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amherst

Settlement

Before the arrival of European settlers, the land in and around Amherst was likely the hunting grounds for Native American peoples—specifically, the Pocumtuck and Nonotuck tribes.

 

As English immigrants began to settle the nearby town Hadley in 1659, they gradually transformed the land from pastureland into farms. One hundred years later, Amherst was organized as a separate district, and was later incorporated as a town in 1775.

 

The colonial governor named the town after Sir Jeffrey Amherst, an English lord who was Commander-in-Chief of the British troops in America during the French and Indian War from 1758 to 1763.

Biological Warfare

In the summer of 1763, attacks by Native Americans against colonists on the western frontier seriously challenged British military control. In a letter to Colonel Henry Bouquet dated July 7, 1763, Amherst writes "Could it not be contrived to send the Small Pox among those disaffected tribes of Indians?" In a later letter to Bouquet Amherst repeats the idea: "You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race."

Local Government

Demographics and Statistics

Quick Stats
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Males: 18,500 (48.9%)
Females: 19,319  (51.1%)
 

Median resident age: 21.6 years

Massachusetts median age: 39.2 years

 

Estimated median household income in 2013:

Amherst: $56,590

MA: $66,768

 

Estimated per capita income in 2013: $24,505

For population 25 years and over in Amherst:
  • High school or higher: 95.1%
  • Bachelor's degree or higher: 68.7%
  • Graduate or professional degree: 41.7%
  • Unemployed: 8.2%
  • Mean travel time to work (commute): 18.0 minutes
For population 15 years and over in Amherst:

  • Never married: 64.9%

  • Now married: 26.8%

  • Separated: 0.9%

  • Widowed: 2.7%

  • Divorced: 4.7%

The Five College Consortium comprises four liberal arts colleges and one university in the Connecticut River Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, totaling approximately 38,000 students.

 

The colleges operate both as independent entities as well as mutually dependent institutions. The mission of the consortium is to support long-term forms of cooperation that benefit the faculty, staff and students of the five colleges. Shared academic and cultural resources are the primary initiative of the consortium. This means that students at each of these schools are permitted and encouraged to take classes at the other colleges--totally over 5,300 courses--at no additional cost.

Other benefits of the consortium include:

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  • One of the largest library collections in the country (28 libraries with more than 9 million books)

  • More than 900 student organizations and activities and some 3,400 events each year open to all

  • A free bus system connecting the Five Colleges and three towns, day and night

Amherst College

Student Body

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  • Enrollment: 1,849 students from 48 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 54 countries

  • Demographics: 50% women, 50% men; 98% live on campus

  • U.S. students who self-identify as students of color: 45%

Admission

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  • Admission rate: 14% 

  • Admitted students who enrolled: 41%

  • Finished top 10% of their secondary school class: 87%

Academics

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  • Student/faculty ratio: 8:1

  • Full-time instructional faculty: 209

  • Average Class Size: 19

  • Students who graduate within 6 years: 93%

Annual Tuition and Fees for Amherst College and Competing Colleges

Cost of Attendance

For 2017-18, the typical student expense budget includes:

  • Comprehensive fee (tuition, room and board): $67,620

  • Other student fees (student activities, campus center programs and residential governance): $880

  • Health insurance* (estimate; may be waived): $1,900

  • Books and supplies (estimated): $1,000

  • Personal expenses (estimated): $1,800

  • Travel/Transportation** (estimated; varies by location): $50-$2,500

  • Cost of attendance: $73,250–75,700

Financial Aid

Amherst follows a no-loan policy for all financial aid recipients and is need-blind for both domestic and international students.

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This academic year, Amherst is providing more than $50 million in scholarship aid to 55 percent of the student body. The average financial aid award was $51,775 in 2016-17.

 

Faculty and Philosophy Department

The dean of the faculty is the chief academic officer of the college and has primary responsibility for matters of academic policy and for the academic budget. The dean serves as secretary to the Committee of Six, the executive committee of the faculty, and as secretary to the faculty. She oversees the Robert Frost Library, the Mead Art Museum, the Beneski Museum of Natural History, the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Office of Institutional Research and Registrar Services, the Center for Community Engagement, the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning, the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, the Center for Russian Culture, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Writing Center, the Moss Quantitative Center, Amherst's international programs (including study abroad), and the Office of Fellowships. The dean of the faculty has joint responsibility for the Department of Physical Education and Athletics. She serves as the college’s Five College Deputy.

Dean Wreen, check out your tasks!

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The Philosophy Department

Why study philosophy? Philosophy explores central aspects of our lives that often go unexamined. Without much reflection, we daily rely upon notions of truth, knowledge, beauty, evil, happiness, freedom and justice. And phenomena such as time, causation, obligation, language, consciousness and rationality structure our lives in ways we take for granted. Philosophy critically reflects on and deepens our most general understanding of the arts. We are everywhere guided by assumptions that philosophy brings explicitly to light, and puts into larger perspective. For this reason, thoughtful people are gripped by the questions philosophy asks. In this sense, philosophy is essential and unavoidable.

 

The Philosophy Department at Amherst College promotes the following:

  • familiarity with the central figures and texts in the history of philosophy, both ancient and modern;

  • familiarity with, and thoughtful reflection upon, contemporary philosophical topics and practices;

  • the ability to read, analyze, and articulate arguments in primary philosophical texts and in classroom discussion, and to provide a fair and balanced evaluation of them;

  • the ability to communicate clearly, precisely, and cogently in speech and writing;

  • the ability to offer original arguments in support of philosophical positions; and

  • the ability to anticipate and even welcome objections to one’s views, and to respond to these objections reasonably, imaginatively, and respectfully.

Faculty Salaries

Amherst faculty are some of the highest paid in the country. Professors at Amherst College make on average $199,680 USD per year. This is $133,048 more than the average liberal arts college professor's annual salary of $66,632 USD.

While female professors at Amherst College make on average $125,635 per year more than the average female liberal arts college professor, they still make roughly $16,174 per year less than male professors at Amherst. That is a 7.9% difference in favor of male professors at Amherst College.

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Average Female Professor's Annual Salary at Amherst: $189,767

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Average Male Professor's Annual Salary at Amherst: $205,941

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Executive Compensation at Amherst College (2009)

The Beneski Museum of Natural History

The Beneski Museum of Natural History is one of New England’s largest natural history museums. It contains three floors of exhibits with more than 1,700 specimens on display, and tens of thousands of specimens available for use by scholars and researchers from across campus and around the world.

Mammoth and Mastodon
Mineral Collection
Vertebrate Collection
Jurassic Diorama
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Invertebrate Collection
Footprints
Hominid Skull Timeline

In 2006, the Museum and the Department of Geology moved into a new building. From 2006 until March of 2011, the Museum was known as the Amherst College Museum of Natural History (Pratt Museum). In April of 2011 the building housing the Museum and the Geology Department was renamed the Beneski Earth Sciences Building , and the Museum is now called the Beneski Museum of Natural History, in honor of Ted (class of 1978) and Laurie Beneski. Details can be found at https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2011/03/node/302873

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