As President Elliott put it that morning, “You’re here because you have good choices.” On this sunny, 65-degree day in early April, you could feel the exhilaration of good choices on the horizon as 119 new Mammoths and their family members visited campus for Amherst’s first accepted students’ day of 2024 (another session followed on April 18 and 19). Proud families and eager students crowded into Johnson Chapel to begin the day’s many events, which would not be eclipsed by the finale—a spectacular solar show.
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Mammoth Photo Op: An admitted student pauses mid-tour for a photo op with the prehistoric purple mascot.
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A Is for Amherst: The day’s programming began with an opening session in Johnson Chapel featuring remarks from (top left to right) President Michael A. Elliott ’92, Dean of Admission & Financial Aid Matt McGann and Dean of Admission Cate Zolkos. Zolkos encouraged the students to get to know each other and the special place that is Amherst College. “And,” McGann jumped in to add, “if you’re really having trouble deciding [on a college], choose alphabetically!”
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Making Connections: President Elliott seconded this suggestion, but also noted that no matter where you decide to go, “it’s about what you make of those four years; you’re here because you have good choices…. At Amherst, it’s about the connections students make with faculty and each other.… It’s learning that coming up with hard questions is just as important as getting answers, and it’s about preparing you for a lifetime of meaningful work.” He closed out the session plainly: “We trust you.”
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Amherst Arithmetic: From Zolkos we learned a bit more about the diverse accepted student body—they hailed from 49 states and 41 countries. Speaking a total of 65 languages, 15 percent were international. Collectively, they attended 917 different high schools and 29 percent would be first-generation college students. Ninety had contributed art submissions, 25 percent had applied early decision and three were celebrating birthdays that day.
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Your First Year, Deconstructed: The opening session was followed by a panel focused on the first-year experience at Amherst. The featured speakers were (top photo, left to right) Chief Student Affairs Officer & Dean of Students Angie Tissi-Gassoway, Poler Family Professor of Psychology Catherine Sanderson, Charles Hamilton Houston ’15 Professor of Black Studies and History Stefan Bradley and student representative and neuroscience major Zaki Alaoui ’24. Sanderson illustrated hitting the ground running in the classroom by talking about her students doing empirical research in an Intro to Psychology course. Bradley cautioned, “Prepare yourself not to be the smartest in the room. This is the beginning of something larger than you.” Alaoui recalled his own well-rounded campus experience—participating in the Muslim Students’ Association, playing baseball, working in a research lab, studying abroad in the Netherlands, securing a summer internship in Boston and (this coming week!) completing his thesis in neuroscience. Tissi-Gassoway, meanwhile, described what the very first day on campus looks like and, when asked what they like the least about the College, replied without hesitation, “I call it magical and maddening.”
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Medicine Cabinet: The second of four panels was a discussion for accepted students interested in following a pre-med track. It was moderated by five students (top photo, left to right): Dorothy Nketia ’24, Mandi Bailey ’24, Rina Li ’24, Vaughn Armour ’25 and Lori Alarcon ’24, along with Assistant Dean of Admission Nick Fritz at far right. Health Professions Program Director Richard Aronson and Professor William Lopez also spoke. Collectively, they shared the many academic routes from Amherst to a career in healthcare. Nketia remarked that she has “really taken advantage of the open curriculum.” Despite knowing she wanted a career in medicine, she said, “I still allowed myself to explore.” Bailey reaffirmed this thought: “It really doesn’t matter what you major in. Focus on what looks most interesting.” And Li added, “By taking one ‘fun’ course each semester, I’ve learned more about the world around me—but also about myself.” Armour demonstrated how Amherst opened up his eyes to new possibilities: “I didn’t have a Black science teacher until I got here, so [science] just didn’t feel like a place where I belonged.”
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Study Tour: We joined one of several tours ongoing throughout the day—this one, led by political science and Spanish major Conner Glynn ’24, focused primarily on the many research areas on campus. Here, the group has just exited Frost Library, which houses an abundance of historical documents and resources for archival research. Glynn discussed everything from music research to STEM, pointing out community-focused examples of such work, like a group of student statisticians who are working with the dining hall to reduce waste. As far as the ample resources available, he told the group, “You are never going to do unpaid research or labor here.”
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Good Bones: The next stop on the tour was the impressive Beneski Museum, home to ¼ million specimens collected over 170 years, including the mascot’s namesake (center, right), which was discovered by Amherst professor Fred Loomis by accident while vacationing in Florida with his family and was reassembled with the help of Amherst students in the 1920s. Museum educator Fred Venne (center) regaled the group with this and other interesting factoids about the space.
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Science Center of Attention: From there, we visited the equally impressive (and equally mammoth…) new Science Center, which houses state-of-the-art lab and classroom facilities, offices and study areas, a café and even a winter garden. The College is known for having the first neuroscience program of any undergraduate university in the country as well as for winning multiple awards for its green energy research. Glynn pointed out a physics lab with “cool, fancy equipment and lasers” and referenced some of the STEM-focused study abroad opportunities, like camping in glaciers in Greenland and studying agriculture in Thailand.
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Some Atrium: Top: Walking across the lower level, Glynn showed us the Winter Garden, an open-air atrium at the center of the building. He pointed out narrow ladders from the top of the atrium to the ground. A group of students had built these for the squirrels, he said, who “kept falling from the roof!”
Bottom: Heading upstairs, we passed the Moss Quantitative Center (or “Q Center”), which is located in the Science Library space.
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Green Day: The group passed by the Greenway Residence Halls. Their bright, modern architecture is in contrast to the charming, historic parts of campus. The 295-bed residence hall comprises four interconnected buildings with a central outdoor space. The buildings were constructed with sustainability as a top priority—they have maximum solar exposure, radiant heating and cooling, and LED lighting.
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Scene to It: The campus’s hilly terrain makes for some incredible views of the Valley. From the War Memorial, at the top of these steps, the group stopped to take in the breathtaking vista of the Holyoke Range, with the Alumni Gym and athletic fields in the foreground.
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Sun Spot: After all the panels and tours had wrapped and students had sat in on dozens of interesting classes, everyone met on the Quad to take in the solar eclipse. Armed with picnic blankets, snacks, frisbees and eclipse glasses (courtesy of Associate Professor of Physics and Chair of Physics & Astronomy David Hanneke), current and accepted students, faculty and staff gathered amid the fun and frenzy of the first warm day of the year. Beneski Museum intern Alex Lapadat ’26 sketched the progress of the eclipse for interested onlookers with the use of a Sunspotter solar telescope.
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Raise Your Glasses: By 3:25 the eclipse had reached 95% totality. We watched as the sunny day darkened and shadows deepened. Street lamps turned on around the Quad and mosquitos emerged from their daytime slumber. Clockwise from top left: A visiting family; Abdul Rauf Abdul Karim ’24, Admire Madyira ’25, Starlone Ekuwom ’27; a student sporting two curious cats; Karolina Dobiecka ’26, Sofia Brege ’27, Abby Simon ’27, Zaynah Shariff ’27 and Ifrah Abdullah ’27. (Note: This group came fully prepared with space-themed snacks, including MoonPies, Moon Cheese, Space Dunk Oreos and Sun Poppers.)
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Totality Awesome: The excitement reached a crescendo before the day wound down. An enthusiastic group of students points at the sun. (To their left, an ad hoc a cappella group was beginning the first few bars of “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” written by an Amherst alum! (That would be Jim Steinman ’69.) President Elliott’s words from earlier came to mind: “To show you just how much we want you here we’re going to blot out the sun.”