Enrollment: 618
Average SAT: 603
Average ACT: 27
Most Popular Majors: English Language and Literature, General,Foreign Languages and Literatures, General,Visual and Performing Arts, General,
Regular Application Deadline: 01/03
Student Faculty Ratio: 9:1

Undergraduate Receiving Need-Based Financial Aid: 17
Average Freshman Total Need-Based Gift Aid: $26,395.00

Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians
Class Discussions Encouraged
Dodgeball Targets
Dorms Like Palaces

School Says - General Information
Bennington College, a four-year liberal arts college established in 1932, was founded on the belief that the most valuable education is the one you create for yourself. Guided and challenged by a distinguished faculty, each student designs a rigorous, interdisciplinary education that prepares them for the world.

School Says - Student Body
At Bennington, life outside the classroom is as rich as it is inside. Students are involved in a wide range of organizations and activities, which include a chapter of Amnesty International, the Bennington Free Press, Drama Forum, Film Society, Legal Aliens, Literature Gathering, Open Critique Night, Outing Club, Student Action Network, and the Queer Student Union. Bennington students have the opportunity to create new clubs and organizations and may receive funds to do so. Students are also directly involved in arranging academic workshops such as the Social Science Colloquium and Dance Workshop. The college keeps a vibrant schedule of endowed lectures and other events throughout the year, attracting the country's leading artists and intellectuals. In addition, numerous theatrical, musical, and dance productions occur throughout the year and many readings, recitals, plays, lectures, and films are written, produced, performed, composed, and otherwise created by students. Southern Vermont is the perfect location for nearly any outdoor activity including rock climbing and rappelling, canoeing, caving, hiking, skiing, and whitewater rafting. Students looking to get away for a weekend have easy access to cities and towns throughout the Northeast including Boston, New York City, and Montreal.

School Says - Academics
Working closely with faculty advisers, each Bennington student develops an individual plan of study. In their first year, students are encouraged to explore the curriculum broadly and to identify driving questions around which they can organize their education. Each student's plan combines courses from a variety of disciplines, depending upon the student's goals. These goals are constantly revisited through ongoing dialogue with faculty, ensuring that students leave Bennington having studied broadly and deeply, as well as having developed skills and habits of mind that prepare them for a wide range of opportunities after college.

School Says - Admissions
Bennington College seeks students who have a demonstrated passion for learning and academic excellence. Our goal is to understand prospective students as individuals whose capacity to meet the challenges of intellectual and imaginative excellence is revealed in a variety of ways. We believe all aspects of the application--grades, test scores, essays, interviews, and recommendations--offer valuable perspectives and the admissions committee considers applications in their entirety. Bennington requires the Common Application and the Bennington Supplement (an essay, a graded analytic paper, and the option to submit supplementary materials.) Submission of SAT or ACT scores is optional. We hope to learn as much about each applicant as we can, and try to have a conversation with each applicant in person, or via telephone or email. Bennington accepts transfer applications for the fall and spring terms. Early decision options are available for first-year applicants. Please visit www.bennington.edu for the most current information and deadlines. For more information, please contact: Office of Admissions Bennington College 1 College Drive Bennington, VT 05201 800-833-6845 admissions@bennington.edu www.bennington.edu

School Says - Campus Life
Bennington, Vermont is a picturesque small town on the borders of Massachusetts and New York. Located twelve miles from Williamstown, MA and the Berkshires, this culturally rich area provides numerous outdoor activities, arts festivals, museums, and historic sites and architecture. The College campus is located on 550 rolling acres at the foot of the Green Mountains. Wooded trails connect original buildings from the 1930s with modern additions such as the 120,000-square-foot Visual and Performing Arts center (VAPA) and the Dickinson Science Building. Bennington is 40 miles east of Albany, New York and 150 miles from Boston and New York City.

School Says - Cost Aid
Tuition charges for the 2005 2006 academic year were $32,700. In addition, there was a room-and-board fee of $8,320 and a required fee of $870 for Health Service and activities.Approximately 80% of Bennington College students receive financial aid in some form: grants from the college and the federal government, merit- or need-based awards, employment through work study, and loans to students or their parents.

Students Say - Academics
Bennington caters to students who want maximum control over their academic endeavors; all students here participate in the Plan Process, "which allows students to create their own course of study." Here's how it works: "Either a student devises his own personalized set of requirements, or [the requirements] are recommended by a 'plan committee' of usually three faculty members personally assigned to each student." The idea is to "leave up to the student the chance to connect ideas and classes that would normally be left out of a core curriculum," and unsurprisingly, students here love it-for many it is the primary reason they choose to attend Bennington. The Field Work Term internship program is another compelling factor. This "seven-week internship term in the winter" gives students "the ideal opportunity to connect with professionals in our areas of interest and learn what you are (and what you aren't) interested in pursuing" while also building a resume. The social sciences, humanities, and performing/creative arts are strongest here, but students insist that the hard sciences are also "strong...and more popular than one might think for a small 'alternative' liberal arts school." Bennington professors "range from being very available to ridiculously available," and "most are extremely active and respected in their fields, and all are willing to meet outside of class and help a motivated student find professional connections."

Students Say - Campus Life
Bennington undergrads are "very focused on work. All students share a passion for what they are doing," to the extent that "The class doesn't end when we leave the classroom. Discussions often continue, and people are always taking about their classes and their work." Because Bennington is a small school "people are generally friendly and very interested in one another and their work," and because the campus "is a little isolated" "there isn't much to do off-campus," so students must be "good at entertaining themselves." Fortunately, "There is always plenty to do on campus. Sometimes there are too many events to choose from: dance concerts, plays, readings, themed parties, art openings, and many more events, on campus and off." Some party intensely "to blow off some steam" because "we all work so exceedingly hard," but most here agree the situation is under control; students can't ignore academics for too long because "with the way our academic system works, you can be kicked out for getting too many C's." When they need to get away, undergrads "are most likely to take day trips to nearby Brattleboro and Williamstown, each of which are very close and offer all sorts of diversions."

Students Say - Student Body
"Self-motivated, voraciously curious, and open to growth," the typical Bennington student "is very devoted to his work and personally invested in creating something meaningful with [his] time. A stereotype for the general student body could be 'indie kid,' but that doesn't quite fit because the students here have a broader awareness of disciplines and interests outside of their own due to the cross-disciplinary nature of [the] studies." To some, it seems that "Everyone here is a total nerd: art nerd, science nerd, lit nerd, language nerd, math nerd, drama nerd, dance nerd. Nerds of all shapes, types, and aesthetic genres." They are "the type of people who would rather dance in polyester or read a book than go to a basketball game." There are "probably fewer than a handful of republicans on campus, and there are definitely no Abercrombie & Fitch sweatshirts around."

Bard College
Eugene Lang College

More at PrincetonReview.com