Amherst College

Amherst College, located in Amherst, Massachusetts, is a private liberal arts college. It is the third oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts, founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore. The institution was named after Jeffery, Lord Amherst, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War. Amherst was founded as a men's college but became coeducational in 1975. 

The college began with forty-seven students and expanded quickly, surpassing Yale for two years in the middle of the 1830s to become the second-largest college in the country. It made an attempt to develop a curriculum that was comparable to the classical liberal arts education in 1835. This concurrent course gave less attention to Greek and Latin and more attention to modern English, French, and Spanish as well as chemistry, economics, and other subjects. But it took until the following century for the parallel course to gain popularity and displace the classical. The Black Studies Department was established at the college in 1969. It introduced the first undergraduate neuroscience programme in the country in 1973. The Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, later known as the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, was established in 1983.

On-campus fraternities were prohibited beginning in 1984. Residence halls were created out of the former fraternity houses, which belonged to the college. At the college campus, there are more than 100 independent Registered Student Organizations. Through its 34 residence halls, the university also offers its students reasonably priced housing. The Department of Women's and Gender Studies was founded in 1987, and the Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought were founded in 1993. Later, the Department of Sexuality, Women's, and Gender Studies were established. 

Amherst is a four-year undergraduate institution with 1,971 students enrolled in fall 2021. Admissions are highly selective as Amherst College’s acceptance rate is 8.7% and it frequently ranks at or near the top of most liberal arts college rankings. Students select courses from 41 major programmes in an open curriculum; they are not required to study a core curriculum or meet any distribution requirements; students may also design their own interdisciplinary major. As a part of the Five College Consortium, which includes Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the college also gives its students access to courses at these four Pioneer Valley institutions.

A robust alumni network for Amherst College exists, with 23,000 members worldwide. To encourage alumni to stay in touch with one another, the College regularly hosts events like reunions, family weekends, religious gatherings, and other similar activities. Additionally, alumni members receive advantages like Career Resources, Access to library resources and academic journals, Regional Programs, Transcript Requests, Access to popular college publications, Career advising & Amherst Merchandise. Some notable alumni include David Foster Wallace (American author), Edmund Phelps (Nobel Prize-winning economist), Jeffrey Wright (Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor), David O. Russell (Academy Award-nominated director) & Stephen Hoge - (President at Moderna Inc).