What is Amherst College’s liberal arts curriculum like, and how does it work in practice?

Amherst’s liberal arts curriculum is notably flexible because it uses an open curriculum. In practice, that means there are no general education or core distribution requirements for all students, so you are not required to take a set number of classes in math, science, humanities, or social science just to graduate. The main college-wide academic requirement is completing your major, plus the overall number of courses needed for the degree.

Day to day, this gives students a lot of freedom to explore before committing to one field. You can take classes across departments based on interest rather than checking off categories, and many students use their first year or two to try very different subjects.

That freedom is balanced by close advising and small classes. Amherst is known for discussion-based courses and direct access to professors, so the curriculum is not “anything goes” in a chaotic way. Advisers help students build a coherent path, especially if they are exploring multiple interests or considering double majors, interdisciplinary work, or pre-professional goals alongside a liberal arts education.

In practice, a student might take political science, chemistry, and literature in the same semester without worrying about filling preset distribution buckets. If that student later decides on economics or biology, they have usually not lost time because the first two years are designed to support exploration. Amherst also participates in the Five College Consortium, so students can take approved courses at places like UMass Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire, which expands options even more.

The tradeoff is that students need to be comfortable making thoughtful choices, because the college gives you unusual freedom from the start.