Course.

If you find this video helpful, be sure to give it a like so give a little background of why I chose Emerson the first place.

And to be completely honest, I didn't actually want to go to ever set first.

After receiving acceptances to Emerson Vanderbilt, I visited both colleges and was actually leading towards Venerable.

My parents tried to convince me otherwise, though, and they even invited the parents of a current ever student over for dinner.

I was really exceptional, rebellious, so I wore my Vanderbilt T shirt for that occasion. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:3.940 And in all seriousness, though, I had some pretty good reasons to choose Everest over Brandy, and these reasons were what ultimately won the over. 00:01:4.030 --> 00:01:8.230 The first reason was that ever so financially, package was more generous. 00:01:8.520 --> 00:01:15.990 Out of all the private schools I've been accepted to, Everest was the least expensive for my family by at least $5000 a year.

This is probably because ever since one of the few no loan me and blank ologists that also promises to me Ah, 100% of your demonstrated financially.

Even though every sticker price is really high, what your family pays is often much more affordable.

Almost 60% of our students are actually on financial aid.

The second reason Waas, rooted in the academic environment ever, simply offers more intimate and engaging academic experiences.

Since it's a small liberal arts college, it also has an open curriculum, meaning that there are no general educational requirements.

This is great for students undecided about their major, like I was, as it lets you explore many fields without worrying as much about fulfilling requirements. 00:01:55.080 --> 00:02:8.010 So because of these two main reasons, I ended up at Amherst before I dive into academic and social life, I want to give a quick overview of Amherst like I mentioned. 00:02:8.010 --> 00:02:11.480 Amherst is a small liberal arts college with only 1800 students.

It's two hours west of Boston in a small college town of Everest.

I wouldn't necessarily cost by the area's rural.

But it isn't exactly suburban, either.

It's kind of a mix of the two as the area's pretty residential, but there's a decent amount of farmland and mountains.

I was originally worried that Andersen Field to Earl, but we really did have everything we needed in town.

There were grocery stores like Target and Trader Joe's, a couple of miles down the street and a ton of restaurants that are constantly changing in town.

I also discovered a love hiking in my senior year, as there are a lot of mountain ranges in the area, so I'm even accessible by bus.

I think I really end up coming to appreciate the more rural side of the area.

Another one of my concerns was the weather coming from Columbus, Ohio.

I'm pretty used to fickle weather and cold winters, but I was afraid that ever shall be you too cold.

I was pleasantly surprised on this front, too, though, as the weather ended up being pretty comparable, and I would almost even say that amorous had slightly better weather over all that said one thing that did shock me about Massachusetts was how early the sun sets in the winter.

Sometimes I walk into the gym at three PM, when it was still daytime, but I'd walk out at 4 30 it would be pitch black outside.

That was definitely not cool with.

Winter at Amherst is quite beautiful, though, and there was a fun tradition of sledding down the biggest hill on Can't this Memorial hill on dining hall trays.

Fall is also a really gorgeous, with all the leaves that change color.

I honestly don't think I have experienced a prettier fall anywhere else in terms of living arrangements.

Almost all surgeons live on campus.

The dorms are pretty nice and spacious, especially compared to those other schools.

I also liked, however, said many culture houses, which are basically dorm communities, thundered around a common interest.

I lived in the French culture house, mixing your year and shared a dorm floor with other French students and the French cheese from France. 00:03:59.600 --> 00:04:4.600 As a member of this house, we put on events promoting French cultures such as kryptonite or French Film night. 00:04:4.650 --> 00:04:7.640 So finally we made it to the most important part, which is food. 00:04:8.050 --> 00:04:11.060 This is actually kind of a sore point for me as I mostly vegan.

There's only one dining hall of Famers called Valentine or Bow, and all surgeons are required to have a full meal plan unless you have about health reason to not eat in the dining hall.

The good thing about the meal plan is that you do have unlimited slights for the buffet style dining hall.

You can eat as much as you want and go into the dining hall as many times as you want.

Throughout the day, the food eyeball has deftly approved, and there are actually several dishes that I miss eating.

But that said it was.

Sometimes it's cool for me to find an appetizing the dish At lunch and dinner, I often ended up cooking my own dinner at Mr Fry Station involved, which I am really glad existed.

Now that I've gone over the basics, let's talk about academics.

Like I said earlier, Everest has an open curriculum.

There are no required courses other than one freshman writing seminar, and obviously you're a major requirements. 00:04:59.390 --> 00:05:2.050 You don't have to declare your major until spring of your software. 00:05:2.050 --> 00:05:4.780 You're so you also have plenty of time to explore. 00:05:5.390 --> 00:05:16.490 I took advantage of the open curriculum by taking courses and psychology, music, computer science, statistics, economics and Russian lit, all while majoring in math and French.

The causes that members are pretty rigorous, and I seem to have that one course every semester.

That was hair pulling, whether it was the professor's essay expectations like trouble meeting or math costs that was super abstract.

It can also be pretty difficult to adjust when the majority of students are performing at such a high level.

Imposter syndrome is definitely a thing that said, there isn't really a sense of unhealthy competition.

I am burst.

I found the learning environment pretty collaborative, and I loved getting groups together to work on that problem sets basically, of course, is that ever steak, significant effort.

But your classmates are there to work with you, and it is very possible to do all in your classes if you put in the work. 00:05:53.320 --> 00:06:1.140 The professors that and also really care about the students and are invested in their success, which is a huge plus since it's a liberal arts school. 00:06:1.140 --> 00:06:4.430 The professor's focus on teaching first instead of research. 00:06:4.760 --> 00:06:7.840 All professors have ample office hours where you can go to them for help. 00:06:7.910 --> 00:06:11.390 I went regularly to math ops hours to discuss math problems.

That's Amherst also encourages students to get to know their professors and even funds.

Take your professor Out program, where they pay for groups of students to go out to eat with the professor.

Professors were also sometimes even invite their classes over to their houses for an end of semester meal.

In terms of class size, my largest class is probably about 50 people for a multi variable calculus and social psychology.

On average, though, my classes were probably around 15 people, and the smallest cost I ever took was a music class with six people.

On another note about economics.

One of the things I loved about Amherst was the academic freedom.

I took a French class called the Space in Between, which is centered on exiled French writers.

My fresh air not only allowed, but encouraged me to write a more personal paper on my own struggles with language and identity. 00:06:57.940 --> 00:07:6.770 Instead of making me write a traditional essay, this paper being the basis of my senior thesis where I was again allowed and encouraged to do something unconventional. 00:07:7.280 --> 00:07:13.660 This was definitely one of my favorite academic experiences at Amherst, and one final thing about academics.

I want to mention study abroad, as this is a major component of Money Stearns and worst experience.

Actually, 40% of the junior class was abroad for at least one semester.

I actually studied abroad all of my junior year and two different locations.

I went to the University of Bordeaux in France, on the University of Oxford and England.

Most major departments are very flexible with study abroad, and what's even better is that your financial aid applies to your study abroad program.

This means that you pay the same amount to study abroad as you would to attend Amherst when it comes to life outside of class, I played in the college orchestra, was a math teaching assistant train for marathons on my own and run a couple of blog's, both campus street style and personal. 00:07:54.850 --> 00:08:0.790 There are several clubs on campus, from a cappella groups to the outing club to religious groups. 00:08:1.040 --> 00:08:6.570 If there's something that doesn't exist that you're looking for, you can easily start a club and secure funding for it. 00:08:6.640 --> 00:08:11.630 And for those of you who play an instrument, one really cool perk is that you can get free music lessons.

If you take the lessons for credit, you're on financial aid and you take one class in the music department.

I really appreciate this as music lessons are typically really expensive, sports wise.

Amherst is Division three, and there are many student athletes.

People frequently mentioned the student athlete divide, but I never felt that the athletes were intentionally being exclusive.

I just think it happens, actually, that you get to know the people you spend hours with in practice.

So you also hang out together.

There's no Greek life that immersed as it was the end a while back.

But there's still a vibrant social scene, and I felt that there was an overwhelming about of events each weekend or even daily as the difference. 00:08:49.990 --> 00:09:2.600 Student groups would host concerts, paint nights, dinners, comedy shows and everything in between the vast majority of ever students going to grad school or pre professional school. 00:09:2.610 --> 00:09:4.360 At some point, I couldn't find the eggs. 00:09:4.360 --> 00:09:10.270 That's that's what I remember seeing something like 80% of alumni go to grad school within five years of graduating.

One great thing about going to a small school is the relationships you develop with your professors, which makes for a stronger grass school rec letters.

Amorous is actually top feeder school for elite grad schools that law schools and medical schools.

As is typical of selective schools, a decent chunk of students also go into consulting or finance A lot of member students.

Also Piper fellowships like Fulbright and there's an amazing fellowships office on campus.

The director walks you through the process, gives you detailed feedback on your essays and helps you prepare for interviews.

There's also a career center on campus that holds frequent workshops and offers one on one appointments.

I want to remind you, though, the Ambersons Little Boards College, so it doesn't necessarily prepare you for a specific location and said the gold.

The school is to equip students to be critical thinkers, global citizens and engaged community members. 00:09:59.880 --> 00:10:8.590 As a 2018 grad, I was able to spend the past year teaching English at the university in France through a partnership between Emerse and the French University. 00:10:8.640 --> 00:10:17.020 I'm not working in marketing and digital media, which has less to do with my majors and more to do with my internships and extracurricular interests.

And amorous agree, tends to be pretty flexible on a decent number of students end up working in fields that aren't directly linked to their majors but still use the broader skills digging the Amherst.

So I hope this video gave you a better sense of, like the Amherst if you're planning to apply.

I also wrote a post on the college.

My blogged called How I Got in Amherst, which grows evermore my specific background and what my application to ever slept like.

You can find the link in the description.

If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

On again, Be sure to subscribe to the College one channel for more videos like these.