Five Colleges

The Five Colleges is a consortium of colleges in the Connecticut River valley of Western Massachusetts:

• Amherst College (Amherst, Massachusetts)
• Hampshire College (Amherst, Massachusetts)
• Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Massachusetts)
• Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts)
• University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, Massachusetts)

The Five Colleges are geographically close to one another, and a free bus shuttles between the campuses. A student at one of these schools may take classes at any of the others, and there are student groups and organizations which draw (at least potentially) from all five.

Two of the Five Colleges, Mount Holyoke and Smith, are members of the Seven Sisters.

A popular rumor among Five College students is that the characters on the show Scooby Doo were based on the five colleges. As it goes, Fred is Amherst College, Daphne is Mount Holyoke, Velma is Smith College, Shaggy is Hampshire College, and Scooby is UMass Amherst. There's no conclusive proof that the show, originally called Mysteries Five, is not based on the five colleges, but the official line of Hanna-Barbera and creator Fred Silverman is that the show was based on radio program I Love a Mystery and TV sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

External links

• Five Colleges, Inc.
• Amherst
• Hampshire
• Mt. Holyoke
• Smith
• UMass Amherst