Amherst College in Amherst Massachusetts was my last stop on my sweep through Western Mass. Amherst has long been known for its open curriculum, but there's a little bit of buzz in the air: the faculty have just voted to require a certain amount of breadth in a student's classes in order to qualify for Latin honors: cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude, in order to make honors more equitable, and to encourage exploration of the curriculum. This appears to be driven by the fact that almost 75% of all graduates in the past 4 years have had a median grade of A-minus or higher. It seems class rank isn't a fair or adequate measure of Latin honors, since so many students have GPA's within a hundredth of a point from the next. Some faculty and many students are objecting to this new requirement, resenting that students will be forced to take classes they don't want to, and that it will put into jeopardy the concept of an open curriculum. This resolution has already passed but it will be interesting to see if pushback from students changes anything. Amherst is a very small school of less than 2000 students, and while it's part of the 5-college consortium, social life on campus has its own traditions. Our tour guide told us about Fallfest, Winterfest and, hold your hat... Litfest, when authors are invited to campus and there's a festival to celebrate writing. If you think that would be fun, you might be happy at Amherst. I, personally, think that would be a blast! There's only one dining hall on campus, which I think is wonderful socially, and 98% of students live on campus. Academically, Amherst has class schedules like many other colleges, but I'm told that language classes meet everyday. So smart!! Also, there is a beautiful four-year-old science center, a fabulous art museum, and a world-class museum of natural history on campus. Amherst College has long had a jockey reputation which is somewhat well deserved as a third of its students are varsity athletes. But make no mistake, Amherst is a progressive campus of thinkers who love what they're studying and are studying what they love.