Your handy guide to Bennington College

About Bennington College

Bennington College is a private, nonsectarian, not-for-profit college in Bennington, Vermont. It has accreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE).

Bennington links ‘learning’ and ‘making’ together. The college faculty not only dedicates itself intellectually but also as leaders in their fields. Students develop ideas in the classroom and then put those ideas to the test in the real world. As a result, students can imagine, shape, and pursue their best work in an environment free of artificial barriers. Bennington cultivates a mindset for change, the ability to break new ground, and the conditions for progress through a truly unique education. Let’s discuss Bennington College in detail.

Mission

Bennington wants to liberate and nurture its students’ individuality and rigorous creativity. It guides them as they forge their own paths and work toward a more beautiful, sustainable, democratic, and just world.

Education

Graduate-level academic advising enables students to chart a course of study and practice that extends beyond the confines of a traditional major, honing their ability to thrive in this competitive world, tolerate ambiguity, and find solutions even when a path is not laid out in front of them.

Bennington is the only college in the country that requires an annual internship since its founding. Every winter, students work for two months with an organization or institution of their choice, anywhere in the world, to apply what they have learned on campus. It also helps them in focusing on what they study and make at Bennington. The internships allow students to engage in the field that interests them without having to wait for graduation.

Bennington has a highly engaged community of active makers and practitioners. The faculty and administration are mentors and peers who can engage with students’ work in addition to being subject matter experts. The Bennington community goes far beyond the campus and connects alumni, colleagues, and employers around the world.

Faculty

Students at Bennington collaborate closely with the faculty to create their plan, which includes the content, structure, and sequence of study and practice. The teachers serve as mentors and guides through one-on-one sessions with the faculty advisor and group advising in First Year Forum. Structured meetings with the faculty plan committee are also a part of these sessions. They assist students in determining how their intellectual interests and professional goals might shape an education that is deep, broad, and rigorous.

The faculty guides students’ progress to ensure that their plan is challenging, academically sound, and significant.

As the teachers and professors are active and famous in their fields, the faculty serve as models for a student’s own practice. Students learn from them how to frame a question, pursue a line of inquiry, make room for new ideas, and set the course for their life’s work.

Campus

Bennington’s campus is popular for its expansive beauty, distinctive architecture, and rich history. According to the Princeton Review, the campus is one of the most beautiful in the country. It sits on 440 acres at the foot of the Green Mountains. Architectural Digest calls it one of the top ten colleges with the best architecture.

Life at Bennington is an all-in, all-the-time!

It has a 24-hour continuum that does not begin and end at the classroom’s edges. Students are shaping not only their careers but also the community as a whole. A Bennington education has always been about these principles and frameworks that make life outside of the classroom as interesting as life inside. Student life informs students who they are and who they will become, how they engage in the larger collaborative spaces, and what they can and will bring to the broader campus culture. This occurs in dining halls, homes, clubs and organizations, libraries and workshops, events, and so on.

Housing

Each student house at Bennington has a kitchen and comfortable common areas (most with fireplaces) where students can relax, study and hold weekly Coffee Hours to discuss campus and house issues as well as overall community issues. Each house comes with a laundry room.

Every house is co-educational and four to five rooms in a house have a coed bathroom, all with showers and many with bathtubs. Depending on where a student lives, they might have a patio or porch with great views of the mountains, a piano, or a second living room.

Clubs and organizations

In any given year, the college hosts more than 40 clubs and organizations on campus. Students create, activate, and manage nearly all the clubs and organizations. Some clubs at the college function as publications. Students who want to learn something new or pursue another interest, such as building a boat can form clubs for the same.

Students form clubs to celebrate different cultures, to provide welcoming environments, to connect with one another through performing arts, sports and athletics, and sometimes skill sharing. Every year, there is an addition of clubs while others go dormant as student interest and activity change with each class of students at Bennington. The Budget and Events Committee at Bennington provides the most flexible funding and support for clubs and organizations as they relate to student life at the college.

Courses

Bennington dedicates itself to the belief that a dynamic, relevant education is best achieved when students define its direction. In this way, Bennington students, as they graduate, not only take knowledge with them but also how the method through which they learned it.

Students at Bennington College can collaborate with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice. As a result, education prepares them to direct their lives toward self-actualization and constructive social purposes. These are the goals central to Bennington’s founding vision.

Study areas

• Advancement of public action
• Animation & production design
• Anthropology
• Architecture
• Art history
• Biology
• Ceramics
• Chemistry
• Chinese
• Computer science
• Cultural studies and languages
• Dance
• Digital arts
• Drama
• Earth science
• Economics
• Environmental studies
• French
• History
• Italian
• Japanese
• Literature
• Mathematics
• Media studies
• Music
• Painting & drawing
• Philosophy
• Photography
• Physics & astronomy
• Politics
• Printmaking
• Psychology
• Science & mathematics
• Sculpture
• Social practices in art
• Society, culture & thought
• Sociolinguistics
• Spanish
• Video
• Visual arts

Rankings

US News and World Report rankings

• National Liberal Arts Colleges- 84
• Best Undergraduate Teaching (tie)- 49
• Best Value Schools- 65

Alumni

Notable alumni

• Kiran Desai- Man Booker Prize-winning author
• Peter Dinklage- Actor
• Donna Tart- Novelist
• Brett Easton Ellis- Author

Key takeaways

• Bennington’s mission is to liberate and nurture its students’ individuality and creativity. It guides them as they build their own paths and work toward a more beautiful, sustainable, democratic, and just world.
• Bennington’s campus is famous for its expansive beauty, distinctive architecture, and rich history. Various publications such as the Princeton Review consider it one of the most beautiful campuses in the country.
• Bennington believes that achieving dynamic, relevant education is possible when students define its direction. Bennington students, not only take knowledge with them as they graduate but also the method of learning it.

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FAQs

Q1. Is it difficult to get admission to Bennington College?

Ans- Bennington College has a 56.6% acceptance rate. This means the chances of getting admission to this college are average. The school expects you to meet their GPA and SAT/ACT requirements, but they are more flexible than other schools.

Q2. Do I have to pay the application fee for applying to Bennington College?

Ans- The students should pay a nonrefundable application fee of $75 (USD) to Bennington College.

Q3. Does Bennington College require SAT score?

Ans- All applicants are not required to take the SAT or ACT. If you want to include scores but are unable to have them sent directly to Bennington, you may request that your school official either submit them with the Common Application school report or email them to Bennington College.