Amherst's virtual admission programming for Amherst alumni families
The Alumni Admission Workshops are virtual programs designed to help prospective college students and their families prepare for the college admission experience.
This series of workshops will each focus on a particular topic, several times throughout the summer.
The workshops, co-sponsored by the Office of Admission and Alumni & Parent Programs, are open to Amherst alumni with students who are high school rising juniors or rising seniors. The Amherst College Office of Admission does not conduct interviews or one-on-one evaluative sessions with students, but does offer one-hour small group sessions for alumni families providing general advice on the college application experience. If you have questions about these programs, please contact Marcy Dyer at mdyer@amherst.edu.
WedneSDAY, june 9
| Exploring College Athletics | Will Cummins, Associate Dean of Admission, Jasmine Hardy ’13, Assistant Dean of Admission, and Justin Serpone, Director of Amherst LEADS, Head Men’s Soccer Coach Host: Don Faulstick, Director of Athletics |
| 4 p.m. EDT | Register for Exploring College Athletics |
wednesday, july 21
| Managing the College Process in a Pandemic | Tiffani Hooper Bromberg ’06, Co-Director of College Counseling at the United Nations International School Ashley Armato ’08, Senior Associate Director of College Counseling, Palmer Trinity School Host: Betsy Cannon Smith ’84, P’15, Chief Advancement Officer |
| 7 p.m. EDT | Register for Managing the College Process in a Pandemic |
WednesDAY, august 4
| Crafting the College Essay | Tyler Twilley, College Counselor at Calvert Hall College High School Host: Cate Zolkos, Dean of Admission |
| 3 p.m. EDT | Register for Crafting the College Essay |
wednesDAY, august 18
| Financing a Higher Education | Michael Ellison, Associate Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Outreach Host: Gail Holt, Dean of Financial Aid |
| 4 p.m. EDT | Register for Financing a Higher Education |
Additional Alumni Admission Programs
Amherst will also offer one-hour small group sessions for alumni families providing general advice on the college application experience. The sessions will be led by Matt McGann, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. Please click on a date below to register.
Special Guests
Tiffani Hooper Bromberg ’06 is the co-director of college counseling at the United Nations International School (UNIS) in New York City. She previously served as an admission officer at Amherst College. Tiffani holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and Black studies from Amherst, and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University.
Ashley Armato ’08 is the senior associate director of college counseling at Palmer Trinity School in Miami, Florida. She also leads the school’s diversity efforts as a co-coordinator of equity and inclusion. She began her career in college admission at Amherst College in 2008 and later joined the college counseling department at Palmer Trinity in 2010. Ashley has also coached cheerleading at Palmer Trinity since 2011.
Ashley graduated from Amherst College in 2008 with a BA in Spanish and a concentration in law, jurisprudence & social thought. She received her MS.Ed. in higher education administration, with a certificate in conflict resolution and consensus building, from Florida International University in 2014.
Tyler Twilley is a college counselor at Calvert Hall in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to joining Calvert Hall, he was an associate dean of admission for Amherst College, and he has worked in admission at Johns Hopkins University and Cornell University. Tyler graduated from Cornell University with a BS in industrial and labor relations
Jasmine Hardy ’13: Jasmine Hardy graduated from Amherst in the class of 2013 and was a member of the Amherst Women's Basketball team, which won a national championship in 2011. Following graduation she spent a year as a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Vietnam before returning to Amherst and working in admission. In 2019 she completed her MA in international education at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and is now back at Amherst as an assistant dean of admission and one of the liaisons to the athletic department.
Will Cummins: Will has been working for 10 years in college admission, the last six of which have been at Amherst. He has served as a liaison between the admission office and the athletics department for the entirety of his time at Amherst. Mr. Cummins graduated from Grinnell College in 2010, with degrees in economics and Spanish.
Justin Serpone: Justin Serpone is entering his 14th year at Amherst as the Head Men's Soccer Coach and the director of Amherst LEADS. Coach Serpone has led the soccer team to a 200-29-31 record in that time, and won a national championship in 2015. In keeping with the academic mission of Amherst, Serpone has recently completed his fifth Master's degree and is currently working on two more!
Michael Ellison: Michael Ellison is in his 23rd year at Amherst as the associate dean of admission and financial aid outreach. He supervises the Financial Aid Peer Ambassador program among other responsibilities. Following undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Michael has worked and studied at the University of Hawaii, the University of Washington, and received his MBA from the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth.
Matthew L. McGann, Ed.D. is Amherst’s Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. Matt joined the College in 2018 after nearly two decades of work in college admission, most recently as Director of Admissions at MIT. Matt is a first-generation college student originally from New York. His bachelor's degree is from MIT and his doctorate was earned at Northeastern University.