Amherst College
Amherst publishes 7.7% (Fall 2025 entering class). Early Decision applicants got in at 22%; everyone else at 6.8%.
Acceptance rate
What Amherst's 7.7% is made of
The published rate averages groups with very different odds. These are the splits Amherst reports itself.
By application round
Fall 2025 entering class (Class of 2029)
Read the full decomposition →Part of Real Acceptance Rates, our series decomposing published rates from each school's own Common Data Set.
Testing
Test-Optional for 2026-27
- Policy
Amherst is test-optional for all first-year applicants (domestic and international); no admissions advantage to submitting scores. Admitted students who submitted self-reported scores and choose to matriculate must send official scores after enrolling, but scores are not used in the admission decision itself if withheld.
- SAT middle 50%
- 1490–1580sum of section 25th–75th percentiles
- ACT middle 50%
- 33–35
- Average HS GPA
- Not published by the school
Applying
Deadlines, essays and AI policy
- Early deadlines
- Nov 9, 2026 (ED)
- Regular decision
- Jan 5, 2027Source
- Supplemental essays
- 3 required
Two ~175-word short essays plus one 350-word essay (choice of a quotation prompt, submission of a graded academic paper, or the Access to Amherst supplement for A2A applicants). Prompt structure figures come from a 2025-26 cycle essay guide; Amherst's essay format has been stable across recent cycles but the 2026-27 wording was not independently re-verified.
- AI use in essays
No Official Policy
We reviewed Amherst's first-year application overview, writing-supplement instructions, application options, and admissions FAQ — none of them mention AI use by applicants.
Full cycle calendar: Application Deadlines.
At a glance
Size and cost
- Undergraduate enrollment
- 1,911
- Tuition (out-of-state)
- $70,480
- Category
- Liberal Arts
- Admissions site
- www.amherst.edu
What should this school mean for your list?
A published rate is one input. Working out what it means alongside the rest of your list is the part that actually changes an application. Free 25-minute call, no commitment.
Sources
- Amherst test policy (2026-27)
- Amherst deadlines
- Amherst admissions pages
- Amherst admissions pages
- Acceptance rate, test-score percentiles, enrollment and tuition: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, pulled 2026-08-19.
Test policy and deadlines last verified 2026-08-17.
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