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

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.

Jazz at Schwemm's

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
Students in a dorm room

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
students in Valentine Dining Hall

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

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

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
Powerhouse

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
Emily Dickinson's bedroom

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
Wildlife Sanctuary

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

Memorial Hill

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

Book and Plow Farm

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
The Observatory

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

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
Stern Steeple

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

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
Planetarium

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
Family Weekend game 2015

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
Antonio's Pizza Shop
Close Caption Local Pizza Is the Best Pizza

Grabbing a Slice at Antonio’s — an Amherst tradition since 1991.

Learn more about Town Life
Amherst Coffee
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Amherst Coffee or Share — which will be your favorite? We like both, for different reasons.

Learn more about Town Life
Calvin Theater
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The Calvin Theater in nearby Northampton is a top venue for major acts.

Calvin Show Schedule
Emily Dickinson Museum
Close Caption Emily Dickinson Museum

The Emily Dickinson Museum comprises two homes—and the beautiful grounds—that helped shape one of the world’s most influential poets.

Emily Dickinson Museum
downtown Amherst
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Amherst’s bustling center has food and shopping for all tastes. A few examples: French cuisine, farm-to-table Chinese, independent bookstores and A.J. Hastings for your Amherst gear.

AmherstArea.com
Running on the Rail Trail
Close Caption The Rail Trail

Enjoy bicycling, jogging or cross-country skiing? The 11-mile Norwottuck Rail Trail passes through Amherst’s Wildlife Sanctuary and connects to Hadley and Northampton.

Watch a video about our Wildlife Sanctuary