We’re committed to making an Amherst education affordable to every admitted student.
Under our need-blind admission policy, your family’s financial circumstances will never affect whether you’re admitted or not.
With our generous, no-loan financial aid packages, the majority of our students pay less—often far less—than the cost of attendance.
Our financial aid program is well known as one of the country’s best. Here’s why:
- Amherst is need-blind for both domestic and international applicants.
No matter where in the world you live, no matter what your citizenship status, your prospects for admission will never be negatively affected by your application for aid or to what degree you have financial need. - Amherst meets the full demonstrated need of every admitted student.
If your family shows that it can pay only a small portion of tuition and costs—or maybe none at all—Amherst pays the rest. - Amherst offers generous scholarships.
In 2020-21, Amherst provided more than $60 million in scholarship aid to our students and the average financial aid award was more than $59,000. - Amherst's financial aid awards are loan-free.
Financial aid awards at Amherst consist solely of scholarship and work, with no expected student loan component. For this reason, most Amherst students graduate with low or no debt. - Amherst has a strong commitment to enrolling U.S. veterans.
Amherst participates in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Yellow Ribbon Program without caps on the number of Yellow Ribbon spaces or contribution per student. - Amherst partners with QuestBridge.
QuestBridge is an organization that connects talented, low-income students to elite colleges and universities. Amherst is one of QuestBridge's original college partners and QuestBridge students make up over 10% of our student body.