Student Affairs Student & Family Communications

Dear Student,

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My name is Angie Tissi-Gassoway, and I am your Dean of Students and Chief Student Affairs Officer. I am thrilled to welcome you to the Amherst College community!

You will be hearing from me and members of our team in the Office of Student Affairs regularly over the summer, as we all get ready to come together this fall. This email is the beginning of our journey together as we welcome you to Amherst over the coming months. As you learn the answer to one question, many more may arise – please know that we are here to help! Our goal is to make sure your questions are answered and to connect you with the many wonderful people, programs, and resources here at Amherst.

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Dear Amherst student,

Welcome to the Amherst community! While your arrival on campus and orientation activities are still a few months away, we’d like to welcome you with the gift of a Class of 2027 hoodie that you can start wearing now—and that we hope you’ll wear on campus in the fall and for a long time to come.

This August, you and 480 other members of the Class of 2027 will arrive at Amherst from all over the world, bringing with you different experiences, ideas, and ambitions. For the next four years, you’ll cultivate a community that lives and learns together. And no matter where your life takes you after Amherst, your time together will connect you as a class. Your 2027 hoodie is a small reminder of that connection and the Amherst 
community you are joining.

Dear New Student,

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I hope your summer is going well and that you are finding space to rest and relax before traveling to Amherst this fall. Preparations are well underway in anticipation of your arrival on campus, and we are so excited to welcome you to the herd!

Throughout the summer, we will continue to share lots of information designed to help you think about and prepare for community living, intellectual engagement, wellbeing, safety, and other areas of life on campus. As you read and review, remember that you can find additional resources on our Information for New Students page, including the orientation schedule, all communications to date, and more.

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Dear New Student,

Welcome to your first year at Amherst College!

As your Class Dean, I am here to support your intellectual journey as you experience new academic and co-curricular opportunities that lie ahead, whether inside or outside of the classroom. I will communicate with you regularly via email throughout the year in order to map out important deadlines as well as to clarify college policies and procedures. These messages will provide resources so that you can thrive academically as well as socially and emotionally while becoming a member of the Amherst community.

Dear Jane Doe,

We are pleased to be able to share your housing assignment with you!

Your assignment is XXX, a XXX. Your roommate information is:

Your roommates are listed below:

1. XXX- XXX Hall - XXX-XXX-B - XXX

Most new students will arrive on Tuesday, August 29, 2023 between 8:00 am and noon. Some students who have been registered to participate in a pre-orientation program will arrive a few days earlier. We will follow up next week with your exact arrival date and day-of arrival window.

Dear New Student,

We are eagerly awaiting your arrival! As mentioned in the last newsletter, we will be hosting three Pre-Arrival Meetings on zoom, on June 21, July 19, and August 9 at 9AM EST.

Tune in this Wednesday to discuss Pre-Orientation, visa questions, packing, and more! It's also the perfect opportunity to meet your fellow peers before you arrive on campus. This virtual meeting will not be recorded, so don't miss out!

Click to Join Summer Meeting

Dear Amherst College Students and Families,

Congratulations on your student’s acceptance to Amherst College!

Preparing for your student to go to college is an amazing time filled with many opportunities, questions, and anxieties. Over the past few years, the mental health of adolescents has become part of a national narrative across the United States. Evidence supports the idea that the current generation going off to college is more open to mental health support than previous generations. They can speak about emotional support in a sophisticated way and demand services at a level never seen before.

Hello Student,

We are looking forward to welcoming you to campus this fall as one of the newest members of our community. Your health, safety, and wellbeing is vitally important to us and we believe that each of us has a role to play in not only caring for ourselves but in caring for each and every member of our community.

Dear Students,

Congratulations on your admission to Amherst College! My name is Lupita Méndez and I am the Director of the Class & Access Resource Center (CARC), which is one of the six cultural & identity resource centers on campus. Included on this email is Scarlet Im, Assistant Director of the Class & Access Resource Center. The CARC is a resource center specifically for transfer and veteran students, as well as all first generation and low-income (FLI) students. We offer a variety of programs and resources for students throughout the year and I hope you will engage in some of those with us! Scarlet and I are both so excited to meet all of you in August and welcome you to campus.

Dear Student,

Welcome to Amherst College! As we prepare for your arrival, there are some crucial bits of information we need from you about your academic interests, past experience, and First-Year Seminar preference. The information you provide will help guide your placement in a First Year Seminar. Please complete all of this short, but very important survey. Please reply no later than Friday, July 7.

Greetings,

We are happy to be able to share the next step toward the beginning of your first semester on campus as a part of our Amherst College community. We use a web-based portal to interact with you about your housing opportunities. The Housing Portal is now open to all new students. Please complete each page of the questionnaire and submit your responses by Friday, June 30. This questionnaire will inform how we assign your room and roommate.

Residential living goals for new students are intended to create opportunities for meeting new people and for building strong relationships. Please take note that we do not accommodate roommate requests nor requests to be placed in a specific residence hall.

Dear New Student,

We hope this email finds you and your family in good health and high spirits. On behalf of the Center for International Student Engagement (CISE) and the Office of Immigration Services (OIS), we extend a warm and enthusiastic welcome to Amherst College!

As you embark on your academic journey, the upcoming months will bring a mix of excitement and busyness as you navigate the necessary steps for your visa application, travel plans, and preparation for New International Student Pre-Orientation. We hope to guide you through these steps as smoothly as possible and we are happy to answer any questions as they arise. Here are a few things to keep on your radar.

Dear Members of the Class of 2027, New Transfer Students, and Exchange Students,

Welcome to the Amherst community! I look forward to meeting you when you arrive on campus in August.

I’m writing today to tell you about an Amherst tradition for new students, the DeMott Lecture and Summer Reading.

Named for Benjamin DeMott, a legendary professor of English at the College for more than four decades, the lecture (which takes place on the last day of Orientation) and reading (which you can do at your convenience before the lecture) invite you, the newest members of our community, into a conversation with a renowned thinker—and one another—as you begin your Amherst journey.

Greetings, New Mammoths!

We are receiving many questions from incoming students about housing for the upcoming year and we are excited to share some initial information with you today. 

The New Student Housing Questionnaire will be available in the Housing Portal on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, and must be completed prior to Friday, June 30, 2023.  Your responses to the questionnaire will inform your housing assignment for the 2023-24 academic year. The housing process for new students is designed to create opportunities for new students to meet multiple members of the class and begin building strong relationships. For this reason, please know we do not accommodate roommate requests or requests to be placed in a specific residence hall.