Amherst College acceptance rate and admissions profile

With an acceptance rate near 9%, Amherst College is a most selective private college in Massachusetts. Because it admits roughly one in ten applicants or fewer, admission turns on the strength of your whole profile rather than any one number.

Use this page to see what Amherst College weighs, where it ranks among Massachusetts schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1540, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

In its review, Amherst College leans most on rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and application essay. At this level of selectivity, the difference between admits is rarely the transcript alone; essays, recommendations, and a coherent story matter. These ratings come from Amherst College's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

Among the 36 Massachusetts schools we track, Amherst College ranks #5 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like Harvard University (4%) and Northeastern University (5%) sit nearby, which makes Massachusetts a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list.

Build around Amherst College with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as Cornell University, New York University, and Northwestern University. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate and admitted test ranges reflect publicly reported data (U.S. Department of Education / NCES IPEDS / Common Data Sets). Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.