July 21, 2020
Amherst offers 40 majors. Among the Five Colleges, there are over 6,000 courses to choose from. You get to pick 32 before you graduate. How do you decide what you’re going to spend a single semester on, much less a major that will shape your entire college experience?
Well, your advisor will certainly help. Every new student is matched with a faculty member (generally in a field relating to your interests, if you indicated any on your application – but don’t sweat it if you didn’t) who will guide them through the process of course selection. Once you declare a major, you’ll be assigned (or you can choose) a faculty member within that department to guide you; if you have multiple majors, as I do, you’ll have an advisor for each one. Both before and after declaring your major(s), your advisor will help both with logistics, like figuring out how to use the registration system, as well as conceptually, regarding what departments and courses interest you and how to balance them all in your schedule.
But the process is always driven by the student. It’s on you to come up with six or eight courses you’re interested in for the upcoming semester; you bring these to your advisor when you meet. They’ll guide you, helping you make sure your workload is manageable and helping you figure out what you’re most interested in; they’ll also push you – out of your comfort zone (sometimes quite far out), into new subjects and departments that you may never have considered before.
If I can offer one piece of advice, it’s to make full use of the open curriculum. I can guarantee that at least once in your advising experience – probably in your first meeting, as well as in many thereafter – you’ll hear something like, “But have you considered taking a course in [department that you most definitely haven’t considered taking a course in]?”
I consider myself pretty flexible and open-minded, and usually try to go with my advisor’s advice on this: “Sure, I’ll take an American Studies course.” But even I have my limits: “Theater and Dance? I don’t know, that’s really just not my thing.” My advisor and I went back and forth on that particular suggestion for quite a while; eventually she won. I took the course and, needless to say, was way out of my comfort zone. But it was still an incredible experience. I got to meet people and make friends I wouldn’t have otherwise; I saw a completely new side of Amherst; really, I saw a completely new side of language, art, and the creative process.
Was it easy? Absolutely not. Was it worth it? Absolutely yes.
Take advantage of everything Amherst has to offer; I took my first computer science course just to see what all the hype was about, and now I’m majoring in it. I decided to double major because I’m equally excited about two very different fields; at Amherst you can make it happen, and now I have double the breadth of jobs and internships I’m qualified to apply to.
The process of exploration, more than any particular discipline or idea, is what it means to study the liberal arts. Amherst will fill up the tank and hand you the keys; it’s up to you to decide where you go.