200 Years of Academic Excellence
From the laying of the South College cornerstone in 1820, to the 1974 vote in favor of coeducation, to the first undergraduate neuroscience program in the country in 1973, an Amherst education has always been personal, dynamic and rigorous. Beginning with 47 students in 1821, Amherst sought to educate “indigent young men of piety.” Today, the College has 1,849 students from 48 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 54 countries—a variation in background, identity, and point of view matters not only to Amherst and higher education, but to the world beyond our campus.