Amherst College

“America can’t afford to lose any qualified aspirants to a liberal arts education because they think places like Amherst are unaffordable. We’re grateful that this initiative has helped Amherst find these stars at community colleges. We hope that other selective private colleges will see, through Amherst’s example, how much this untapped population of students contributes to academic and community life at campuses like ours.”

– Anthony Marx, President of Amherst College

As a member of the CCTI, Amherst has developed a set of new mentoring programs, outreach activities, and services designed to attract top low-income community-college students and support them from their first day on campus throughout their transition to graduate school and post-graduate careers.

Elements of Amherst's CCTI program include:

• Annual open houses on campus for students from community colleges, and on-going outreach visits to those community colleges to answer questions and help prospective transfers learn about Amherst, transfer admission requirements, and the application process.
• A staff liaison in the Dean of Students Office designated to be available to support transfer students.
• A Transfer Student Alliance group that meets regularly to talk about issues, plan events, and address the needs of new transfer students.
• A mentoring program that allows community college transfers to stay in touch with faculty from their community college.
• Outreach and support from Amherst’s Writing Center, Quantitative Skills Center, and Career Center targeted to transfer students as well as access to a math tutor and writing fellow to provide supplementary academic support for transfers.
• A Student Life Fellow serves as a liaison between the college and community college transfer students and develops and coordinates new programs and services for them.
• A commitment to meet low- and moderate-income transfer students’ total financial need through a generous mix of grants and work study. Beginning in fall of 2008, Amherst will remove loans from all financial aid packages, allowing most students to graduate with little or no debt.
• Funds to help qualified transfer students in their senior year to cover expenses related to job interviews or graduate school admission.

Learn more about Amherst's achievements and promising practices, or visit Amherst College's Web site to learn more about transfer opportunities.