nickname seems like a seismic shift, but it's rarely a Mammoth deal
. Washington Post. December 14, 2017. Mammoths beat the other finalists "Valley Hawks", "Purple and White", "Wolves", and "Fighting Poets" in a ranked-choice election process. The Mammoth is linked to Amherst due to the long-standing presence of a woolly mammoth skeleton on campus dating back to the 1920s excavation of the skeleton by Amherst professor Frederic Brewster Loomis.

Athletics

Amherst participates in the NCAA's Division III, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and the

, which includes

Bates Bates may refer to: Places * Bates, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Bates, Illinois. an unincorporated community in Sangamon County * Bates, Michigan, a community in Grand Traverse County * Bates, New York, a hamlet in the town of Elli ...

, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College,

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

, Middlebury,

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

Tufts Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learnin ...

, Wesleyan, and

. Amherst is also one of the " Little Three", along with Williams and Wesleyan. A Little Three champion is informally recognized by most teams based on the head-to-head records of the three schools, but three-way competitions are held in some of the sports. Amherst claims its athletics program as the oldest in the nation, pointing to its compulsory physical fitness regimen put in place in 1860 (the mandate that all students participate in sports or pursue physical education has been discontinued).
", ''A History of Amherst College During the Administrations of its First Five Presidents.'' Amherst and Williams played the first

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

game July 2, 1859. Amherst's growing athletics program has been the subject of controversy in recent years due to dramatic contrasts between the racial and socioeconomic makeup of its student athletes and the rest of its student body, the clustering of athletes in particular academic departments, and a perceived "divide" on campus between varsity athletes and other students. Athletic skill plays a factor in the admissions decisions of between 28% and 35% of each incoming class. Amherst fields several club athletic teams, including

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *'' Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *'' The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilat ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, crew,

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with th ...

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

, mountain biking,

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

and

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

. Intramural sports include soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, volleyball and softball. The sport of

Ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *'' Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *'' The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilat ...

was started and named at Amherst College in the mid-1960s by Jared Kass.

Varsity sports

Alumni

Although a relatively small college, Amherst has many accomplished alumni, including

Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...

, Crafoord Prize and Lasker Award laureates, MacArthur Fellowship and Pulitzer Prize winners, National Medal of Science and

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

recipients, and Academy, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winners; a U.S. President, the current Sovereign Prince of Monaco, two

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

s and one Foreign Minister of Greece, as well as the fourth President of Kenya, a Chief Justice of the United States, three

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

s of the U.S. House of Representatives, a U.S.

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

, the legal architect of '' Brown v. Board of Education'' and the inventor of the blood bank; leaders in science, religion, politics, the Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, and business; and acclaimed actors, architects, artists, astronauts, engineers, human rights activists, inventors, musicians, philanthropists, and writers. There are approximately 23,000 living alumni, of whom about 45% make a gift to Amherst each year—one of the highest alumni participation rates of any college in the country.

References

Bibliography

* W. S. Tyler, ''History of Amherst College during its first half century, 1821–1871'' (C. W. Bryan, 1873). *
Exercises at the Semi-Centennial of Amherst College
' (1871). * William S. Tyler,

' (1894). * Debby Applegate, '' The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher'' (Doubleday, 2006). * Nancy Pick and Frank Ward, ''Curious Footprints: Professor Hitchcock's Dinosaur Tracks & Other Natural History Treasures at Amherst College'' (Amherst College Press, 2006). * ''Passages of Time, Narratives in the History of Amherst College'', edited and with several selections by Douglas C. Wilson, son of William E. Wilson (Amherst College Press, 2007).

External links

* * {{authority control 1821 establishments in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Amherst, Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1821 Liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts Universities and colleges in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Private universities and colleges in Massachusetts