Part of adjusting to college is learning how to study effectively for classes—and for most students, that also involves finding a study spot.
While most people often assume that the only places to study are in your dorm room or at the library, which in our case is Frost Library, there are a plethora of other options outside of these.
Study space in the Science Center.
Photo by Maria Stenzel.
A popular study spot is the Science Center, which is open 24 hours. On the first floor and the lower basement level, there are tables for group study, especially around the area of the Science Center cafe. On the second and third floors, there are small lounge areas with access to large whiteboards that are also great for group studying. Additionally, after class hours, classrooms are usually open on the second floor, and many people tend to study with friends in the classroom space by making use of the classrooms’ whiteboards and projectors.
Classrooms in other buildings can also be used as study spaces—sometimes, I see people studying in a classroom in Barrett Hall where I used to have my “Reading Asian Americans” first-year seminar class sessions.
Another popular option is the common rooms in dorms. In Appleton, the dorm I live in, there’s only one common room, so I don’t typically study there. However, in all the other first-year dorms, there’s usually at least one common room, some even having multiple small ones, on each floor. So, if I’m studying with one of my friends, I usually do so with them in the common room on the floor they live on. I really enjoy studying in the common rooms of James and Stearns since they have chalkboards.
The Beneski Museum is also a great place to study. There are spots in the museum and in the parts of the museum specifically dedicated to classes to study.
One underrated study spot is Keefe Campus Center. There’s a lounge area on the second floor that usually isn’t too crowded in the afternoon after Grab-N-Go closes. I usually go there if I want to study on my own. Sometimes, if I want to socialize with others while studying, I go to a resource center, often the QRC and WGC, and I usually see somebody I know in one of these resource centers.
Lindsey Huang (left) studying in Frost Library. Photo courtesy of Lindsey Huang.
Last but certainly not least, Frost is a classic study spot. In the fall semester, I had tutoring sessions in the Frost cafe on the first floor, which is a floor meant for collaborative studying.
Frost Library has a great system of assigning certain floors a specific noise level to match different types of studying – for example, on the first and second floors, students are allowed to engage in conversations and social studying. On the third floor and A-level, students are allowed to make some noise but not disturb others. The B-level and C-level are the most silent floors, and I usually go to these floors if I have a take-home exam that I need to complete in a quiet place. There are group study rooms on the third floor that my friends and I took advantage of while studying for finals.
With so many options, finding a study spot at Amherst College isn’t a difficult task.
Each academic year, several current students blog for Amherst’s Office of Admission web page. These blogs are meant to offer “perspectives to prospectives,” so that applicants can get a sense of the College. We are re-posting a selection, and this one was written in the winter of 2023. Huang, who is from San Francisco, is double majoring in psychology and economics and plays for the women’s golf team. She has also blogged about being a fiction editor at The Indicator magazine, visiting thrift stores in the Valley and her fondness for the squirrels on campus who, she writes, “engage in one-sided staring contests with students.”