Campus stereotypes: What kind of Five-College student are you?
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Whether it's in class, on PVTA buses or across a beer pong table, Five College students have long indulged in a little good-natured mud-slinging. Put five very different schools in one valley and you are bound to hear that one school is for party animals, another school is for hippies, and all the rich kids go to "that" college.
Valley U. made the rounds of the five campuses to see what this year's students think of their peers. Some were all-too willing to spill the dirt.
UMass
Let's start with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. While students on the other four campuses admitted that it is nearly impossible to pigeonhole a student body of more than 25,000 people, they still gave it their best shot.
"They seem a little more wild than Amherst (College)," said Katie Jablin, 20, a junior at Amherst College.
"I think there's a lot more parties than at Mount Holyoke. They're more athletic and more social," said Chloe Wojnarowski, 20, a junior at Mount Holyoke in South Hadley.
Valley college students stereotype their Five-College peers:
Beth Eby, 21, a senior at Smith College in Northampton, said that she can see how UMass got its laid-back party rep.
"If I went to a state school with all my friends from high school, that's how UMass would be for me," she said.
Andrew Bylar, 21, who is in his third year at Hampshire College, said that he's seen a lot of school spirit on the UMass campus.
"When you walk around ... you see more UMass T-shirts and stuff supporting their school more than you would see at other schools," Bylar said.
Smith
Then there's Northampton's women's liberal arts college, Smith. Students at other campuses mentioned the term "man haters," as one of the most common stereotypes.
A touch of the old Mount Holyoke versus Smith rivalry may have something to do with that. "Well, being from Mount Holyoke, we call them 'trolls,' in that they're much more of the butch lesbian than the casual, preppy lesbian that we have here. Of course, some aren't lesbians," said Wojnarowski.
"And they're definitely more radical than Mount Holyoke."
Bylar and Paul Haberlin, 23, a senior at UMass, agreed that men don't seem very welcome on the Smith campus.
"Everyone I know there is so all about women's rights," said Christien Janis, 22, a senior at UMass. "Feminists, I guess."
Ella Hall, 21, a senior at Hampshire College, had a favorable view of Smithies from being in classes with some. "They all seem very capable to me. In class, they're all very articulate," she said.
Nicole Stokes, 19, an Amherst sophomore, thinks Smithies are just bolder about expressing their opinions.
Mount Holyoke
What about Mount Holyoke women? "They seem to be on the more serious side," Hall said. "They're very quiet."
However, Janis said she has had some experiences with Mount Holyoke students who were not so quiet.
"Anyone there that I know makes fun of UMass and thinks it's dirt. They seem very self-righteous, almost like Amherst. They think they're better than us," she said.
Smith students, too, had some harsh words for their peers at Mount Holyoke. "The stereotype, I guess, is that they're slutty," said sophomore Bailey Cookman, 19.
Stokes, at Amherst College, put it more delicately. "I've heard from guys that they're more outgoing, party-wise," she said.
Smith sophomore Emilia Bates, 19, said that the rivalry between the two schools has prompted some whispering about the intelligence of Mount Holyoke women.
"We naturally have a stereotype at Smith about how Mount Holyoke people are dumb. They're not really, but we like to say they are," she said.
Amherst
As for Amherst College, almost every student interviewed on the other campuses mentioned a specific article of clothing: the polo shirt.
"When Amherst people come to Smith you can tell - they're very preppy, very decked out in their fancy, expensive designer clothing," Eby said. "Last year when the Sophian published their April Fool's edition, they said there was going to be a Ralph Lauren polo shirt drive at Amherst."
"Definitely the most easy to identify at a party," Bylar said of Amherst students.
"I guess you could say they're the most homogeneous." He added that he's heard that the majority of Amherst College students are athletes.
Wealth was also mentioned frequently in the same breath as Amherst College.
"They're all from old money, or else they're brilliant," Wojnarowski said.
Most of those interviewed added that people at Amherst seem a little smug.
"I've had some experiences with Amherst people where they genuinely were jackasses," Bates said. "They go to one of the top liberal arts colleges, and some of them are very aware of it."
Hampshire
When it comes to describing Hampshire College students, most people opened with the word "hippies."
"They're hippies, but hippies whose parents have money," Haberlin said, "and they do smoke a lot of pot there."
"I think they're much more laid-back," Wojnarowski said. "They probably play Ultimate and do more artsy things like go to see music or plays."
Hampshire's method of assessment, which doesn't use letter grades, attracts a certain type of person, according to the students interviewed.
"It's just for people who don't want structure," Jablin said.
Bates said that her experiences in classes with Hampshire students left her with a favorable opinion.
"The Hampshire kids that are in my science classes are smarter than everyone else," she said.
Most interviewees qualified their statements by admitting that they, too, were in fact stereotypes, and offered their opinions in good fun; that, and no one really believes the stereotypes anyway, they said.
In some cases, students admitted that they had never had any interactions with students from that campus, and so had nothing to go on but gossip.
So before you repeat that joke about the kids at that campus, with their (insert: polo shirts, joints, keggers, butch hair cuts or promiscuity), check them out for yourself. You may be surprised.
At the very least, it's a good excuse to get away from those rich, keg-standing, man-hating, pot-smoking, flirtatious kids on your own campus.
