One of the selling points of Amherst is the Five College Consortium. From freshman orientation to your first visit at the library, you realize that our curriculum and academic life is connected to the other four colleges. In this article, I am referring to taking courses at one of the other colleges. The opportunity is great. You get to take a course not offered at Amherst and still get credit for it. You get to experience top professors at four other phenomenal institutions for the price of one. It’s the best deal! However, there are a few struggles that you will have to overcome.
Getting Lost
It will happen. You may have mapped out the path to your classroom during add/drop but did you look for the Textbook Annex? At UMASS, you have to pass the library, skip down the yellow brick road, cross through the Witch’s Wardrobe and slide pass Azkaban to get to this mystical Textbook Annex. On the brightside, everyone knows that these type of places are hard to find and usually try to help you.
TA sessions
If you take a class with a TA, sometimes you need to schedule a session that fits your schedule. While everyone else takes out their class schedule, you have to shift tabs between the PVTA schedule and your calendar. It’s also inevitable that the TA will ask to change the TA session from 12:40pm to 12:30pm. That ten minutes difference for everyone else means the early bus for you. 11 am lunch, here you come!
Mastering the PVTA
When you get used to it, you will appreciate the buses punctuality. Unless you are running late….then the PVTA seems like the spawn of evil. As the blue doors close, the world slows down and the atmosphere suffocates you. There’s no point. You’re late, it’s over. The next bus will be there in about fifteen minutes. Suck it up and wait, kiddo. Next time, don’t stop to talk to the cutie on the quad.
New Distant Friends
Your classmates will become your school family away from Amherst. All it takes is one study group and you will want to wear their school merch in their honor. The only downside is hanging out outside of class. Sure you can do it after class, but you are at the mercy of whatever bus will be waiting for you when you’re done. You can meet up on the weekend, but the meeting place is always difficult. What do we consider the middle? Do you force the Smith person to come to Amherst or make the trek to Northhampton? Decisions, decisions.
Not Understanding the Jargon
Picture it, someone approaches you asking for directions. “How do you get to this building on the Northeast of campus?” Your eyes grow wide as you stammer a reply. You don’t know what’s the Northeast of campus or the South. You didn’t even know campuses could be big enough that you could divide it the same way we divide our country. Solution: Simply say, “I don’t even go here,” with that scared face you perfected in freshman year. Besides directions, sometimes the way the school is structured can also cause confusion. Credits will forever boggle our minds. “Our class is six credits!” Is that good? Is that bad? What is this credit system you speak of? I do not understand your language!
Loving Your Professor
Nothing worse than clicking with a professor who is not at your school. It’s not like they can ever be your advisor. You just have to admire from afar and take their guidance in stride. Sure, your advisor at Amherst is wonderful and you wouldn’t change that person for the world. However, this other professor speaks to your soul. Luckily, the summer can always extend to research. Just because you aren’t on their campus during the school year, doesn’t mean you can’t still work with them later on.
Despite the struggles, you still love the fact that you can take these courses. It’s one of the ways Amherst and our academic experience special.