Admission & Financial Aid Information about Arts Supplements

Students who have talents or achievements in the areas of music, dance, theater or visual arts may wish to submit supplementary arts materials for review by Amherst faculty. Information about your arts background and samples of your artistic work must be submitted online. Depending on the specific artistic medium, certain materials are either required or recommended, as described below. Applicants intending to submit arts supplement materials are strongly encouraged to do so by the application deadline of the applicant's chosen admission plan and no later than the end of the allowed grace period (as detailed below in the Submission Deadlines section).

Optional Submission

The submission of supplementary arts materials is completely optional. It is not required for your enrollment in arts courses or your extra-curricular participation in the arts at Amherst or your eventual choice of a major in the arts. Any student attending Amherst College may participate in the arts (either as a departmental major or as a non-major taking courses through the curriculum or by engagement in extra-curricular activities) whether or not the student previously submitted an arts supplement at the time of application.

Submission Platform

Applicants can submit Arts Supplement materials through a designated section of their Application Status Portal (ASP), a secure online site personalized for each Amherst applicant. Although you will not have access to your ASP until after submitting your application for admission, you can still get started on preparing your arts materials! Review the information below to learn more about the materials required for the various types of arts supplements. (And keep creating!)

Supplement Review and Evaluation Process

Art supplements are reviewed and evaluated by faculty from the relevant art department (music, dance, theater, visual art), not by members of the Admission Office. After reviewing a supplement, arts faculty share their evaluation with the Admission Office. A strong evaluation of a submitted art supplement can be a positive factor in the overall, holistic consideration of the student's application, although only one of many factors contributing to our admission decision. A less-than-strong evaluation, however, will not have a detrimental effect on a student's admissibility. In other words, submitting an arts supplement may help your application, but will never hurt it!

Arts Recommendations

Arts supplements for dance, theater, and visual arts require the submission of a recommendation from a teacher familiar with your work in that artistic area.

Submission Deadlines

You are strongly encouraged to submit your arts supplement not later than the  application deadline of the admission plan you have chosen. To provide some additional flexibility, however, a grace period beyond the application deadline will be allowed for the submission of arts supplements.

No Additional Fee

Amherst College wants to ensure that submission fees do not pose a barrier for students wishing to submit arts supplements, so you will not be charged an additional fee for submitting an arts supplement to Amherst College.

URLs for Embedded Media

If you provide a URL for embedded media, please ensure that the content will be accessible at least through March 31, 2024. We do not permanently download embedded media, so if you remove the original content or otherwise restrict access to the linked material, it will not be retrievable by Amherst faculty reviewers.