Academics

Amherst students have access to 40 majors, an open curriculum, talented and accessible faculty, the Five College Consortium, and opportunities for research and internships around the world.

Advantages of Learning at Amherst

An Amherst education is personal, dynamic and rigorous. Our professors are among the foremost authorities in their fields. They work with students every day, in and out of class, as teachers, advisers and mentors.

We are known for our open curriculum, a bold experiment in place since 1971. To graduate, students must take four years of classes, but just one first-year seminar and the required classes for their major. In conjunction with their academic advisors, students plan a program of study to discover their intellectual and creative passions and equip themselves for a life of active, collaborative learning.

How Learning Happens

At Amherst we encourage you to look at the world from new perspectives. Check the list to see if you’ve got what it takes.

Students on a bridge in the wildlife sanctuary at Amherst College

An Amherst education challenges you to see things from new perspectives. It allows you to be flexible and nimble.

Writing a plan on a whiteboard

At Amherst, you start by knowing something. Then you wrestle with it, pull it apart, connect it to other things, see it differently.

Painting

You search, question, reimagine. And this leads to a new kind of knowledge—deeper, more creative, more profound.

gastronomy class

The performance, lab, essay, field trip, final project: You do these things with as much life, as much joy, as much intensity and determination as possible.

Biology lab, student using microscope

There’s no answer key to the questions we ask. At Amherst, you learn to create the answers yourself.

Math class

The Open Curriculum

We are known for our open curriculum, a bold experiment in place since 1971. Each classroom is filled with inquisitive, fully engaged students committed to the topic at hand.

Our Curriculum Explore Majors
Amherst College campus in the Pioneer Valley

Five College Consortium

Amherst students can choose among more than 6,000 courses for credit at four nearby schools: Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Learn More
International flags on Fayerweather Hall

Global Learning

It begins on campus: Students from more than 50 countries take courses that prepare them for life in a globally connected world. It continues off campus: 40% of Amherst students study abroad.

Learn More Study Abroad

Faculty Facts

Read our Faculty Profiles

8:1

Our low student : faculty ratio supports a personalized learning experience in which students and faculty work closely together.

49

49 hires of tenured or tenure-track faculty members since 2010, most to replace retiring faculty, have brought outstanding new teacher-scholars to campus.

74

74 faculty members have taught at Amherst for 20-plus years, bringing extensive experience to the classroom and shaping their disciplines.