Student Life

Life at Amherst is Unexpected

From spike ball on the Quad to comedy improv to giant art installations, life on campus is packed with fun and enriching experiences.

Life at Amherst is Proud

Students show Purple Pride all year long—on fields and courts, at festivals, at performances, and always at the Homecoming bonfire.

Life at Amherst is Vibrant

All around campus, students find communities in which they become involved — spaces for dancing, chatting, creating — spaces that become like second homes.

Life at Amherst is Caring

From volunteering in local schools to harvesting vegetables on the campus farm, Amherst students find meaningful ways to make the world a better place.

Student Life

Fall 2020 Plan

In response to the evolving situation with COVID-19, the College has developed an extensive plan for Fall 2020. Learn about the guidelines for returning to campus and the latest changes to the academic program, housing, dining, athletics, and more.

Amherst students have many opportunities to enrich their educations through co-curricular and extracurricular activities. A student might go to hear a guest speaker in anthropology, take a karate class, sing in an a cappella concert, and help paint a house with Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity—all in a single week. Explore the many aspects of social life at Amherst and see which ones excite you the most.

Student Organizations

Students lead more than 100 autonomous organizations, including groups for activism, religious cultural affinity groups, intramural sports, arts clubs, a debate team, a radio station, and more.

All Organizations

greenway dorms at night with a full moon rising over the mountains

Housing

97 percent of students live on campus, and housing is guaranteed for all four years. First-year students live in new or renovated residences on the Main Quad. Our Theme Houses offer learning-by-living opportunities.

Residence Halls Theme Houses

Dining

The Amherst College dining experience is much more than great food. It is a community experience focused on great service, culinary expertise, and fresh, local and natural ingredients with a commitment to environmental and social responsibility.

Dining Services

A Unique Environment

Beneski Museum of Natural History

Three floors of exhibits and tens of thousands of specimens, including the world’s largest collection of dinosaur tracks and North America’s first confirmed evidence of a dinosaur.

The Beneski Museum

Mead Art Museum

More than 19,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of global culture. A place to study, wander, mingle and gaze. The best part: open until midnight five nights a week.

The Mead

The Powerhouse

A renovated steam plant turned nightclub. A popular spot for live performances, movie screenings, art exhibits, panel discussions, pub nights, outdoor picnics and more.

Welcome to the Powerhouse

The Emily Dickinson Museum

Includes The Homestead, where Emily Dickinson was born and lived most of her life, and The Evergreens, home of the poet’s brother and his family.

The Homestead and The Evergreens

The Wildlife Sanctuary

Open fields, wetlands, woods, plantation pines and ponds—500 acres of natural bliss, literally part of campus. Highlights: the Fort River, a trail system and downy woodpeckers.

Explore Our 500 Acres

Memorial Hill

A defining space on campus. Breathtaking views of the Mount Holyoke Range. Ideal for reflection, dreaming, napping, sledding, flying kites.

Book & Plow Farm

A 20-acre vegetable farm adjacent to campus. Originally conceived by students, in 2015 the farm supplied 32,000 pounds of produce to Valentine Dining Hall.

Explore the farm

Wilder Observatory

See the moon, planets, asteroids, comets, multiple stars, star clusters, nebulae, galaxies and more through our large, world-class refractor telescope.

The Observatory

The Book Tree

A hollow tree in the Wildlife Sanctuary into which students place poems, love letters, pages from novels and other literary items that are considered worthy of residence within a lovely tree.

The Wildlife Sanctuary

Stearns Steeple

A stand-alone steeple, the height of a 15-story building, in the heart of campus. Has nine bells that chime on special occasions and serve as a Civil War memorial.

About the Steeple

Five College Consortium

A partnership of four liberal arts colleges and one large research university gives Amherst students access to an astonishingly broad and diverse set of experiences right here at home.

Five College Opportunities

Bassett Planetarium

For more than 50 years Bassett Planetarium, located in Morgan Hall, has provided programs on the night sky to Amherst and Five College classes and groups and to regional community organizations and school groups.

About the Planetarium

Fitness & Recreation

Athletics are a vibrant part of life at Amherst, from recreation to intramurals to 27 NCAA Division III teams. Facilities include playing fields, a fitness center, a pool, courts, and an ice rink.

Athletics Wellness & Fitness