When I mentioned taking a French class at Amherst College during my first semester, I often heard University of Massachusetts peers dismiss the school. A near-ancient Collegian opinion piece states that Amherst College students “have a better chance (than UMass students) to succeed in the world because their parents bought them … their place.” When one considers Amherst’s 50 percent legacy admissions or its sizeable pool of private high school students, its students do seem to have a leg up in the admissions game. The author fails to acknowledge, however, that such practices are commonplace at top private schools. It’s unfair to compare a state university, which was founded with the goal of promoting agriculture and the mechanic arts, to a small liberal arts college with historic ties to Williams College and Phillips Andover Academy. The schools aren’t from the same league in the first place.

Popular descriptions of Amherst College students include “elitist,” “rich,” “preppy” and “waspy.” A few students easily fit those stereotypes, but I’d like to examine the majority of students who do not. The college does have one of the largest endowments among its cohort of other elite universities and can indeed trace its roots to wealthy, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs); however, the college’s current racial and socioeconomic diversity, encouraged by its 18th president, distinguishes its student body from those of its private college peers.

Anthony W. Marx sat in front of an interview committee and plainly stated: “I’m not interested in being a custodian over a privileged place.” He then explained his opinions on social mobility, thanked the interviewer, and left the room. The committee would later invite Marx to serve as the 18th president of Amherst College.

Marx tied connections between American philosopher John Rawls’ “veil of ignorance” theory, ancient financial meltdowns and the state of public education. His passion to combat systemic socioeconomic inequality within higher education is demonstrated both by his speeches and his actions: he initiated campaigns to diversify Amherst’s community; recruited more high-performing students from low-income households; raised additional funds to support these newcomers; and even invited students to his intimate “fireside chats” about class and race differences within the school.

Marx’s efforts succeeded. In a 2010 email to the entire school, he proudly declared a more than doubling of low-income enrollment, which then hovered at a whopping 25 percent. In comparison, Harvard University lags behind at 10 percent, and only three percent of students in the nation’s top 146 colleges come from the lowest quartile. Amherst’s population of students of color, which hovers around 43 percent, greatly outnumbers the populations of its “Little Three” siblings, Williams and Wesleyan.

Marx “un-snobbed” Amherst’s student body, but he left room for improvement. Rhonda Cobham-Sander, the 2007 special assistant to the president for diversity, recalls “tensions” within the community, “casual sexism,” systematic exclusion of staff of color as well as colleague generalities of people of color.” The issues she noted would subside if the school were to diversity its staff in addition to its student body. Cobham-Sander adds that of all staff divisions within Amherst, only the Office of Admission “can be said to have fully embraced (the school’s aimed) level of commitment to diversity, both in its internal organization and its external recruitment goals.”

In 2007, Amherst psychology professor Elizabeth Aries embarked on a case study to “discover the effects, if any, of living in a diverse community over the course of student’s first year at the college, and what challenges they faced based on their race and social class.” Her 2008 book, “Race and Class Matters at an Elite College,” followed 58 students in the aftermath of Marx’s efforts. Low-income students recounted move-in day, when some high-income peers arrived in luxury cars with bundles of clothing and boxes filled to the brim with expensive electronics. But these students also provided anecdotes of a student body that was willing to bridge such wealth disparities. To provide just one example, when a student declined to dine in town due to budget constraints, his friend offered to cover the bill. Aries also notes that “three-quarters of the students reported having made a close friend from a very different class background than their own.”

In my Amherst College French class, there were talks of frequent European vacations and students sporting luxurious brand name clothing in a 9 a.m. Monday class. But as I attempted to master the art of ordering my first Parisian Kir, I encountered a collaborative, varied, genuinely friendly and highly intelligent group of students. They’re not all snobs. Consider taking a Five College Consortium course to see for yourself.

Brandon Sides is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].