Is Amherst Ivy League? Ranking, Acceptance Rate, and More

Welcome to this page!  If you are interested to know some information about Amherst, this article is meant for you.

In it, we will be answering an important question about the school which is on “Is Amherst an Ivy League school? We will also discuss the school’s acceptance rate and ranking. Let’s get started!

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college that was founded in 1821. It is located in Amherst, Massachusetts.  It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. See Ivy Plus Schools As Good As The Actual Ivies.

Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher education in Massachusetts and is known for its rigorous academic climate. It is also an undergraduate college that offers degrees in 40 different majors.

Amherst competes in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. Amherst has historically had close relationships and rivalries with Williams College and Wesleyan University, which form the Little Three Colleges.

The college is also a member of the Five College Consortium, which permits its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Amherst College has been the first college to have undergraduate departments in the interdisciplinary fields of American Studies; Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought; and Neuroscience and has assisted to pioneer other interdisciplinary programs, including Asian Languages and Civilizations.

Notable alumni include former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, Prince Albert II of Monaco, and former Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Harlan Fiske Stone.

With all this overview of Amherst College, it didn’t answer the pressing question of “Is Amherst College ivy league?”

Is Amherst College ivy league?

Amherst is a respected institution on America’s east coast, with over two hundred years of performing excellent research and encouraging academic excellence, but it is not an Ivy League school.

In order to understand why a great school like Amherst isn’t in the Ivy League, you need to understand what the Ivy League is.

Despite what you may have thought, the Ivy League is not about academics or research. It is about sports.

Whatever else you might think of it, the Ivy League is a Division I NCAA athletic conference. It consists of eight private research schools on America’s East Coast: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University.

Although the League was founded in 1958, nearly all of the schools were established before the founding of the United States, with Cornell the one outlier.

The Amherst may have cycling, horseback, and crew teams, but they all compete in the New England Small College Athletic Conference in the NCAA Division III. In fact, they spend more per student than any other school in Division III.

Of course, very few people think of sports when they think of the Ivy League. Instead, they think of world-changing researchers, first-class teachers, and dedicated students.

Those are all qualities that you can find at Amherst College. As we saw in the introduction, Amherst boasts an incredible set of alumni, a stately history, and a commitment to research.

But, alas, because it isn’t in the right athletic conference, Amherst College does really belong in the Ivy League.

Amherst College Ranking

Amherst College is an A+ college according to the aggregate ranking site Niche.com, which praises the school for its diversity, academics, and value.

It also falls at 5th on the list of Most Diverse Colleges in America, 18th on the list of Best Small Colleges in America, and 18th on the list of Best Liberal Arts Colleges in America.

According to the rankings on Forbes.com, Amherst College is the 16th best school in the United States.

At that spot, Amherst College outdoes respected schools such as the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago, as well as Ivy League school Brown University.

The exceptional ranking outlet is Washington Monthly. Instead of the usual factors, Washington Monthly organizes schools according to the social mobility its students can experience, the value of its research, and the community service it encourages.

By those metrics, Amherst College outdoes most others, taking the top position on Washington’s list of the best Liberal Arts Colleges.

But the most famous and respected ranking outlet is U.S. News & World Report. Amherst comes out just as well here.

Its First-Year Experiences program is tied for fourth in the nation, it’s tied for fourth in Best Undergraduate Education, and is ranked 2nd on the list of Best Liberal Arts Colleges.

Amherst College Acceptance Rate

Amherst College is a challenging institution to enter. It has an acceptance rate that sits around 12%.

This demonstrates that out of thousands of applications the school receives from its applicants annually, it only gives admission to 12%.

See: University of Massachusetts Amherst Acceptance Rate

The school has a low acceptance rate But the school comes with some excellent benefits.

Conclusion

The summary of this article is that Amherst is not a member of Ivy League schools. But that doesn’t mean that the school is not a good quality school.

Amherst is a respected institution on America’s east coast, with over two hundred years of performing excellent research and encouraging academic excellence.

Last Updated on July 15, 2023 by Admin