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Amherst College Data & Information Overview

494 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
9% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Amherst College. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Amherst College Ranked?

#65 Best Colleges in Nation
#9 Best Colleges in MA
Political Science & Government Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Amherst College was awarded 494 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is political science & government.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Amherst is ranked #65 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This lands it a coveted spot in the top 5% of all colleges and universities in the country.

Amherst also holds the #9 spot on the Best Colleges in Massachusetts ranking.

See all of the rankings for Amherst College.

Is It Hard to Get Into Amherst?

9% Acceptance Rate
59% Of Accepted Are Women
36% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 9%, Amherst is one of the most selective schools in the country. Good grades and high test scores alone may not be enough to get you into the school, so do your best to submit a stellar application.

Average Test Scores

About 36% of students accepted to Amherst submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 680 and 760. Math scores were between 690 and 790.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Amherst College  ( 680 to 760 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Amherst College  ( 690 to 790 )
200
800
Amherst received ACT scores from 31% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 32 and 34.

ACT Composite Scores for Amherst College  ( 32 to 34 )
1
36

Learn more about Amherst College admissions.

Amherst College Faculty

7 to 1 Student to Faculty
94% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At Amherst, the student to faculty ratio is an excellent 7 to 1. That's much better than the national average of 15 to 1. This indicates that many classes will probably be small, and students will have ample opportunites to work closely with their professors and classmates.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Amherst College is 94%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  94 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Amherst College

98% Freshmen Retention
88% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Amherst College has a freshmen retention rate of 98%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  98 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Amherst for first-time, full-time students is 88%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  88 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Amherst College.

Amherst College Undergraduate Student Diversity

1,745 Full-Time Undergraduates
47.7% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
51.6% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 1,745 full-time undergraduates at Amherst.

How Much Does Amherst College Cost?

$21,657 Net Price
11% Take Out Loans
$35,776 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Amherst is $21,657. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Amherst

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$4,468 $4,459 $7,793 $21,718 $50,268

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Amherst, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Amherst, approximately 11% of students took out student loans averaging $8,944 a year. That adds up to $35,776 over four years for those students.

Get more details about paying for Amherst College.

How Much Money Do Amherst Graduates Make?

$71,567 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from Amherst make about $71,567 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for Amherst students since it is 68% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Amherst College make the most money.

Location of Amherst College

Massachusetts State
1,745 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
Amherst College is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Amherst, Massachusetts. Amherst is located in a safe and convenient suburb.

Get more details about the location of Amherst College.

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Contact details for Amherst are given below.

Contact Details
Address: Boltwood Avenue, Amherst, MA 01002-5000
Phone: 413-542-2000
Website: www.amherst.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Amherst-MA/Amherst-College/6099747981
Twitter: http://twitter.com/amherstcollege

Amherst College Majors

32 Majors With Completions
465 Undergraduate Degrees
Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Mathematics 50 $64,970
Economics 37 $78,775
Child Development & Psychology 37 $41,688
Computer Science 34 $96,310
Political Science & Government 29 $51,419
History 25 $43,271
Statistics 23 NA
General Biology 22 $24,621
General English Literature 21 $27,744
Legal Research 21 NA

Learn more about the majors offered at Amherst College along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

This is a decrease from the 1,733 students who took online classes the previous year.

Learn more about online learning at Amherst College.

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Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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