Amherst is a college but enormous in impact. Located in Amherst, Massachusetts, students are immersed in an intellectual environment that prizes making an impact. For most of Amherst’s modern existence, it flew quietly under the radar, attracting mostly east coast students who prized the educational environment and community Amherst offered. Twenty years ago, the acceptance rate was a (then) record low for the college at . A lot has changed in the past two decades, though. Word about a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts spread far and wide, and the acceptance rate plummeted. Most recently, for the Class of 2030, Amherst reported another record low acceptance rate of only .
Getting into Amherst has transitioned from a manageable goal into a very steep challenge. The college is, fundamentally, the same as it was 20 years ago — which isn’t a bad thing at all, it’s an outstanding school. It’s simply harder to get in. To pull it off, then, you need a strategy.
When students come to us looking for a strategy for Amherst, the question they usually start with is, “Can I even get into Amherst?” That is a terrible question, though. Because yes, you can get in. The question isn’t whether you can get in — it is how. So, instead, ask: “What do I need to do to get into Amherst?”
In this post, we are going to break down the core pieces of a strong Amherst application. These include things that can be fine-tuned on a short timeline, and others that need to be started years in advance of any deadlines. This truly is a long game, and that’s the approach we take to working with our students. Now, let’s get into it.
Getting into a dream school requires a solid plan. Get yours.
When it comes to college admissions, having a plan of action is everything. The earlier you can implement your plan, the better. Expert guidance, too, is crucial to pull off a dream school acceptance. Getting started on your own can be great, but it’s important to recognize where having someone with experience working towards Amherst admission is very important.
Step 1: Exceptional Grades and Scores
Amherst has always had high academic expectations of applicants, but the bar has risen as the acceptance rate has plummeted. Having a B isn’t a big deal in the scope of your life, but it is a big deal for an Amherst application. This isn’t because they don’t understand that students hit hiccups sometimes. It’s simply that they receive so many applications ( for the Class of 2030) for so few spots that they don’t have a need to seriously consider those with significant academic blemishes on their transcripts.
What they aren’t looking for, though, is whether you have fulfilled a required list of courses. There are no required courses, or course distribution, for admission to Amherst. There are that you should exceed, but this isn’t actually required to have your application considered. What is required (albeit not technically) is that you excel in the hardest courses that you have access to.
Amherst wants to see you challenging yourself, and we work with our students to ensure that their academic record illustrates their direction and drive. The college is also interested in how you against your peers when that data is available. Through Class Rank reports, they can see how you push yourself compared to your peers.
| Class Rank | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Top 10th of HS graduating class | 88% |
| Top Quarter of HS graduating class | 96% |
| Top Half of HS graduating class | 100% |
| Bottom Half of HS graduating class | 0% |
| Total submitting class rank | 28% |
Now, less than a third of recent accepted first-year applicants are able to report class rank, but of those who do their ranking is impressive. Another way to impressive admissions is through standardized testing.
Amherst does not currently require that you submit the SAT or ACT to be considered for admission, but of accepted and enrolled recent first-year applicants did submit scores. Because scores aren’t required, the ones that are submitted naturally skew high. They aren’t as high, though, as at comparably selective first-year colleges.
This tells us that our students should strive for super strong scores, but if they aren’t in the 75th percentile sweet spot we typically aim for that isn’t the end of the world.
| Test | 25th Percentile | 50th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT Composite | 1470 | 1510 | 1540 |
| ACT Composite | 33 | 34 | 35 |
But you should aim for the 75th percentile range or higher on either the SAT or the ACT to get into Amherst, as strong scores underline an impressive application.
The bottom line is that in order to get into Amherst you must be an impressive applicant quantitatively. You need to have the grades, and while you don’t need to submit scores they certainly help. After you’ve met their academic expectations, it’s time to blow them away with how awesome you are beyond the numbers.
Step 2: Pinpoint a Passion
Once you have your plan for keeping your grades sky high and earning super strong test scores, you need to pinpoint a passion that is (and this is crucial) academically relevant.
We are sure that you have a few different strong interests. You may play a sport, work a part-time retail job, play an instrument recreationally, or love to dance, but unless you are going to be recruited or the job is relevant to your prospective major those aren’t useful passions for building an Amherst application.
We are not advocating for you to quit all the hobbies you love simply to attract Amherst, but we are experts on what it takes to get in. For Amherst, that means having a clear passion with an academic link that you can build your application around through strategic course and activity selections, as well as independent projects.
Guiding students towards their strongest passion is about more than where they have fun, and also about more than what Amherst would like. Really, it’s about the meeting of the two. Then, once we’ve picked out a passion it is time to start building on it.
Step 3: Niche Down
Once we’ve pinpointed a specific passion to build your application on, you need to focus in. “Biology” may be a passion, but it isn’t a niche, and it certainly isn’t a niche with Amherst in mind. They want to see students engaging with subject matter across fields and frames. So, maybe your niche would be plant communication and where biology intersects with environmental science. Your plan could be to double major at Amherst, and to do through the approved program in Kenya focused on water, wildlife, and climate resilience.
This type of focus then empowers us to work together to build the next piece of your application: the activities.
Finding your niche can be tricky, especially if you are in the midst of high school — or even further along. You don’t have time to change up your course mix, but there is still a lot that you can do to stand out. We work with our students to formulate action plans that make the most of the time that they have before pressing submit.
Step 4: Developing Your Activities
Developing your activities is another place where we love to have time to work with. Many of our students begin working with us as sophomores, so there isn’t a scramble come senior fall to create a cohesive application. We’ve been working on it all along. When students have less time, though, there are three buckets that we want to make absolutely sure are addressed in their activities section and supplements:
Intellectual Curiosity
Leadership
Service to Others
These three areas are not copy-and-paste. Each school is different in what they emphasize, and so an application aimed at Amherst needs to be personal to their community priorities. For Amherst, this means giving back to those around you, leading your peers towards success, and exhibiting deep intellectual curiosity.
The best way to do any of this is through passionately pursuing activities outside of school. There are so many things you could do, but we ask students to try to check at least three of the boxes below:
Research
Internship
Outside classes
Summer program
School Clubs
Employment
Volunteer work
Following the same thread of biology plus environmental studies, you might work one summer for the parks department assisting with nature programming, take an accredited online course focused on native species, or get an internship with a company revitalizing damaged habitats. The options are endless, and they should truly be enjoyable. This is a passion, after all!
At 91̽, we help our students find and secure unexpected opportunities that set them apart without diluting the central focus of their application. Impressive is really only impressive for Amherst if it contributes to your central narrative, so we also work with students on what to deemphasize in their application to actually improve their odds of getting in.
Step 5: Apply!
You are set on Amherst, but when choosing you will need to pick the Early Decision or the Regular Decision route. There is more that separates these options than simply the deadline. Yes, it’s the same application, but it has been reported (although not recently by Amherst themselves) that Amherst accepts nearly 50% of their first-year class Early Decision. The ED acceptance rate is also about three-times the RD acceptance rate, or .
This doesn’t surprise us. Schools that offer Early Decision typically do have an ED acceptance rate that is much higher than their RD acceptance rate, and this is particularly true of small private universities like Amherst. Which is to say that if you want to go to Amherst and the college is absolutely your first choice — and you are a strong candidate — you should absolutely apply Early Decision.
| Early Decision | Class of 2029 |
|---|---|
| Number of applicants | 971 |
| Admitted | 216 |
| % | 22% |
| Overall | Class of 2029 |
|---|---|
| Number of applicants | 15,819 |
| Admitted | 1,222 |
| % | 7.70% |
Remember, though, that the overall acceptance rate dropped another 1% for the Class of 2030.
As you pull your application together, remember that Amherst cares about more than what you want to do academically. They also want to see how you move through the world, engage with your community, and give back. They outline that in their Common Data Set reports, sharing what they value most in the non-academic side of your application.
| Nonacademic Factors | Very Important | Important | Considered | Not Considered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interview | X | |||
| Extracurricular activities | X | |||
| Talent/ability | X | |||
| Character/personal qualities | X | |||
| First generation | X | |||
| Alumni/ae relation | X | |||
| Geographical residence | X | |||
| State residency | X | |||
| Religious affiliation/commitment | X | |||
| Volunteer work | X | |||
| Work experience | X | |||
| Level of applicant’s interest | X |
At 91̽, we’ve been helping students get into their dream schools for a decade. We have watched college admissions transform over that time, and it’s crazy to remember that Amherst was once a safety school for top applicants. These days, it’s getting the attention it deserves as a true stand out. With the right application, you too can shine and find your home at Amherst.
Getting into college is easy. Getting into a school as selective as Amherst, though, is very hard. We can help smooth the ride to success.
If you want to craft the perfect application for Amherst, reach out to us today.