Advice from Amherst president Julius Seelye: September 9, 1890.

At the end of the summer, after high school graduation, Coolidge traveled to Amherst Massachusetts to sit the entry exam for Amherst College. Coolidge fell ill with a bad cold during the exam period and returned to Plymouth with, it seems, unclear plans. Where this letter, sent at the direction of President Seelye, fell in this chronology is not known. But Seelye recommends that if Coolidge does come to Amherst that school year, he might need “a private tutor and the expense would vary according to the amount of your difficulties.” As it happened, Coolidge did not attempt the Amherst entry exam again.

Instead, he tried another route: students with a certificate from St. Johnsbury Academy were granted admission to Amherst. Of St. Johnsbury, Coolidge writes, “After a few weeks in the late winter at my old school I went to St. Johnsbury Academy for the spring term. Its principal was Dr. Putney, who was a fine drill-master, a very exact scholar, and an excellent disciplinarian. He readily gave me a certificate entitling me to enter Amherst without further examination, which he would never have done if he had not been convinced I was a proficient student.” In the fall of 1891, Coolidge was “back at Amherst taking up my college course in earnest.” Coolidge graduated from Amherst in 1895.