Are you dreaming of going to Amherst? It’s a great school. If you are looking for rigorous small schools on the East Coast, Amherst is probably high on your list. However, you might be asking yourself, can I get in? We hear this question constantly from students, so today, we want to break down how to get into Amherst.
The Basics
We probably don’t need to tell you this if you have already clicked on this blog, but just in case:
Amherst is a small liberal arts school in Amherst, Massacutes. When we say small, there are only around 1,800 undergrads. The campus itself, however, sits on 1,000 acres of picturesque scenery, including mountain and forest views.
Amherst is popular for its “open curriculum” (meaning there are no core academic requirements), 100% demonstrated need packages for students, and inclusion in the Five College Consortium. The Consortium means that Amherst students can take over 7,000 courses, access over 10 million items within its inter-library system, and connect extracurricularly with students and resources from nearby Smith, Mount Holyoke, Hampshire, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Amherst is also a diverse campus; 50% of domestic students for the class of 2027 are students of color.
You might be saying, “That sounds great! What’s the catch?” Well, it’s like super duper hard to get into… For the class of 2027, Amherst had a 9% acceptance rate. This was actually higher than for the Class of 2026, which was just 7%. So, if you are serious about getting into Amherst, you need to be a competitive candidate.
What is Amherst looking for in a candidate?
Amherst takes a holistic approach to admissions, but that doesn’t mean that they weigh everything the same way. In their 2020-2021 data set, they Broke down the factors that they use to assess a student’s application.
Pay close attention to the columns labeled “very important” and “important.” These are the categories that you need to shine in. Let’s look deeper at some of these categories.
One quick note here: while this chart says they consider “alumni/ae relation,” this chart is from the most recent data set and not from the most recent class year. Since this set has come out, they have stopped considering this factor. They recently said:
“While this was the first class admitted with no preference given for students with a legacy connection to Amherst College, 6% of the class of 2027 falls under that designation.”
So take that how you will…. Tbh, we could write a whole guide just based on the ins and outs of legacy admission when it comes to top schools. Actually, we already have!
Rigor, Class Rank, and GPA
The first step here is making sure you hit the basic requirements on your high school transcript. This includes 4 years of English and Math, 3 years of Science (2 of which are lab courses), 3-4 years of foreign language, 2 years of history, and 2 years of social science. Once you have those basics, you need to show rigor. This means taking as many of these (and other) courses at the highest level offered to you. Depending on your school, this might mean Honors, AP, IB, or dual enrollment with a college. Amherst wants to see you push yourself however you can academically.
Now, let’s talk class rank. Not all high schools do it; however, of those that did, 90% of the accepted class of 2026 was in the top 10% of their high school class, and a whopping 26% of admitted students were valedictorians. Even if your school doesn’t report class rank, you can use this as a guide. Do you think that you would be in the top 25% of students at your school? Are you pushing yourself to be at the top of the class? In that same 2020-2021 data set, all of the accepted applicants were in the top half of their class, and over 96% were in the top quarter. Maybe you aren’t sure if you are in the top 10%, but you should push yourself academically like you are trying to be.
If you google “GPA to get into Amherst,” you will probably see some blogs state it is 4.07 ish. Take this number with a grain of salt. Amherst doesn’t track admitted students' GPAs. It might seem like an odd choice, but GPA is not a great indicator. Every school grades differently. Some high schools really are just harder than others. Amherst knows this, making lumping all GPA data together less useful than assessing it applicant by applicant, school by school. That being said, you should have an excellent GPA no matter how hard your high school is. GPA might not be as standard as say, test scores, but that doesn’t mean you can get a low one.
Test Scores
Speaking of test scores, Amherst is currently test-optional, meaning you do not need to submit ACT or SAT scores to apply. However, if you are thinking of submitting test scores, they are “considered” and also data that we can examine.
For the class of 2026, 14,865 students applied, and 1,080 were accepted, or around 7%. Of those 14k plus students, 8,027 submitted test scores (or just over half.) Of those 8027 students, 779 were admitted. Omg so many numbers—why are we doing this to you? We hear you. So, TL;DR: around 9.7% of students who submitted scores and around 4.4% of students who didn’t submit scores got in. Obviously there are other factors in admissions, but that is a pretty big difference.
Now, this might be more correlation than causation, but this trend is significant. If you are serious about Amherst, you should consider prioritizing test prep, getting excellent scores, and then sending scores.
If you are unfamiliar with the term “middle 50%,” in practice, it just really means the “majority of students.” if you are looking for a more math-based definition, if you break out all your data into 4 quarters, what is the range that represents the middle of those 4, aka the “middle 50.”
You want your scores to be in line with or better than the chart above. You will notice that in some of these categories, a perfect score is listed in the middle 50, meaning 25% of students who get in also have perfect scores.
Before you start to hyperventilate, there are options here. Tutoring, prep, retakes, and even choosing to go test-optional are routes that you can take if you are worried about your scores. If you are nervous, reach out. We can talk you through how to strategize if standardized tests aren’t your strong suit.
What do you need outside of academics?
Now that we have run through what Amherst is looking for academically, let’s talk through the two other most important categories: your essays and your extracurriculars.
Extracurriculars
Top schools are looking for applicants who are at the top of their classes. They are also looking for students who are at the top of their extracurriculars. Being in 10 clubs for 1 hour a week each isn’t impressive. They are looking for students who have devoted time and effort to the extracurriculars they are involved in. We like to tell our students that they are looking for people who go an inch wide and a mile deep.
This can manifest in many different ways, but generally, you should be showing leadership (either through your position or in the projects and responsibilities you take on) and commitment when it comes to time and follow-through. Run with your passions and see things through. It sounds simple, but we would rather see someone with 1 or 2 impressive extracurriculars than 20 things that don’t connect or matter deeply to the person. Remember, one of the qualities of an applicant that they label as highly important is “talent/ability.” This can be seen in GPA and scores, but it can also be seen here. Show off your extracurricular talents and abilities as much as you can.
Essays
You want to shine both in your Personal Statement essay and the Amherst supplemental essays.
We have written hundreds of blogs about how to write a good Common App essay, but if you don’t know where to start, we suggest starting with this one. However, if you need a crash course, good personal statements do a couple of things:
Tell a good story
Highlight some of your positive traits
Are creative (this could mean in writing, form, or what story you choose to tell, but ideally all 3!)
Then there is the supplement. Amherst’s supplement is more confusing than it needs to be (@amherst come on dude). We have a detailed blog about how to best approach it this year (and we release a new blog every year it changes…. Just so you know.) However, the above advice can apply to the supplement as well. This year’s supplement asks you to choose from three prompts. One is about community, one about unique backgrounds, and our favorite is about creativity. For all of these questions, you need to tell a good personal story and highlight why the topic is important to you and your values.
We highly recommend reading the complete blog and taking your time to craft a great supplement. Your writing is important because it’s a time to showcase talent/ability as well as character/personal qualities. These are all important to Amherst, and your essays are the place where you have the most control to show off these categories.
Consider applying early
If Amherst is your first choice, you should consider applying early decision. They take about half their class during early decision. However, historically, only around 10% of applicants choose to apply early decision. We have a hunch that this has been going up sharply in recent years, given that they took 46% of their class during the ED round for the class of 2026… mathematically, we assume that it’s more likely to be around 35% of students apply ED but don’t quote us on that. Amherst doesn’t release this data. Even so, we estimate a significantly higher acceptance rate during the ED cycle. It's worth looking into if you are serious about getting into Amherst.
So, what’s the takeaway from all of this? To get into Amherst, you need to be a great student who pushes yourself academically. Ideally, you want impressive test scores and a solid resume. You will also want to take your time to write some good essays. This is a tall order, but we believe in you. And if you need our help?
Reach out here! It’s what we do.