Amherst is an liberal arts school in Amherst, Massachusetts that raises the bar for what a small liberal arts school can offer to students intent on making a global impact. Students come from 70 countries, and Amherst has a completely open curriculum. You pick what you take to pursue your passions. How you spend your time outside of your major requirements is your decision. Some students flinch in response to this level of choice, but Amherst students thrive in it. They take control of their educational experience, and the results speak for themselves. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was about .
The college is known for offering a learning experience that pushes boundaries in an intimate setting. Students are nurtured, but also pressed to extend beyond their perceived limitations. The student-to-faculty ratio is only , and 88% of classes have fewer than 30 students. There are 43 majors to pick from, and students have access to more than 6,000 courses through the .
Given how Amherst does things differently, it doesn’t surprise us that they have also thought about standardized testing differently for a while. The SAT or ACT is an piece of their admissions process, and it’s up to you whether you want to include scores or not. When deciding, remember that schools with optional testing policies tend to have higher score averages simply because students with low scores don’t submit them. So, what is considered a score worth submitting? Well, looking at shows us that you should be aiming for an ACT at or above a 34 or an SAT of 1540+. While you can get into Amherst with scores lower than this, they won’t strengthen your application so may not be worth submitting unless they serve another purpose on your application. Unsure where you stand? Let us know, as we help students make sense of their strongest strategy.
In this post, we’ll be focusing on a different aspect of your college application strategy: your supplements. Every piece of your application serves an important purpose. For Amherst, though, the supplements are truly critical. They only want to accept students who will thrive on their campus, and they know that their community isn’t for everyone. If you want parties on Tuesday nights and football tailgating, for example, Amherst is not your perfect school. If you want a place where hard thinking about complex subjects is basically considered a team sport, though, Amherst may be your perfect fit — and you want them to see that through your supplements.
We help students find, and get into, their perfect fit school. Learn more.
The Amherst supplement comes with . Maybe, we’d argue, a confusing number. There are three doors you can walk through: Option A, Option B, or Option C. You can only pick one, and you have to see the one you pick all the way through. Yes, that means that there are sometimes multiple things to do within an option. Below we are going to break down each option so that you can make the best choices for your chances of admission.
OPTION A
For this option, you need to pick a quote from a list of they provide and then answer the question matched to the quote. Your response is limited to 350 words, and your answer should not be a critical analysis of the quote. They do not want you to spend time researching the texts, and you don’t even need to refer to them in your response unless it serves the purpose of your story. What they do want to see are responses that are personal and original.
Prompt 1
"Hope and curiosity — these are qualities that are the foundation of what Amherst College means, of everything that we do here. Curiosity is at the core of a liberal arts education — a spirit of inquiry that shapes not only what our students do in the classroom, but also how they learn from and about each other." — Michael A. Elliott, 20th President of Amherst College, address at Amherst College’s 203rd Commencement
Prompt 1 Question: What does curiosity mean to you? How do you experience curiosity in your own life?
This quote, and the subsequent prompt, are all about curiosity. This makes it one of our favorite types of prompts. We coach our students to write a short essay (remember the 350 word limit) that is entirely centered on showing their curiosity in action. Explaining how you are curious is boring and unproductive. Showing how you are curious, and illustrating your curiosity in action, is a much better approach.
So, what makes you excited about learning? Ideally, this is something that is related in some way, but not too closely, to what you want to study at Amherst. For example, if you want to study literature you could write about the letters Nabokov wrote to his wife and collaborator Vera when she was seeking mental health support, and the often complicated lives of those who have created work of immense influence and merit. So, in this essay you wouldn’t be writing about a literature major. But you would be writing about words, story, culture, community, and the role of relationships in crafting great work.
Prompt 2
"We seek an Amherst made stronger because it includes those whose experiences can enhance our understanding of our nation and our world. We do so in the faith that our humanity is an identity forged from diversity, and that our different perspectives enrich our inquiry, deepen our knowledge, strengthen our community, and prepare students to engage with an ever-changing world." — from the Trustee Statement on Diversity and Community
Prompt 2 Question: In what ways could your unique experiences enhance our understanding of our nation and our world?
This is a diversity prompt, but with a lot of breadth. They are more interested in your experiences than demographic information, although sometimes the demographic stuff (race, geography, wealth, or lack thereof) has informed your life in a way that leads to unique experiences that make for a strong response to this prompt.
But there are loads of other unique experiences that can inform life, from outstanding opportunities with complicated outcomes — like maybe your dad won the lottery when you were 12 and your life changed overnight — to tragedy and hardship. The tragedy stuff is hard to write about well, though, because there needs to be a story that goes deeper than ‘wow, that’s horrible.’ Pity doesn’t get you very far in college admissions, and there will (nearly) always be someone with a tougher road than you.
Whatever topic you pick, this prompt needs to be answered with a focused story, not a mini autobiography.
Prompt 3
"We are working together to build a community that makes room for both true disagreement and true connection, one that practices the kind of recognition and robust negotiation that the everyday life of democracy requires, and one that explicitly prepares our students to work for the greater good in their professional and personal endeavors." — Presidential Priorities: Serving the Greater Good
Prompt 3 Question: Tell us about a time that you engaged with a viewpoint different from your own. How did you enter that engagement, and what did you learn about yourself from it?
This is the type of prompt we’ve been seeing pop up a lot lately. We were even quoted in the New York Times talking about it. Call it the ‘civil disagreement’ question. Basically, they are interested in whether you can talk about tough subjects in ways that don’t include, say, occupying a building.
We do not encourage our students to pick this prompt unless they have been heavily involved in social justice, politics, or cause-based advocacy/volunteering that will show up on their activities sheet and may benefit from nuance. If you have interned for politicians and lead a political or cause-focused club at school, for example, and especially if that politician or that cause is currently in the headlines, this prompt can be a useful way to temper your, well, temper. They don’t want to accept students who will try to overturn campus before they have even fully unpacked their dorm rooms, but they do want a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives. For students engaged in politics, this prompt can be a useful way to emphasize how they can bring complex thought, not conflict, to campus.
If you haven’t realized it already, the quotes for Option A are really irrelevant to the prompts. They could just ask the questions, but for some reason they’ve decided that it is necessary to bog down clear and direct communication with quotes that you don’t need to even read to do a good job. We find this annoying, but the prompt options are good, so we forgive them for it.
OPTION B
For Option B, you are invited to submit a recent graded paper, from junior or senior year, that you feel represents your “.” When they the paper, they are less interested in the grade (although an A is definitely preferred) than they are in the strength of your argument and how well you present it. What matters is how you think, and that’s what they want to see in your submission if you pick Option B.
OPTION C
Now, Option C is only few a small number of applicants who applied through the Access to Amherst (A2A) program. Students who applied through A2A can reuse that supplement for this spot, but you also don’t have to. We advise students to present new information whenever possible, and to avoid repetition in their applications. So, we wouldn’t recommend Option C to anyone, really.
The Amherst supplement offers a bunch of different directions and options, which can be overwhelming as a student but is also awesome. We help our students find their perfect prompt — and write their ideal essay.
It takes more than one good essay to get into college. We address the whole package. Learn more.